Blame Ted Turner for the Failure of the Mainstream Media When He Launched CNN on June 1, 1980

In the 1950’s and 60’s my family watched the evening news. It was only a one-half hour broadcast, but men like Walter Cronkite managed to offer viewers nearly everything which happened during the day without offering personal opinions with words, facial expressions, or body language.

When billionaire Ted Turner launched CNN in 1980, some people were excited. I was not. I was 34 years old and had no idea how the news could be offered over a 24-hour period which would be of interest to those of us who looked forward to the daily report from our local station.

After the first week, it was clear that I was right. Real news took an hour or less. This was repeated about a dozen times over the 24-hour period. The rest of the time was devoted to “entertainment,” which was anything but entertaining.

Today’s “news” is even worse. The network personalities either repeat the same stories over and over, and in between allow “experts” to offer their opinions, or they offer nothing but “entertainment.”

What irritated me most, and one of the reasons I have not watched a news broadcast since November 9, 2016, is how they fail to follow up on their stories. Half of the story is delivered on a Monday, but on Tuesday it is old news and we never learn the outcome.

It is no secret that all news networks are owned by billionaires, and the “personalities” who sit in front of the cameras on major networks are paid millions of dollars to read words on a teleprompter. These personalities offer information chosen by the network’s owners. All television news is biased and meant to brainwash the American people. Since 2015 all television news has been slanted in favor of Trump and his fascist party.

I will never forget the 2016 presidential campaign season. All networks offered Trump five times more coverage than all other candidates combined. They refused to tell the truth about the least qualified and worst possible candidate in history, while virtually ignoring the most qualified candidate in history, Hillary Clinton. When they did focus on Ms. Clinton, they never failed to inject the non-story about her use of a private e-mail server.

The mainstream media was one of the four reasons Hillary did not become our 45^th and first woman president. The other reasons were sexism, James Comey, and Vladimir Putin’s interference.

I honestly feel that by refusing to watch television news and reading more has increased my IQ by several points. There is a reason it’s called the “boob tube.”

Op-ed by James Turnage

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