Richard D. Wolff

For the better part of 10yrs Fox News actively protected, and in many cases covered up, sexual harassment allegations toward their #1 anchor Bill Oriely. It wasn't until advertisers started to pull add$$$ from his show that Fox finally let him go. Does this speak to how much influence that advertisers have over American News outlets? Or is this simply a product of Fox News company culture? Or is this a symptom of a larger problem that extends to other News media outlets? CNN, MSNBC are likely coulperets. For instance I'm dumfounded Everytime I see a Haliburton or lockheed martin advertising on these news channels - these companies don't sell consumer products, why are they advertising on consumer news channels???... Are they buying advertising time on these channels as a PR move? Or are they buying influence over the channel? Both? Further, if advertisers carry weight over the major news media outlets, what about smaller outlets such as NPR that accept a lot of small dollar donations from listeners but also actively take millions from advertisers? I struggle as a GenX'r to find reliable news sources partly because I feel I've been conditioned my hole life not to trust advertising... And If there is no truth in advertising, then does truth exist in advertiser funded news? How does a learned man such as Rich-the-Wolff go about separating facts from opinions in the modern age of information?