Wednesday, August 27, 2008

The tabloid press is now using "Body Language Experts" to cover their lies about Hillary.

Ah, yes. The tabloid press now uses "Body Language 'Experts'." Both CNN and CBS did it. Why?

Simple. Even if there really is an effective "Body Language 'Expert'", how would anyone know who it was? And who is to stop any incompetent from claiming expertise? The so called "Body Language 'Experts'" don't add real data to the discussion. They are paid liars saying what the pundit wants said in a way that keeps the pundit's hands off the lie. It isn't about finding out what Hillary had to say. It's about getting the anti-Hillary narrative out there and claiming it came from an object source and not the pundit.

How long until the political press is hiring astrologers, mind readers and tarot card readers? Wait for it. It won't be long. The political news media has ceased to be a professionalized news media at all - if it ever was. It probably disappeared about the time degrees in journalism were replaced by degrees in communication.

When the Reagan administration removed the requirement that news be presented on the publicly-owned airwaves as a public service, "news" became just another profit center. More eyeballs are needed in order to charge more for advertising.

The result? News ceased to exist in the media. Now all that matters is polling the audience to see what they want as entertainment. Real news has a tendency to disrupt their safe, secure little cocoons. Real news interferes with the revenue stream.

Foreign bureaus became an overly expensive luxury. Then with the competition for eyeballs from the cable networks, entertaining shows have devolved into game shows and "cheap" so-called 'reality' shows.

But the use of "Body Language 'Experts'", mediums to speak to ghosts, astrologers, tarot card readers and so on differentiate the 'news' shows and the other entertainment shows from their competition.

The public media as a source of information and education is dead. It has been for well over a decade. And it's not coming back. Professionalized news media are dead and gone.

The conservatives recognized this and have created their own politicized media empires. They don't deliver news, they deliver votes. It's only the Democrats/Progressives/Liberals who still believe in the fantasy of a professionalized news industry.

[H/T to Steve Benen replacing Kevin Drum at Political Animal.]

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