RESTORING INTEGRITY TO THE MEDIA AND EVERYDAY LIFE SHOULD BE A PRIORITY
by Sharon Rondeau
(Jun. 12, 2013) — The Post & Email has noted in the recent past that an increasing number of “news” outlets on the web include obscenities, adult material and street language in their “reporting.”
Supermarket magazine shelves are full of publications which contain nudity, gossip, and pollution for the mind. Children are exposed to these products just by walking through any checkout line with their parents on any given day. Such material would never have been displayed in the 1950s or 1960s.
Cable television is also a very large cultural offender, with all forms of obscenity present just about all the time.
I find it disturbing that many highly-recognized media outlets feel it necessary to stoop to such lows. While these companies purport to be a source of reliable information on government, crime and culture, they themselves have become some of the worst polluters on the web in their presentation of material which can hardly merit the term “news.”
The information we see, read, hear and communicate to others every day affects us, whether or not we are aware of it. “Shock” articles and pushing the envelope just a bit farther week by week and month by month do not build the credibility of those pretending or attempting to be “media.”
We need to ask if a media outlet’s advertisements focus on or distract from its purpose, which is to inform the public about its government. The media should have the highest presentational standards, not the lowest.
I was shocked at what I saw on TheBlaze and Breitbart today. The Huffington Post regularly runs suggestive and borderline pornographic material on its sidebars, and FoxNation is a site I refuse to visit because of its advertising. What kind of image are the owners of these companies trying to convey, and why are their readers accepting of such standards?
We can do better than that, but it will take the active participation of every American. The future of this nation rests on the credibility, accuracy and integrity of its media, which has failed us for at least the last 30 years.
Where does the “low-information voter” come from?
Our current culture of depravity, licentiousness and vulgarity has brought us to the point where broken families, the idolization of athletes and pop figures over people with outstanding moral principles, and a fascination with people’s personal information are the norm. Our acceptance of corruption in thought, word and deed has led us to this place where our federal government is so thoroughly infected as to be on the verge of collapse.
While the media garnered huge profits from culturally offensive advertising over many years, Rome burned.
What we deem acceptable as Americans defines our culture. If we continue to patronize and promote the offenders, we are contributing to the problem.
However, we do not have to settle for the vulgarity which has become the norm all around us. We can purge the offensive advertising on the part of some of America’s largest and best-known companies by refusing to buy their products.
Let’s elevate individuals of principle as proper role models for our children and grandchildren. Let’s say “no” to media which places profits over quality work product.
If we do nothing, our children, our schools, our government, and our way of life will remain infected with the disease of complacency.
But it doesn’t have to stay this way.
Let’s start cleaning house.