Is All That News Really Fake?

(c) by Mark Dempsey

Recent coverage by alternative media reminds us that, while the recent "Build Back Better" infrastructure bill gets floor-to-ceiling coverage by the mainstream media, the pentagon got all it asked for and then some, without a peep that same media. 

In the U.S, five big corporations own more than 90% of US mainstream media. Italian media ownership is slightly less concentrated, but Sylvio Berlusconi is the sole owner there. When he was Italy's prime minister, he was able to elect parliaments so favorable that, in a demonstration of the power of the press, they excused him for crimes he had committed retroactively.  

That distortion in reporting supports politics as usual, and has very real consequences--the invasion of Iraq for one example. Yet that is not all. The distortion of our public policy encompasses even entertainment.

Think of the crime shows that are a large part of that entertainment, from Perry Mason, to Law & Order. Solving crimes appears to be the rule, not the exception. Yet, in the real world, most crime goes unsolved. One Republican senator from Alabama proclaimed that police solve less than 20% of crimes, so we need to incarcerate even more people, despite incarcerating at five times the world average per-capita rate. More recently, I've read west coast police solve 7% - 9% of crimes. 

This is why policemen say the most accurate police procedural is Barney Miller (a comedy). Hospital workers say the most accurate medical show is Scrubs (another comedy).

Not just news, but entertainment predisposes the population to believe that all cops are honest, all doctors know what they are doing, all problems take only 30 minutes to solve, and good boys and girls will always be rewarded. The reality is something different.

Reality is a constant reminder that the undeserving often prosper, crooks often go free, and humility is the real alternative to humiliation.