Do we have a "free press" or just the illusion of one?
Into the Buzzsaw: Leading Journalists Expose the Myth of a Free Press Gives you all the information you need -- from journalists themselves -- that theoretically we have the ability to have a free press.
...the likes of Dan Rather, Ashleigh Banfield, Greg Palast and media reform advocate Robert McChesney are among the many who have spoken out about the demise of journalism as a medium seeking the truth behind the official governmental version of the news.
The problem, however, is that the most powerful sectors of the media -- television, radio and newspapers -- act more like the old Soviet self-censoring press than a media that reports on the truth necessary to engage in the public discourse necessary to a democracy. The phrase "into the buzzsaw" is a journalistic expression for how stories eventually become censored or altered to the point that they reflect an official viewpoint, rather than the facts or investigative findings that expose possible deceptions in the "official viewpoint."
After a time, only the most intrepid journalist will take on the powers that be, because they know that their careers (and high salaries) will suffer the wrath of General Electric (owner of NBC), Viacom (owner of CBS), Disney (owner of ABC), Time Warner (owner of CNN), Rupert Murdoch (owner of FOX NEWS), etc., etc. Not to mention news writers for papers like the Washington Post and New York Times, who have yet to do one serious long-term investigative piece on the chronic lying and misdeeds of the Bush Administration between them.
Whatever their editorial policies, they hold their news writers on a very short leash, only allowing the occasional revelation of Bush deception or misdeeds, without continued follow-up and a sustained effort at providing news context. Basically, nearly the entire American mainstream media has gone into the buzzsaw. Click to read
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