AN EPITAPH TO THE TV NEWS NETWORKS
2003 – A YEAR OF DISGRACE
Jesse - Editor, TvNewsLies.org - 19-December-2003
IN MEMORY OF THE DEAD AND BURIED STORIES OF THE YEAR!
We come to bury 2003 – not to praise it. For this was the year of distraction, not news. It was the year of diversion, not information. It was the year in which TV “news” became a political tool to promote a war and protect the secrets of a furtive administration. It was a year which gave new meaning to the phrase, “No news is good news.” And it was the year whose passing we will not mourn.
The American news media was once the sentinel of the people, - fearlessly and relentlessly searching for truth. Until recently, - families turned on the evening TV news without apprehension. This was the way to learn about the events that affected their community, their nation and their world. Sometimes the news was good, sometimes it was bad, but for the most part it was accurate.
For a very long time, we believed most of what we heard on the news. It was the way to be informed about people and events that impacted our lives. Of course there were time fillers. Of course there was trivia. We knew that. But the details of a tragic murder or a sensational criminal trial were addendums to the news…not its focus. But all that has changed.
In 2003, viewers learned more about Kobe Bryant’s wardrobe than about Dick Cheney’s secret energy meetings. They knew more about Scott Peterson’s love affair than about the Wilson leak. They knew more about the separation of conjoined twins than about the real reasons the nation had gone to war. There was plenty of ‘news,’ but the real stories, the ones that really mattered were never, ever, told...
http://tvnewslies.org/html/epitaph_to_the_tv_news_network.html