The purpose of the media is to announce news and also to educate the public on events happening now. In today’s media, reporters will do what they must in order to get their names out there. And if they have to make themselves look like a jack ass to gain popularity they will. A reporter’s main purpose is to gain an audience. If they can get a few followers to start an argument over a certain topic the can profit form it immensely. Radio show host who would display this type of behavior is a man by the name of Rush Limbaugh. On his show, the conservative radio host attempts undermine the Democratic Party with crude statements about President Obama and his cabinet.
On October 9th, the president was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts in strengthening international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples. He declared in a speech that same morning, saying that he was completely shocked to hear that he was awarded the Nobel Prize. The president went on further to say that “I do not feel that I deserve to be in the company of the many transformative figures that have been honored by this award” (shown in the first video at the bottom). This man tries his best to serve the country well on both sides, but there are a lot of conservative jerks out there that would love to see him fail, similar to Mr. Limbaugh. But my point is: If the president fails wouldn’t the country fail as well? This is why we have to be careful of the types of media influences we let govern our moral judgment.
After the president’s speech Limbaugh told his audience that the president is “destroying his country as a super power” because of his efforts in attaining world peace. And he believes the only reason why the Nobel committee even considered giving him that award is because those committee members are part a European world power. And they, like some the terrorist organizations in Afghanistan, want him think that everything is fine and he doesn’t have to worry about the war in Afghanistan anymore because they are giving him such a prestigious award (shown in second video clip, skip to 2:10). To me, that completely makes no sense.
But apparently Rush’s audience loves listen to crap like that and he has profited tremendously. In an interview with Jamie Gangel, a national correspondent for NBC News asks Rush, who is he doing his show for? Rush replies with “I am doing my radio show for my audience! For ratings! He says “I want the largest audience I could get. So I could charge the highest advertising rates and what else do I want, MONEY (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/33273166#33243084)!!!! In that interview, Jamie has reported that Rush is achieving that goal, because he had just signed a contract worth four hundred million dollars (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/33276211#33276211).
After reading that, could you really believe in what the media reports anymore? When I saw the video, I was really turned off by some of the comments that Limbaugh made. I understand where he is coming from, because all media reporters want to become successful. Is that a good enough excuse for aggravating a group of people who tend to not research anything? So I encourage you to leave a comment and tell me how you feel about this.
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Hey Real talk, I appreciate how clearly you expressed your views. this post was easier to follow. Too bad the video is no longer viewable. Anyway, The point of Trusting the media is always a debatable topic because ethically, they are to maintain a level of objectivity unless they are doing an editorial.Any article that can give readers a hint of tone is not really objective in my opinion.
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