You may not be aware of this, but you're not getting the complete truth.
It seems unbelievable, but the "news" you see when you tune in to the mainstream media is not always as unbiased, complete or accurate as you might hope. And that's important, because in a democracy, the people are in charge, and since you're in charge, you had better have good information! Otherwise, how will you know who to vote for?
You might be asking, "how can that be?" Well, the mainstream media consists of corporations, and corporations only have one purpose, which is making money. They are not bound to tell the truth. Further, corporations are led from the top - everyone has a boss, and they take orders from that person. If they don't, they lose their job. That's all well and good if the boss has good intentions and a conscience, but the bosses bosses are the shareholders, and they want a return on their investment.
Making sense so far? The owners of the media companies want a return on their investment, and they want perks. And unfortunately, "perks" in this context include the ability to say what will make the news, and how it will be spun. For example, the Fox News corporation publishes a memo to all staff every day that says what to cover, and how to cover it.
So who owns Fox News? Well, Rupert Murdoch, as the head of News Corporation, is that guy. So what are Rupert Murdoch's politics? What does he want everyone to believe about the world? Well I don't know, but isn't it a shame that it makes a difference? I mean, didn't you believe at one time in your life that the news was the truth? Well you're not alone - most people believe that.
You might want to poke around here to see who owns what in the world of media. A quick google search would also provide the necessary proof. At least they're all public companies, so we can all trace the tree of ownership for ourselves.
Sadly, the "news" is more often "infotainment" or "militainment" (love that term), because that's what people want to see. So that's what gets eyeballs, and therefore sells advertizing.
It's no better in the rest of the mainstream media, by the way. Most media is owned, at the top of the chain, by two large corporations, namely General Electric and Westinghouse. Yes, they are both military contractors, but that's a whole 'nuther story, as they say.
Now I hate to stir up problems without presenting a happy ending, so here it is. I learned yesterday of a new kind of news, completely free of the usual bias. They are not beholden to large corporate owners, because they are not owned by any. They are not beholden to advertizers, because they don't run any ads. They are not even beholden to governments, because they receive no government funding. They get all their money from you, the viewer, through small voluntary donations. And that means their only allegiance is to you, the person who is tired of being fed lies, subtle and not so subtle, by the shamefully biased mainstream media machine.
They are called The Real News, and if you care about democracy, I would strongly recommend that you give them a look. If you want to know what's really going on in the world so you can make good decisions as a citizen, and strongly suggest you send them a few bucks as well.
http://www.therealnews.com
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
Becoming Vegetarian
On Friday I decided to become a vegetarian. This isn't a really hard decision for me, because while I enjoy meat, I'm not that picky about what I eat - so I won't miss it. I still plan to eat eggs and dairy, at least for now!
So why make the change? Well there are a number of good reasons. I picked up a book on becoming vegatarian, and I was sold by page four! And I'm not even particularly bothered about the mass killing of animals. Maybe if I toured an abattoir, I would have stronger feeling on this one... anyway, here are the biggest factors for me in making this decision.
1. We've got to save the planet. Raising crops like corn and wheat and feeding them to cows, pigs and chickens to eat is an extremely inefficient way to get calories. Like ten times less efficient. Consequently this meat eating habit of ours is costing us dearly in terms of fresh water, arable land, fossil fuels, etc. The most alarming for me was the farmland we're losing to desertification every year, because of overgrazing. If we keep losing farmland at the present rate, we'll run out in 44 years. Of course that can't happen, but the phenomenon will put enormous pressure on human existence for the rest of my life.
2. Health. It seems that heart disease, cancer, and a whole slew of other less serious illnesses are due in part to eating too much meat. Vegetarians live, on average, 7 to 9 years longer than the general population. I'd like to be healthy! And again, I don't much care if I eat meat or not, so there's not much of a downside. There was even a study that correlated IQ with vegetarianism. It doesn't make you smarter, but if you have a high IQ when you're young, you are much more likley to be a vegetarian by the time you're 30. :)
3. The meat industry is corrupt. Read "Fast Food Nation" if you want to understand this more. But in a nutshell, the meat packers in North America are profit-driven corporations, and this leads them to speed up production lines. Faster production lines mean more injuries for basically powerless and exploited workers, and it means an increase in the amount of feces in the meat. No wonder we can't have rare hamburgers over here, while the Europeans can eat it raw. Their beef doesn't have quite so much feces!
That's enough of a reason for me. Add to that any shred of compassion you might have for animals, and it might even be a no-brainer decision for you.
On Friday I decided to become a vegetarian. This isn't a really hard decision for me, because while I enjoy meat, I'm not that picky about what I eat - so I won't miss it. I still plan to eat eggs and dairy, at least for now!
So why make the change? Well there are a number of good reasons. I picked up a book on becoming vegatarian, and I was sold by page four! And I'm not even particularly bothered about the mass killing of animals. Maybe if I toured an abattoir, I would have stronger feeling on this one... anyway, here are the biggest factors for me in making this decision.
1. We've got to save the planet. Raising crops like corn and wheat and feeding them to cows, pigs and chickens to eat is an extremely inefficient way to get calories. Like ten times less efficient. Consequently this meat eating habit of ours is costing us dearly in terms of fresh water, arable land, fossil fuels, etc. The most alarming for me was the farmland we're losing to desertification every year, because of overgrazing. If we keep losing farmland at the present rate, we'll run out in 44 years. Of course that can't happen, but the phenomenon will put enormous pressure on human existence for the rest of my life.
2. Health. It seems that heart disease, cancer, and a whole slew of other less serious illnesses are due in part to eating too much meat. Vegetarians live, on average, 7 to 9 years longer than the general population. I'd like to be healthy! And again, I don't much care if I eat meat or not, so there's not much of a downside. There was even a study that correlated IQ with vegetarianism. It doesn't make you smarter, but if you have a high IQ when you're young, you are much more likley to be a vegetarian by the time you're 30. :)
3. The meat industry is corrupt. Read "Fast Food Nation" if you want to understand this more. But in a nutshell, the meat packers in North America are profit-driven corporations, and this leads them to speed up production lines. Faster production lines mean more injuries for basically powerless and exploited workers, and it means an increase in the amount of feces in the meat. No wonder we can't have rare hamburgers over here, while the Europeans can eat it raw. Their beef doesn't have quite so much feces!
That's enough of a reason for me. Add to that any shred of compassion you might have for animals, and it might even be a no-brainer decision for you.
Wednesday, December 20, 2006
Making Money from War
One of the biggest problems in our system right now is that people make a lot of money from war, and those same people have a say in starting wars. If we could remove that massive conflict of interest, we could probably stop countries from embarking upon wars quite so often.
Consider for example the insanity of allowing one man to be a major stakeholder in a military contractor, and an advisor to the President of the United States! That man stands to make a lot of money if the U.S. goes to war, and he can influence the decision. This is not a hypothetical example - it is the way things work.
I can imagine a few tweaks to the current system that would prevent this kind of conflict. First and most obvious, we could disqualify people with such an obvious conflict of interest from acquiring political power. That would entail writing some new laws, but I think most people would support laws like that, just out of common sense.
So there's one action item you might take up - create or support the effort to stamp out conflict of interest in politics. I haven't found anyone suggesting this, but I didn't look very hard either.
Another possibility would be creating a feedback system, so that going to war had a bigger downside for the decision maker. As it stands, they don't even get voted out of office for embarking upon a war-for-profit, as long as the public believes the motives were unrelated and that the war was justified. Now we get into the Reality Problem of course - most of the voters don't live in the war zone, so their impressions are created second hand, by the media. Is the media fair and balanced? That's another article.
Action possibility #2 - start paying attention to free, balanced sources of news. Educate yourself on this issue by reading about Free Press.
OK, this is my first real blog entry and I have no idea what to expect. Perhaps outrage, perhaps silence. Bring it on!
One of the biggest problems in our system right now is that people make a lot of money from war, and those same people have a say in starting wars. If we could remove that massive conflict of interest, we could probably stop countries from embarking upon wars quite so often.
Consider for example the insanity of allowing one man to be a major stakeholder in a military contractor, and an advisor to the President of the United States! That man stands to make a lot of money if the U.S. goes to war, and he can influence the decision. This is not a hypothetical example - it is the way things work.
I can imagine a few tweaks to the current system that would prevent this kind of conflict. First and most obvious, we could disqualify people with such an obvious conflict of interest from acquiring political power. That would entail writing some new laws, but I think most people would support laws like that, just out of common sense.
So there's one action item you might take up - create or support the effort to stamp out conflict of interest in politics. I haven't found anyone suggesting this, but I didn't look very hard either.
Another possibility would be creating a feedback system, so that going to war had a bigger downside for the decision maker. As it stands, they don't even get voted out of office for embarking upon a war-for-profit, as long as the public believes the motives were unrelated and that the war was justified. Now we get into the Reality Problem of course - most of the voters don't live in the war zone, so their impressions are created second hand, by the media. Is the media fair and balanced? That's another article.
Action possibility #2 - start paying attention to free, balanced sources of news. Educate yourself on this issue by reading about Free Press.
OK, this is my first real blog entry and I have no idea what to expect. Perhaps outrage, perhaps silence. Bring it on!
Virgin Blogger
OK, we're biting off a lot here. It seems that every day I learn about yet another thing that is crazy about this world, and I'm tired of doing nothing about it. It seems that if people KNEW about some of this stuff, it would just go away, through market forces, elections, or revolutions. So I guess I'll try to apply some pressure in the right direction, and make the world a better place for us and for all our kids.
Here we go!
OK, we're biting off a lot here. It seems that every day I learn about yet another thing that is crazy about this world, and I'm tired of doing nothing about it. It seems that if people KNEW about some of this stuff, it would just go away, through market forces, elections, or revolutions. So I guess I'll try to apply some pressure in the right direction, and make the world a better place for us and for all our kids.
Here we go!
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