Welcome To The Machine
First, for those of you that haven’t seen the documentary OutFoxed, which was released in 2004, I highly recommend it. That said, here’s a new clip from Robert Greenwald worth a look regarding Fox’s promotion of an attack on Iran…
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August 25th, 2007 at 9:27 pm
Another day in the news…
August 25th, 2007 at 9:45 pm
In the immortal words of Stewie Griffin, ‘how do you know about the machine?’
…also airing on FOX.
This has been an intertextually ironic moment.
August 25th, 2007 at 9:59 pm
theres ALOT of people in the states that still watch jerry springer believe it or not. personally id rather eat nails. american news will obviously never report on its own countries dark sided ambitions, not to mention that those same people consider cnn a far left leaning news source. and you still have the people with the confederate flag plastered on their trucks or houses. i guess that havent heard the wars over and they lost…
so where else is middle america going to get their news? the internet? yea some do, and their in the minority. honestly, as a general american, what would you think they would rather do online? watch naked girls or try to find a secondary news source when the tvs already blasting one in the backround….the radio? its owned by a few big corporations who have the same standard broadcast and same news as the tv stations…am radio? didnt air america last a whole week?, though im not sure if its still broadcast in other parts of the country but i read in the news they were taking it off. even kids out of high school are joining the military because they see it as a ‘job opportunity’. local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies are hiring ex-soldiers before college grads. not to mention the sort of ‘celebrity status’ that goes along with doing it…alot of guys do it just to have an excuse to pick up a chick. then you have that one guy in a group whos really loud and paints everyone who questions government as a crazy liberal conspiracy theorist and usually throws a personal insult along with it and is all “who gives a shit”.
most people are too involved with their personal lives here to even begin to comprehend something as intricate and complex as american foreign policy, past, present, and future. its sad…what can you do when most people seem to moan whenever politics is brought up in normal conversation?
August 25th, 2007 at 11:38 pm
Education.
Motivate to learn.
Inspire to examine the details.
ALWAYS research history.
These are the basic, fundamentals to avoid being ill-informed.
The power of propaganda lies in the lackadaisical and naive nature of the population. We want to trust the powers that be, so, we will.
If the Gov’t has an agenda that it wants to initiate, it knows that the public has to be somewhat informed. The problem being that the public gets filtered or distorted information to influence their support of foreign policies. This has happened time and time again, and somehow …it still works!?
Education.
Turn off the TV’s.
Read a few history books. Even several on the same subject.
Develop your own opinions and own them, without fear of ridicule.
When the time comes, share your views with others while LISTENING to theirs.
So then you’ve both learned more.
Though some parents may disagree with me….listening to and doing what you are told, might not always be the best thing.
Patience and Progress
August 25th, 2007 at 11:45 pm
sorry cook27 but that feels a little too do nothing-hippy feel-goodery for me
I think everyone at fox news (and CNN and basically every network news channel) should simply launced into space, where they belong
that would get a lot more done for progress, patience too
August 26th, 2007 at 1:25 am
Who’s next after Iran? Chavez?
I think it’s not a question of unjust wars anymore, but rather a question of how far people have to be pushed before they DO something.
August 26th, 2007 at 1:46 am
[quote comment="24290"]Education.
Motivate to learn.
Inspire to examine the details.
ALWAYS research history.
These are the basic, fundamentals to avoid being ill-informed.
The power of propaganda lies in the lackadaisical and naive nature of the population. We want to trust the powers that be, so, we will.
If the Gov’t has an agenda that it wants to initiate, it knows that the public has to be somewhat informed. The problem being that the public gets filtered or distorted information to influence their support of foreign policies. This has happened time and time again, and somehow …it still works!?
Education.
Turn off the TV’s.
Read a few history books. Even several on the same subject.
Develop your own opinions and own them, without fear of ridicule.
When the time comes, share your views with others while LISTENING to theirs.
So then you’ve both learned more.
Though some parents may disagree with me….listening to and doing what you are told, might not always be the best thing.
Patience and Progress[/quote]
meh. id say that the majority of americans believe their government is being dishonest with them, but if its not being told to them 24/7 and an official announcement is made, then its speculation and then it can be easily slipped out of mind. and im sure most people dont even want to think about their own government lying to them because of the cold hard truth that theres really not anyone in power really looking for the best interests of its people, and that their own govt. is spying on its citizens and such and such. perhaps then the train of thought is “ok so the government isnt really being honest with me…but we still have cable television and air conditioning and bills and a 9 to 5 job with kids and the social status to keep up. so in between this commercial break im gunna go buy some yellow ribbon magnets for my car truck or suv and support america/the troops/whatever and to the best of my knowledge everything is fine and dandy so keep it up i guess because i get a weekly paycheck! this whole lying thing doesnt seem to be that bad.” pretty much the whole country witnessed its own government fail its people in a time of crisis (see hurricane katrina)…well we hired some guy in charge or something who did a bad job. oops, our bad. but he’s fired now so everythings ok right? you guys are a forgiving bunch. and to think about what they impeached clinton for! and the whole “develop your own opinions without fear” thing basically gets you to hanging out with people of the same mindset anyways, for the most part. in these times, unfortunatly, it seems the whole education thing seems to last about as long as the educator is around. and hopefully that educated group is growing larger. but with the majority of americans psyched for the start of nfl and college football, the politics tend to take a break even farther back on the burner. on all the news stations the number one topic these days is michael vick, which every news station has beat to death about 3 weeks ago. is that really the most important thing that has happend in the past month that you continually report on? really? its being estimated that over 1 million iraqis have died since the war. over 1 million! the more guilt they can spare you, the better.
the people who hold consistent power in our government have long deep rooted historical bloodlines, powerful families (the bushs, the kennedys, the kerrys etc.) that are considered “1st class citizens” by those IN power. and those families arent going to call it quits and become middle-class anytime soon all the while letting their empire of a country theyve built slip down the tubes. its not about republican or democrat, its about staying in office. its a big brother government so whats a middle class citizen to do? take personal pride in the fact that they’ve educated someone or some hundred, which is great, but in the end does it seem like its getting results? not to mention, even if everyone were educated…who wins elections? the vote counters…
i guess this is what makes it frustrating to the average citizen. they wont see immediate change so to all they care their time isnt really worth the effort. which makes it really frustrating for people like you and me. if everyone in the country suddenly united and mass marched to dc or crawford texas immediate change would come about. but whens the last time the country united in mass unison? 9/11? and look what the government did with that. even the world wide war protests fell upon deaf ears. what would get the people so rilled and outraged that all of sudden 90% of the citizens stopped what they were doing, got in their cars and drove down to dc and demanded change? a draft? bush declaring dicator for life powers? the u.s. invasion of china? who knows.
August 26th, 2007 at 2:07 am
‘Outfoxed’ is indeed a good documentary. Theres one called ‘Control Room’ which is also similar. The Newshounds.us site has a good Youtube channel which has a number of ‘Fox attacks…’ vidoes. Mostly they just make me angry.
It’s not as bad over here in England but Sky News (also part of the glorious Murdoch Empire) is starting to go the same way.
August 26th, 2007 at 1:53 pm
And yet some people out there don’t think media bias exists.
August 26th, 2007 at 4:57 pm
Okay, I’ve never been very educated when it comes to politics. So lately I’ve been trying to educate myself a little more. I have to admit, I dont watch TV much, but even the newspapers are biased.
Its frustrating when you want to know more but dont know what to believe.
August 26th, 2007 at 9:19 pm
Simply Scary
August 27th, 2007 at 8:52 am
[quote comment="24284"]…what can you do when most people seem to moan whenever politics is brought up in normal conversation?[/quote]
I tried talking politics with my friends the other day during a conversation lull on the long drive up north. I asked what I thought was a really thought provoking question (although I can’t remember what it is right now) and it was met with silence… then finally one person speaks up, only to start randomly talking about something else (the weather or something). And all I could do was smirk in disbelief…. if nobody wants to talk about it, how is change ever going to happen?
August 27th, 2007 at 11:25 am
@Miranda. I feel your pain. The same thing happens to me on a regular basis. Sometimes hot button topics will come up such as Iraq/Iran etc but as soon as I try and inject some history or politics into the argument it’s all blank looks and silences. Meh.
August 27th, 2007 at 3:04 pm
[quote comment="24398"]Okay, I’ve never been very educated when it comes to politics. So lately I’ve been trying to educate myself a little more. I have to admit, I dont watch TV much, but even the newspapers are biased.
Its frustrating when you want to know more but dont know what to believe.[/quote]
I’m totally in the same boat, and i know what you mean. Why can’t we ever have just straight truth?!?