I forget which hellhole country it was, but it was an incident that happened within the last ten years or so. The media essentially covered up for the leader of that country, allowing abuses and Human Right issues to go unnoticed even as it was clearly occurring, but not National print would run the stories.
There was a strong opposition party at one time. Over time the leader of that country secured more power and seats, until he had essentially full control, a dictatorship by power. This leader proceeded to shut down media and even Nationalising some outlets. The media were outraged and tried to run front page stories to demand people gave a damn, but noone listened anymore, the media had lost it's trust with the people.
Anyways, I recall one particular member of the opposition party was quoted as saying to the effect, and this is an extreme extrapolation of his general quote: "these same media outlets refused to support us because businesses were doing well, owners were getting royal treatment, even as we were telling these outlets to cover the abuses. Now the person they turned a blind eye to has treated them with the same disregard as they treated others. Where was the outage before? The media is to blame for their own demise".
Quite extreme, but media outlets everywhere have to understand that no amount of money, sunshine and rainbows is going to replace reality. Try and shove some bs down peoples throat when they know you are lying to them, well, when these same media outlets look for outrage and assistance there will be noone left to stand up for them. You must remain principled and honest not ideologically rigid because someone pays for your loyalty.
Oh, and the AK-47 is way over the top. He should be ashamed of himself as far as I am concerned. I can imagine a few jokes that rub the media the wrong way especially if they are always on you, but no suggestion of violence to that degree.
