The State of media, in the US and Internationally

[FlashLackey]

I fully understand what FL means by the comment, as in there is no third party to spin what you are witnessing, however, what you witness on C-Span is the most biased sack of outright lies and spin from all parties involved that it is the equivalent of watching the Olympics for professional politicians.

There definitely is spin abound directly from politicians. But, I think it's quite a bit easier to tell who knows what they're talking about and who is full of it when it's unfiltered. A lot of media outlets make spinsters seem more credible by showing edited clips of what they say without how more knowledgeable folks respond to them.

A very common pattern I see are popular political figures being shown in the news chastising some company, group or panel. But, the response isn't shown. As if the questioning itself is the biggest part of the news rather than the answers from the people being called for questioning.

[RIP Ted Kennedy was the master of this. If you watched his clips on ABC, you would think that he was at the forefront of investigating every issue. But, if you watched him in the context of the actual events as aired on C-SPAN, he looked like a raving lunatic. Instead of using his minutes to further the over-sight work it was meant for, he would use the time to appeal to the cameras. That often meant saying things that were completely out of the context of the moment, had just been addressed, had just been asked in the same way, etc. Typically, nobody responded to him. Yet, the next day in the news cycle, his clip would be the only one shown as if he was the protagonist of the day.]