I think that gatekeeping is inevitable in today's media outlets. Ultimately it is the reporters decision and then that of the editor to determine content and how much or how long we see that content. Breaking it down even further, the news director will often dole out stories to the members of his newsroom. It is then up to the reporter to find an angle on the story and then to report it. Therefore what we see on TV is actually just a percentage of what the original story is.
Because of the time constraints of today's TV news shows and the page limit of today's newspapers, there has to be "gatekeeping"... at least in a sense. Now when gatekeeping turns into a bias, that's when we begin to have a problem. Stations such as Fox News tend to have a political gatekeeping slant as to what they choose to cover. Therefore, they are not giving their viewer ship an unbiased, ethical view on today's news stories. Other stations and news outlets are equally as guilty, however these organizations need money to operate and that money comes from rich, important types. These rich, important types tend to have certain beliefs and ideologies that they would like to see "attached" to their generous contributions. And lord knows we aren't supposed to bite the hand that feeds us. Read the wire copy... better yet cover the story yourself. Be your own reporter.
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