Love/Hate Relationship

This is a quote by Wyoming Senator Alan K. Simpson taken from a CIA transcript about his views on the media.

"The press is spoiled and conceited. All the journalists consider themselves brilliant political scientists. They do not want to see anything succeeding or achieving its objectives." (Second Front, page 40)

Journalists, they seem to be everywhere. They seem to know everything before the masses and they only tell half the story of what’s actually going on. What are we going to do about it?

Well we’re going to watch and listen to them tell the story because they are the only ones telling us anything.

It’s this sort of love/hate relationship, we need them otherwise we will be completely in the dark as to what’s going on and they need us to watch so that they have purpose. We need to develop an opinion and they have to tell us what opinions to concentrate on. It’s there right to cover the world’s events and they will concentrate on the vilest of topics because that’s what they think the masses want.

Sex, violence, corruption, chaos, and all the other things in the world that happen are always blamed on the press and we are drawn to it. In the end we have to ask ourselves, is the coverage by the journalist to blame or the event that’s being covered? Is it really the press that’s causing the problem or is it society? Which came first the chicken or the atom bomb?