Do you think media should be 100% free in a Healthy Democracy?

India
March 2, 2012 12:02pm CST
Guys now a days most of the countries are having democratic setup and in that Media has a very distinct role to play. Media is a watchdog for all the remaining pillars of democracy. But sometimes media also crosses its limits by making absurd news a sensation. So i personally think that media is having a Nuclear Power like might which should be used carefully, what do you guys think please share
2 people like this
6 responses
@debrakcarey (19887)
• United States
3 Mar 12
Hello akhileshebay, Here's a link to an article about one media outlet in particular that claims tax-exempt status and a straight line to the truth. Media Matters set it self up as the watchdog of the media, promising to expose those who distorted the news. It was recently exposed itself. Weekly meeting with White House officials who fed them their take on the news, bragging about feeding that line to a major network (sometimes word for word), targeting FOX news anchors and employees for 'destruction' of their characters, all this while claiming tax-exemption. You cannot be involved in politics and be tax exempt. If none of this makes sense to you, realize that taking their marching orders on what is news and how to report it from the current administration, targeting a legitimate news network for 'destruction' going so far as to hire detectives to follow their employees all the while you claim to be pointing people to the truth and getting tax exemption for it, shows me that we cannot trust the main stream media to tell us the truth. As was pointed out, our Bill of Rights gaurantees freedom of the press, if the 'ruling' party controls what the press says the people are not informed of the truth and cannot choose government leaders wisely. A free press is essential to democracy and liberty. Unfortunately, America's major press outlets are in the pocket of the progressive liberals, and owned mainly by radical George Soros. Here's a link to one article in the Daily Caller on the Media Matters scandal. http://dailycaller.com/2012/02/12/inside-media-matters-sources-memos-reveal-erratic-behavior-close-coordination-with-white-house-and-news-organizations/
1 person likes this
@mgzg11 (139)
• Croatia (Hrvatska)
2 Mar 12
It's hard to say what is freedom. Media is owned by the corporations, and their goal is profit. Therefor, not much space is left for the different opinions, or investigations of corruption on high political and business levels, since people who are there are the same people that owns the media. Unfortunately, today it seems that media is just a tool for manipulating people. As you said, by feeding people with irrelevant sensations, they keep general population away from important things.
@matersfish (6306)
• United States
2 Mar 12
It's up to people to pick the news they want. Once it gets to the point (or back to that point, I should say) where some source mandates what qualifies as "news," the only news that's going to get through is obviously approved by that source and thus is most likely to be just as phony as anything else. I think most of life is misinformation and sensationalism. An individual needs to do the best he or she can to weed through the rubbish.
@advokatku (4033)
• Indonesia
10 Jun 12
the media actually can be used as a tool of learning about democracy and politics, unfortunately in its development, sometimes the media does not neutral as a learning tool. The Media easily influenced by politicians who have a lot of money. Media can be loser the authority. These media conditions which not neutral like this that sometimes make people hate the media
• United States
2 Mar 12
I think they should be free, it's even in the bill of rights. But like mgzg11 pointed out, they are big businesses. They're actually so big they have political ties, and not only the normal interest in politics but they can also have a lot to gain or lose from what goes on politically. So, while they should be free to report what they want. It can be difficult to separate reporting the news from their own political interest, even aside from personal views (some news stations don't even do that). As far as over sensationalizing junk news, it's a form of entertainment and that's what most of Americans love the most. "Reality" TV and sensationalized news stories. Unless the population wants to be informed instead of entertained that won't change.
@deodavid (4150)
• Philippines
3 Mar 12
hi there akhileshebay, You are right media is very powerful if you try to cut some scenes in a particular video of a person on TV you can change the whole story of it. You can make the good guy look bad and the bad guy look good, not everybody is a good analyst of the truth and through media the truth can get spun around like a top so i think media should be very responsible yet still show the truth in it all.