Increasingly I am a fan of LinkTV. It is one of the very few alternative content networks around. I try to catch Deutche Wella  and Al Jazeera on Link a few times per week for a different perspective of world events. 

News programming in the US evolved decades ago into a business model which delivers manufactured consent to those who’ll pay for it.   News programmers in the US for the most part seem to have a notion that only they know what we really want to see. So they roll their tape for us.  Who really decides where the beady eye of scrutiny is pointed?

Really now. Why do we have the same tedious group of talking heads making the rounds on the news programs? In a country of 300 million, we can’t find a few others who will say something new or at least unexpected?  It’s just like the stars who appear on Leno.  In exchange for a free “performance”on the show, they get to promote their latest gig. It’s about low cost content.

In the case of news, the network gets “compelling commentary” for free by a guest who is calculated to cause eyeballs to linger a few moments.  News content has the shelflife of squid. It is no good tomorrow.

If you’re not alarmed by this kind of thing then you’re not paying attention.  Knock knock!! I’m talking to the 2/3 of the bell curve who may suspect that Fox, for instance, occasionally makes things up to suit the needs of its backers.  The 1/3 who watch Fox assiduously are perhaps not recoverable from their trance.

Numerous coworkers claim to be independent thinkers, but to a man or woman, will spout the same vocabulary and pre-framed concepts. They get their talking points from Fox, as directed.  I love these people, but their view of the world is a cartoon drawn by a couple of guys in a sound booth. It is sad.