The Sorry State of Journalism

If the newspapers weren't so overfull of biased, misleading and distorted opinions and articles, they'd be plenty of room for unbiased opinions and articles -- which would be more valuable to the readers, and establish the credibility of that forum and media.

It's not true that opinions are SUPPOSED to be biased; the most valuable and credible opinions are those that are unbiased, and reliably nonpartisan -- while those that are consistently and deliberately biased, misleading and distorted, are worthless and a waste of time and space -- which many have concluded, is the state of contemporary journalism.

This is the very crisis of the newspapers and other media -- that people have traditionally relied on the media to provide them unbiased articles and opinions -- rather than now, being the source of endless biased and misleading information leading to bad information and bad choices.

Two, or endlessly more biased opinions don't cancel each other out to the truth. That is an indication of how journalism and all failing institutions at this time, have lost their credibility and reason for being. Two partisan and biased opinions don't make a whole truth -- but are just two wrongs. And what the world has always needed, is observations that bring us closer to the truth of any matter.

A large reason for the failings of any society, as well as its emergence as a leading light for progress and the future, is the quality by which all members share (communicate) information -- which in Hawaii, has been pretty much a surrogate for the the union newsletters -- in spreading their propaganda. In fact, that the newspapers and other media, early became union organized and influenced, to serve their own interests, and that of its twin the Democratic Party, is the underlying development that undermined its future as the leading provider of unbiased information -- that lately has become, unabashedly and unashamedly, a partisan organ.

That created the vacuum by which the Internet could explode and become not only a viable alternate media, but very quickly the dominant media and publication in the emerging world of global consciousness and participation. Old media is witnessing these developments, yet are powerless to do anything about it -- because real human progress will not be denied, in the service of a traditional trade/power association. The part cannot compete against the whole, but like the famous Borg of the Star Trek movies, subsumes everything in its sphere -- which is what we're seeing happen on the online discussions of the Hawaii newspapers, which has always been the defenders of the status quo, by controlling participation and information, as all newspapers did in the past.

Not to allow that possibility, if they have it, is certain doom -- because not all forums have a participation. Ironically, not all forums that allow this possibility, are overrun with thoughtless and abusive comments -- because each author sets the standards for the quality of that participation with their own thoughts. That's what the mass media has a difficult time understanding -- that simply the number of comments, hits, or readers, is no longer the measure of success and influence, when the right targeted audience is now what counts.

This is a very troubling concept for the mass media to deal with -- so used as they are to manipulating the unthinking masses to their will and opinions, in some easily measurable way. That people should be allowed to express/think their own thoughts rather than repeat the media's programming of words and thoughts, is unthinkable.

So it still wants to divide thought into the monolithic left and right -- rather than recognizing the right of individuals to speak wholly for themselves, without just advancing the doctrines of the traditional partisanships that they have controlled. Real progress and evolution, is the transcendence of the old thinking into the new, that synthesizes the old partial and partisan views into a greater whole -- which those who have only been conditioned in the old arguments and divisions, and their control, are overwhelmed.

That's how the old gives way to the new -- and not just continuing the old in a modified form by which they maintain their traditional control, influence, and place at the top of the pecking order. There is a new world order -- which is unlike the old, beyond their control. Once they can recognize that nobody is allowed that primacy of control, then they can develop those skills necessary to thriving in the new, rather than thinking and demanding that the old must reassert and repeat itself -- for their convenience, so they can remain on top, and in control again.