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There are days that my mind is so bombarded by facts, images, and ideas that I fear my head will explode, just like in the movie "Scanners"! I'm overloaded with tons of useless information every day, just like everyone else that I know. Radio, TV, Internet, newspapers, magazines, E-Mail, you name it: I'm constantly being bombarded by bits and bytes that I can't even begin to process if I try to absorb all of them.

Meanwhile, I'm multi-tasking, dealing with problems of all shapes and sizes, and I have to listen to the demands of my body, not to mention friends, colleagues, and family.

Is it any wonder that I'm going to make mistakes, perhaps serious ones, because of all of this static? Am I really going to pay close attention to every single piece of information that flies past my eyes?

Unfortunately, we constantly have to make quick judgments and assessments and many of them in the "blink" of an eye, as author Malcolm Gladwell might suggest. There's no time to properly assess everything. This can be a huge problem.

Here are some of my concerns about the reliability of information supplied by the mass media:

BIAS, SPINNING, AND SHAPING OPINION

Bias is a term used to describe a preference, whether overt or covert, that influences how we see the world and how we describe it to other people. Bias in the US media is typically described as liberal or conservative and each side claims the other is reporting information according to their preference. On one side you have "fair and balanced" Fox News, Rush Limbaugh, and Bernard Goldberg (the author of "Bias"), while in the other corner you might have CNN, Air America (now defunct?), and certain stereotypical "liberal"media. Eric Alterman's book "What Liberal Media" argues strongly, and somewhat convincingly, that the so-called liberal bias in well-known news sources is exaggerated. Moreover, he indicates that there is more of a conservative, or corporate, bias in the media because, put simply, big business pays the bills.

I personally believe that the truth lies somewhere between the two because any special interest, once it has enough resources and power, will use the media to promote their preferred messages for good or evil. Government, in its somewhat unholy partnerships with big business, will also attempt to use the media to broadcast its preferred messages. My own experience in business and politics, although limited, leads me to believe that the phrase "the ends justifies the means" is alive

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