Real News For Jax

Editorial Opinion By David Sutton
　
　
　
They say, "the first casualty of war is truth."That simple one-liner couldn’t contain any more ironic overture than it does right now in America and right now here in Jacksonville as well. As political advisers and strategist blow the dust off their electoral arsenals, early battle lines are now clearly being drawn. For the next fourteen months America must endure, like Ft. McHenry, the constant shelling and bombardment of political ads, misinformation and outright artifice. This non-stop political shelling will be more intense and heavier than ever before simply because the presidential stakes are so much higher than ever before. Unfortunately, as in all wars, there comes the inevitability of victims and spoils. To the victims goes the shallow, almost pointless right to vote however, "to the victors goes the right of "spoils." This upcoming election like so many in the past, the true victor will be the media and it’s endless quest of harvesting political advertising dollars. To that end, News4Jax now stands as the local blue ribbon winner for it’s recent suppression of blogging opinions at News4Jax.com. N4J has made a clear choice to ignore the founding principals of journalism and free press to pursue the all mighty dollar. Under the guise of user convenience, N4J recently switched their blogger format from Disqus to Facebook. By doing so, they are now able to strategically repel any blogger or opinions that might potentially conflict their future political and revenue agendas. Today, their web-site is little more than a garden of cultivated censorship and mediocrity. Accordingly,as the 2012 election draws closer, N4J doesn’t want to risk losing one single dollar as a result of their reader opinions. They have come full circle now from a news agency to a common ad agency...