Isn't it ironic that

[Chesspiece_face]

Kandrathe "If they didn't, you would cease to find their media interesting and go do something else."

Are you saying they only provide sensation and keep away from real issues, because they have a business to run? Doesn't that imply they are actually doing what their customers like most?

It's less a question of people finding things interesting and goes back to the blending of marketing and information based programing. If you want a good tutorial of the american news programing watch the prophetic movie "Network". Keep in mind that when this movie was released it was viewed as science fiction and people balked that it could never happen. Whoops.

Part of the deal that the television corporations agree to to be able to utilize the public airwaves is that they provide a certain percentage of valuable information to the public. Once marketing got their hands on the news programs, however, it became more profitable to produce stories like "What item in your kitchen is silently killing you? come back at 11 to find out." than to provide intelligent information.

Which leads me to a side issue. I recently saw a commercial by Time Warner asking people who paid for CSPAN. the people came back with responses varying from tax payers to advertising, etc. until someone said the cable companies pay for it. The commercial ended with Time Warner coming off all altruistic as if they are giving the public a gift by paying for CSPAN. BULL$#!@, It's your civic responsibility. But this brings up a question for americans. The deals made with broadcasters that they provide valuable information to the public is based on the idea tha they are utilizing the public airwaves. Next year all TV will go digital and it isn't too far fetched that very soon the airwaves won't be used at all. The old deals are becoming, and pretty much have become, outdated. Soon the move from information programming to marketing will be complete and the broadcasters will have no need to provide any real information disconnected from marketing.