Is the Present Government Hurting U.S. Democracy with Fake News?

I wasn't going to post a new thread but couldn't find the one I wanted to attach this too. If anyone has heard lately, there has been some controversy over the Bush administrations use of "fake" news to put a positive spin on their agenda as well as paying people to pretend to be journalists to praise the administrations ideas. IIRC the piece was in 'Times' and it was mentioned that since 1951 it has been illegal for the government to put out fake news as "propoganda" or some such. In any case, anyone else spot that report? I am seriously concerned that this is undermining our democracy and creating misinformation and misunderstandings for the public.On a related spotlight, we find that the government lied to it's allies about the link between Libya and North Korea. It turns out that to protect Pres. Musharref, the administration knowlingly manipulated and withheld information that it was Pakistan which gave the uranium enrichment equipment to Libya and NOT North Korea. As if we had any credibility with europe after the Iraq debacle.I am beginning to become very worried about the state of our democracy. Something that I always understood as being important for a viable democracy is having citizens who are knowledgable about what the government is doing and how it is working for them. One of the ways that that can be accomplished is a free and unfettered press. While we can argue about the tendency of news organizations to be biased in one way or another, I think most damaging to a democracy is when the government 'creates' its own news or facts. When the government manipulates facts it manipulates poeple.I think what we are beginning to see is a more overt misuse of power by our government officials, most specifically our President. I fear for the erosion of the democratic principles that have helped create our country. I wonder, though, if other people are as worried about this as I am?{After some editing by the originator, this topic was created from message 1 of a "Proposed New Topic". - Adminnemooseus}This message has been edited by Adminnemooseus, 04-03-2005 03:25 PM

Hey, don't worry about it. Watch this new reality show. After all it's not like our founding fathers intended there to be a free and independant press, now did they?

no, just a free press and an independent religion. they never said the government can't contribute to the free press... but seriously though. attack the outsiders. give the president more power. propaganda. what's next, interment camps for muslims? this country is seriously starting to worry me.

Silencing academic critics is one thing that could be next. I know that in at least one state, Florida, is considering a "students' bill of rights" to allow students to sue colleges and universities if they feel that their beliefs are not given enough respect.

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I wonder, though, if other people are as worried about this as I am?

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More.

And it's not just something the US needs to watch. With the consolidation of the media into fewer and fewer hands and the change from reporting being a duty to it being a profit center, information is becoming an endangered species.This is not to say that data is not available. In fact, there is probably more data out there today than at any time in the past. It may be that there is so much available that it is easier for a body, political or otherwise, to screw INFORMATION by concentrating on limited areas.We also seem to be in a cycle of exclusion once again, the US against the world, For us or Against us, speak out against policy and you're a traitor. I can only see that increasing over the next few decades.

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Aslan is not a Tame Lion

yes, i heard about that. it thoroughly disgusts me. as a student, a child of a professor, a resident of the state of florida.something is going seriously wrong with this country.

Not that this couldn't be argued against but it seems to me that we already have internment camps for muslims, ie. Abu Gharab, Guantanamo Bay, other sites. The reason I think these could be considered internment camps is the fact that both hold children as young as 12, and many prisoners if not most/all have not been given access to lawyers or rights accessible through U.S. law for detainees. Plus the issues with the use of torture in these 'jails'.How does the U.S. government justify holding children as young as 12 in prisons such as Abu Gharab?

i think you should be very worried!Personally, I am in the very fortunate position of having access to all of the news wires received by journalists and editors who decide what the news stories of the day are going to be. if you are based at a university, you may have access to these services (look for lexis-nexis in your uni's online offerings). it's incredibly enlightening when you look at the news coming in from on the newswires and compare it to the news put out on your tv. You get news coming in on the wire about napalm attacks in fallujah, "melted bodies" observed on the streets, "apple-smelling gas" used by British troops in military attacks within Iraq and Afghanistan - and none of this ends up on TV, radio, or in the newspapers. this is despite the fact that the stories are from newswire reporters, respected AP journalists etc. who are relied upon in every other circumstance.one day I will make a list of the stories that came in on the newswire, and compare it to those put out on fox news. you'll be amazed.mick

One of the things that looks ominous to me is that new Patriot Act. How do you protest something like that. If you go against something labelled ‘Patriot’, then that implies that you’re not a patriot. The whole thing seems to have an unfortunate echo of McCarthyism.

I don't think anything would surprise me about Fox news. They seem to be little more than a mouthpiece for the conservative republicans. I recently saw a film ‘Outfoxed’ that was quite an interesting examination of this issue. Made by Robert Greenwald if anyones interested in checking it out.

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I don't think anything would surprise me about Fox news.

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The Guardian diary writes:

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A stern rebuke to Rupert Murdoch's Fox News channel, who allowed a full 13 minutes to elapse after the announcement of the pontiff's death on Saturday before a pundit intoned that "the Pope was a man who understood market forces".

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uh... yeah. i guess you have a point.but we haven't started sending our own muslim population away yet, which is what i had originally meant. it was supposed to conjure images of nazi germany.

Oh, shit! Arach is an anti-Semite! He hates Jews! How do I know this? Because of his repeated assertions that you can't describe something without "buying into cultural biases." Since he's just referred to the Nazi bias against Jews, we know he must support it, too. Here, he even says so:

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crash is mostly based on stereotyping. i know he argues that he's not endorsing this stereotype, but he is. he is perpetuating it, and basing his argument on it. even if he were to say "our cultural outlook says..." before his argument, he's still essentially agreeing with it.

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This message has been edited by crashfrog, 04-05-2005 07:04 PM

you are ridiculous, you know that?if anything, i'm perpetuating a stereotype against german nazi's.it's a well known FACT that the national socialist party of germany took over the country in the manner i described, and sent some 11 million people -- not just jews -- to their deaths in interment camps. it is in no way perpetuating and bias regarding judaism, and claim it has is showing your own cultural bias. what about the 5 million gypsies, catholics, and gays?