Media Disclaimer Mandate

The media focuses on stories that will attract the most attention. The media also presents stories in ways that will maximize attention even if such presentations mislead viewers. This includes reinforcing and advancing viewer biases, selecting academics who will use their credentials to add weight to an opinion, as well as the omission of details and context to cater to viewer biases. The media understands people consume information that reinforces their biases and avoid information that challenges those biases. The former feels good and the latter feels bad, so reinforcement attracts and challenge repels.

The objective of the media is not to present the truth to inform the public. The objective of the media is to attract attention to sell advertising. As obvious as this is, the public usually isn’t consciously considering this as they ingest their preferred manufacturers of reality.

Non-profit media outlets are no better. The non-profit media outlets exist to reinforce the biases of their donors. Instead of attracting attention for the purpose of advertising, the non-profit media typically has a very narrow viewer perspective and makes every effort to cater to those biases to attract donations.

We propose a disclaimer to be present during news broadcasts, and on news articles informing the public of the motivation of these media outlets. Corporations are required by law to serve the interests of their shareholders which is earning a return on their investment. As mentioned, this is accomplished by selling advertising, selling subscriptions, and attracting donations (non-profit media). Should a news outlet fail to attract attention which serves the aforementioned purposes it ceases to exist. Disclaimer: This broadcast has not been independently verified for full context and accuracy, and will reflect the bias of the broadcaster in their efforts to attract attention to maximize profit.