These unknown tales are often complex and detailed, require time and work to tell. They are not the easy, emotional, shock-jock type stories that, like junk food, leave you entertained but empty. They are the underground stories about illegal and illicit power structures, immoral and fraudulent schemes, that pulse beneath the surface.
These omissions, hidden behind the opaque edges of the screen, are the kind of accounts we discover after a lifetime of suffering and call wisdom. But these stories are we loose, all the time.
Why are we so bereft of real news? Why do the major news outlets choose not to cover these stories, why do editors walk away from them? These are hard stories to tell, it takes talent, and that costs. The resources necessary to do one investigative report can equal all the resources required to produce the entire 22 minute news cast (not including commercials).
Add the influence of those who fund commercials, the corporate businesses that employ most of the people in any area, and you can see why an editor at a corporate media outlet might choose a shallower, less challenging story. Why examine the unprofitable details of an ethnic minority problem, or the confusing financial accounts of a corporate land developer, when you can talk about the blond girl who was showing her woo-hoo while getting out of the car?
- In San Diego, KPBS did an in-depth report about California Prop.13, but completely omitted from their coverage the fact that holding companies and shell corporations avoid billion$ in property taxes using the Prop.13 tax loop-hole. Why would they omit that?
- In San Diego, African-American Media is all but non-existent, yet that community makes up about 10% of the population? Why aren't minority communities represented proportionally in the media?
- How many stories do you know about that are un-represented in the traditional press? If you can't think of any, why do you think that is?
Do you feel me?
Check out this web site: Project CENSORED
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