Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Why does every "news" channel have the same info?

My recent obsession with reading the “news” (in quotes because some of this crap is barely commentary, much less news), has led me to post on some sites expressing my opinion and occasionally correcting “facts” that are thrust forth ever so frequently by both political sides. I suddenly became aware of standard patterns of discussion; you might call it an MO (modus operandi).  The MO from the right is pretty simple, but there are two segments. Segment 1, is the person who wants to discuss the issue, fact and policy in an attempt to persuade, while Segment 2 just slams the administration with random comments about its inept policy’s. The MO from the left is far more programmed and insidious. First, they (by they I mean about 85-90%) start out spouting talking points they obviously receive from the administration or some other coordinated outlet. It’s almost like each faceless name on the internet is cutting and pasting points and counter-points to each publicly posted message in the “media”. Once you confront these faceless names with logical follow-up questions or facts with reputable reference (as required here on Chugiak Tea), they stumble and resort to calling me names, challenging my motivations, and eventually resort to their favorite insult, “you are a racist”.  My conclusion is that there is someone or something out there in cyberspace driving this train. Now my kids are laughing because they think I am a conspiracy theorist. Personally, I don’t think I am, but just because I am paranoid doesn’t mean someone’s not out to get me. I don’t think they are out to get me, but I do think they are trying to flood the “media” with talking points and sound bites used to drive the short attention span American public to their perspective. I seem to remember several examples of this activity in history in other countries. It’s called propaganda. We even use propaganda to sway our enemy’s views during combat, but should the “media” be using this tactic on its own people? Why can’t we just get some emotionless, agenda free reporting from our “media”? I'll tell you why, because they all have the same agenda.

I ask you to look at the highlighted and underlined portions below and ask yourself: should we be providing tax exempt 501(c)(3) status to an activist agenda based “media” outlet? Personally, I don’t think we should; for either side. If there is an agenda involved, feel free to exercise your right to free speech, while you pay your damn taxes.

From the Media Matters website:
Media Matters for America is a Web-based, not-for-profit, 501(c)(3) progressive research and information center dedicated to comprehensively monitoring, analyzing, and correcting conservative misinformation in the U.S. media.”
Media Matters works daily to notify activists, journalists, pundits, and the general public about instances of misinformation, providing them with the resources to rebut false claims and to take direct action against offending media institutions.

To my boys:  I’m not paranoid, I just think everyone has an agenda and most times the agenda isn’t to promote our liberty, but to promote their self-interests.

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