I have effectively established a boycott on consuming the toxic product known as Mainstream Media (MSM) directly. Leave the shabby MSM circus and hall of mirrors… you’ll never look back.
The corporate media has forfeited the right to host these important civic events. The network’s oligarch owners and their millionaire-class anchors showed their backsides in the first two rounds of the primary debates. It was so ham-handed and blatantly skewed that I wondered why such an important charge, helping us to select our nominee for the Presidency, was given to this pack of liars, frauds, and hacks?
What is going on with the DNC that this hinky format, dictated by TV executives who stage reality TV shows and entertainment news, be given the green light? We should have the upper hand in determining the issues and the tone of our party primaries, not some network suit at CNN or MSNBC.
Could these multi-billion-dollar enterprises have a civic moment and run two hours of a debate ad-free? No, apparently they cannot, and that’s why we have to dethrone them as the primary source of news and information. Sad!
I contacted a member of the city council for comment. I started with the councilman who listens to or watches a lot of the same web media that I do, Logan Harvey, who had a lot to say about the network’s journalistic failure: “I felt that both debates showed that the progressive candidates (Warren and Sanders) had the clearest vision for the future of the country. Warren proved her ability to go on the attack and the intense examination of Medicare for All actually showed that a lot of deep thought has gone into the policy and that it’s a feasible option, not some unachievable notion.
“In the second debate, Biden showed why he’s the worst possible option for Democrats. He constantly fumbled over his words; his record was exposed about his key role in drafting the indefensible ‘70s crime bill, and his recent support for a defeated trade policy that would have shipped even more jobs overseas and given Trump something he would use as a relentless cudgel to destroy Biden in the Rust Belt.”
Councilman Harvey also commented on this aspect of the debate coverage: “The democracy and public discourse also lost out in the Democratic debate as CNN went on a crusade of copyright strikes against independent media sources who dared to provide debate coverage and clips. This conversation about the future of our country should have been public domain, not a monolithic corporation”.
A friend had invited me to watch with the Sonoma Valley Democrats and I declined via text: “I have to tap out on this one. Watching unfiltered MSM debate coverage makes me ill. The whole setup has been devised by TV execs to maximize conflict and drama. They want big ‘gotcha’ moments. I’ll start watching debates again when they go back to the League of Women Voters.” I was right.
Under the influence of tech-savvy millennials, I now get all my news clips off of a carefully curated set of top-rated webcasts. I am convinced the regular consumption of MSM is like imbibing a low dose toxin, which over time will produce a fatal case of hopelessness, suicidal/homicidal ideation, and dangerous levels of misinformation. Folks, it’s bad for you!
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