I don't know from personal observation, but I would guess that in the mainstream media there has been nothing but praise for the health care "reform" that was just forced down our throats (or up our...?). Except, of course, for Fox News, which only "hates" it because their preferred collectivists didn't do it to America.
It stands to reason that the mainstream media is supportive of statism. It loves things that cause drama. Murders get ratings and so do government actions. The health care takeover is just one example. It isn't big news that people can take care of their own needs if government steps aside. However, the resistance and opposition to this scheme has the possibility of getting very dramatic and messy.
The media feeds on the violence and body-count that statism guarantees. Why would they acknowledge any alternative that could threaten that?
I fully support their right to do this. What I do wish would happen is that people would realize they are being sold a fraudulent "product" and stop buying it instead of asking for more
The "Wiccan murder" in Albuquerque seems a little suspicious to me. All the Wiccans I have ever known were more peaceable in general than those people I have known of the Abrahamic religions. Of course, I suppose calling yourself "Wiccan" is about as definitive as calling yourself "Christian" if you don't act according to the principles involved. Any religion worth practicing will condemn the initiation of force, but the acts of an individual aggressor do not reflect on the rest of the group either way if the person has violated their religion's principles.
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I've seen it up close and don't think it's an inherent support of statism per se. You're right about the consequences and market for headlines.
If you press them back about their own assumptions, it very much looks like they do. But I think that's function of a greater problem, not just the media. They do harbor an instinctual rejection of libertarian ideas, but many will confess their own freedom inclinations and blame bosses or the company for how they have to cover things.
The bottom line is that if it bleeds, it leads is true. That's the market and there is plenty of demand and will be for sometime. Fortunately, outlets such as the Examiner and blogs in general have put them on edge, as witnessed by the multiple reductions in printed dailies.
The MSM is heavily regulated and controlled by the state. It therefore must pander to the state or risk being censored or losing access to the affairs and activities of our rulers.
"They do harbor an instinctual rejection of libertarian ideas,"
Don't know who "they" is supposed to be, but most people in this country reject libertarian ideas because they make no sense. Very few libertarians have been elected in this country, and there's a reason for it.
No, Floyd, libertarian ideas do not make sense from the point of view of the State. Libertarians (not political Libertarians) do not run for office because that is against libertarian principles. No libertarian wants to see the State populated with libertarian office holders, they want the State to go away.
Of course this core idea (no State) makes no sense to anyone who thinks the State is the only way to organize society, and judging by your words I suppose you fall into this camp.
I would encourage you to consider the tenets of a society organized not around coercion, but rather centered upon voluntary association. It's a pretty radical idea considering the world in which we live, but it is a more ethical, moral, and functional model.
The State model in which we live is deteriorating, and it will not be turned back before it crumbles. I believe we should focus on the best way to replace this failed model, not try to reform it.
Well, Floyd, most cutting-edge physics doesn't "make sense" either, but it works in the real world as it actually exists. Seeing how "making sense" often means being wrong, I'll not worry too much about that objection.
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