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[expatriate]

The media's influence in our political process is starting to scare me.

For example, has anyone else noticed that as soon as the lightbulb illuminated and the Obama campaign realized that Wright was a negative, the media suddenly started referring to Wright as "Obama's former pastor" -- like Obama fired him. What's curious is that the media all latched onto this at the same time -- like a memo went out telling them that official policy is that all Wright references now include the words "former pastor". It's like somebody decided that we need to drill it into the public's head that there is no link between Obama and Wright.

In another example, the idea of a gas tax holiday came up from McCain, and even Hillary supported the idea in her own fashion. But Obama said it's a bad idea -- and suddenly CNN is full of talking heads talking about how a gas tax holiday really isn't good for the country.

I think we've lost control of our media and they're actively campaigning for a political agenda. That doesn't bode well for democracy, 'cause we're transitioning from journalism to propaganda.

[bitmasher]

Good point on the "former pastor", all the more interesting since Obama refuses to disown the man. (As a side note, I find it amazing that while the pastor rants about hidden racism he can't see that one of his congregation is proving him wrong.)

Media influences politics, always has and always will. Just the simple feedback loop created by polling, exposure to the polls, and reaction to the polls can have a self-fulfilling direction.

What it is disturbing to me is media consolidation. Putting the media in fewer hands lets the deck be stacked easier. Furthermore consolidation pushes out jobs, leaving fewer investigative reporters. Ever noticed how from local, to state, to national news everybody has basically the same story and its usually about Britney? Fewer journalists and less competition inspires laziness...

[Whelland]

I couldn't aree more. While the media appears to be getting worse, they started scaring me quite some time ago........when they covered the story about John Kerry shooting a goose and claiming to be an expert hunter and pro-gun guy. Thank goodness we had the NRA to help show his voting record.

[Fisher King]

Here in Canada the CBC is funded by the government and most press is released from there. The Conservatives want to privatize a lot of the government funded programs to save on waste. So tell me the media is not on the Liberal side of things :sad:
F.K.