Media bias dates back to the early days of the newspaper and continues to this present day. Media affects our daily lives in numerous ways – from television, radio to print. Sometimes these media avenues persuade our opinions on certain issues – such as same-sex marriages, abortion, homosexuality, politics and our views on opioids!

Many people in America today are not even aware the media is manipulating their way of thinking, while some media bias may be a simple matter of attracting readership by sensational headlines,

funding sources are likely a contributing factor.

Today I read a story, “Stop the anti-doctor media bias, by Rebekah Bernard, MD Physician May 2, 2019, published by Kevinmd.com. Rebekah Bernard, MD wrote, Doctors feel like they just can’t win. But worse, when physicians face excessive media criticism, patients also lose.

The media bias against physicians has inspired a public distrust of doctors. Most physicians are dedicated individuals who hold patient care as sacrosanct. But patients rarely hear stories of these doctors in the media. Instead, they are barraged by terrifying stories of the occasional bad actor.

This may cause patients to become fearful of all doctors and lead to a delay in seeking necessary medical care.”

The media has a responsibility to present fair and unbiased information to the public, and that includes accurate reporting about physicians and intractable pain patients. Patients and physicians must hold media organizations accountable by speaking out against this ongoing assault and misinformation being forced on to the public by these inaccurate biased news reports!

Mainstream media inundate the general public, our legislators 24/7 with headlines of, “Prescription opioids are killing thousands, millions expected to die”, Take one opioid pill and you will become an addict… what??? Okay, I am exaggerating a tad bit. But, it is crazy how the media has contributed too, fueled and the more sensationalized the story the more attention said publication gets!

No one knows how media can spin this, “Fake, false propaganda, the false narrative machine of judgment, misunderstanding, bias better than “We the intractable pain patient/community”! And usually, in editorial, there is a picture with prescription opioids and syringes? Go figure, I have never shot up my medication would not even know how to?

Media has been plagued with all sorts of problems scandals about manipulation including, sliding profits, plagiarism, propaganda just to name a few! They are trying to sell this false narrative, “Fake Opioid Crisis/Epidemic”, but why?

More on that later.

News is often written and used to manipulate, advertise, create fear among the populations or to follow a certain media ideology or agenda.

A functioning democracy needs to know and be able to count on media giving factual information out vs. lies, manipulation, and biased information!

We must stand up and make these agencies, journalists, and reporters do their due diligence in making sure they research and exhaust all avenues making sure of its authenticity!

Those with power and influence know that media control and influence is crucial for their agenda to be recognized and supported!

Did you know that today’s mass marketing is owned by only five major corporations giants which control 90% of media?

As of 2018, the largest media conglomerates in terms of revenue rank Comcast, The Walt Disney Company, AT&T, CBS Corporation and Viacom per Forbes. Additionally, they are not defined as, “news organizations” where there would be certain laws they had to abide by for the public’s best interest.

The purpose of these corporations is to maximize profits, which often includes exploiting negative externalities so they can pass costs off to society!

These clever profit-maximizing corporations use the terminology of the 1970s, “free press”/“journalists”, to give them the air of credibility to their operations. These corporations monopolizing the market, it reduces the diversity of media voices and puts tremendous power in the hands of just a few companies. These news outlets have holdings in many industries, conflicts of interest inevitably interfere with newsgathering.

Outside Nations described as authoritarian, whose media ownership is very close to this model completely control all information put out to their citizens directly or indirectly.

This amount of control can be problematic for a variety of reasons…

The democratic role of the media in news is further getting clouded with these gigantic mergers mainstream media is increasingly blurring the lines with the economic and political power further limits the spectrum of viewpoints that have access to mass media.

Independent, aggressive and critical media is essential to an informed democracy. But mainstream media who increasingly partner with the economic and political powers they should be reporting on.

Because of mergers in these new industries this further limits the spectrum of viewpoints that have access to mass media. With U.S. media outlets overwhelmingly owned by for-profit conglomerates and supported by corporate advertisers, independent journalism is in trouble of extinction.

These Corporate elites determine what ordinary people do not see or hear in-depth let alone problems real people face every day. Sponsors have a disproportionate amount of influence over what people get to see or read too.

These corporate executives main goal is increasing profit and raising their share price. Could this have anything his could what is contributing to lack and/or misinformation being regurgitated pertaining to this false narrative, propaganda Fake prescription opioid epidemic/crisis???

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