User talk:Ddingus

I've added the matter of clarity in media presentation as an enabler of corruption. Thought I would put just a bit more context here, should the matter come up for discussion.

Essentially, there is growing evidence that our major broadcast media does not serve the public interest very well. Removing the fairness doctrine brought us "Newstainment" and far more compelling and numerous news and political broadcasts. In particular, we've got more commentary than we had in times past. With that comes a lot of bias.

We had bias before, but now it's clear and refined.

This is balanced with choice today. Because of that, I cannot justify addressing bias itself. If the facts are complete, we've no need for opinion. Most of the time, that is not true, meaning we've got to weigh commentary against known facts and make value judgments regarding the merit of commentary.

Currently, we have few standards where clarity / honesty of presentation are concerned. Recent court decisions, surrounding the firing of News Corp. reporters, unwilling to present mis-information are troubling. News Corp. won that case, essentially lending credence to the idea that a confusing broadcast is perfectly ok.

My core problem with that is that it does not really serve the public, other than for simple matters of affirmation. Said affirmation is harmful if one is not presented with the facts that support said affirmation.

If we are to have clear bias in our media, should we also not then require said media to present with clarity sufficient for consumers to make reasonable value judgments about whether the commentary is actually supported by the facts? Right now, viewers of some networks end up less informed then they would otherwise be. What then of the bias they consume? That impacts policy decisions, indirectly through the vote. Misinformed voters corrupt our democratic process, making solid decisions difficult to realize.

There is a public interest piece missing here. Again, I believe that to be clarity, not time as used to be the case.