Common sense shines through

NRA APPROACH TO SCHOOL VIOLENCE, CALLED “CRAZY” BY PRESS, SUPPORTED BY 55% OF AMERICANS

I wonder what the support for LaPierre’s proposal would be if he’d been given a respectful hearing in the press?

Respectful media hearing for LaPierre? When hippos fly. No such thing could ever get through the media sieve.

Media influence on public opinion almost never results from factual evidence fairly presented. Media influence occurs primarily through information control -- Creating a narrative and then making sure only information that supports the narrative gets through to the public. That kind of gate-keeping when it comes to guns and gun violence has been nearly absolute. 

It's a mistake to identify what the media does as "journalism," or "news gathering and reporting," because they're no longer in that business primarily, no longer see it as their defining function.  Their primary mission now is to promote "correct" political and social attitudes, as defined by "liberals" and progressives, while denigrating and vilifying any opposing voices. The focused, intensive -- and largely successful -- slandering of the Tea Party illustrates how single-minded such misinformation campaigns can be.  As does the media's worshipful treatment of Obama, which has been laughably one-sided from the very start.

The media will not be reformed because, excepting the deeply-hated Fox News, opposing ideas and their representatives have been mercilessly extirpated from media ranks, root and branch, top to bottom, leaving a virtually seamless liberal consensus. In fact, those outside the consensus are rarely credited with having any "ideas" at all, just racial hatreds, class resentments, and a general fog of hick stupidity.

It's pretty obvious that change can only come through economic pressures originating outside the media establishment altogether.

Byron