When in my teen years, I learned an important lesson: You can sit around watching other people get paid for doing what they love to do, or you get up and do what you love to do — and get paid for it.
It’s for this reason my TV is basically a dust collector.
It doesn’t mean I’m ignorant of the news – quite the opposite, really. I surf a great variety of news sites, listen to the news on the radio while I’m driving, etc. But the great advantage is I pretty much have control over what I read and where I read it. And — by balancing sources, no doubt I get a bigger picture of what’s going on than what CBS / NBC / ABC / FOX / ETC would like me to have.
As someone who has written quite a bit for publications, I am aware of the power a writer has simply choosing one word over another. For example, Word “X” might mean pretty much the same thing as word “Y,” but one of the words is going to sound more important or more or more sad, or more _(fill in the blank)_ than the other word. And depending on what want to convey to my reader, I will probably choose one word over the other.
Every writer’s choice of words results from some key perspectives:
What do they want their readers to know?
To believe?
To feel?
To think?
To want?
To do?
I don’t care how ethical someone might claim to be, you can’t tell me a trained Journalist is “fair and balanced” from any branch of any media. SORRY. I DON’T FALL FOR IT. Every story - even an obituary – has spin.
A few years back I read Tammy Bruce’s book, ‘The New Thought Police.” She talked about how, as president of the Los Angeles chapter of the National Organization of Women (NOW), she drove to work one morning and heard the guy reading the news on the radio: ”Pro-Life activist met at blah blah blah . . . “. Bruce got on her cell phone and called the radio station, informing the news director that the phrasing needs to be “Anti-Abortion activists,” not “Pro-Life activists.”
Sure enough, at the next half-hour break, the news guy reported that “Anti-Abortion activists met at blah blah blah . . .”
The average Joe or Jane is blithering through the day and letting these word choices affect them. They’re NOT thinking, and different words DO invoke different thoughts/feelings/etc., and it’s just damn sad.
For example, I met a person the other day who told me she has no political opinion whatsoever. She’s just a mom who loves her kids and is very involved in their lives.
I totally respect that she’s very involved in her children’s lives. But here was a grown woman who perhaps hears the news on the way to soccer practice, not realizing that the words she hears are carefully chosen to convey certain meanings; to influence her opinion.
Remember, she “has no political thoughts,” so she doesn’t even realize she’s being influenced. Her blinders are on, and she doesn’t know —or care— about it.
Tripe. That’s what the media is feeding us.
Well, that’s what they’re feeding the lemmings, anyway.
I choose to find my own food. And if you’re smart, you will, too.
