It's important to be right, if you're telling me something I don't know...

I am discovering, today, that the traditional media I have been relying on to deliver unbiased, correct record of the national and international news, are often unreliable. Everyone makes mistakes, corrections are printed, but I am increasingly getting the feeling that the bias of the reporter, impacts his/her commitment to accuracy.

The "unbiased" part I discovered long ago. I strongly disagree with the notion that media should be allowed to lean toward a particular philosophy or political party in its reporting. I'd rather they just report. But the "incorrect" part is disillusioning to say the least. The last time I felt like this, was during the Enron collapse and deceit. Up to that point I was fairly active in the market, and although I was not naive to think that corporations would self govern at an ethical level, I thought that our inability to look inside every corporation to confirm ethical business practices would be mitigated by spreading my savings among multiple corporations...playing the odds structured for me in my 401K plan.....

But then, Enron happened. I believe wholeheartedly in capitalism, but I don't trust corporate America. So I invest and save on my terms, which will render potentially less financial gain in the the long run, but it may also keep me solvent. At the very least, it is less stressful than participating blindly on the recommendations of the money managers who supposedly pontificate in the media with complete neutrality and objectivity. These guys recommend stocks according to what will serve their personal investment portfolio.. for a long time I hoped that this veiled bias was just not happening, but on several occasions, I was brutally enlightened.

Beyond financial news, not being able to trust the mainstream news media, i.e. NYT and Washington Post...two of the most respected newspapers in the country, is really disheartening to me. Each has been inaccurate on several occasions during the financial meltdown of 2008. How do people and organizations get away with continually botching up their entire business model ? How do they survive at this level of mediocrity? As a mid level manager in corporate America, I am "never" allowed to botch up my business model...I Can't miss my projections. If I want to keep my job, I can't merely perform at an average level. I can't make mistakes, often. I certainly can't steal, lie or misrepresent the facts.

News organizations and journalists, have a worthwhile purpose in merely reporting the news, accurately, as it happens. There is no public mandate to report with a bias or opinion, although there is an obvious consumer appetite to hear the news and a view of the news, from our journalists. I wonder why we need to have our opinions guided by the journalist. Shouldn't we be able to form our opinions ourselves, once we are given the facts, unadorned ?

What I am referring to, specifically, is the recent, chronic and almost universal misrepresentation of the UAW - and its inflated wages and inflexible policies that are being blamed for the the failure of the auto industry. Are you kidding me? Aside from this being completely inaccurate and accusatory....why does the media feel a need to blame the work force? Are corporations, even those that are failing, so powerful in this country that they control the media by feeding it information that is self serving and misleading to protect their stock price? Is the media so complicit, and irresponsible, that they will report news in a way that is compliant with its advertisers? What is that? It is almost as vile as disregarding and violating the brilliance of separation between church and state. The media is anti union. It has been for a long time. Aside from this being strange and random, should the news organizations be anti or pro anything? I know journalists are human, with valuable view points, but there are plenty of public forums in which view points are expressed and debated. Should there not be a sacred place in media where we simply report? The highest standard being accuracy, neutrality and comprehensive perspective. I can draw my own conclusions, thank you. If I want help, I will turn to the opinion page.

Also disturbing, don't you think, is that the media is anti union...that is to say anti worker. Let's bring one simple fact to the forefront regarding unions. They were created out of a need to protect workers' rights. If corporations had demonstrated an ability and/or willingness to do this on their own, we wouldn't need unions...So explain the logic that supports the demonizing of unions, while blindly supporting corporate management. If nothing more, unions should be praised for creating a system of check and balance in corporate America. This is of utmost importance to all of us in American government, why should it be non-existent in American capitalism?

Through this discovery....it is important to realize that you are responsible for yourself... at every level. You can be as broadly or narrowly informed as you choose to be. But if you are not going to reach beyond your morning paper, or evening news don't be the first to claim victim of circumstance. We have to protect ourselves, and the best way to do that is to be widely and deeply informed about the things that are important to us.

Feed your brain. Life is much more interesting, when your brain is hungry, even when your body is tired, and your spirit broken.