Gee, a post less than once a month? That's no way to gain readers, but then again I honestly don't expect to, so that makes it all good.
If you've paid any attention at all to the press of late, the mainstream media is obsessed with scandal after scandal. This isn't at all surprising, but when you dig deeper into the controversies they're forever trying to pump up ("We need another Watergate, oh please oh please oh please!") what's as amazing as what they say is what they don't say.
For example, the "NSA wiretap scandal." The press would have you believe your calls to your friends, spouse and parents are being actively listened to. Bush is "illegally" wiretapping calls willy-nilly. He's "acting like a king" rather than a president and on and on. But here's the important bit the press is leaving out:
Unless you're making an international call to a known Al Qaeda operative, your call would never have been CONSIDERED for interception, let alone actually listened to.
Now I know many people may have a shady friend or two, but I really doubt the average American has to worry about this, unless your conversations go something like this:
"OK, I'll see you later Osama. I'm going to watch the Olympics tonight, how about you?"
"Oh, I was thinking of blowing up a bus in London, nothing much. Talk to you later if I don't."
Please.
If you're worried about wiretapping, try googling for information on the Clinton-era NSA program "Echelon." Now that was wholesale eavesdropping of all international calls. But that's OK, Bill would never do anything to hurt us and besides, he was probably busy finding new uses for cigars.
Another example? Sure, how about "selling our ports" to the United Arab Emirates?
A foreign company already ran our ports - Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation of London. That company is being acquired by Dubai Ports World. The type of acquisition that happens every day in the business world.
This does not mean Dubai will be responsible for port security. It does not mean Dubai would have "control" - Dubai Ports World has already said the executives in charge of the division controlling the ports would be American.
The UAE helped financed those responsible for 9/11? Not exactly; their money flowed through the UAE as part of an unofficial bank transaction. I'm sure Al Qaeda has a few Swiss bank accounts too; shall we prohibit them from anything to do with port operations as well? Should we ban Swissair? Swiss Army knives?
One more? Sure.
How about the fact that "out of respect" the New York Times and other papers refuse to run those cartoons. Meanwhile a week earlier the NYT happily published a picture of a crucifix covered in clippings from pornographic magazines. Why the difference? Mostly that Christians don't riot, attempt to burn down the NY Times building and don't threaten to kill the staff at the Times. (Whether that's a good or bad thing I leave as an exercise for the reader.)
The mainstream media is all about controlling your perception of events by selectively withholding information. They treat news the same way NBC treats Olympic results. NBC acts as if everyone who might tune into the prime time Figure Skating coverage didn't already know Sasha Cohen took silver. NBC News acts as if it's 1972, it's Watergate all over again ("Hey, Iraq is Vietnam, we say so!") and you can't find out the actual truth of events by searching the web for them.
This is why you should not watch the news. I'm serious here; avoid the network news. Get your news from other sources - Fox News, online, whatever. But avoid ABC, CBS and NBC. You'll be a much happier person (and less prone to believe everything America does is wrong) and, frankly, much better informed.
