You may or may not know I’m an adjunct.
Yes, one of those poor overworked souls who was promised freedom, respect, societal glory, and a firm financial future.
–  The reality is, of course, far from the promised land.   I really feel for my students who are under the impression life will be so – peachy – after an associates or bachelors is earned.  They’re tempted by a glorious lie – just as I was.  But now, I’m apart of it.

Anyways…  each term it absolutely amazes me that my 20-40 something students think that news is unbiased, statistics are legitimate, and no one in the media would ever, ever, ever, knowingly miscommunicate with the American population.

The press is free and, apparently like doctors (HA!), have the best interest of the populous at heart.
—  Yeah, right.

This last election – alone – showed America just how twisted and biased the news can be.  Some stations fully supported Hillary – CNN – while Fox became their competitor.  The draw for an audience rivaled the mud-slinging election.

Each year, the cost of a Super Bowl 30 second add is blared for months.  Despite the cost of the second-per-dollar and the effort to develop and film something overly catchy, cute, or emotional, a Super Bowl commercial is considered the * best * advertising spot of the year.

When the Super Bowl is out of season, the news networks still need advertising dollars to survive.  To keep the advertisers interested, the ratings must be high.   To gain high ratings, they must have people.   To gain people, they tell them what they want to hear – or not hear.   The news gives people what they – want,  – not what they need.

The anchors, their dress, stupid jokes, lighting, and even vocal tone inflection are all bent to stupefy an audience – to be a pacifier just to have a Cheerios commercial implanted in the frontal lobe.

Online, the advertisements are more direct – and dangerous.  Before any news clip, there’s usually a 15 to 30 second non-skippable advertisement that most of us agonize through to get what we want to know from the supposedly trusted source.  These sneaky ads can tell from our cookies what websites we visit, our location, maybe our age, and demographic.  The ads become more tailored for the individual instead of a hit/miss on the television.

Freedom of the press ** might ** exist, but the freedom of non-biased expression is definitely gone, no matter how much the networks insist otherwise.
—  If the news came first, commercials would not be involved.  Money would not be a factor.   No network is willing to do that.