When will Americans see the light?
There was a time in America when it was accepted that news should be delivered to the people in an unbiased straight forward way. While it is true that there have always been pundits and those willing to spin or offer their interpretation of what is happening, it was once considered unethical to not identify such offerings as being such rather than offering these slanted opinions as the unbiased news. Then came Fox News.
As a child growing up, I was enthralled with Walter Cronkite. One of my favorite parts of every week day was watching as he appeared on television and delivered what was happening around the world each day. Dignified, always professional, he delivered each story without personal comment or embellishment. It was only years later that I realized that I never had any idea what he actually thought about any of the stories he reported, instead leaving me the option of finding out more if I desired and thus forming my own opinion from whatever I could learn through my own efforts. As a child I took this for granted. Only in the last 10 years have I especially begun to realize how important this approach was, and I miss it terribly.
Now, nearly every person who broadcasts the news in some way or another feels comfortable signaling their approval or dis-approval of that story as they report it. With most, it is very subtle, and often you could easily miss it. But some have gotten to the point where they seem to think that their opinion is the news. Nowhere is the latter approach more obvious than on Fox News. It is amazing that Fox News can get away with even representing themselves as a news source when their reports are so biased and slanted to elicit a certain response. They have taken their agenda to an unprecedented level and even more surprising ly, millions are drawn to their style of reporting like moths to a flame. This is an appropriate way of characterizing it too, because like the moth who burns up in the flame, America is increasingly being burned up in the flame of civil discourse that results when news becomes propaganda. And even as more and more people call them out, those who are seduced by Fox News become ever more staunch supporters of their constant ongoing slaughter of the truth.
It is clear that there are primarily two types of people who are drawn to Fox News. One type is represented by those lacking intelligence, education and/or common sense, and so are willing to believe anything that makes it easy for them to feed their own bias and prejudices. The other type are those people who recognize what is happening but feel their interests are being represented by the agenda that Fox News clearly represents and are willing to accept this approach with the idea that the ends justify the means. It is not that either of these types of people are new, they have been responsible for American missteps and debacles literally from this nations beginning. What is shocking is the way the conservative right wing has identified these people and specifically courted them as a means to an end and further more how easy it is to get them to have opinions that ultimately penalize themselves while being simutaneoulsy convinced that what should be clear is not what is happening at all.
In my first trip to mainland China, I was involved in a conversation with local people who said that America was irresponsible for allowing such people to take control of important ways in which people got their information. As an American I was of course immediately offended and vigorously argued that we were proud to live in a nation that prized free speech and freedom of expression. But even as I pressed this argument, deep inside, the more I thought it, the more doubts I began to have.
There was a time in America when many of the nations most influential people felt that the nation should never allow foreign interests to gain control of certain industries. Chief among them was who controlled the distribution of information. Having become keenly ware of the abuse of such powers by William Randolph Hearst as a result of his efforts to shape public opinion to satisfy his agenda, I must now reconsider how much more sinister such power can be wielded by those who not only are evil and power hungry, but also have no sense of patriotism to this country. No one more epitomizes this than Rupert Murdoch, who controls Fox News as well as The Wall Street Journal. The Wall Street Journal lost credibility with me some time ago, well before I realized it had come under Murdoch s influence. But when you consider what is clearly emerging as a world wide movement by Facist multi-national corporations who clearly want to replace US democracy with rule by big money, what is happening right before our eyes takes on biblical proportions.. This of course is nothing new either, and something even Americas founding fathers were obsessed with trying to keep from happening. It is especially scary when you realize how the Reagan revolution has set the stage for what has happened today; A powerful distributor of news and information to the American public controlled by a man whose own country has now condemned as unfit to have such a role in his own nation. And yet, even as Murdoch's power and influence wanes in his home nation, Fox News and The Wall Street Journal roll on dispensing unrelenting bullshit upon the American public feeding the hunger of racists, psychopaths, the greedy and the dysfunctional idiots that make up their brainwashed masses. Never in my lifetime has America been so divided against itself, and the very people who claim to be the most patriotic are allowing their ideas and beliefs to be shaped by those who have no allegiance, love or care for America as a country beyond its ability to further enrich them and to feed its hunger for power. Clearly, the right wing conservative movement as espoused by Ayn Rand and embraced by the leaders of these current radical conservative causes is the anti-Christ.
And so I ask again, how long will this go on? How long before these wages of sin ultimately consume those who have promoted them as they undoubtedly eventually will do? How far will America sink in the cesspool of politics promoted by Fox News and its minions before the explosion finally takes place. Because believe me it will happen, and worse, those who promote it know that it will happen. They feverishly plan to be in position to take advantage when it does.
I take solace though in knowing that no matter what evil will not prevail. Again as always good will triumph and God will reign over all. But I worry about how much suffering we will allow ourselves to endure before we say enough. The end is getting near.
There was a time in America when it was accepted that news should be delivered to the people in an unbiased straight forward way. While it is true that there have always been pundits and those willing to spin or offer their interpretation of what is happening, it was once considered unethical to not identify such offerings as being such rather than offering these slanted opinions as the unbiased news. Then came Fox News.
As a child growing up, I was enthralled with Walter Cronkite. One of my favorite parts of every week day was watching as he appeared on television and delivered what was happening around the world each day. Dignified, always professional, he delivered each story without personal comment or embellishment. It was only years later that I realized that I never had any idea what he actually thought about any of the stories he reported, instead leaving me the option of finding out more if I desired and thus forming my own opinion from whatever I could learn through my own efforts. As a child I took this for granted. Only in the last 10 years have I especially begun to realize how important this approach was, and I miss it terribly.
Now, nearly every person who broadcasts the news in some way or another feels comfortable signaling their approval or dis-approval of that story as they report it. With most, it is very subtle, and often you could easily miss it. But some have gotten to the point where they seem to think that their opinion is the news. Nowhere is the latter approach more obvious than on Fox News. It is amazing that Fox News can get away with even representing themselves as a news source when their reports are so biased and slanted to elicit a certain response. They have taken their agenda to an unprecedented level and even more surprising ly, millions are drawn to their style of reporting like moths to a flame. This is an appropriate way of characterizing it too, because like the moth who burns up in the flame, America is increasingly being burned up in the flame of civil discourse that results when news becomes propaganda. And even as more and more people call them out, those who are seduced by Fox News become ever more staunch supporters of their constant ongoing slaughter of the truth.
It is clear that there are primarily two types of people who are drawn to Fox News. One type is represented by those lacking intelligence, education and/or common sense, and so are willing to believe anything that makes it easy for them to feed their own bias and prejudices. The other type are those people who recognize what is happening but feel their interests are being represented by the agenda that Fox News clearly represents and are willing to accept this approach with the idea that the ends justify the means. It is not that either of these types of people are new, they have been responsible for American missteps and debacles literally from this nations beginning. What is shocking is the way the conservative right wing has identified these people and specifically courted them as a means to an end and further more how easy it is to get them to have opinions that ultimately penalize themselves while being simutaneoulsy convinced that what should be clear is not what is happening at all.
In my first trip to mainland China, I was involved in a conversation with local people who said that America was irresponsible for allowing such people to take control of important ways in which people got their information. As an American I was of course immediately offended and vigorously argued that we were proud to live in a nation that prized free speech and freedom of expression. But even as I pressed this argument, deep inside, the more I thought it, the more doubts I began to have.
There was a time in America when many of the nations most influential people felt that the nation should never allow foreign interests to gain control of certain industries. Chief among them was who controlled the distribution of information. Having become keenly ware of the abuse of such powers by William Randolph Hearst as a result of his efforts to shape public opinion to satisfy his agenda, I must now reconsider how much more sinister such power can be wielded by those who not only are evil and power hungry, but also have no sense of patriotism to this country. No one more epitomizes this than Rupert Murdoch, who controls Fox News as well as The Wall Street Journal. The Wall Street Journal lost credibility with me some time ago, well before I realized it had come under Murdoch s influence. But when you consider what is clearly emerging as a world wide movement by Facist multi-national corporations who clearly want to replace US democracy with rule by big money, what is happening right before our eyes takes on biblical proportions.. This of course is nothing new either, and something even Americas founding fathers were obsessed with trying to keep from happening. It is especially scary when you realize how the Reagan revolution has set the stage for what has happened today; A powerful distributor of news and information to the American public controlled by a man whose own country has now condemned as unfit to have such a role in his own nation. And yet, even as Murdoch's power and influence wanes in his home nation, Fox News and The Wall Street Journal roll on dispensing unrelenting bullshit upon the American public feeding the hunger of racists, psychopaths, the greedy and the dysfunctional idiots that make up their brainwashed masses. Never in my lifetime has America been so divided against itself, and the very people who claim to be the most patriotic are allowing their ideas and beliefs to be shaped by those who have no allegiance, love or care for America as a country beyond its ability to further enrich them and to feed its hunger for power. Clearly, the right wing conservative movement as espoused by Ayn Rand and embraced by the leaders of these current radical conservative causes is the anti-Christ.
And so I ask again, how long will this go on? How long before these wages of sin ultimately consume those who have promoted them as they undoubtedly eventually will do? How far will America sink in the cesspool of politics promoted by Fox News and its minions before the explosion finally takes place. Because believe me it will happen, and worse, those who promote it know that it will happen. They feverishly plan to be in position to take advantage when it does.
I take solace though in knowing that no matter what evil will not prevail. Again as always good will triumph and God will reign over all. But I worry about how much suffering we will allow ourselves to endure before we say enough. The end is getting near.
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