The way I see it
In 1988, I was still living in Livingston, and the only television stations I could pick-up with an antenna and no cable in the country were Channels 2, 11, and 13 from Houston. Those were the “big three” back then before Fox News was created and CNN was available only on cable.
Because of local programing, the nightly news on each network aired one after another. CBS came on at 5 p.m., ABC at 5:30 p.m. and NBC at 6 p.m. I’ve always been a newshound, like father like son. From grade school until we moved to Houston, my Dad and I watched the nightly news together. But, the first night I got to see each program back-to-back, I was a bit disappointed. By the end of the week, I began to wonder if there was a conspiracy going on. The three news programs, except for minor differences in their humaninterest stories, all led with the same story, they all said the same thing and they all had the same point of view. I was a bit confused.
Years later, I learned that the “big three” got their ideas about what was important news from the lead story in the liberal-leaning New York Times, so I became a bit cynical about the news after that. After moving to the Washington, D.C. area working for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), I had clearance to read Department of Defense (DoD) and CIA cables, which report raw news of what is happening across the globe. I would read the cables of what was being seen on the ground in Iraq and later in Afghanistan, and then watch the broadcast and cable news programs for comparison and only one channel seemed to come close to the truth. During the Gulf War, we walked into the CIA cafeteria early one morning to get coffee and much to our surprise, all the TVs were no longer playing CNN, but Fox News.
We later found out that CNN, previously the only news channel allowed to stay in Iraq by Saddam Hussein preceding the hostilities there, had been lying about many things. We knew that each news organization had an Iraqi government minder, a person assigned to guide or escort the reporters. Their news coming out of Iraq was filtered, but CNN had also been actively engaging in anti-American propaganda.
Later, CNN representatives told CIA and FBI investigators that they were forced to do it to stay in country. However, imbedded intelligence officers in the CNN crew knew better.
The last straw before I completely gave up on the “big three” and CNN’s credibility came during the gulf war when all the news anchors and reporters stopped wearing the American flag. When ask about it, an ABC reporter said he was a newsman and could not take sides. So, being a newsman meant you had to divest yourself of your patriotism? How absurd!
Back to my younger days, my Dad always liked Walter Cronkite. He followed his commentaries on radio and stories in the newspapers all through World War II only to find out after he stepped down as the anchor of CBS News that he was a hardcore liberal. The biggest lie he ever told - no news outlet ever corrected at the time - was the news that the Tet offensive by the Viet Cong was a total and complete defeat of the Viet Cong.
The Viet Cong in South Vietnam literally ceased to exist. The war in the south had to be taken over by units of the North Vietnamese Army (NVA). Later it was learned the North Vietnamese were considering quitting the war after this defeat.
However, when Walter Cronkite stood in the street in Saigon and told the camera and the American people the war was lost, he knew it was not the truth.
However, my father and I, and most everyone else in the U.S., including President Lyndon Johnson, believed it, too. The leaders of North Vietnam took heart and stayed in the war.
The “so called” mainstream media has not changed today.
As far as all the other cable news outlets, with Fox being the exception, I watch sometimes, but I would not believe a word they said, even if they told us they were lying.