4/16/08 forgot to renumber the endnotes

The North American media have the ability to control which information is disseminated to the people. Any bias that’s present in the media is instilled in viewers to affect their own preconceptions. Whenever the media collectively display a story in a certain light, the skewed version of the truth they broadcast changes they way viewers (arguably the people who will also end up making the news at some point in time) act and think. In the Duke lacrosse rape debacle, the way the media typically handles issues of race, class and gender altered the way society saw the case.
The facts of the case were already well suited to the sensational media. What the accuser described was a team of white, male, upper-class college athletes raping and abusing a black, female, lower-class exotic dancer. The media was quick to hint that the underpriveleged minority as a victim^x, when in fact the lacrosse team was innocent. The story presented the lucrative opportunity to cover violent sexism, racism and/or elitism and subsequently enrage viewers.
Unestablished news programs such as Nancy Grace were especially ruthless in creating controversy. By requiring that the titular character^x to rudely cut off anybody presenting evidence of the accused's innocence, the Nancy Grace show angered audiences and hopefully got them to side with the host^x. More successful and respected programs such as 60 Minutes, however, could afford to avoid a possible rise in ratings by presenting facts^x.
It would be ideal if the media were able to present nothing but the truth to an audience. One would like to think that it'd be widely appreciated if the media could refrain from reaching any conclusions before the authorities^x, but the fact that the media require money to survive and provide any information at all requires that they create news that is entertaining enough to get people to keep watching and supporting them. A completely objective media, free of all societal influences and preconceptions, would be boring to the majority of viewers and wind up being as popular as Justin's blog.

^x Similarly to Missing White Woman Syndrome, only instead of exploiting the perception that white women are easy to kidnap, rape and kill, exploiting the perception that the majority abuses minority groups.
^x You know because she's fake.
^x Or alternatively getting them angry at the fact that such an exploitative show called itself journalistic and prompting them to watch more out of morbid curiosity*.
*Because it is commonly accepted that there is no such thing as Bad Publicity.
^x Consider, however, that 60 Minutes could have been just presenting information contrary to that covered on Nancy Grace to appear more credible and appeal to a less easily agitated audience. There was less yelling, though.
^x Another problem with this is that if the media were to refrain from this, their position as a watchdog would be nonexistant. It's whether or not the educated viewer* would prefer an inquisitive media that sometimes make mistakes or a media that transmit only what the higher-ups want them to**.
*One that doesn't believe in moderation, or something.
**Which they arguably already do.