Does Anybody Out There Still Believe Everything They See On the News?
My Weekly Message for 07/17/22 on the Social Gospel Blog with Author Rev. Paul J. Bern
Twenty-three Uncomfortable Facts The Mainstream Media Still Won't Discuss
“You Shall Not Bear False Witness Against Your Neighbor” (Exodus 20: 16)
by Rev. Paul J. Bern
The Ninth Commandment, as it written in the Book of Exodus chapter 20 verse 16 is very explicit – you shall not lie (or “thou shalt not”, if you prefer). Yet for its entire existence, humankind has developed a remarkable propensity for ever more sophisticated forms of deception. For example, during the Hitler dictatorship in Germany from the 1930's up to the mid-40's, there was a branch of the government called "The Ministry of Propaganda" that dished out a torrent of profane distortions about Jewish people, and later the outcome of the war itself. It was headed by a guy named Joseph Goebbels, who committed suicide at the end of the war rather than face capture, which would surely have been followed by a death sentence at the Nuremberg Trials.
The Theme of This Week’s Message
Today in America, we have a similar position within the White House staff that we call the Press Secretary, who can be seen regularly on the evening news. He/she serves the same function, they just has a far more innocuous title than "Propaganda Minister". This person's job – and I have noticed regular personnel changes – is to spoon-feed the media the information du joir of the day.
Everybody knows that the media is told what to say and how to say it, and yet there were remarkably few protests about it up until about 2011 or so. This was during the mushrooming of the Arab Spring, which led to the “Occupy Wall St.” and “we are the 99%” Movements, and more recently into the “Black Lives Matter” Movement, all of which are still very much active today. So this week's message is my small contribution towards demanding some genuine truth and authenticity from our news sources. No more US Government propaganda please, we're all fed up with the government! Not so much America, mind you, just the government.
A Vote of No Confidence In the Press
For decades, the mainstream media in the United States was accustomed to being able to tell the American people what to think and how to think it. Unfortunately for them, a whole lot of Americans are starting to break free from that paradigm. People today much prefer to think for themselves. Blind obedience is not only stupid, it can be hazardous as well. This includes a significant number of people of faith like myself. A Gallup survey from 2012 found that 60 percent of all Americans “have little or no trust” in the mainstream media. That number has now exceeded 85 percent of America’s electorate as I write this. More people than ever are increasingly seeking out alternative sources of information. In the United States today just six giant media corporations control the mainstream media. Those giant media corporations own television networks, cable channels, movie studios, radio stations, newspapers, magazines, publishing houses, music labels and even many prominent websites.
The Alternative Media Takes Center Stage
But now, thanks to the Internet the mainstream media no longer has a complete monopoly on the news. In recent years the “alternative media” (Alternet, Democracy Now, Bill Moyers, WeAreChange.org, etc.) has exploded in popularity. People want to hear about the things that the mainstream media doesn’t really want to talk about. They want to hear news that is not filtered by corporate bosses and government censors. They want “the whole damn truth”, and they know that they are not getting it from the mainstream media. That's also one of the primary reasons why people are doing away with cable TV as I have. It's not just the money saved from unsubscribing, it's the fact that everybody knows everything they are watching is a load of BS!
End Game for the Established Media Conglomerates
We are watching a media revolution happen, and many influential people in the traditional media are totally freaking out about it. In fact, some in the traditional or “lame stream” media have even begun publishing articles that mock the American people for not trusting the MSM. Americans that don’t trust the media are depicted as paranoid conspiracy theorists that have left rationality behind.
It’s OK to Question Authority
Ever have the feeling you’re being lied to by the news media, the authorities, the corporate world? Look around. Trust is hitting historic lows. Less than one fifth of Americans have a favorable view of the federal government, a decline of about 50% since 2002, according to the Pew Center for People and the Press. “Negative opinions about the performance of news organizations now equal or surpass all-time highs on nine of 12 core measures the Pew Research Center has been tracking since 1985,” a Pew report said back in the summer of 2014. The article goes on to make it sound like it is very irrational not to trust the media, but in this day and age it is imperative that we all learn to think for ourselves. It's perfectly OK to be skeptical!
Representing a Broken System
Anyone that does not acknowledge that the mainstream media has an agenda is either really naive or they're not being honest with themselves. The mainstream media presents a view of the world that is very favorable to their big corporate owners and the big corporations that spend billions of dollars to advertise on their networks. The mainstream media is the mouthpiece of the Establishment, and the worldview being pushed on the big networks is going to be consistent with the economic, financial, political and social goals of the Establishment. The mainstream media loves to talk about things that fit with that agenda, and they don’t like to talk about things that suggest that there is something wrong with that agenda. The following are 23 facts that the mainstream media doesn’t really want to talk about, because they are all 'red flags' that tell us that theirs is an agenda for a system broken beyond repair:
#1) The mainstream media really wants to avoid talking about the fact that gun sales are absolutely skyrocketing in the aftermath of all the mass shootings everywhere. Americans from all backgrounds are arming themselves to the teeth!
#2) They also don’t really want to talk about the fact that disarming the population has resulted in some of the most horrific massacres in human history.
1911 – Turkey disarmed it’s citizens, and between 1915 – 1917 they murdered 1.5 million Armenians.
1929 – Russia disarmed it’s citizens, and between 1929 – 1953 they murdered 20 million Russians.
1935 – China disarmed it’s citizens, and between 1948 – 1952 they murdered 20 million Chinese.
1938 – Germany disarmed it’s citizens, and between 1939 – 1945 they murdered 6 million Jews and slaughtered 34 million others.
1956 – Cambodia disarmed it’s citizens, and between 1975 – 1977 they murdered 1 million educated people.
1964 – Guatemala disarmed it’s citizens, and between 1964 – 1981 they murdered 100,000 Mayan Indians.
1970 – Uganda disarmed it’s citizens, and between 1971 – 1979 they murdered 300,000 Christians.
If the Second Amendment were to get repealed, these same massacres of civilians will happen next right here in the US.
#3) They don’t really want to talk about the fact that a bill allowing for the “indefinite military detention of US citizens on American soil” was quietly passed by the U.S. Senate more than 10 years ago. Never mind that it's completely unconstitutional (see the Bill of Rights to the US Constitution, namely the 4th, 5th and 8th amendments).
#4) They don’t really want to talk about the fact that volcanoes all along the Pacific ocean's “ring of fire” are roaring to life. It seems like a new eruption is being reported every few days now, and earthquakes globally are at an all time high.
#5) They don’t really want to talk about the fact that the use of genetically engineered seeds has caused on explosion of new “super weeds” that are incredibly difficult for farmers to kill.
#6) They don’t really want to talk about the fact that trends forecasters globally are predicting a major financial disaster in the next few years.
#7) They don’t really want to talk about the fact that in America today, it is easier to get into Harvard than it is to get a job as a flight attendant.
#8) They don’t really want to talk about the fact that over 1,000 TSA employees have been fired for stealing from travelers since 2003. Our tax dollars hard at work. Nice.
#9) They don’t really want to talk about the fact that giant corporations such as Facebook, GE, Halliburton and Citibank (among numerous others) are funneling gigantic amounts of money through offshore banking havens such as the Cayman Islands in an effort to avoid taxes.
#10) They don’t really want to talk about the fact that the US dollar is in danger of losing its status as the primary reserve currency of the world. If this were to occur – which is becoming increasingly likely – financial calamity would surely follow. Such a calamity would make the 2008 crash and the Great Depression seem like a day-care center in comparison.
#11) They don't want to discuss the fact that one fourth of all homeless people in America are children under the age of 12. This one social injustice alone makes me ashamed to be an American. Moreover, like the rest of the country, I too am one check away from becoming homeless myself. For such a thing as this to be happening in what is allegedly the world's richest country is absolutely inexcusable!
#12) They don’t really want to talk about the fact that the US economy is losing millions of jobs to nations where it is legal to pay workers slave labor wages. Actually, this process is already started in the US as well, due to the fact that no one can live on the current minimum wage of $7.25 an hour.
#13) They don’t really want to talk about the fact that large numbers of formerly patriotic Americans are leaving the country in droves because they are completely disgusted with what America has become – the world's largest arms merchant and the biggest bully on the whole planet..
#14) They don’t really want to talk about the fact that hunger and poverty are absolutely exploding in the United States at the same time that they are telling us that the US economy has 'recovered' from the Great Recession.
#15) They don’t really want to talk about the fact that North Korea now has an unknown number (anywhere from 4 or 5 up to 20+) three-stage rockets with enough range to hit parts of the western United States. The Koreans also have enough striking capability to wipe out the American military bases on Guam Island and at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.
#16) They don’t really want to talk about the fact that the United States Postal Service is losing 25 million dollars a day and is on the verge of financial collapse.
#17) They don’t really want to talk about the fact that our biggest oil supplier in the Middle East, Saudi Arabia, still kills people for changing religions. Or sometimes, just because the Crown Prince doesn’t like you.
#18) They don’t really want to talk about the fact that 'political correctness' has taken over America. The truth is that the media does not see any problem with that at all.
#19) They don’t really want to talk about the fact that nearly half a million employees of the federal government are making more than $100,000 a year while 25% of American children go to bed hungry each night.
#20) They don’t really want to talk about the fact that the birth rate in the United States has fallen to an all-time low. The financial elites are actually absolutely thrilled that less babies are being born.
#21) They don’t really want to talk about the fact that Barack Obama received more than 99 percent of the vote in more than 100 precincts in Ohio on election day back in 2012.
#22) They don’t really want to talk about the fact that many major US cities are seeing violent crime totally spiral out of control while police officers are quitting their jobs in droves because of poor pay.
#23) They don’t really want to talk about the fact that the US Federal Reserve created the conditions for the last financial crisis, and their mismanagement of the economy has now brought us to the verge of another horrible economic downturn. Maybe the Federal Reserve should be nationalized so that printing and coining money returns to the auspices of the US Treasury like our Constitution specifies (see article 1, section 8).
All that Congress and the President needs to do is return to the original Constitution. It's the perfect way to wipe out the so-called national debt, which really only exists on paper anyway. But they can't because their corporate sponsors won't allow it. That's why the system is broken, and it's up to us, “we the people”, to get the job done. If our government hasn’t the strength and the backbone to do this on behalf of the entire country, “we the people” will have to do this by ourselves.
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