Mainstream Media's Blatant Amnesty Bias
Published on May 28th, 2013
Recently, Fox News threw Marco Rubio round after round of softball questions about his Gang of Eight amnesty bill, the Border Protection, Economic Opportunity and Immigration Modernization Act, S.744. Interestingly, Rubio tried to distance himself from the very bill he helped write. In fact, he couldn't defend S. 744 at all.
Perhaps Rubio recognizes his declining poll numbers as reliable reflection of Americans' antipathy toward his amnesty scam. If Rubio aspires to be President, he'll at least have to pretend to support what they want – for a while, that is. The trouble is that Rubio co-authored S.744, so he's stuck with it. The most Rubio can hope for is indulgent mainstream media treatment which, as always, is all too happy to oblige.
A fair and unbiased discussion of Rubio's amnesty for illegal aliens won't be forthcoming from the mainstream media. Rigorous reporting of the pitfalls, consequences, and $6.3 trillion cost to amnesty 20 to 40 million illegal aliens won't be heard from your typical network talking heads.
While it appears that Lou Dobbs represents the lone voice of reason in the amnesty debate, it is disheartening that pervasive media bias must be presumed to be the norm, not the exception. The vast majority of media outlets are left of center.
Americans get it. 60 percent say they have little or no trust in the media to fully report the news. In 1983, Ben Bagdikian, author of The Media Monopoly noted that only 50 corporations controlled the vast majority of all news media in the U.S. At the time, he was called an alarmist. By 2004, the number had decreased astonishingly to five.
Examining media ownership might explain why balance and perspective are so rare. Today, six mega-corporations produce approximately 90 percent of the media that Americans consume. This includes magazines, TV stations, radio stations, newspapers, books, records, movies, videos, wire services, and photo agencies.
If Americans want fair, unbiased, and in-depth coverage of Rubio's earned path to citizenship amnesty scam – which will wrack American society to its very core – they won't find it on corporate-owned mainstream media. Inquiring minds will be turned increasingly to the Internet, the most egalitarian media channel. Which is also something the MSM sorely aspire to control by abolishing the principle of net neutrality.
The oligarchs who run the mainstream media know that an illegal amnesty will be a great way for them and corporate America to increase profits for years to come. Above all, amnesty will add more consumers to the American economy – consumers who eagerly aspire to American consumer-based affluence. Corporate interests see this as particularly important now that Baby Boomers are retiring en masse and adopting less consumptive lifestyles. The corporatocracy needs new fodder for the rat race – for growth at any cost.
No matter that America is already full and no longer offers sufficient resources to sustain a doubling population.