Journalism’s bottom line

Re “Media as lapdog,” Opinion, April 27

Greg Palast has hit the bull’s-eye. The corporate mainstream media is not going to rock the boat. Why do real journalism when you can ensure advertising dollars to please your shareholders through shallow, infotainment pieces?

Real investigative reporting could threaten the bottom line if you penetrate the corrosive corporatocracy of government and business these days.

The media’s AWOL performance in the lead-up to Bush’s illegal and imperial invasion of Iraq, for example, is a clear window into the current mind-set of our Fourth Estate. Freedom will wither in this nation if the mainstream press continues to act as a propaganda arm of the government.

BOB TEIGAN

Simi Valley

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Palast presents one piece of the puzzle regarding the catastrophic failure of the U.S. media in recent years, that piece having to do with profit and funding.

There are many others, but there’s one I’ve never seen mentioned anywhere, and this is the most frightening aspect of all: Sometimes, the American people don’t want to know.

After being taught from childhood that America is above reproach in all ways, we find it impossible to believe that our government can be corrupted, our elections can be stolen, our culture can be corrosive. We label stories that don’t conform to our image of ourselves as false or mean-spirited or even treasonous.

Sadly, when our leaders are corrupt and the media are cowed, there is no one left to tell us that we’re being unreasonable or unfair, or even that we’re being victimized by our own government.

We’re left to figure it out on our own, as tragedies strike: a son lost in Iraq, a home destroyed by Hurricane Katrina, a health insurance policy canceled, a pension denied.

Eventually we’ll understand, but by then the America we love and believe in may be lost.

CATHERINE A.

MCCALLUM

Monrovia