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Who
will smack down the lies?
by Gene Lyons, a superior smacker
For most of two decades, Democrats
have acted as if they actually believed what conservatives say
about the allegedly liberal "mainstream" news media. Any day now,
appropriately stringent and evenhanded
news gathering and editorial standards will reappear as if by magic.
Reporters will no longer seek fame and fortune by feeding out of the
hands of political operatives and
impersonating fortunetellers on TV. They'll see themselves as public
servants instead of media stars.
Anonymous sources who peddle bogus information will be exposed. Fact
will drive opinion rather than
vice versa. Correspondents and commentators who traffic in falsehoods
and imaginary conspiracies
will be driven from the profession.
On that wondrous day, Americans will be offered reliable information
rather than politicized infotainment
and downright propaganda. Also, Clark Kent will be named editor of the
Daily Planet. Flying pigs will
colonize bald eagle nests along the Potomac. Fox News will be replaced
by a channel peddling miracle
weight loss pills and electronic gadgets for chasing off cockroaches.
In the real world, alas, things are trending the other way fast.
With precious few exceptions,
big-time journalism has literally become a subdivision of the
entertainment
industry. Cable TV networks in particular treat national politics as an
ongoing melodrama whose protagonists
-- Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi, Sarah Palin -- are basically
celebrities, symbolic figures to be loved or hated
by millions according to how they are caricatured. Reality retreats as
fantasy advances.
Plus, their side is ready with the "Second Amendment remedies" if they don't get their way.
We live in a media shitstorm of lies and distortions that enable the super-rich to grab more power.
...but you knew that.