The Internet

The internet. The great demassifier. When the internet came along it not only helped finish the demassification of newspapers, it also began to demassify TV as well. Why watch Breaking Bad at 10 o'clock Sunday night when you can watch it in your bed, on netlfix or hulu? Why buy a newspaper when you can get all of that information on the internet for free? The internet demassifies simply because we can no longer justify going about things the old way. As a result the internet has changed things irrevocably.

Syria

We have talked about it it class. Its been on current events quizzes. The Civil War in Syria. Should we get involved or not? I would say America is stuck between a rock and a hard place here. On one side you have the brutal dictator, good ole Bashar Al-Assad, who has a fondness for chemical weapons, and  a nasty habit of using them on his own citizens. And on the other side, you have the freedom fighting rebels, trying to liberate their homeland from tyranny. Sounds like an obvious choice right? One problem. Fighting along side the rebels are substantial numbers of Al Qaeda soldiers. Yeah. And they are generally a turn off for many Western Governments considering aiding the rebels. I for one think that, at the very least, air strikes on key Syrian Government positions are necessary to show all of the world despotic little dictators, that we will not tolerate the use of chemical weapons. What will the U.S. do? Only time will tell.

Demassification

What I found to be interesting about Demassification, especially of media, was how it appears to happen in a cycle. Radio demassified newspapers, TV demassified radio, and the internet demassified TV. So I suppose the question is, what will demassify the internet?

Magazines

I think that magazines are a pretty worthy topic to write about for several reasons. 1, they were the first medium to reach a national audience. 2, they basically created photojournalism, since they could feature stunning full page pictures. And finally 3, because they were cheap, almost anyone could buy one, which helped improve literacy.

NBC's Betrayal

On September 11, 2012, the United States Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, was attacked by nearly 150 heavily armed Islamist Militants who were equipped with Rocket Propelled Grenades, AK-47 Assault Rifles, Heavy Machine Guns, and Mortars. A rescue mission was mounted by a small force of CIA Operatives, from a nearby CIA Annex. The small force was soon overwhelmed and retreated. They were unable to recover U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens, who had been trapped in the consulate. The nearby CIA Annex was then attacked as well. It was here that several CIA Contractors made their stand. Amongst these men were former Navy Seals Tyrone Woods and Glenn Doherty. These men valiantly defended the annex from the attackers for a number of hours. By the end of the attack, nearly 100 of the militants lay dead, but so did Tyrone Woods and Glenn Doherty, who had been killed by mortar fire.

The following day, when discussing the attack, President Obama described it as a "spontaneous protest", that had been sparked by a hateful Anti-Muslim video, released several months before the attack. In an interview with 60 Minutes, the President said it was "to early to know exactly" whether or not this was a terrorist attack. The President then repeated this story for the next few weeks, until finally, on September 26th, he identified the attack as an Act of Terror.

Fast forward to October 24th. CBS, FOX, CNN, and ABC News all feature the same shocking story. President Obama had received information on the same day as the attack, that the assault on the consulate was indeed a terrorist attack, perpetrated by the terrorist group Ansar al-Sharia. MSNBC News and her sister organization, NBC, were the only two news corporations not to feature the story. Instead, they chose to focus on the controversy surrounding Indiana Senate Candidate Richard Mourdocks comments on unborn children that are the result of rape.

In doing so, NBC and MSNBC absolutely and unequivocally failed in there journalistic responsibilities. In my mind, the fact that the President of the United States lied to us about a matter of National Security, is quite a deal more important than the nonsensical ramblings of a religious extremist. Not only did NBC and MSNBC betray the public by not reporting this pertinent information, they spit on the memories of the four Americans who died in Benghazi. Glenn Doherty and Tyrone Woods died as American Heroes, and these news organizations reluctance to report this story is the ultimate betrayal to their legacies.