Consolidation of American media entities is but one factor in the recent success of Donald Trump’s campaign. The failing to hold Trump accountable for numerous blatant lies and misunderstandings of policy has led to a predictable, but questionable outcome.

So the perception is once again that the American people are left with a choice of the lesser of two evils. Chasing ratings as opposed to publicizing findings of fact has profound consequences. The media should be serving as the fourth rail of the republic and not doing some master’s bidding. A free and informed electorate needs media that question authority, not that are blindly following.

Now partnering in the process is a bought-and-paid-for Congress, which is undeniably corporate enterprise’s shill. Current oversight of competitive enterprise means allowing monopolies to become commonplace. So industries across the board now employ consolidation, mergers and other corporate machinations to cement market share, maximize profit and minimize oversight and taxes. The latter has been accomplished through the legalized bribery that is our modern campaign finance system.

The media have been complicit in the charade as they now rarely question anything, rather taking information as disseminated as absolute truth and no longer doing meaningful research on relevant subjects in depth. With Congress loving the sound bite, facts and any real action seem to get lost in the hyperbole.

Looking at newspapers from 50 years ago recently, several things were apparent. The process for gathering facts and writing a story about a subject remains the same. Printing presses cranking out newspapers are little different than websites for disseminating information. Yet it seems that far more depth of thought was put into what once appeared in a news story than what we now see today. The plethora of information has failed to produce more critical thought.

Newspeak confuses us on every platform and it is difficult to tell what is fact and what is fiction.

David Black

Bayfield