Did you ever read 'The Tyranny of Printers?'


>>It is true of course that most political candidates owned (or their supporters did) a newspaper or two throughout history. However, I think the sense that the news was true (not skewed one way or the other) by the American public existed for a long time until recently.
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>Well, yes, true in terms of reporting what happened ( and omitting those things that did not fit the public's frame of reference - FDRs crutches, Ike's Kay Sommersby, JFK's crutch, LBJs finances ... )
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>But in most towns you knew which paper was pretty reliably Republican and whick Democrat.
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>Hey, I'm even old enough to remember when you could trust the New York Times <s>
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>But if you go back into the 18th and 19th centuries, most newspapers had their roots in pamphleteering and were more likely to throw read meat to the masses.
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>If you look at the 1850s it would be difficult to find a newspaper you couldn't quickly identify as Abolitionist, Unionist, Successionist etc Greeley, Beecher, Ochs all newpaparment.
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>And then of course there was Citizen Hearst ...
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>>>You mean for two weeks you saw DailyKOS as "fair and balanced" ?
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>>>>>Whatever happened to the days when the media was supposed to be non-partisan?
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>>>That actually is a fairly recent concept. Newspapers particularly were almost always political party organs of some type.
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>>>>The same that happens to any other days, including the present day.
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>>>>>Surprisingly many here in the U.S. think their chosen sources of information (right or left) are non-partisan :o)
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>>>>For a while I thought DailyKos was the place, but that lasted about two weeks. They're still interesting for their diligence in poking holes in the official story, but they need someone to the left of them to poke holes in their story.
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>>>To the left of DailyKOS ( this just gets better and better ) Is Pravda or Izvetzia still publishing ?
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>>>>Can't expect anything to be independent as long as everything needs to be financed. And the business model of the news reporting media has long ago switched from "we print the truth and sell the news" to "we print anything that sells ad space". And therein lies the rub - there's a conflict of interest that goes as deep as the pockets of buyers of ad space.