Informed by Journalists or Performers? — Globe Hackers
Are we addicted to these faces? T.V. News talents are all fake, and this realization is deeper than you think.
This is nothing new; we all love the sensational stuff. It’s all the rest of the news that we have to beware of.
Actors work in the realm of imaginary circumstances.
Journalists do the hard work of researching, engaging sources of information and data, and other lines of inquiry to report what they’ve learned to the public. Few news anchors, reporters, and journalists have that in their job description these days.
Just as famous academics have research and writing teams that help them churn out popular books, contemporary news people mostly perform non-fiction commercials. They are vain collaborators and propagandists.
For talented, attractive professional readers who get lucky, performing the role of a journalist can be a very lucrative career.
Traditionally journalists raise awareness and, therefore, the level of dialogue, conversation, and understanding of crucial issues challenging society.
News anchors read a teleprompter with information that a team of people crafts for the corporations behind “the news.”
A true journalist follows the facts and data to where it leads them. They educate their audience through engaging stories that provide highly contextualized reasoning.
Everyone at FOX NEWS, CNN, and MSNBC refer to their broadcasts as “Shows.”
T.V. and Cable “News Shows” are big income generators. And yet, budgets for news teams are continually cut. This lack of professional resources leads to a constant need for canned content from Think Tanks, Corporate and Governmental organizations. These organizations disguise public relations and propaganda as infotainment or so-called “ fake news” in popular parlance.
This content is a systemic prerogative.
Open up the New York Times or the Washington Post, and one is often fooled by marketing packaged in an attention-grabbing headline and a compelling story.
The Sinclair Corporation has bought most of your local T.V. Channels and sends out “scripts” that corporations pay for. It is these scripts that journalists/anchors, and reporters read.
Many years ago, quite a few journalists/anchors resigned because the scripts contained falsehoods, inaccuracies, or (to put it bluntly) “extreme lies.”
There is no incentive for The Sinclair Corporation to hire journalists when they can hire talking heads. In time these talking heads will all be deep fake A.I.s programmed to say only the information big business wants us to know.
People interested in what’s happening in our world will have to invest time and energy in learning to ascertain good sources, seek them out, and engage information with critical thinking.
…and because we should already know about this, we’d better be prepared to do the hard work necessary to make sense of the world.
Originally published at https://www.globehackers.com on January 27, 2023.
