Saturday, September 25, 2010

Wee wee! Pee pee!

Some of the first apps I downloaded on my wonderful phone that I love were news apps. I have NPR, BBC, and the New York Times. When I eat breakfast in the morning, I read the news. I should stop doing that because it just pisses me off.
I read an article today on npr that made me exceedingly angry. The CEO of CNN got fired (that didn't make me angry. I have no personal feelings about the CEO of CNN, although it does suck for him that he got fired. Anyway), so the article talked about how all of the news channels had a dwindling audience but CNN's audience was dwindling the fastest because people are increasingly gaining a preference for news that has been filtered through strong partisan biases. What? Are you kidding me? People would rather be lied to than hear the truth? Seriously? I can't even grasp that concept. Why would you want filtered bullshit rather than facts?
My poor mother has heard me rant about news talk show hosts for ages. I really hate them. Both sides. I hate that they portray themselves as journalists when they're really just entertainment and they deliver news that has been filtered through strong partisan biases and, a large majority of the time, is complete and total bullshit. And now NPR is telling me that's what people want? People want to be lied to, they want news organizations to spoonfeed them bullshit to further the agendas of a few wealthy men? Why would you want that? It's not even self-serving.
If a well-meaning politician announces that he's supporting a bill that says, I don't know, all eggs must come from free-range chickens, and then the egg companies funnel money into a particular news organization and then have those talk show hosts tell you that this politician is trying to turn your children into pot-smoking hippies (instead of the true motivation that, I dunno, free-range chickens are happy and happy chickens make healthier eggs), you'd rather hear the pot-smoking hippie spin? Even though it's stupid, supported by no empirical data, and told to you by someone who is paid by someone who has millions of dollars to gain by keeping their chickens in cages?
That's what npr is saying to me. People would rather hear something that doesn't even make sense then hear the truth and support something that might actually make healthier eggs or whatever the case may be. Why do people want to hear news filtered through strong partisan biases? On both sides. Conservative, liberal, it doesn't matter, if your information is being filtered through that partisan bias, you're being lied to. Why would you want to be lied to? How can we hold our congresspeople accountable and be active members of our own democratic government if we don't know what's really going on because our news organizations are lying to us?
We get so angry when we find out about politicians who are lining their pockets with money from corporate donors. Shouldn't we have the same standard for our news organizations? Journalists play an extremely important role in government. Their job is to make sure we know what the hell is going on, to make sure that the government knows that they can't screw around because if they do, we'll find out (thanks to the journalists) and march through the streets with their heads on a stick. Their metaphorical heads.
I'm tired of it. I'm tired of politicians being self-serving ass holes. I'm tired of news organizations allowing themselves to be overtaken by corporations, wealthy siblings, and oil tycoons. I'm tired of news talk show hosts lying through their damn teeth to spread an agenda that benefits two people and screws the rest of us. Most of all, I'm tired of people believing the bullshit. If everyone took the intitiative, or Heaven forbid journalists actually did their job, to research out a subject and find the facts, it doesn't mean we would all come to the same conclusion. What it does mean, is that we would all have the facts, the truth of the matter, and we could come together as a community to find the best possible solution, one that we could all live with and maybe even be happy about. We could work together, stop worrying about party lines and all that bullshit, and actually work together to make our community - our society - a better place, a place we could all be happy living. What a damn concept.

1 comment:

  1. Abby, I have to say that I agree with you 100%. Being informed as we study the true facts about an issue is real community responsibility. Maybe, some day????

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