Censorship and the problem of the media

Someone on my facebook feed posted this:

Four functions of the media

To inform.

To persuade.

To entertain.

To transmit culture.

It seems to me that in a way when we demonize the media, which seems to have become a favorite pastime, we might possibly be guilty of pointing a finger right back at ourselves, considering how often we use social media for many of those very same functions, and not necessarily in a fun or nice way.  We share our own opinions and slant on things in an effort to convince others of their wrongfulness.  It's been a while since Facebook has felt very friendly or sociable.

I answered with:

Those are the things the media should do, and would do if the people running things operated with the same kind of morality and common decency the rest of us go by. But the people running things in business and by extension the government which is used to create laws to favor the rich and powerful, have no interest in doing what would benefit the people as a whole. I cannot fathom a mind that is so selfish and so self-centered it is incapable of having any consideration for others whatsoever. It is that care and concern for others, for their lives and their well-being, that is missing from nearly all legislation today at every level of government or public office. And the laws that used to reign in power to protect the populace against excesses have been repealed or are not being enforced. In regard to the media, the Fairness Doctrine and the Equal Time Rule were both repealed in the 1980s under Reagan. The Fairness Doctrine is the reason why networks had a real news department and were require to tell the truth about things or at the very least provide both or more sides of an issue so that the public would be properly informed. Once that was repealed the media has become a propaganda tool owned by only 5 mega-corporations.

Also, most  Americans have been deliberately dumbed down so as not to understand the nature of their inherent right to exist free from conditions of any kind, especially economic, but with the exception that to live in a society all people must come to some kind agreement on how they will do that. The most fundament rules of behavior is that doing intentional harm to others is wrongful. By extension, the rules governing society should then be just. The problem we face today is how to clean up our government to become the government Jefferson talked about in the Declaration of Independence.

"We hold these truths to be self-evident that all people and living things are created equal and that they are endowed with certain unalienable rights that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. And that governments are instituted to secure these rights deriving its just powers from the consent of the governed."

I just wish I knew how to get from here to there. Actually I do know but it will take a whole lot of people coming together to agree on what needs to be done. Need to find a way to do that.