ISSUES AND THE NEWS: JEFF COHEN GUEST SPEAKER

I think that Jeff Cohen provided our class with an interesting and intriguing insight into the world of emerging independent media. Jeff's comments about various successful independent media producers, such as Amy Goodman and Jeremy Scahill from 'Democracy Now!' filled me with hope for the future of journalism, in the onset of a declining newspaper and television sector. However, I found Jeff's experiences with the mainstream media, at both FOX News and MSNBC, to be rather disturbing insights into the way bias plays a major role in commercial television news. 

Whilst Jeff's accounts of right-wing bias at the notoriously conservative FOX network were somewhat expected, I was shocked to discover that MSNBC held such blatant prejudices. These networks both seemed to laugh in the face of objectivity, and I was disturbed that they were allowed to get away with being so obviously inclined to one political schema. The firing of Phil Donahue because he was decidedly in opposition to the war in Iraq, which did not fit in with the agenda or party lines of MSNBC at the time, baffled me as his show 'Donahue' received the top ratings for the network. However, it was also interesting that Jeff stated that all media groups, independent, commercial and otherwise, tend to have agendas that they follow. This is particularly clear in the independent sector, but I find independent political bends somewhat more acceptable because many, for example The Huffington Post and The Drudge Report, are blatantly upfront about their ideological leanings, whereas other commercial media outlets attempt to hide them. I think that all media groups have their own particular political leanings and biases, because as we have discovered in previous weeks objectivity in the news can be difficult to maintain completely. But the problems arise when they attempt to present to their audiences an unbiased facade, whilst maintaining a hidden agenda. 

Despite somewhat increasing my distrust of the mainstream media, Jeff's lecture inspired me to pay closer attention to independent media outlets. I believe that independent media outlets are leading the way into the new media frontier, and that we should all acknowledge that in the rapidly evolving media game, independent media groups are going to become main players.