Stephen Colbert called us out and we totally missed it. A couple of years ago when broadcast news went from analog to digital, our journalism professors were outraged and we didn’t understand why. We thought they were just dinosaurs from a different era who resisted change. Turns out they could foresee the future and we’re living it today.

You see, as tax payers we owned the land that the Big 5 TV networks used to house their equipment. The Big 5 networks are CBS, NBC, ABC, CW, and Fox. All of these networks are owned by big business. Disney owns ABC; General Electric owns NBC; etc. The American people’s tax dollars were the last bit of accountability we had to hold them to. When the Fairness Doctrine was overturned broadcasters no longer had to report both sides of a story. This was a victory for freedom of the press and a defeat for journalistic ethics.

Then when television transitioned from analog to digital, the networks didn’t need the land anymore. Digital is all about airwaves and we don’t own the air. Now, objectivity in reporting got thrown out with the baby and the bath water, and television news is essentially a talk show more than it is journalism. What networks have now, especially cable, is an obligation to ratings, which is why we have the MSNBC liberals and the Fox conservatives. You can pick your news, truth be damned. I’m in no mood to lecture, so I’ll let Stephen Colbert do it in a humorous way. Here’s “truthinews”: Watch the video here.