[SawbasyWrab]

It hit me again yesterday while writing another OP just how egregiously unethical the media, both left and right, have behaved in their coverage of recession suffering.

Considering how many Americans must be greatly suffering in the recession (and I say "must be" because I'm not getting any media reports about the obviousness of it based on the numbers and the people with whom I personally come in contact who are suffering in it), it certainly couldn't have escaped the media's attention .. yet we get no size and degree justified natured reporting commensurate with the true nature of the matter!

For instance ..

.. The U.S. Bureau of Labor and Statistics reported in their "November" 2010 reports (prior to temp Xmas jobs) that 15,119,000 people in America (nearly all of whom are Americans) were "officially" unemployed from the second week in September through the first week of October, and that an additional 5,832,000 million people were "unofficially" (but just as painfully and undesirably) unemployed during that time .. bringing the true unemployment count to nearly 21 million Americans.

In the same report, the BLS reported another 27,337,000 Americans wanting to work full-time were stuck in part-time jobs, most not in their career-trained profession, working at a much, much, smaller rate of hourly pay than previously in their full-time job, you know, like the carpenter previously earning a living wage who is now "lucky" to get a part-time job at Home Depot as a minimum-waged "associate".

That brings the total number of Americans last fall suffering great wage loss or under-incomed status, many who have suffered for 10 or 20 months or more, to nearly 49,000,000 people!

Now, considering that there are statistically around 2.5 people "per family" greatly affected by the loss of a family worker's living wage, that would mean nearly 123,000,00 people in America are greatly suffering in the recession last fall.

That's 123 million people, nearly 40 percent of our country's population who were and are, according to a rational application of the sheer numbers, most likely still greatly suffering in the recession's wake, suffering that most certainly includes homlessness, poverty, starvation .. and premature death!

That makes this catastrophe much larger than the Asian tsunami of a few years ago, the Haitian earthquake of last year, the recent Chilian mine disaster, and on and on and on regarding other stories that stayed in the news throughout their occurrance and whose visceral pain of devastation was accurately reported in the media commensurate to the degree of that suffering.

Yet, as the number of homeless in America rapidly rises, and everyone knows someone(s) who is greatly suffering in the recession, to the degree they are challenged to feed their family, I can't help but ask: Where is the continued media reporting on this horrific catastrophe reflecting its accurate numbers and true visceral pain of devastation throughout its ongoing continuing horrific occurance?!

The media, both left and right, has all but abandoned accurately reporting the continued size and degree of suffering of this gargantuan catastrophe in America.

And .. I couldn't help but wonder .. why.

So .. I inquired .. of a media source I know who, ironically and amusingly, asked that I protect my source's anonymity .. and she said it was simply this: "Our sponsors and advertisers don't want us to present the accurate 'doom and gloom' of the issue commenserate to its true nature because the public doesn't want to read bad news and they won't buy newspapers if we do tell the truth of it, and our sponsors and advertisers understandably won't be happy if no one buys a newspaper .. and we would then be out of business.".

Okay .. so where is the integrity? Where is the honor? Where is the ethics? Where are all of the laudable moral fibers of responsibility that go hand and hand with the freedom of the press?

It appears they are being held hostage to the almighty dollar.

And thus, truly, the, in effect, cover-up of suffering in the recession is a ransom being paid by the media to corporate America .. for the media paycheck.

Yeah, sure, business owners in general like an up-beat public, beacause an up-beat public possesses loose pursestrings, and they don't want the public to be accurately depressed into tightening those pursestrings from receiving news of how depressing things truly are for so many scores of millions of Americans right now.

But there's another edge to this sword, in that by suppressing the press from telling the visceral and extensive nature of the truth in this continually occuring ongoing matter to the public .. the public who, if they were truly informed by the media, would then in turn scream loudly at Washington to Do something NOW!!! .. nothing instead gets done to end the recession suffering .. and it's business as usual in D.C. .. while more Americans keep suffering more greatly, likely scores of thousands unto their premature death .. about which no media person is saying a word.

I simply find this media cover-up of the suffering in the recession totally reprehensible, to say the least.

The next time someone in the media screams "Freedom of the press!" in response to some perceived restriction, I'll just want to fire back "Responsibility of the press, first!".

The American media need to tell the whole and complete truth of the recession and its suffering, viscerally and extensively commensurate to the true size and nature of the recession's continuous ongoing suffering in America, if we are to indeed have any hope of motivating Washington to do something about it now.

The entire media, across the board, should be publically condemned for their terrible, terrible, in effect, lying to the American public about the true nature and degree of the suffering in the recession, and their thus complete disrespect for the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America.

I'm wondering if anyone else here feels the same.

[FelicitaJ]

Shhhhhhhhh. Stop trying to remove the rose colored lens from the media camera. It may make their favored political candidate's re-election bid harder.

[Sheestgag]

I have seen stories on the news(print and television) about this, maybe you should take of your myopic blinders.

[SawbasyWrab]

I have seen stories on the news(print and television) about this

Occasional small pieces with mere allusions to the extent and degree of suffering, yes, much like the occasional traffic accident gets some coverage.

The horror of this recession and its continuous ongoing tremendous degree of suffering is complete-cover front-page material every day.

maybe you should take of your myopic blinders.

Maybe you should stop filtering what you see through your ideological cover-up-loving rose-colored glasses.

[SawbasyWrab]

Shhhhhhhhh. Stop trying to remove the rose colored lens from the media camera. It may make their favored political candidate's re-election bid harder.

Yes .. how sadly true.

[Avgustslim]

Shhhhhhhhh. Stop trying to remove the rose colored lens from the media camera. It may make their favored political candidate's re-election bid harder.

If there was a Republican president in office, it would be on the liberal networks 24/7.

[yxn2dC07]

I have seen stories on the news(print and television) about this, maybe you should take of your myopic blinders.

What? Man, I am a news junkie, print, radio, tv. I have seen so little that I can't even recall the last time anyone said anything about the suffering, the insecurities.

Phoenix, thanks for pointing this fact out. I had only thought about it in passing, but it's a helluva thing, when you think about it. But, I have brought up prior that I have seen few stories that show what offshoring has done to the average working class bloke. The media is willfully ignoring the plights of the common man, perhaps in fear that their own corporate interests might suffer in some manner.

Since I am from a realively small town, or rather I live close to one, I am always checking out people going into the Salvation Army to eat a meal, or to the local food bank to get food, and I have never ever seen so many folks going to those places as today. Plus, I donate food to one of the local food banks, and they never have enough to go around!!

I have also seen something I have never seen before, and that is people going through the dumpsters behind grocery stores to pull out spoiled or discolored produce! These are indeed some bad ass times for so many people.


What me and some other men are doing down here is planting large patches of vegetables and then give em away this summer. You just have to pick em. We are doubling up this year, because last year more people turned up than we ever imagined, coming all the way from the next State who's State Line is only a few miles from the garden plot.


Then today on my way back from town, I tuned into our talk radio, which is of course Conservative Radio as most is down in the South. One of the callers was ranting about folks drawing unemployment and refusing to get a job, living off the dole. What Universe is that guy living in? You can bet your ass that if there were jobs I would not see such lines at the Salvation Army, the food bank, and so many folks picking their own peas so as to eat. This deal just leaves me incredulous, as to the stupidity of some people. It is actually very difficult to take standing up. I will never ever be able to understand some people, but then again stupidity cannot be understood by a reasonable, sane brain.

[Relsenlilky]

I heard "somewhere" that there was a worldwide famine. No news of it though.
I have another example. During the last days of protests in Egypt, the last forty-eight hours to be precise, the first page in newspapers in my country was about little girls who disappeared. I didn't really wonder why two little girls were more important than a historical event with potentially tremendous consequences - it's just normal.

True, the press is a business that needs to find money to keep running, especially through advertisements. Those who buy it eventually decide what's in it, the same way a scientist, working for a company, will bias his results in favor of the company. It's normal and it's how it works, the "freedom" may be a right but for it to be effective you would have to ensure an independent source of income, and even that doesn't exist (imagine subventions from the government, sounds "independent" ?) This is only the work of demand and offer.
And that's not the problem. The problem is, advertisers also have buyers, which are the same public the medias have. They'll make sure the news sold are the news the people want so that they read those news, and read the ads'. Ultimately, the reader "decides" what's in his newspaper, the same way the content of this forum is decided by it's users : try to make a thread per day about unemployment, without it being fresh news, at best people will just eventually ignore those. And I say at best. If people were interested to read about numbers of unemployed persons, that news would sell. It doesn't, people are not interested. The medias can't force you to get a given information, they can only inform you of what you want.
It's not that people are blinded, ignorant or anything. It's just that the economic crisis is a news two years old at least, and figures of high unemployments have become a routine. On occasions, like a report, a poll or a political event, it can be reminded as a background, but not much more. People more or less know already.

I also suspect your media source to be too engaged. An expert on communication, talking about something's "true nature" and the "truth" is heavily suspect. Especially if there is a will to make people react in a given way : the press is meant to inform, not influence. That people don't want to read bad news is also strange, as when something goes well it usually isn't interesting, it's with problems (the more serious the better) that people are receptive. One usual example is a car accident, with others cars slowing down to look at it - while they certainly don't stop for pretty bushes. I would put my paw in fire that if there suddenly was a scandalous revelation about jobs, every media would be competing without mercy to publish it first - and it would be debated until total exhaustion.

Give the press at least the benefit of doubt.

[GarryPaterson]

What? Man, I am a news junkie, print, radio, tv. I have seen so little that I can't even recall the last time anyone said anything about the suffering, the insecurities.

Phoenix, thanks for pointing this fact out. I had only thought about it in passing, but it's a helluva thing, when you think about it. But, I have brought up prior that I have seen few stories that show what offshoring has done to the average working class bloke. The media is willfully ignoring the plights of the common man, perhaps in fear that their own corporate interests might suffer in some manner.

Since I am from a realively small town, or rather I live close to one, I am always checking out people going into the Salvation Army to eat a meal, or to the local food bank to get food, and I have never ever seen so many folks going to those places as today. Plus, I donate food to one of the local food banks, and they never have enough to go around!!

I have also seen something I have never seen before, and that is people going through the dumpsters behind grocery stores to pull out spoiled or discolored produce! These are indeed some bad ass times for so many people.


What me and some other men are doing down here is planting large patches of vegetables and then give em away this summer. You just have to pick em. We are doubling up this year, because last year more people turned up than we ever imagined, coming all the way from the next State who's State Line is only a few miles from the garden plot.


Then today on my way back from town, I tuned into our talk radio, which is of course Conservative Radio as most is down in the South. One of the callers was ranting about folks drawing unemployment and refusing to get a job, living off the dole. What Universe is that guy living in? You can bet your ass that if there were jobs I would not see such lines at the Salvation Army, the food bank, and so many folks picking their own peas so as to eat. This deal just leaves me incredulous, as to the stupidity of some people. It is actually very difficult to take standing up. I will never ever be able to understand some people, but then again stupidity cannot be understood by a reasonable, sane brain.

Man if you keep that stuff up, some people around here will start to think you're a racist bigoted rightwing homo-phobe!

The rest of us will just know that you have opened your mind to the greater world.

Welcome!

[Kissntell]

even Mrs. Obama has stopped volunteering at soup kitchens.. remember when they first took office and complained about t eh economy under Bush nd how they would fix it??

She would put on her designer clothing head down and hand out some food.. not so much anymore... why?