WEBVTT 00:10.740 --> 00:17.740 As we look back at the last 14 years of this mess rule, as we look back at this gaggle of 00:17.740 --> 00:21.640 obdurate, arrogant, stubborn, unrepentant, heartless, self-serving bunch of assholes 00:21.640 --> 00:25.520 who have spent the last 14 years trying to keep their useless megalomaniacal political 00:25.520 --> 00:29.300 party together while sleepwalking the country into a kitchen blender. 00:30.260 --> 00:44.630 Hey everybody, I have a question for you. 00:45.010 --> 00:47.470 What makes something true? 00:47.930 --> 00:58.490 So for this, let's go to the 1894 Webster's International Dictionary, Unabridged. 01:02.390 --> 01:04.410 Just huge and very heavy. 01:05.450 --> 01:05.730 Truth. 01:06.970 --> 01:09.170 The quality or state of being true. 01:10.950 --> 01:11.510 True. 01:11.730 --> 01:12.330 So what's true? 01:12.490 --> 01:15.290 Let's go back a page and figure out what true is. 01:15.290 --> 01:23.130 Conformable to fact in accordance with the actual state of things, correct, not false, erroneous, inaccurate, or the like, 01:23.630 --> 01:29.930 as a true relation or narration, a true history, a declaration is true when it states the facts. 01:30.630 --> 01:37.350 When we first started this channel, I was just making a joke, a snarky play on words. 01:38.350 --> 01:45.130 What would the mainstream media be called if the entire purpose of its existence was hinged upon 01:45.130 --> 01:52.910 telling people the truth about what's happening, or at least aiming for the truth as a goal 01:52.910 --> 01:57.850 without some other agenda getting in the way and twisting the narratives? 01:57.850 --> 02:08.190 The Fourth Estate has claimed that they stand ready, twixed America and peril a bulwark to creeping fascism, our media. 02:10.430 --> 02:14.810 Because mainstream is a pretty interesting word. 02:15.410 --> 02:19.710 As an adjective, it apparently didn't even exist until 1955. 02:21.590 --> 02:28.690 Our subject, new marketing patterns, which have arisen in these United States over a surprisingly short span of years. 02:29.570 --> 02:35.070 The wonder which has made it all possible, of course, is the Cyclops we have come to know as television. 02:36.030 --> 02:36.910 Did you know that? 02:37.470 --> 02:38.190 I didn't know that. 02:38.310 --> 02:39.350 I was actually looking that up. 02:39.370 --> 02:44.410 I looked it up randomly for a totally different video, and now here I am making this one. 02:44.410 --> 02:53.770 Because I just found this very fascinating, the definition of mainstream, which has definitely been evolving over the years. 02:54.430 --> 03:00.470 I appreciate this opportunity to stress the vital place of television in our national life. 03:01.330 --> 03:04.250 So we keep a bunch of dictionaries here. 03:04.450 --> 03:08.990 We try to keep one from every decade of the 20th century. 03:08.990 --> 03:11.610 And I couldn't find the word mainstream. 03:11.870 --> 03:19.110 The first dictionary I had that I could find it in was actually this one here, which I think is from 1967. 03:20.610 --> 03:21.890 Yeah, 1967. 03:23.330 --> 03:24.750 For the word mainstream. 03:25.530 --> 03:26.430 Let's see. 03:27.850 --> 03:28.850 Where'd you go? 03:30.410 --> 03:36.010 And all it meant was a prevailing current or direction of activity or influence. 03:40.070 --> 03:41.530 Sabotage as a business. 03:42.130 --> 03:43.570 So now they're influencing. 03:44.510 --> 03:54.230 Then you have this one, which is from 1991, but it also says 1988, 1989. 03:54.470 --> 03:55.990 So the late 80s, early 90s. 03:58.310 --> 04:07.070 It says, the middle of a stream where the current is strongest, the part of something considered to be the most active, productive, lively, busy, etc. 04:07.070 --> 04:12.830 A major or prevailing trend as of thought, action, literature, music, etc. 04:14.190 --> 04:15.290 A prevailing trend. 04:20.610 --> 04:29.650 Nothing in this definition, either one of these definitions has anything to do with truth, just by the way, or informing people of what's true. 04:37.070 --> 04:41.850 This definition is the greatest power yet created for cultural and educational development. 04:42.470 --> 04:48.610 The first time I saw mainstream media as a phrase get used in the newspaper archive was actually 1973. 04:49.570 --> 05:03.970 Oddly enough, in reference to a court case that ended up going all the way to the Supreme Court, where a theater manager in Georgia was convicted of the crime of, quote, distributing obscene material for showing the 1971 American comedy drama film, 05:03.970 --> 05:06.730 Carnal Knowledge, starring Jack Nicholson and Anne Margaret. 05:11.550 --> 05:22.670 And his conviction went all the way to the Georgia Supreme Court, which upheld it, and then ultimately all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which overturned it on First Amendment grounds. 05:23.290 --> 05:29.930 But now when you consult the Miriam Webster dictionary online, it says mainstream means, quote, 05:29.930 --> 05:37.210 having, reflecting, or being compatible with the prevailing attitudes and values of a society or group. 05:37.470 --> 05:47.070 The advertiser, who was fortunate enough to tie in with this home and family acceptance of television, gains the advantage no other medium can offer. 05:47.290 --> 05:58.970 But the Cambridge dictionary takes it a step further and defines mainstream as, quote, considered normal and having or using ideas, beliefs, etc. that are accepted by most people. 06:05.430 --> 06:22.670 So what do we actually have here? We have an entity that has risen in a post World War II Cold War era that exists to reflect and be compatible with what are claimed to be the prevailing attitudes and values of our society. 06:23.170 --> 06:27.890 But as many of us have since figured out, it never really did work that way, did it? 06:27.890 --> 06:39.250 The mainstream media wasn't reflecting ideas back to society about what was going on in reality. The mainstream media was creating ideas for society to have about that reality. 06:39.650 --> 06:50.810 It was giving people a lot of their ideas, ideas they wouldn't have if they weren't told them under the guise of it being, quote, news coming from the mainstream media. 06:50.810 --> 07:00.810 So it was giving people their ideas, cultivated, implanted, force-fed, whatever, choose your word there, but... 07:02.230 --> 07:04.350 So roll up your sleeve. 07:05.530 --> 07:15.930 Was there ever a time since television was created where it was simply unbiased reporting of what was happening in the world around us without an agenda of any kind? 07:16.050 --> 07:18.010 Was there ever a time where that was the case? 07:18.750 --> 07:25.630 Personally, I think there are some people in the older generations who would really like to believe there was a time like that. 07:26.130 --> 07:38.770 But after spending a decade up to my elbows in archive footage and with the magical superpower that is hindsight, I'm just a tad more cynical than that. 07:39.730 --> 07:49.190 It has become increasingly obvious in the 21st century and more so by the day that we have a mainstream media that not only is incredibly biased one way or the other... 07:49.190 --> 07:55.470 Everybody in the mainstream press is calling all of Bill Clinton's crimes infidelities. 07:56.390 --> 08:02.510 Rape, sexual assault, and sexual harassment are not infidelities. 08:02.510 --> 08:09.930 But will ignore stories together? Like they will all get together and ignore something completely? 08:10.590 --> 08:16.050 I was told I could not release any information on this increase in SIAs or mention any of the arrests. 08:16.830 --> 08:20.250 The administration was trying to convince the public there was no threat at the border. 08:20.910 --> 08:25.410 Public health officials were intellectually dishonest. They lied to the American people. 08:26.210 --> 08:30.970 And not talk about it? Even though everyone else on social media is talking about it? 08:31.470 --> 08:37.310 We're all seeing the same thing in public. And the White House has been trying to say, oh, don't worry in private. 08:37.950 --> 08:42.370 He's this very sharp, robust leader, even if you don't see it in public. 08:42.550 --> 08:50.150 So the Wall Street Journal was deeply reported. But the only ones who would go on record were Republicans, even though a lot of Democrats were saying the same thing. 08:50.610 --> 08:53.210 This is North Korea level style propaganda. 08:55.630 --> 09:03.630 Anybody with a minimal amount of shame would refuse to do. But these partisan outlets have none of that shame. 09:03.810 --> 09:11.470 I mean, they're counting on trying to tell American people, the American people, that what they're seeing, they should not believe. 09:17.600 --> 09:22.080 They will all get together and pair at the exact same talking points. 09:23.100 --> 09:24.540 Bombshell from Robert Mueller. 09:24.620 --> 09:28.940 Bombshell after bombshell, latest bombshell in an arsenal of bombshells. 09:28.940 --> 09:30.210 Robert Mueller's twin bombshells. 09:30.960 --> 09:33.080 Bombshell, bombshell, bombshell. 09:33.380 --> 09:39.180 I mean, somewhere in those cases there's a memo that obviously gets sent out and those people stick to it. 09:39.540 --> 09:42.360 The final days of the campaign can get a little salty. 09:42.600 --> 09:45.280 The final days of the campaign can get a little salty. 09:45.560 --> 09:47.620 The final days of the campaign can get a little salty. 09:47.920 --> 09:51.480 The final days of the campaign can get a little salty. 10:10.340 --> 10:17.140 I mean, it could be that just six major corporations own 90 plus percent of the world's media. 10:17.140 --> 10:22.860 I mean, we're living in a time where the same media is constantly reminding us how important 10:22.860 --> 10:28.060 diversity is, but you pull the curtain back and go into the back room of this media. 10:28.560 --> 10:30.460 It's not really all that important. 10:31.000 --> 10:37.220 But that concentration of media into a very small amount of companies, all of that has 10:37.220 --> 10:42.400 an effect of reducing the appearance of different points of view about what's going on out 10:42.400 --> 10:42.660 there. 10:42.660 --> 10:47.040 It makes it seem like everybody's thinking this one way or these two ways. 10:47.800 --> 10:56.140 Is that really a true reflection of society, or is that what's being imposed on society 10:56.140 --> 10:56.980 by this media? 10:57.760 --> 11:02.180 You've got to be especially wary of journalists when they're all saying the same thing. 11:02.540 --> 11:05.060 Hi, I'm Fox San Antonio's Jessica Headley. 11:05.280 --> 11:06.000 And I'm Ryan Wolfe. 11:06.120 --> 11:09.620 Our greatest responsibility is to serve our Treasure Valley communities. 11:09.780 --> 11:11.300 The El Paso Las Cruces communities. 11:11.300 --> 11:12.860 Eastern Iowa communities. 11:13.220 --> 11:14.180 Mid-Michigan communities. 11:14.400 --> 11:18.900 We are extremely proud of the quality, balanced journalism that CBS4 News produces. 11:19.380 --> 11:23.520 But we are concerned about the trouble we're trying to get responsible for one-sided news 11:23.520 --> 11:25.120 stories playing in our country. 11:25.460 --> 11:30.100 And so it's not really a surprise at all, especially with the rise of social media 11:30.100 --> 11:33.880 where people can actually talk to each other about what's going on out there. 11:34.100 --> 11:40.160 And it's not all concentrated in just the hands of the official media that the 11:40.160 --> 11:45.180 trust overall in the mainstream media has been plummeting year after year. 11:45.920 --> 11:51.100 I mean, there are many polls that show that this trust in the media is tanking, Gallup 11:51.100 --> 11:55.100 does polls on this all the time, and it's near record lows right now. 11:55.460 --> 12:03.140 In fact, just 7% of Americans who have participated in this Gallup poll of 2022 have a, quote, 12:03.340 --> 12:05.680 great deal of trust and confidence in the media. 12:05.680 --> 12:13.600 I did find it interesting that 70% of Democrats trust the media while only 14% of Republicans 12:13.600 --> 12:16.020 and 27% of independents do. 12:16.280 --> 12:21.300 But young Democrats also don't trust the media, so it's actually just older Democrats 12:21.300 --> 12:23.460 that are mostly trusting the media. 12:23.660 --> 12:29.120 This is a historic low that's going on, and it has just been dropping and dropping 12:29.120 --> 12:31.440 and dropping since 1972. 12:31.440 --> 12:36.180 To the point that in May, the Christian Science Monitor put out this article, 12:36.420 --> 12:39.880 trust in the media has taint, are we entering a post-news era? 12:40.340 --> 12:44.740 And I read through this, just wanted to show you something I thought was kind of interesting. 12:45.520 --> 12:47.160 Way down here, where'd it go? 12:47.960 --> 12:52.740 It says, cable news, the original disruptor for TV network news in its day, 12:53.240 --> 12:56.220 now serves a largely baby boomer audience. 12:56.220 --> 13:02.880 The median ages of viewers of Fox News, CNN, and MSNBC are between 67 and 71 years old. 13:03.320 --> 13:05.600 That's a very small window of ages. 13:06.520 --> 13:09.500 So this mainstream media knows that it is becoming irrelevant 13:09.500 --> 13:12.680 and that the majority of people aren't watching it, 13:12.760 --> 13:16.000 and the majority of its audience is a very small window of people 13:16.000 --> 13:18.100 in their late 60s and early 70s. 13:18.680 --> 13:23.320 In fact, according to Pew Research Center, adults under 30 now trust information 13:23.320 --> 13:25.960 from social media almost as much as from news outlets, 13:26.360 --> 13:30.660 and especially young adults are getting their news from places like TikTok, 13:31.680 --> 13:36.500 which kind of makes it interesting that TikTok underwent that whole thing 13:36.500 --> 13:38.480 where they were trying to ban it not that long ago. 13:39.020 --> 13:40.420 Gee, I can't imagine why. 13:40.760 --> 13:45.600 The sharing of biased and false news has become all too common on social media. 13:45.880 --> 13:48.620 More alarmingly, some media has been published, 13:48.620 --> 13:51.080 and some have said policies and practices are true 13:51.080 --> 13:52.600 without checking facts first. 13:53.060 --> 13:56.180 Unfortunately, some members of media use their platforms 13:56.180 --> 13:58.000 to push their own first line.