You are visitor: In Scotland the time is:
Christian Network

It is safe to say that the American news media is now as culturally and politically influential here as it has ever been. From Dan Rather to the New York Times the tone of public discourse in the United States is now set by the "Fourth Estate". That non-elected media personalities have such profound power to shape public opinion is a deeply disturbing development in our Republic’s history. It might not be as much so if it were not for the fact that the majority of the news media and the entertainment elites are anything but objective. While the Conservative charge of Left-wing bias may have become a bit clichéd by its overuse that does not mean it is any less true. A major reason for this country’s ongoing abandonment of Judeo-Christian values is the constant advancement of Secular Humanist ideals by way of every kind of communication medium available.

The war in Iraq is a prime example. According to a new study between 65 and 70% of recent TV news reports on "Operation Iraqi Freedom" have a negative slant. I have had the personal opportunity to read some unsolicited mail from "in country" American G.I.s. Not one reported that they had low morale, thought the war morally wrong or wanted to come home before their job was finished. World Magazine, a Christian publication designed to provide an alternative to Time, Newsweek and U.S. News and World Report, recently ran a photo-essay with numerous photos of American troops interacting with and aiding Iraqi’s who were obviously glad to have them there. None of the three other magazines mentioned above have or would publish such an essay. Say what you will about the war, the bottom line is that balanced coverage does not exist in the majority of the mainstream news organizations.

Obviously biased reporting of the news is only one facet of the power held by the media to influence our culture. Turn on the television or peruse a newspaper or magazine today and you will find an amazing amount of airtime and print space given over to sexually-related topics. The images are becoming ever more explicit with each passing year and the kind of sexual activity being promulgated ever more illicit. Some believe that even sex between adults and children will eventually be legitimized in this country. It is safe to say that the process will begin when the secular media begins to soft-peddle the idea of child sexual abuse in cases where the activity is supposedly "consensual."

The coverage of the war and the removal of any idea of moral restraint in portraying sexuality are just two examples of the tremendous power held by an elite that is really only limited by how much money it can amass. No one elected Hollywood, CBS or the Washington Post to set the moral tone of this nation. Barbara Streisand is not my president, George Bush is.

If there is one bright spot in this trend towards more and more media influence it is broadcast radio. Today talk radio has almost as much weight in the public square as newspapers and television and a great many on-air personalities are conservatives. They provide a desperately needed "voice in the wilderness" to counteract the effect of the more liberally influenced medias.

That I praise the conservative presence on the radio is indicative of the fact that I see no way to lessen the influence of electronic and print media overall. We have become the most media driven culture in human history and this is a genie that will never be put back in the bottle. The day may come when our political and cultural opinions will be completely determined by news commentary and "reality" TV shows, respectively. If that happens we will be much closer to going the way of every civilization in history that wanted a man-centered utopia based on "bread and circuses". The wrong use of the power of the media is a cancer that may someday be fatal to the American nation.