(US) 3/06 - Where Is The Media?

Author Message   Chris Pryor Voting Rights Forum Participant Username: Chrispryor Post Number: 1 Registered: 03-2006 Best of Black Box? N/A Votes: 0 (A keeper?) Posted on Wednesday, March 8, 2006 - 2:42 pm:        Whenever I try and explain the digital voting machine situation to my friends/family/collegues/etc who aren't familiar with the situation, the conversation winds up boiling down the following question: where's the media? If what you say is really happening, why isn't it getting anywhere near the coverage it deserves? I know as well as anyone here does that the media is far from unbiased, and that media content is a close reflection of the media company's own best interests. But I stumble over explaining this to people who don't already understand it -- most people think that the media simply reports the news, and it's ususally very hard for most people to understand why the mainstream media wouldn't devote an enormous amount of time and space to a story as big as this. Explaining this is a long, complicated conversation, and most people are difficult to convice -- they typically think 'conspiracy theory' and shut down. Does anyone have a simple, concise 'elevator pitch' that they use to explain the media's role in this, one that you could pass along?   Jim Eldon Voting Rights Forum Participant Username: Vegsledman Post Number: 14 Registered: 12-2005 Best of Black Box? N/A Votes: 0 (A keeper?) Posted on Wednesday, March 8, 2006 - 6:43 pm:        This question is as important as it is difficult to answer. What we're talking about is imparting a fairly complex sociological understanding of our political system to our fellow citizens. And what we're working against is not only ignorance and aloofness, but disinformation, propaganda and, yes, just plain bullshit. Lots of it, all the time (see the book "On Bullshit" by Harry Frankfurt). To make progress countering these forces requires repetition of the message. Even if it's just bumperstickerisms like " The media is only as liberal as the conservative Republicans who own it" or "There's no conspiracy; just business as usual". Folks for whom such ideas are new have to hear them many times before they'll even provisionally accept them, much less think critically about them. An alternative strategy is the Socratic method - keep asking them questions: why they think the media is up front with the facts and is trustworthy. The truth is, we're in the business of myth-breaking and it's just going to be a long uphill battle.   Robert Sawdey Frequent Voting Rights Forum Participant Username: Rsawdey Post Number: 115 Registered: 01-2006 Best of Black Box? N/A Votes: 0 (A keeper?) Posted on Thursday, March 9, 2006 - 2:45 pm:        For a HUGE example of media bias, look at the coverage of the anti-war demonstration of half a million people at the Republican convention... the ONLY coverage was CSPAN. What was shown instead was Zell (gag, choke) Miller... Saw a good bumper sticker the other day... inside the profile of Iraq it said "Iraq: Quagmire Accomplished!" Witty, but depressing... new nadirs of ineptitude daily... And as if the bias of the MSM isn't bad enough with Neocon ownership and Faux News and tax-dollar paid propaganda, now the administration is trying to inject propaganda & bias into NPR & PBS... and where they can't they're cutting off funding. Interesting link to an article in the RUSSIAN 'Moscow Times' at BradBlog about our election fraud scandal. Does the average Russian now know more about our problems than the average U.S. Citizen? And we used to laugh at the blatant propaganda coming out of 'Pravda'(Truth)!   Lora Cove Voting Rights Forum Participant Username: Lora Post Number: 63 Registered: 01-2005 Best of Black Box? N/A Votes: 0 (A keeper?) Posted on Thursday, March 9, 2006 - 6:46 pm:        I think deconstructing news articles, word choice, choice of phrases, etc, and news selections can help. You can ask why the news reports comments by administration spokespeople that have no factual backup as news. Think "deprogramming." That's really what we have to do.

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