Five reasons why mainstream news media ought to be investigated on charges of [1] professional ethics violations [2] antitrust laws/anti-competitive practices, specifically under statutes of the Clayton Act which examines the abuse of acquisitions and mergers, and the Sherman Act which examines monopolies; [3] content derivation, content prioritization and distribution. In 2014 the Federal Communications Commission via a Critical Information Needs [CIN] study, attempted to examine some of the ways in which the news industry collects and distribute the news to the public based on the demographics it served, but lost its nerve due to threats of protests and lawsuits from the industry and powerful lobbyist groups. [4] the kind of powers the industry wields for the specific purposes of conducting journalistic investigations around American citizenry – particularly to the extent the industry is allowed to intrude upon the privacy of Americans without undermining the law. And [5], the industry should be investigated on its percentage of truth-telling, wherein Americans can get a firm understanding in just how truthful mainstream news has been over a period of decades.
Five reasons are as follows:
1. Mainstream news media has aided in reducing America’s main source of televised news into five synchronized channels. These entities [ABC, CBS, CNN, FOX, NBC] are heavily influenced by government agencies and third-party advertisers which drives too many hidden agendas that doesn’t share many Americans’ private interests.
2. Advertisements promoted over these cable news networks are often filled with violence, innuendos, and prescription drug ads. A huge slice of these ill-advised ads is counterproductive to America’s good posture considering the nation’s mass killings statistics, its opioid crisis, and high number of suicide rates. Scholars, industry professionals, and ordinary citizenry alike have all argued that mainstream media’s intensive rotation of these loud, intrusive, enduring, and often immoral ads has a negative effect on our nation’s youth. Incidentally, America’s citizenry wouldn’t normally have the privilege to see who’s behind all the destructive content, and so, the originators hide behind their networks and unleash a continuous cesspool of ill-advised content on the American populace.
3. Seductive Journalism: It seems mainstream news media has become permeated with the idea that the only way it can effectively sell or promote its news is by having journalists dress provocatively; so much so in that the industry has begun to resemble soft porn in many respects. From fake boobs being put on vivid display, to lots of cleavage, to hairy chests, to positioning of female journalists’ legs for best camera angles, to body-fitted dresses for the masses to gawk at – America’s mainstream news media has become an environment that breeds sexual misconduct and maternity bliss.
4. Mainstream news media has movie-making capabilities. Its unique skill set allows the industry a means to manufacture the news [fake news]; and to build upon false narratives that are designed to either deceive the public amid the industry’s self-interests, or sway it from real events that may adversely affect millions of lives. Because the industry thrives off various ratings systems, it’s often stricken with disappointing ratings, which could motivate it to engage in deceptive practices as a way to bolster storytelling, and ultimately reinvigorate ratings.
5. The autonomy around the industry’s investigative journalism seems under-regulated, allowing it to secretly and freely probe the lives of blameless American citizenry, even on a whim. This sort of unrestrained, arbitrary and “at-will” investigative journalism appears to go against the fundamentals of American Democracy. Here’s a professor and [obvious advocate of the news industry] who thinks the only thing the government ought to be doing with relations to the news industry is delivering coffee.
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