It absolutely is, but it’s not a simple answer of one entity being the mastermind puppeteer behind the curtain of Oz.
The reality of why it’s corrupt boils down to the basic tenets of money, power, fame, and control. But it happens systemically through the combined effort of tons of variables in each instance.
With mainstream broadcast and cable news, you attract anybody who wants to be on TV. This is true for CNN, Fox, MSNBC, ABC News, TMZ, OANN, BNC, Cheddar, CNBC and every other mainstream outlet. These outlets reach over a million targeted viewers every hour of every day. It’s the cheapest and most efficient way to reach a larger audience at once, even with the internet. There are certainly websites and even content creators with more views, but they’re outliers more than the rule. Media can be corrupted in different ways by different people throughout the supply chain.
There’s little difference between people heckling reporters:
And paid TV commentators who simply provide opinionated TV editorials:
Or those all those so-called “expert” guests who are there for free publicity:
They all have agendas for being on mainstream TV news. Guests are especially suspect, because they’re not paid. You can’t make an actual living out of publicity stunts; yet there’s an entire industry behind the scenes of businesses paying public relations and guest bookers to get on television.
Every single person you see on television has an agenda and a reason for being there. The people who run on camera or prank the on-scene reporters are just doing it in a crude way, while more refined people with money pay professionals to get them there. Taking that money is a quick way to get discredited, but it’s happening every day as news stations race to keep fresh content on air.
They just keep it behind the curtain because no one individual wants to be the poster child for a culture of corruption.
And it’s a very incestual relationship they have at every level. People switch sides between left and right wing news all the time. They don’t care what the content is; they’re on-screen personalities. They often read the same scripts:
And even if they’re different scripts, they’ll get across the same messages. That’s because a culture of corruption does start at the top, and there are obviously agendas involved in the news.
We’ve seen Peter Thiel kill Gawker and Jeff Bezos buy the Washington Post. These are two examples of what a multi-billionaire can do when they flex their money, power, and resources to buy a media outlet so they can control the message.
By the time any media outlet reaches “mainstream,” it has likely already been corrupted. People gravitate toward Hollywood and the music industry. We see the culture of celebrity around influencers. It’s not like mainstream news media somehow lives in a magical bubble that protects it from attracting the same types of thirsty predators every other celebrity does.
There’s no chapter in the criminal handbook that says to target the comedy, drama, sports, music, and family content on your TV but to ignore the news channels and shows. News is easily half the content being broadcast in the mainstream media. If anything, at least you can listen to rap music or watch a TV series like Succession to learn about the trappings of the game.
But news outlets always act like they’re the good ones. And because liberal news outlets are more prevalent (and Hollywood is more liberal), you get movies about Fox News sex scandals while nothing is made of the exact same scandals at NPR (repeatedly), NBC, and others. Where is our movie about Matt Lauer’s office?
#NewsLivesMatter, and the fraternity of mainstream media protects their own. There are plenty of independent journalists these days who aren’t afraid to speak up and report on the corruption in the mainstream media though. The tides have shifted and both journalists and politicians have proven they can build grassroots movements using mainstream media as little more than one tool in a massive arsenal.
Even the good journalists doing the right thing still need to often work in (or at least with) corrupt systems. It’s just the way it will always be when a platform reaches a large audience. If you build it, they will come.