Shill and Schillings
I adore the rain, the way it smells, the chaos in the rhythms that go in a moment from whisper to roar. I need to move someplace that gets more of it than LA... and I know, I say this all the time.
Now, on to the rant.
Propaganda Is Evil
Yep, yep it as. Propaganda is a subversion of the very principal that a democracy must stand on: That the government derives it’s power from a consenting and informed citizenry. At the core of it is the concept of ‘transparency’... We as a nation must be able to see as much as possible of what our government is doing in our name. The press, at least those that remain worthy of the title, are currently buzzing over the guy who was deliberately allowed to enter the White House under a pseudonym so he could toss questions that barely qualified as such to administration officials. The one I found especially offensive was the one that ended with “How could anyone in their right mind disagree?”
I have heard people unspeakably angry about this, saying we should all be shocked and offended. Honestly, while offended, I’m far from shocked. Shock requires some element of surprise. At this point, the only things that would shock me about them is if they admitted the lie or took responsibility for a mistake. The ‘M-Word’ is so abhorrent that even foreign heads of state are not allowed to say it without having to issue a retraction within hours!
The informational camouflage that is being beamed at us is unethical at best. The blame, as much as I would prefer otherwise, cannot be laid solely at the feet of Bush and his Brotherhood of Evil Mutants... The press shares it’s blame for allowing itself to be browbeaten and intimidated, and the public shares in it for not demanding more of them.
So what do we do? We contact editors and managers, demanding higher standards. We contact our representatives and force them to do what is needed, or find new ones who will. We speak out in whatever forums we have. We refuse to accept this sort of behavior from people who are supposed to derive their authority from us.
Now, on to the rant.
Propaganda Is Evil
Yep, yep it as. Propaganda is a subversion of the very principal that a democracy must stand on: That the government derives it’s power from a consenting and informed citizenry. At the core of it is the concept of ‘transparency’... We as a nation must be able to see as much as possible of what our government is doing in our name. The press, at least those that remain worthy of the title, are currently buzzing over the guy who was deliberately allowed to enter the White House under a pseudonym so he could toss questions that barely qualified as such to administration officials. The one I found especially offensive was the one that ended with “How could anyone in their right mind disagree?”
I have heard people unspeakably angry about this, saying we should all be shocked and offended. Honestly, while offended, I’m far from shocked. Shock requires some element of surprise. At this point, the only things that would shock me about them is if they admitted the lie or took responsibility for a mistake. The ‘M-Word’ is so abhorrent that even foreign heads of state are not allowed to say it without having to issue a retraction within hours!
The informational camouflage that is being beamed at us is unethical at best. The blame, as much as I would prefer otherwise, cannot be laid solely at the feet of Bush and his Brotherhood of Evil Mutants... The press shares it’s blame for allowing itself to be browbeaten and intimidated, and the public shares in it for not demanding more of them.
So what do we do? We contact editors and managers, demanding higher standards. We contact our representatives and force them to do what is needed, or find new ones who will. We speak out in whatever forums we have. We refuse to accept this sort of behavior from people who are supposed to derive their authority from us.