NPG
Media behavior in recent years has cost media – known as the Fourth Estate – its most important asset: public trust.
ALEXANDRIA, Va. (PRWEB) September 22, 2020
As national media outlets continue to focus on the pandemic, the upcoming 2020 election, and wildfires, Negative Population Growth has published a new Forum paper dissecting the transition of today’s media behavior from expansive information platforms to limited information islands that effectively censor broad critical discussions.
Titled Why Population Really Disappeared from the News and Became Politically Incorrect! and authored by Kathleene Parker, a long-time journalist, the paper demands a closer look at media behavior and the far-reaching effects of deregulation. Defined by Cambridge Dictionary as, “a process in which a government removes controls and rules about how newspapers, television channels, etc. are owned and controlled,” critics, like Parker, believe deregulation gives too much power to individuals who own many forms of mass media.
Parker begins her work with a searing indictment of the press, saying: “Media behavior in recent years has cost media – known as the Fourth Estate – its most important asset: public trust.”
Parker believes that today’s media purposefully mislead and suppress full discussions about population, immigration, and a host of other critical issues. According to Parker, deregulation is why “we have become a nation that governs to that which media put forward and to the will of those who scream the loudest or posture most effectively for the T.V. cameras, rather than being a nation of majority rule.”
Showcasing the resignation letter of New York Times editor Bari Weiss (published in July 2020) to further her point, Parker states: “…until we somehow reform the Fourth Estate, population activists, immigration reduction activists, and those concerned about the environment at deep causal levels are going to be denied our ability – our RIGHT in a democracy – to be heard and our message to be respected.” Parker then strengthens her calls for media reform, noting the creation of near-media monopolies, saying: “Enormous – now global – conglomerates have control of media – and the power that represents – and they are not going to easily let go of their ability to ‘control the message.’”
Addressing what journalism has transitioned to since deregulation, Parker states: “Today, journalists almost universally do ‘advocacy’ reporting that takes one point of view, excluding all that does not conform to that view…today’s reporting merely confirms our prejudices – incites, rather than informs, and constantly divides us into ‘red’ and ‘blue’ thinking.”
To illustrate her point, that deregulated media causes an immediate and tangible disruption in the sharing and distribution of facts, Parker brings into focus the stark declaration presented in a joint statement backed by scientists all over the world in November 2019, which clearly explains that climate change cannot be fought without addressing the population. Parker zeros in on the lackluster media reports, positing: “The scientists, I believe, deftly shot themselves in the foot, media-wise, when they tied everything to population. Had they just declared a climate emergency, they would have had lead-story status on the evening news and page A-1 coverage in every major newspaper, but the ‘inconvenient truth’ of population, for Big Media, resulted in the story receiving only minimal coverage in a few newspapers, the internet, or with population omitted.”
Parker believes: “The media-created atmosphere that those opposed to unfettered immigration are xenophobes and racists is the main reason the environmental community no longer embraces population.” That, combined with deregulation, leaves little room for conversation, debate, and new population policies.
Parker closes her paper with a call to action, saying: “we must…pressure leaders, speak out in letters to editors (where the opportunity still exists) and use every avenue to educate others as to the imperative – for democracy and for our planet – of regaining a professional, objective, independently owned Fourth Estate.”
Founded in 1972, NPG is a national nonprofit membership organization dedicated to educating the American public and political leaders regarding the damaging effects of population growth. We believe that our nation is already vastly overpopulated in terms of the long-range carrying capacity of its resources and environment. NPG advocates the adoption of its Proposed National Population Policy, with the goal of eventually stabilizing U.S. population at a sustainable level – far lower than today’s. We do not simply identify the problems – we propose solutions. For more information, visit our website at NPG.org, follow us on Facebook @NegativePopulationGrowth or follow us on Twitter @npg_org.
