richlind33: I would posit that it is precisely because the institutions you cite do *not* do what you claim they do, that newer institutions like Fox have been able to take root and proliferate, because if that wasn't the case, the masses would not be so profoundly ignorant that they are easily taken in by swine like Rupert Murdoch.
_ChaosFox_: The problem is that people watch too many movies and seek large-scale conspiracies where there literally are none. Without the institutions I quoted, we wouldn't have had the Watergate Affair, we wouldn't have had the revelations regarding the Catholic Church's cover-up of child abuse in the priesthood, we wouldn't have had the investigations against FIFA.
But investigative reporting is seldom international or presidential in scope. In fact, most lay people would probably deem most reporting uninteresting. Most cases of corruption and negligence are smaller in scope. The BBC, for instance, has been instrumental in uncovering cases of abuse at nursing homes in the UK. The New York Times has been responsible for countless investigations into FDA corruption. They don't lend themselves to sensational revelations.
Also, there's a lot of investigative reporting going on that you're not aware of. Investigative reporting is not an easy thing to do - even if there is news, it's often hard to get people to go on record and provide evidence. Most of it ends up dead-ending because going public without evidence can be tantamount to libel. It's also dangerous - even local journalists here in my city in Germany have been threatened by left-wing and right-wing extremists for investigating far-left and far-right violence and crime.
And let's not forget that law enforcement is a lot more effective than it was 50 years ago. At least in the West, most corruption is unearthed at law enforcement level before reporters even have a chance to get wind of it, and all they're left to do is report on the investigation instead of performing it (like the recent egg scandal here in Europe).
People flock to charlatans like Rupert Murdoch and Alex Jones and allow them to proliferate because people want outrage, moral panic and sensationalism - it makes them feel important and self-righteous. The world, sadly, is a lot more boring than that.
Since you're making such a broad, sweeping generalization, I feel I only need to cite one example to discredit it, so without further ado...
The invasion of Washington by twenty four Israeli neoconservatives, aided and abetted by Dick Cheney. It should be noted that one of the twenty four Israelis, Richard Pearle, had previously served as an advisor to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, during which time he drew up an invasion plan for Iraq that was eerily similar to the one that would soon be implemented by George W. Bush.
No, that's not a large-scale conspiracy, it's a conspiracy of truly
EPIC proportions, and brazenly blatant to boot. But I suppose you forgot about it. Or something. o.O
Here's a write-up by Haaretz, which I trust you'll find acceptable.