Owen Mageau - Its Not Right-Left, Its Top-Down: The Truth About The Media

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Its Not Right-Left, Its Top-Down

Its Not Right-Left, Its Top-Down

The Truth about the Media

Owen Mageau

New Degree Press

Copyright 2021 Owen Mageau

All rightsreserved.

Its Not Right-Left, Its Top-Down

The Truth about the Media

ISBN 978-1-63676-834-2 Paperback

978-1-63730-208-8 Kindle Ebook

978-1-63730-278-1 Ebook

This book is dedicated to my loving grandma, Harolyn Mageau, who sadly passed away in July of 2020. She was the person I could always count on to listen to me and be supportive. No matter what I did, my grandma always told me she was impressed. If it wasnt for her constant support, there is no way I would have ever had the confidence to imagine I could write a book. Thank you, Grandma. I love you, and I hope Ive impressed you once again.

Contents

Journalists are made aware of where the channel or the network organizations priorities are. It is made clear to them, dont fuck with the piggy bank, or the people who are buttering your bread.

David Shuster, former journalist at MSNBC , CNN , and the Fox News Channel

Introduction

Walmart is a major advertiser here on MSNBC. Im not telling you not to do the story because I would never tell any of my journalists whether to do a story or not to do a story. Im simply asking if you would consider not doing it because of a lot of sensitivities on the business side of the company.

This is what David Shuster said the president of MSNBC, Phil Griffin, said to him when Shuster pitched a segment for his show that reflected on Walmart in a negative light.

After thinking long and hard about it, Shuster decided they wouldnt run the story about Walmart. His reasoning was it wasnt a massive breaking news story and for his own sake, he didnt think it was worth it to go against his boss.

I think if it had been a major story or something where we were moving the ball, I would have said, No, were doing the story, but it wasnt a lead story, so it just felt like, okay, I will give one to the boss here, so maybe I will get a chip down the road, Shuster said.

If youve ever wondered if youre getting an objective, wholesome picture of what is going on in the world from the mainstream news outlets in the United States, the answer is you simply arent. As showcased in this short, simple story David Shuster shared with me from his time as an anchor at MSNBC, the structure of the news media in this country is set up to cater to the interests of its corporate owners and advertisers, not to report the objective truth.

Since Donald Trump entered the race for the 2016 Republican Nomination for President of the United States, the term Fake News has become very popular. The former president is famous for calling media organizations that are critical of him fake news and insulting them in other ways.

Your organization is terrible; I am not going to give you a question. You are fake news. Thats what then-President-elect Donald Trump said to CNN correspondent Jeff Acosta during a press conference after being elected president in 2016. Trump refused to take Acostas question, and this wasnt the last time he would do something like this. Trump, along with a sizeable sector of the population, cry fake news whenever they see something they dont like or agree with.

Many people have rightfully fought back against these claims of fake news; however, these same people have fell victim to the same behavior. People who opposed Trump now tend to call anything that praises or praised the former president fake news as well.

Our society has become extremely polarized with one group, largely republicans, believing everything Fox News says and calling everything that comes from MSNBC and CNN fake news, while the other side does just the opposite. Democrats tend to believe everything reported by MSNBC or CNN, whereas they lament Fox News.

America has always been divided, but this increase in polarization is extremely problematic because the reality of the situation is these networks are much more similar than they are different. This party loyalty, loyalty to the home team, and loyalty to their preferred network causes people to focus on the deficiencies of the opposing side, all the while turning a blind eye to the many deficiencies in the outlets they themselves find to be reputable news sources. This dynamic leads to both sides having a distorted view of the truth, and that is not a good thing. It leads to a much more hostile environment because people arent grounded in facts. Its one thing, a good thing, to discuss and argue about different policies or ideas, as long as we all agree on the basic facts. However, this isnt the case anymore. Americans dont even agree on what is fact and what is fiction. It eliminates the possibility of finding common ground, and this is a frightening development.

The bottom line is all of the mainstream networks arent providing their consumers with the whole story. So everyday Americans must stop fighting with one another and calling each other stupid, uneducated, brainwashed, or whatever else it may be. If you get your news from Fox, your enemy isnt the people who watch MSNBC or CNN. If you watch MSNBC or CNN, your enemy isnt the people who watch Fox. Its time to wake up and see were all being conned. We should not be each others enemy, but it should be the system of corporate ownership that incentivizes these networks not to report the full accurate version of every story.

Dont believe me? If you have a family to support, mortgage or rent to pay, dont want to lose your employer-sponsored healthcare (if youre lucky enough to have it), and the many other financial responsibilities Americans face, would you openly contradict your bosses? Would you walk into their office and tell them to screw themselves? Would you tell them theyre bad people and tell them all the bad things they do? Probably not, because youd be sent packing, and youd be looking for another job with the notion youre not a team player following you around.

Journalists face this exact dilemma every time they go to work. They have to choose between reporting the complete, objective story, or complying with the desires of their corporate bosses.

Shuster has previously worked at all three of the major cable news networks, those being CNN, Fox News, and MSNBC, so he knows how the mainstream media operates in the United States. Shuster said all the journalists who have been in the business for a couple of years are apprised of where their channel or network organizations priorities are.

It is made clear to them, dont fuck with the piggy bank, or the people who are buttering your bread, Shuster said.

We cant fault the journalists. We can say its immoral to lie or to bury certain stories, but theyre only doing their jobs. What we can fault is the system: the structure of corporate ownership that prevents our news media from being truly objective.

Once upon a time in the news business, you were given credit for being a hard-nosed journalist who would ask tough questions of everybody, Shuster said. Now, when you have so many corporate and money-making agendas, and that mix between advertising and the awareness journalists have of the funding, you move up in the business not by seeking out the truth and being aggressive about it, but by swimming in the direction your bosses want the company to swim. So, its very hard in this day and age, if you are an independent, hard-charging, report- like-hell journalist, to find you have got a future at mainstream broadcast outlets in particular.

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