Is Media State Run Mainstream Media Is

Media Bias What I like about the media being a linking institution informing citizens about government and politics is that it can keep people informed about what is going in their world. Honest journalism and reporting is important because everything that happens in the world impacts us directly and indirectly. We live in a global environment, where everyone seems to know everyone else, and the world seems a smaller place in a way for that reason.

At the same time, I dislike the media being a linking institution because it can be used to deceive and keep people ignorant about what is really going on in the world and why. For instance, there is a very Orwellian way in which our mainstream Western media reports on Russia's support of Assad in Syria and its war on terrorists in the Middle East.

Anyone who reads new/alternative media knows how and why the war on terror actually began and many of these readers view Putin as having a lot more credibility than Uncle Sam. But that is not the way the mainstream Western media will report it via pundits, talking heads, TV hosts, etc. One news story posted on Asia Times is an article by foreign correspondent Pepe Escobar.

Escobar's article is meritorious because it describes in a witty and sometimes very blunt way the reality of the situation in the Middle East today. He does not play favorites with any group but neither does he pander to Western leaders. He reports it exactly as he sees it, which means that the situation is viewed very complexly.

But he adds a good deal of humor, cynicism, and good sense to his analysis and breaks it down so that the reader can come away with a clearer sense of things, despite the complexities of these Middle Eastern issues. Another news story is this one by Claire Bernish posted to TheAntiMedia.org blog and linked via Zero Hedge.

It describes the situation in Iceland today -- essentially how Iceland has jailed the bankers who financially crippled the country years back during the global economic collapse, how it has nationalized the banks, and how the Icelanders themselves are being paid back the money that the bankers looted from them. It also notes how Iceland has gotten out from under its debt to the IMF and virtually paid it all back already -- something no other country has done yet.

The sense is that Iceland took a tough and real stance towards its bankers, held them accountable, and thus took back its sovereignty. I like this article because it provides an update to information given by Michael Lewis in a book of his about the economic conditions of various nations around the world.

These examples of bias are more of the left sort -- they represent distrust for the mainstream media (one of the sources, after all, is TheAntiMedia.org blog) and offer a very different perspective from the loud, party-line doctrines expressed by mainstream sources. Nonetheless, their views are fairly representational generally speaking. To students, I would pose the following questions: do you believe.