- The unexamined world of mass advertising undergirds corporate power (e.g., Facebook, Google), corrupts media, irritates people no end with its saturation propensity, has anti-competitive maneuvers, makes a mockery of the public’s airwaves and public broadcasting and continues its ages-old deceptions, lying and betraying consumers’ trust, with little FTC et al enforcement. Very inviting for reporters in this Internet age.
- In the sixties, seventies, and eighties, reporters like you would often cold call citizen groups and ask, “what’s up?” They knew that these groups’ expertise often involved having important news stories in the making. These inquiring reporters were looking for a heads-up, for insiders willing to talk (now called whistleblowers, obscure government documents that threw light on an emerging pattern of abuse, etc. Since even their past newsworthy public reports get very little coverage these days, then groups’ pent-up backlog makes such calls even more productive.