"The people will believe what the media tells them they believe." …George Orwell, Author or 1984 and Animal Farm
In a country that prides itself on its freedoms: freedom of speech and expression, freedom to think, freedom to research and freedom to challenge anyone, it is amazing how much we are led and influenced by a small and narrow group of reporters, celebrities who often aren’t savvy on the issues they champion, news anchors, and the networks and newspapers that stand behind them, instead of using our common sense, researching what we hear, questioning what we are being told and bombarded with and then speaking out… It is both amazing and scary that in the freest country in the world, people are more worried about being politically correct than speaking or knowing the truth… or focusing on what is important!!
Today as our Country anticipated another major hurricane hitting New Orleans; when the Republicans, ready to nominate their first female vice presidential candidate, put their convention on hold because of the hurricane and pending disaster; and when Americans everywhere celebrated Labor Day… the biggest story, blown waaay out of proportion, was about Sarah Palin’s 17-year-old daughter’s pregnancy… this being announced after the media had speculated and fabricated stories all week that Palin’s own 4-month old baby was really her daughter's.
"Americans are too broadly under-informed to digest nuggets of information that seem to contradict what they know of the world... Instead, news channels prefer to feed Americans a constant stream of simplified information, all of which fits what they already know. That way they don't have to devote more air time or newsprint space to explanations or further investigations." - Tom Fenton, former CBS foreign correspondent
In a country that prides itself on its freedoms: freedom of speech and expression, freedom to think, freedom to research and freedom to challenge anyone, it is amazing how much we are led and influenced by a small and narrow group of reporters, celebrities who often aren’t savvy on the issues they champion, news anchors, and the networks and newspapers that stand behind them, instead of using our common sense, researching what we hear, questioning what we are being told and bombarded with and then speaking out… It is both amazing and scary that in the freest country in the world, people are more worried about being politically correct than speaking or knowing the truth… or focusing on what is important!!
Today as our Country anticipated another major hurricane hitting New Orleans; when the Republicans, ready to nominate their first female vice presidential candidate, put their convention on hold because of the hurricane and pending disaster; and when Americans everywhere celebrated Labor Day… the biggest story, blown waaay out of proportion, was about Sarah Palin’s 17-year-old daughter’s pregnancy… this being announced after the media had speculated and fabricated stories all week that Palin’s own 4-month old baby was really her daughter's.
"Americans are too broadly under-informed to digest nuggets of information that seem to contradict what they know of the world... Instead, news channels prefer to feed Americans a constant stream of simplified information, all of which fits what they already know. That way they don't have to devote more air time or newsprint space to explanations or further investigations." - Tom Fenton, former CBS foreign correspondent
I think it is absolutely essential in a democracy to have competition in the media, a lot of competition, and we seem to be moving away from that. -- Walter Cronkite
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