Censorship: Media

[tydon]

Censorship: Media

I am ready to be flamed:

Should the media be reasonably censored?

Cases that I think should not be covered:

1. The Kobe case
being in the media hurts Kobe, and the accusser. What good is there to gain by this being in the headlines every day?

2. The steroid issue
wait until everything is worked out before releasing all this information that could harm this invididuals careers seriously. Even if they find out Bonds didnt take them, people will still think he did.


I would like your thoughts on these, and other cases where there is really nothing to gain for the American people by knowing...

 

[Painman]

Inquiring minds want to know, and some of them will even stay tuned during those commercial breaks. Then they will go to Wal-Mart and buy those strips that will turn their teeth blindingly white, or they will call their doctor to see if Insipidrix will improve their quality of life, etc etc.

'Tis the American socio-economic machine at work

 

[Sigus]

No, never. Although I read English tabloid and they seem not to care anyway.

 

[Stevinator]

the government shouldn't step in, the media should self censor certain information because of ethical reasons.

for instance they shouldn't release the name of the one killed in the car accident or whatever until the family finds out. I'd like to see them spend less time on serious shows talking about J-Lo and P diddy and all those other entertainers that have no news value. they also grant those people no privacy, leave that stuff on shows devoted to it, and only i the rating are so good from it they have to keep it. Everytime i see that on the evening news I don't watch it again for a while...they're hurting their ratings, and they're not getting anyone new to watch it just for covering that stuff.

but then...they prolly don't care about me since I don't watch TV unless it's a weekend and I'm at someone else's place. occasionally I'll watch enterprise when it's actually on...but usually i tape it and watch it at my parent's or a friend's.

 

[Underseer]

Vote with your dollars and your eyeballs.

If you see Kobe appear on a TV newscast, change the channel and don't change back. If you see Kobe in your newspaper, send an angry letter to the editor threatening to cancel your subscription.

No need to involve the government.

 

[Yaboosh]

Underseer, changing the channel only helps if they know what you are watching, so dont you have to be a Nielsen family or something?

 

[Hippie Holocost]

I''m a little shaky on my knowledge of judicial law, so correct me if I'm wrong here.

I know that the trial is public, mainly for Kobes safety from tyrannical judges, not for our viewing pleasure. In either case though, the trial is public, plain and simple.

However, (this is where I might be wrong) the evidence and happenings before the trial are not necessarily public, that is just information that is leaked. My proposal would be to have the government try to contain these leaks, not censor the media.

Oh and I don't see ethics anywhere in the medias future, its nothing but a wham bam thankyou mam buisness...

 

[tydon]

Well, I mean the media attention truly does hurt the accuser, and as seen by the loss of Kobes contracts, it hurts him as well.

And in cases of military deaths in general, or any death in general. They will say "A man has been killed in tacoma in a car wreck on his way home, more information at 6" Have you ever had a family member who was in one of those areas. You worry and try to call them, and if they dont pick up, you fear the worst.

 

[LunarSolaris]

I'm very apt to agree with you Stevinator... I think that it's less of an issue about the government needing to step in to censor the media in certain circumstances as it is about the media needing to develop a better sense of ethics about their reporting methods and tactics.

However, having said that, I fully realize that the media (vast majority) is in the business of making money and virtually little more than that... so it's about "selling" their product. To that end, I agree with underseer that part of the problem is us - the viewing public. We encourage the media to be unethical by continuing to give huge ratings to tabloid reporting, sensationalism, and consumerism.

The Michael Jackson case wouldn't be anything that it is if not for the person it's about. It would just be another pedophile investigation and trial. Run of the mill.

 

[nnndave]

Bah, the media is so screwed up I don't hardly pay attention to anything. All I watch on tv is cartoons and sports. People think stuff like that is so important, I say the REAL world is important. Screw celebrities.