So I have noticed over the last five years a huge influx of people suddenly showing concern for politics that never in their life cared for such things. Most of these people are clueless about the reality of issues in the world, and instead spew out things as fact that they "heard" from a "source" or a "friend" or television.
If you haven't noticed, many Americans are intellectually lazy. Test scores and grades are lower than at any time in the last 50 years in the US. Kids care less and less about what is going on. On Yahoo, the top three trending searches right now are Howard Stern, Muhammed Ali and Lindsey Vonn. That's what our society holds important. Meanwhile, Japanese earthquakes and subsequent tsunamis have ravaged millions of people's lives. It's not over either; a nuclear power plant located along the coast of Japan is on the verge of a complete meltdown of Chernobyl proportions that could destroy life in that area for decades.
The media has a lot to do with how people see the world we live in. From CNN to Fox News, media has spent a good portion of the last ten years turning the real world into reality television; over sensationalizing the news and hyping up the stories they know will garner them better ratings. Some of these networks just flat out make up stories that don't exist, purely for ratings. From Dan Rather not doing his homework on a Bush story leading to his dismissal from CBS, to the many times Fox News has created their own stories to poke at the left they disagree with, we see it as a recurring theme.
The problem with what this has created, is that this has created a society of people who believe things are going on that simply are not going on, or are twisted around in such a way to make it look unnecessarily evil. It is egged on by Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck, Ed Schultz, Andrew Breitbart, Michael Moore, Rush Limbaugh and others. While we may see shreds of ideas we personally believe in in some of these people's work, we should not take the full volume of what they say and believe it as our own solid opinion.
People should be able to form their own opinions about politics, news events, religion and other matters of personal belief without needing to be injected by the needle of media serum. If you can't, then shut up because nobody wants to hear you go on and on in a college class or at a church service about how X is causing Y to the outcome Z without a shred of evidence or truth beyond what you think you heard on a radio show or tv station.
My friend just today posted on Facebook about a fellow student in a college class trying to explain Socialism and basically explaining Capitalism to a T. If you don't actually know what you are talking about from your own independent research from unbiased sources such as scholarly works and encyclopedias, don't speak. It is better to be silent and thought a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt. That is one of my favorite, and truthful quotes of all time.
Another problem that arises from riling people up with beefed up news stories to garner ratings is that you create a society of people who become caricatures of the extremes of the ideas being discussed. Voltaire once said "Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities." This quote is 150% true to the core, and the media is doing a great job of creating minions of their own bidding.
CNN in particular has really gone the opposite direction from where they used to be. They used to be a legitimate, 24 hour news network, reporting stories with almost no bias and always having people from both sides of a discussion input on the topic. Now, they have created a new format after Rick Sanchez was fired for his anti Jewish remarks about Jon Stewart.
They have retooled their afternoon show to resemble a ridiculous variety show with cute little names for each segment like "Reporter Roulette". Instead of presenting the news in a legitimate fashion, they present it as if it is appearing on MTV. It loses all of it's legitimacy at this point and becomes nothing more than a reality show. They even have a new feature where you can vote on what story of three choices you want to see, and most of these stories are serious stories, not just fun stories. It seems ridiculous and really turns me off to see.
CNN in particular has really gone the opposite direction from where they used to be. They used to be a legitimate, 24 hour news network, reporting stories with almost no bias and always having people from both sides of a discussion input on the topic. Now, they have created a new format after Rick Sanchez was fired for his anti Jewish remarks about Jon Stewart.
They have retooled their afternoon show to resemble a ridiculous variety show with cute little names for each segment like "Reporter Roulette". Instead of presenting the news in a legitimate fashion, they present it as if it is appearing on MTV. It loses all of it's legitimacy at this point and becomes nothing more than a reality show. They even have a new feature where you can vote on what story of three choices you want to see, and most of these stories are serious stories, not just fun stories. It seems ridiculous and really turns me off to see.
So remember, if you get your news from television or radio, do your own research and read some legitimate works on the subjects before you decide to make someone else's opinions on a discussion you don't understand your own opinion. It would make this a much more pleasant country to live in and a much more intellectually free society. If you can't do that, just shut up and talk about sports.
No comments:
Post a Comment