The Media

OK, it's time for a quiz. One question, if you're wrong you get poked with this cattle prod. Question: What is the purpose of the media? Answer: To keep the citizens of this nation informed about current events. ZAP ouch! Answer: To provide entertainment. ZAP ouch! Answer: To numb the minds of the population so the Martians will have an easier time taking over. Hmmmmm, this has possibilities but ZAP ouch!

Any media outlet, newspaper, TV, radio, etc is a business. In any business, if you want to find out what they're doing you follow the money. If you think the 35 cents you pay for your morning newspaper is all the money the publisher makes on it you're sadly mistaken. If you watch network TV (gag!) you can watch shows starring actors and actresses who are paid millions of dollars for FREE. Where's the money? Where does the money paid to professional athletes come from? How about the money paid to newspaper writers? Magazine photographers?

Everything you're interested in in any form of media, songs on the radio, pictures of pretty girls in a magazine, news in the newspaper, the comic strips, restaurant reviews, absolutely everything is the bait to get you to the hook buried in there. That hook is the advertising. That's where the media makes its money, companies pay to run ads, the more people who are exposed to the ad the more the media outlet can charge for it.

Kinda makes you wonder about our unbiased media huh? Some years back there was a scandal in NYC involving Woody Allen, his girlfriend, and his girlfriend's adopted daughter. This story ran with front page headlines in the newspapers every day, pushing much more important news deep inside the newspaper. People criticized the newspaper for doing so, but they missed the newspaper's reason for existing. If more people will buy the newspaper with a headline about Woody, Mia, and Soon Yi than will buy it if the front page talks about a crime that was committed then the newspaper HAS to run the more productive headline. If people saw that headline, said "BFD" and walked away the next day the Allen family would could get a couple column inches on the society page.

Remember that whenever you see a news story on TV. They're not trying to help you make an informed decision on who to vote for. They're not trying to present both sides of an issue so you can make an intelligent choice. They're trying to keep your butt in your chair in front of your TV until the commercial comes on. That's the ultimate goal of all the writers, editors, producers, reporters, cameramen, right down to the girl who just brought the news anchor a glass of water.

Bias is obvious with non-news shows. Every show has a target audience, whether it's a professional sporting event, a sit-com, a crime drama or a reality show. The commercials will be for products that would be of interest to that target audience. They don't show commercials for toys during Desperate Housewives and they don't show commericals for Preparation H during the Saturday morning cartoons.

You want unbiased news? You're not going to find it. Balanced reporting that covers both sides of an issue is going to cause people who already have strong beliefs on the issue to change the channel. That's OK if those people aren't part of the advertisers demographic, they're not going to buy that product anyway. It's a disaster if the group that tunes out is the group the next set of commercials is aimed at though. So they keep a bias in the news to hook the people who are most likely to respond to the commercial.

But Mark, I really want to understand the entire issue so I can make a truly informed decision. Ah, I see you seek the path of enlightenment. In every news story you're exposed to look for the bias. It's there, trust me, just because it fits in with your political leanings doesn't mean it's not biased. Get under the bias to the actual facts. Then find another source for the same issue, find the bias again and get to the facts. Maybe the facts don't match. Keep digging, you'll finally unearth all the facts surrounding an issue, then make your decision based upon those facts.

Most of us don't do this. Most of us find a news source we believe is unbiased (meaning one we agree with) and swallow what they tell us whole. That's easy. It's also lazy. Being an informed citizen of a free nation takes work.

Everything in the media makes sense if you remember its true function, to expose you to paid advertising. Remember that, write it on the back of your hand if you have to. I'll even put new batteries in my cattle prod in case you forget.