Whether or not you give it much serious thought, media impact our opinions every day.
The word “media” has several definitions in the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, among them: “media, plural of medium; a means of mass communication, such as newspapers, magazines, radio, television, or the Internet; the group of journalists and others who constitute the communications industry and profession.”
Now, if you think most of what you see on TV, read in the print media or hear on radio is there without conscious design or that those annoying commercials are simply there to inform you, then the free press – our unbiased media – has been extraordinarily successful in the brainwashing of America. Strong words?
You have, of course, observed that any criticism of the liberal (as opposed to conservative) media elite generates a great hue and cry of attempting to muzzle the media. Expensive attorneys assault, in court, the critics in a vigorous defense of the “freedom of the press.” It is clear, they will argue, that the intent of the First Amendment is to provide for a free press, contributing to the freedom of the citizenry.