Media integrity consists of delivering the news in a manner that is objective and easy to digest. Unfortunately, many mainstream journalists have repeatedly compensated their media integrity. This is because major news networks are funded by sponsors peddling a particular agenda or political bent. In light of these agendas, the following highlights instances where media integrity is compensated by corporate sponsorship and political influence.
Sponsors effect the way news is delivered in all sects of the media. A prominent example is radio host Rush Limbaugh. General Motors was a contributing sponsor to Rush Limbaugh’s program. Various news outlets found that General Motors gave Limbaugh free access to various cars and trucks. It should therefore come as no surprise that Limbaugh regularly pushed General Motors on his program. As Limbaugh stated, “Believe in General Motors, folks. They’re a classic American company doing it all.”
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It is not only major corporations that effect the information presented by the mainstream media. The federal government effects the news as well. One example is in 2005, when it was discovered that journalist Armstrong Williams was paid by the Bush administration to plug the No Child Left Behind Act. Given the amount of coverage the No Child Left Behind Act received that year, it is clear that Williams’s allegiance was to the government rather than to the public.
The military too has its influence on the mainstream press. During the turmoil of the Iraq War, the pentagon issued 75 retired military generals to endorse the Iraq War on national television. To make matters worse, the mainstream media did not make it public knowledge about military analysis’s ties to the Pentagon. The media remained silent as to why this was the case.
Instances of when media integrity is compensated can be found in news networks both big and small. With these facts in mind, it is important to recognize that the news delivered is not as straight foreword as it sometimes appears. In recognizing this fact, although we may never know the truth in its entirety, we can learn to detect half-baked lies whenever they are present.
