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Why the mainstream media is dead

I've written about the demise of the mainstream media (MSM) on many occasions but, just for fun, I'm doing it again.

This time I'm going to use an example from a current events TV series that has gained the enviable reputation of being one of the world's best.

I'm talking about the CBS "60 Minutes" series which bills itself as "the number one News show in America for 50 straight years"

Most people watching current affairs programs like this tend to take it for granted that teams of highly experienced and qualified journalists have accurately researched and investigated the facts.

Well I'm sorry to disappoint you but...

I am not an expert on many things but I do have a significantly greater experience with and understanding of drones than most people. This *is* my area of expertise so I am well-qualified to make judgements on any published TV program, video or story about this, and related subjects.

I was gobsmacked therefore, to see that when 60 Minutes released an episode titled "Drone swamrs inside the U.S. could be spying, it was full of shite (excuse my French).

This video refers to the New Jersey drone sightings -- which actually turned out to be little more than mis-identified airliners or helicopters and the public hysteria that followed. Despite it now being very clear that there were no drones involved in this incident, 60 Minutes continues to tell a gullible public that these could have been "spy drones" operated by some nefarious party or enemy state.

The footage shown in the 60 Minutes video are very very clearly airliners, easily identified by the configuration, colour and flashing of the lights they carry.

Why would CBS produce such garbage and label it as an "investigative report"?

Well I guess the answer is simple... money.

It's much easier to sell a program that purports to show ememy spy drones or alien spaceships than it would be to sell a program that simply documented the boring facts that people can't tell a drone from an airliner in the darkness of night.

It's all about clicks, views, affiliate sales and ad revenues -- and nothing to do with accurate, professional investigative journalism.

Make things sound as scary and mysterious as possible and the public are far more likely to waste 15 minutes of their lives being duped into watching this drivel.

The worrying thing to me is that this clearly proves the MSM is not to be trusted.

As a subject-expert, I know that this 60 Minutes episode is full of BS so how can I have any faith in their reports on any subject where I have less ability to discern between hype, hysteria and actual fact?

The reality is that we, the public, can no longer trust the mainstream media. They are no longer a reliable source of trusted information. They have turned themselves into nothing more than another entertainment medium where the primary objective is to attract as many eyeballs as they can, regardless of how that might effect the ethics and integrity of their news reporting goals.

I think it's fair to say that most sensible people no longer take as gospel, that which they read, hear or see from the MSM. Smart people will do their own research and a lot of the actual facts are likely to come from first-hand eye-witness reports disseminated through social media.

Of course governments hate that because it means they lose control of the narrative.

Back when the MSM was the solitary source of news a government of the day could "shape" the way that news was presented (I cite the PUblic Interest Journalism Fund as an example of that). However, now that the public are increasingly turning to social media for their "news", that ability for a government to control the narrative is being lost. It is for this reason that governments across the developed world have engaged in programs designed to discredit social media as a source of disinformation and misinformation.

I think the smarter amongst us recognise those campaigns for what they are.

Goodbye MSM, you are no longer a trusted, reliable source of well-researched, accurate and objective news information. Your time is past, enjoy your retirement.

Carpe Diem folks!

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