The Rosson Register

Over the years I’ve noticed a popular misconception among many people: that the news is somehow a service provided to the public, and that there is some obligation for it to be objective. There are arguments and bickering over which network castrates news the most and which can actually be trusted.

For anyone who holds this belief, I offer this news flash: the news is a TV show! like The Late Show, Planet Earth, and Family Guy, it exists for one reason and one reason only: to increase ratings and make money for the network’s stockholders. They don’t have to be unbiased, they don’t have to be objective, and they don’t have to tell you a thing. They can practice selective coverage to their hearts’ content.

The current Writers Guild of America strike has received virtually no coverage in the mainstream media because these news providers are owned by the very companies that WGA is striking against – selective coverage if I’ve ever seen it.

Even more amazing, however, is CNN’s one-sided coverage regarding a Senate bill that would have granted immunity to telecom companies that helped the government illegally spy on American citizens. CNN reported today that “Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid delayed the bill because there were more than a dozen amendments planned, and not enough time left on the legislative calendar to manage them.” CNN also completely failed to mention that this was due only to the threat of Senator Chris Dodd’s filibuster: you have to go to Wired News for that. This is actual serious news that major media outlets should not ignore!

If you browse through sites like Digg and Reddit on a daily basis, you’ll find out all kinds of really interesting user-submitted news that you would probably never have heard about anywhere else. But mainstream news isn’t real: stop trusting it!

Digg it!