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The New Era of Ignorance
By: Trevor McNary
    From Jeremiah Wright to a federal investigation of the Palin gubernatorial administration, 2008’s Presidential election has been one of the most scrutinized in the history of American politics.   With a list of versatile mediums for news stories (television, radio, blogs, podcasts, vodcasts, etc.), it’s hard for viewers to tell which news outlet is not showing bias, and which one is.   Viewers don’t know who’s telling the actual news or who’s just trying to push their own political agenda.   In the America that we live in today, with news soaked in partisan bias, no one is getting the actual, unbiased news.   The entertainment industry is too worried about ratings, not presenting knowledge.
    Most news mediums are purposefully biased, catered towards a certain audience. If they weren’t, how could the big entertainment companies keep the desirable ratings that they need to stay on air? Could Bill O’Reilly or Sean Hannity legitimately entertain a crowd of liberal viewers or listeners? Could Wolf Blitzer sway a group of conservatives? No, and they’re not expected to because their shows were made for people that agree with them. Some news stations even admit their bias. In 2005, Fox News admitted to the Wall Street Journal Europe to showing bias saying, "Even we at Fox News manage to get some lefties on the air occasionally and often let them finish their sentences before we club them to death and feed the scraps to Karl Rove and Bill O'Reilly.”
    This bias is no longer just restricted to the radio or television, cyberspace is now a popular medium for people of all ages to post their personal thoughts on issues. With the inventions of blogs, podcast, websites, and vodcasts, America has entered a new era of media bias. These news mediums offer an FCC-free environment where people express their thoughts, which can be a good or bad thing. Podcasts like Barely Political, Gnooze, and Penn Says offer more liberal views of... [continues]

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