Watching the news today, it had me wondering, who really is pulling the strings that not only produce the segments but also approve the segments to get aired. Doesn’t matter which segment, the news has become just another entertainment program for the broadcaster. News broadcasts have no longer told the news about the issues of society. They are shaping the narrative the broadcasters want to be told about those issues. The local news airs more national news than local.

During the early years, newspapers, radio and television had outlets in every major city. Each had its own equipment, staff and personalities. With the advent of the Internet, the transition from analog to digital and the consolidation of broadcast networks, radio stations and newspapers, the identity of local news has gone way of a rubber stamp from the corporate office.

Today newspapers, radio stations and television stations can all be owned by one entity that dictates the point a news item portrays. Driven by advertising, news has taken the rear seat to “lifestyle” segments, corporate plugs and teasers of news instead of actually reporting the news.

A great example of this is the Fox News Network. Many have referred to Fox as the Fox Propaganda Network. Another, the National Enquirer. Both media channels have manipulated stories to the point the corporate office wants portrayed.

For three seasons, from 2012 to 2014, Aaron Sorkin created the award winning and multiple nominated show, The Newsroom on HBO. It is about a newsroom as it undergoes some changes in its workings and morals as a new team is brought in, bringing unexpected results for its existing news anchor. Watched it first run and purchased the show when it was offered on Blu-ray Disc. The first shows’ opening was as timely now as it was then. Staring Jeff Daniels as Will McAvoy whose character, a news anchor, causes an uproar over his views of the United States.

The Newsroom
Release date: June 24, 2012, HBO
“America is not the greatest country in the world anymore”
Jeff Daniels
(written by Aaron Sorkin)

Will
It’s not the greatest country in the world, professor, that’s my answer.

Moderator[pause] You’re saying—

Will
Yes.

Moderator
Let’s talk about—

Will
Fine. [to the liberal panelist] Sharon, the NEA is a loser. Yeah, it accounts for a penny out of our paychecks, but he [gesturing to the conservative panelist] gets to hit you with it anytime he wants. It doesn’t cost money, it costs votes. It costs airtime and column inches. You know why people don’t like liberals? Because they lose. If liberals are so fuckin’ smart, how come they lose so GODDAM ALWAYS!

And [to the conservative panelist] with a straight face, you’re going to tell students that America’s so starspangled awesome that we’re the only ones in the world who have freedom? Canada has freedom, Japan has freedom, the UK, France, Italy, Germany, Spain, Australia, Belgium has freedom. Two hundred seven sovereign states in the world, like 180 of them have freedom.

And you—sorority girl—yeah—just in case you accidentally wander into a voting booth one day, there are some things you should know, and one of them is that there is absolutely no evidence to support the statement that we’re the greatest country in the world. We’re seventh in literacy, twenty-seventh in math, twenty-second in science, forty-ninth in life expectancy, 178th in infant mortality, third in median household income, number four in labor force, and number four in exports. We lead the world in only three categories: number of incarcerated citizens per capita, number of adults who believe angels are real, and defense spending, where we spend more than the next twenty-six countries combined, twenty-five of whom are allies. None of this is the fault of a 20-year-old college student, but you, nonetheless, are without a doubt, a member of the WORST-period-GENERATION-period-EVER-period, so when you ask what makes us the greatest country in the world, I don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about?! Yosemite?!!!

We sure used to be. We stood up for what was right! We fought for moral reasons, we passed and struck down laws for moral reasons. We waged wars on poverty, not poor people. We sacrificed, we cared about our neighbors, we put our money where our mouths were, and we never beat our chest. We built great big things, made ungodly technological advances, explored the universe, cured diseases, and cultivated the world’s greatest artists and the world’s greatest economy. We reached for the stars, and we acted like men. We aspired to intelligence; we didn’t belittle it; it didn’t make us feel inferior. We didn’t identify ourselves by who we voted for in the last election, and we didn’t scare so easy. And we were able to be all these things and do all these things because we were informed. By great men, men who were revered. The first step in solving any problem is recognizing there is one—America is not the greatest country in the world anymore.

Will[to moderator] Enough?

In the infancy of mass communications, the Columbus and Magellan of broadcast journalism, William Paley and David Sarnoff, went down to Washington to cut a deal with Congress.

Congress would allow the fledgling networks free use of taxpayer-owned airwaves in exchange for one public service.

That public service would be one hour of air time set aside every night for informational broadcasting, or what we now call the evening news.

Congress, unable to anticipate the enormous capacity television would have to deliver consumers to advertisers, failed to include in its deal the one requirement that would have changed our national discourse immeasurably for the better.

Congress forgot to add that under no circumstances could there be paid advertising during informational broadcasting.

They forgot to say that taxpayers will give you the airwaves for free and for 23 hours a day you should make a profit, but for one hour a night you work for us.