STORY
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MEDIA TIME ALLOCATED (2)
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COMMENT
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THE PASSING OF RONALD REAGAN (3) AND HIS ELEVATION TO FOUNDING FATHER, SAVIOUR OF THE REPUBLIC, ETC., ETC.
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230,000 hours and counting
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CARPETBOMBING; not a mind left behind...
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THE PASSING OF MOTHER THERESA
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17,207 hours
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SATURATION
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PROFESSIONAL SPORTS
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115,200,000 hours and counting
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INSANITY Yeah, that's millions of hours boys and girls ...the circus must go on.
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THE DEATH AND INSTANT CANONIZATION OF PRINCESS DIANA
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147,750 hours and counting
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CARPETBOMBING
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Argentina's economy recovers by using anti-IMF approach
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7 minutes
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DOWNPLAYED If you sneezed you missed it.
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US secret destabilization campaign against Venezuela's Chavez government (ongoing)
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23 minutes
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SUPPRESSION If you looked out the window you missed it.
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Actual causes and beneficiaries of US foreign policy
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9 hours
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SUPPRESSION A full presentation is scheduled for the day hell freezes over
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Britney Spears 24-hour marriage and divorce
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23,667 hours
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CARPETBOMBING A topic of obvious global importance
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Bill Clinton's peccadilloes under and beyond his desk
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33,580,000 hours
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CARPETBOMBING A topic of critical national importance
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Does job retraining work?
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61 hours
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DOWNPLAYED Doesn't seem to concern too many Americans
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Automation's unrelenting job destruction in all sectors of the world economy
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127 hours
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DOWNPLAYED By this standard, "token coverage" would seem lavish
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Health care system condition and alternatives
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1,198 hours
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DISINFORMATION Stacked deck against public, single-payer system in practically all programs
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What's the paranoid Right up to? We're talking here about the McVeigh types, survivalists, Birchers and KKK
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27 hours
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CRIMINAL NEGLECT No one really knows how this interesting segment of the population voted or feels about the 2004 election, Iraq, etc. You'll have to go and ask them.
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THE KENNEDY/CAMELOT SAGA (ongoing)
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828,000,000 hours and counting
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RADIOACTIVE TOPIC 80% of Americans seem to miss feudal times. Wrap your mind around this kind of excess.
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GAME SHOWS
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248,400,000 hours
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Yes, we gotta fill those "empty" hours folks...
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NOTES: (1) Compilation since 1980. For obvious reasons we did not look at all major topics. Ecoanimal questions will be covered in a separate section. By "broadcasters" we mean broadcast and cable television and radio. Print media, its occasional lapses and exceptions notwithstanding, largely reflect, perhaps in a slightly less scandalous manner, the same degenerate media industry values exhibited by broadcasters. (2) Best approximation. We used the data reported in the industry's press, which put the number of stations at 11,500, although no one is sure of the precise figure. If anything we failed to compute many media outlets, hence these are probably underestimates (3) Does not include frequent adulatory coverage prior to his death. (4) The listing of an issue as "covered" does not signify truthful or serious coverage, merely that the topic was featured. In too many instances, due to gross built-in biases in media personnel, not to mention owners and corporate suits, the programs end up misinforming the public. (5) Most AM radio today is in the hands of rightwing owners and programmers, constituting a solid propaganda bloc and, as media analyst David Brock has aptly noted, a significant part of the "Republican noise machine." Brock ought to know; he has courageously admitted that he used to be a prominent member of this apparatus.
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