Wow! What an outpouring of suggestions I received when I asked for your thoughts about a more accurate name for what we euphemistically call the "mainstream media."
As a longtime denizen of the "mainstream media," before founding the first independent, alternative Internet news-gathering company, it has personally bugged me the way cultural radicals and extremists in the press have successfully labeled themselves "mainstream."
I paid my dues in the corporate establishment press, having done pretty much everything one can do in the business, from investigative reporting to serving as a foreign correspondent to running daily newspapers in major markets before starting WND – the pioneering alternative New Media institution.
I think I can safely say my "mainstream" journalism credentials are second to none.
But what I learned in my 20 years in that traditional media world was that its values and worldview were anything but mainstream.
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That's why I started WorldNetDaily – now WND – 17 years ago as the first news-gathering organization in the New Media world.
And I've resented that "mainstream" label ever since.
I resented it when I had to sue the Senate Press Gallery for our credentials to cover the U.S. Capitol.
I resented it when what we did was later condescendingly referred to as "blogging."
I resented it when radically partisan hacks at the Huffington Post, MSNBC and elsewhere posed as journalists rather than the political activists they truly are.
So I solicited your help in appropriately renaming what we have inaccurately dubbed the "mainstream media."
Here's what you came up with:
- "After giving this some more thought, the media should be called the 'Ministry of Prop-agenda.'" (Creative, but not going to stick.)
- "'Lapdog media' hits the spot like nothing else. You have defined it in a single two-word phrase." (This comes from the chairman and chief executive officer of a TV station.)
- "I would call them 'frogs' as per Revelation 16:13: 'Then I saw three evil spirits that looked like frogs; they came out of the mouth of the dragon, out of the mouth of the beast and out of the mouth of the false prophet.' The analogy is good because no other animal fits better. The frog is a noisy, exasperating, false lungs for making noise (not for breathing), self-inflating when in fear, toothless amphibious animal." (Creative, but no cigar.)
- "My elderly father would sarcastically refer to the toothless mainstream media as 'The Fire & Road Report.' More recently, 'The Apocalyptic Media' seems more appropriate. That's because I'm inclined to think the first rider of The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, while outwardly appearing rather noble, is unleashing misleading information and false ideology, on a global scale. He's the most insidious, because the other three increasingly grim riders are really a consequence of the first." (Deep, but over the top.)
- "The American media should be called a number of things – some even printable! 'Lamestream media' is one I've heard."
- "As for the renaming of the mainstream media, I have used 'left-stream media.' I think mainstream media is misleading and not at all what they are anymore."
- "They are talking heads – nothing more and nothing less. Look at Wolf Blitzer's eyes. Nothing there. Nobody home. Heaven help us. Puppets. Media clones. Who knows?"
- "'The Ministry of Propaganda.' Truly the lamestream is a ministry of propaganda for the CPUSA that now controls the Democratic Party, and has since the 'palace coup' in 1968. The term 'ministry of propaganda' carries with it everything everybody needs to know about what they read in the print media, and what they hear and see in the video media."
- "My favorite name for the so-called 'mainstream media' is the Maggot Media. Maggot infestations occur when flies lays eggs near smelly rotting food, but in the case of our 'bought' media, they themselves are part of the smelling rot." (Ouch!)
- "Statist media."
- "I've been calling them the 'occupied media.' They've been taken over long ago."
- "I like the contrast between 'watchdog media' and 'lapdog media.'"
And that's pretty much where I settled in my previous column. I think "lapdog media" really says it all.
I admit, I am also partial to "statist media," but some people just don't understand the concept of "statism," one of the ideological diseases rampant in Washington today. I also like "corporate media establishment," but it doesn't address part of the cartel that is shamefully state-sponsored – NPR and PBS. I've used "establishment press" for many years, because that's what they do – promote establishment thinking, politically correct ideas, newspeak, if you will.
I think we're getting there. Keep 'em coming. Identifying the enemy is always the first step toward victory.
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