by Christyl Rivers

Created on: September 17, 2010   Last Updated: September 18, 2010

All media is controlled by humans, and all humans are fallible.  There is no reason on earth to believe anything you read, or hear, or even see.  The only exception is perhaps the first sentence of this article.  Believe that.  Caught you!  You should not believe anything until you experience it for yourself.

Most journalism is fiction these days, because powerful influences with money and political pull own all networks, radio programs, print media, and most of what is left over.  Places like Helium thrive because it is truly the voice of real people and not white-washed and/or green washed “grass roots” advocacy which are more genuinely called Astroturf movements now.  There are extreme views expressed, but they are not presented as pure facts.

Even old and objective news outlets make errors.  It is hard for any reporter to get 100% factual information when going to gather it.  Then the information has to go through several layers of editing, copying, cutting, and so on.  People must think for themselves. It is an absolute necessity if one is to make any sense at all of what is going on around you. A very good guide is to always follow the money. The USA pays more towards health care than any other nation on earth.  So, when you follow where the money goes, for instance in US health care, you find it does not go to caring for health.  You can then  make up your own mind as to what vested interest in driving the fear mongering of death panels and other nonsense.

Powerful Billionaires own interest in most media outlets.  Politics and media too, are run on the power of gullibility and fanning the flames of a dirty coal fired engine of spin, to keep it going.  Getting all the details black, or at least gray, and hard to understand is part of their business model.  People need to get all fired up to keep interest, so the fear mongering goes on and on without end.

Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert satirize this endless cycle, with an endless cycle of their own.  Jon Stewart is hosting a rally in DC on Oct 30, 10/30/10 called the Rally to Restore Sanity.  Colbert, the epitome of an extreme conservative who follows his guts, is doing a counter rally he calls Keep Fear Alive.  Presumably these two rallies on 10/30/10 will spark enough interest and overlap that one should not be surprised if they attract more attention than all of Glen Beck’s callings, and the urging of such newsmen as Rush Limbaugh, and Bill O’Rielly.  The left wing outlets might be more factual, but they rely heavily on focusing on specific mis-steps of the other side. You must make up your own mind by gleaning “factucles—Factual Particles”  from all sources.  On right and left are extremists, bigots, biased interests, the only hope for truth is almost always somewhere inbetween. Mass with real people for moderation, if you would seek to find the middle ground where the truth is truly to be found. 

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