The theory flies in the face of the conspiracy theorists that think the Irving Empire is using a newspaper it owns to sway voters in a certain direction. The theory is this: when a chardonnay sipping elitist out of touch candidate runs for mayor, journalists will support her because she is their kind of people.
Even if the publisher of the local paper was trying to win an election for a candidate, when that candidate goes to the same gallery openings and laughs the same forced laugh as the sort of people writing our news, it can't be very hard for him to convince them.
I know several journalists and at least one of them is a hardworking honest person, however; I think it is time for reporters to report and editors to steer conversations in the way of public interest. I don't think the news should always be unbiased, but I think the bias has to go toward something and someone far greater than the personal taste of journalists.
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Our large neighbor to the south of us continues to set the example for the rest of the world in biased news coverage (owned by and for big business). This practice easily tempts, and/or threatens 'honest journalists'.
I may be considered cynical, pessimistic in this next remark, to say the least, but there are almost no truly honest journalists working for privately owned news corporations.
And as obviously proven, this type of internal corruption (fat salary to maintain the status quo line, or business agenda - product placement - Wall Street profits) leads to collective, and far reaching outcomes like 'war on the middle-class', uh, I mean, 'war on terror', high food prices, setting up puppet dictators in third world countries, and a myriad of distractions to keep the North American populace asleep, etc.
There needs to be in place an ombudsman's office (totally at arms reach - non-partisan to the political parties, and business interests) to safeguard true democracy through another publicly accessible news department.
This department would actively point out alternative thinking to promote progressive values for the better of society as a whole.
Wishful thinking...
Forgot to mention...our recent,local election coverage is just a microcosm of the larger problem apparent in how human nature is so very corruptible.
Oh, and as you are already aware of this I'm sure, we can't mistake the ideals of a true democracy for what we have today.
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