Expressing Opinions

Continuing with my previous posting Awareness Falling, do you think there are forces at play in the news you receive?

Your news awareness may be skewed because of the propaganda model. The propaganda model is a theory advanced by Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky that alleges systemic biases in the mass media.

A Wikipedia article on the propaganda model states:

Herman and Chomsky argue that since mainstream media outlets are either large corporations or part of conglomerates (e.g. Westinghouse or General Electric), the information presented to the public will be biased with respect to these interests. Such conglomerates frequently extend beyond traditional media fields, and thus have extensive financial interests that may be endangered when certain information is widely publicized. According to this reasoning, news items that most endanger the corporate financial interests of those who own the media will face the greatest bias and censorship.

It then follows that if to maximize profit means sacrificing news objectivity, then the news sources that ultimately survive must be fundamentally biased, with regard to news in which they have a conflict of interest.

I am inclined to agree with Herman and Chomsky. With news being a business and operated as such, I support the propaganda model. You only need to tune in to see it in action. A perfect example of this is the lack of reporting on the war in Iraq. In July the reporting of the war averaged 15% of the news reporting time, but by February it was down to just 3%. Why is this? Could it be that neither Republican or Democratic parties want the war to be a major part of the election because neither party has a good solution for bringing our troops home? You know if someone had a good plan for withdraw they would be spinning it to the public. So instead the spin doctors of each party spin “other” news stories to the media.

We need to look outside the so-called U.S. free press to learn the whole story and then it do it with caution, knowing you will still encounter the forces of money and power manipulating the facts.

It is only with the recent power of the Internet and the ability of people to post fresh information, does it assist in keeping the media somewhat honest. And that is no where near enough. If you would like to learn more about this topic I suggest you explore the following:

• The Propaganda Model: A Retrospective by Edward S. Herman
• Has the Internet Changed the Propaganda Model?
• Edward S. Herman - links to his many Internet sources.
• chomsky.info: the Noam Chomsky website

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What is with Washington State’s primary process? The state sends out ballots for a person to select their candidate for the presidential nomination of their respective party. But if you are a Democrats your ballot does not count towards allotting delegates to the national convention. The caucusing process is what allots delegates to your candidate if you a Democrat, but a ballot vote and caucusing will work for Republicans.

The news media interviewed a guy at the elections board and he smiles and said, “it can be a confusing process for people.” DUH!!! What a tard. Have a primary vote or a caucus.

Justin Webb is the BBC’s North America editor and in his blog I read today,

“Many Americans hope that this election will alter worldwide perceptions of their nation - many foreigners, friends of America put off by the Bush years, hope the same thing. “

It is hard to believe there are 31% of the American people out there who still approve of this morally bankrupt and intellectually challenged posterior orifice. Jeez! It only goes to prove the mouth breathers do stick together.

Finally last night was the last State of the Union address or as I call it The Annual I Am Gonna Blow Smoke Up Your Ass speech. I will be glad to see that piece of sh*t Bush gone come next year and it can not happed soon enough. The new president will be left with a daunting task of rebuilding America’s standing in the world. A standing which was undermined and diminished by lying, greed, and total disregard for all of humankind by Bush and his re”thug”lican administration.

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Today I was doing some online reading and came across Push Polling in South Carolina — Who’s It Really Helping? on Wired News. It was interesting to read about some of some of the dirty tricks the Republican party is engage in to corrupt the election process, such as hiring an actor with the voice of an angry black man to intimidate white people. Talk about playing the race card and bigotry.

In “How to Rig an Election,” Raymond recounts how Dick Zimmer, a former Republican congressman from New Jersey, hired political consultants to help him with a bid to unseat incumbent Democrat Rush Holt.
One tactic was to “get a Green Party candidate named Carl Mayer on the ballot to suck single-issue voters away from Holt.” The other was to hire an actor with the voice of “an angry black man,” record a pro-Holt message and target those calls to Eastern European white voters living in New Jersey. Raymond wrote: “The message was, ‘I’m a ghetto black guy calling you, racist Ukrainian guy, and scaring the crap out of you because you probably think that if you don’t vote for the Democrat I’m going to come to your house and take care of some business.’”

“We wanted the message heard only by those people whose reaction would be ‘I’m not voting for Holt because he uses scary black men to call my house,” the passage concluded. And that was just one version of the race-baiting tactic they used, in one demographic.

I know these are examples of Republican dirty deeds and I am sure the Democrats do their share too. It makes my stomach turn when I hear the politicians say voter turn out is important, when it appears they should be saying only come out to vote if you are voting for me or for someone who will divide the votes of my opponent so I can win.

I know it sounds naive, but it would be nice when I meet a politician I don’t feel like I am meeting a used car salesman. Because I can always tell when both are lying, their lips are moving.

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It was good to see the polls and media’s talking heads forecast the wrong winner in the Democratic primary. If you watched the news you would think there is only two states participating in the presidential candidate selection process. Thus far with Iowa, Wyoming, and New Hampshire having their caucus or primary, only one half of one percent of eligible Americans have participated. But the media was already predicting who is going to drop out and who will most likely win their respective party’s nomination. Now with Clinton unexpectedly winning in New Hampshire I look forward to the spin the political analyst put on it.

Even so, I still have a questions. What about the rest of American voters from other states in this country? Do we count in the process? Hopefully the polls will be wrong again and the races will be too close to call. Then as we get down to the very last primaries on June 3, all American voters will have felt or feel compelled to show their support for their candidate and vote.

Here is a link to a map for Campaign08.