I find it disturbing that as United States citizens we can't rely on popular press for our news. As my colleague Farah Karahpeni comments in her post Public Health in Palestine (http://farahonhealth.blogspot.com/), we are typically only given one side of the story and it's usually the side most convenient for our government. The war in the middle east between the Israelis and the Palestinians is the best example of how by the time we get our news from the popular press it has been so filtered and polluted with bias that it can't be trusted. The Israeli government continues to oppress the Palestinians so much that regular people are being driven to fanaticism, the same fanaticism our news uses to associate negative thoughts with Muslims.The middle east is just a small example in the midst of a sea of issues we are typically misinformed about. Just recently I watched the documentary, "An Inconvenient Truth," presented by Al Gore. The documentary opened my eyes to how much the government and industry skew what we're told through popular press so that we fall into a state of doubt and skepticism which leads to inaction. "An Inconvenient Truth" describes the past, present, and future of global warming. If Al Gore's information is true our country and world has a huge problem on its hands. With the polar ice caps melting and oceans warming mankind may have to face a whole new set of environmental problems. If you haven't seen, "An Inconvenient Truth," I would highly recommend it. It will open your eyes to the issue of global warming and hopefully make you a little less vulnerable to biased popular press and news media.
(For a little fun, check out my friends "Go Green" video).
6 comments:
Hi Jordan...
I agree on most of the ideas you are exposing. In resume, i think that in a democratic government, the forth power is the press!
Keep going. Good luck!
I think it is a little unfair to blame the government for the biased press that we have. I believe one of the biggest controllers of press is the population, and as mentioned by Al Gore in the movie title, the population just doesn't want to hear news that is inconvenient. We don't want to hear that the actions we take that makes our life so comfortable is harming the world, and we punish the press that reports on these issues by dropping their ratings. That's why it is an inconvenient truth--we don't want to change our lifestyles to deal with it.
I see what you're saying Wilson and by all means I'm not blaming government. I understand that the public doesn't want to hear "inconvenient truths" so I guess I may have worded it wrong in my post. However, we do know that our government has and will continue to be influenced by industry and that it may do what's best for itself rather than for the greater good, including not disclosing scientific evidence on global warming that has been brought to its attention.
Guys, I believe it is a combination of the two. People in this country generally don’t want to hear the bad news that actually impacts them. They love to hear about the celebrity gossip, or the latest high speed chase. But when it comes to news that is hard to bear or that requires action, people shy away, ignoring all responsibility. Sometimes, I think, who can blame them, it is a lot easier to live life without other peoples’ burdens on our shoulders, but it is my personal belief that we have a social responsibility to care and act in the name of those who can’t do it for themselves, so as “inconvenient” as the truth or news may be, it is important to listen and be proactive in implementing changes. Additionally, I agree with Jordan that we face a huge bias when it comes to news reporting. Many times, it is due to what the government leaks or what they want us to hear. How many times do you turn on the t.v. and hear about the innocent Iraqi lives that have been lost in the war? We hear about the undoubtedly brave and respectable soldiers that are fighting, or the horrible insurgents that are being taken down, but like so many other media stories, we only hear one side, “our” side… the side the government thinks we are better off hearing.
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Jordan, it is sad to realized that what we are being informed is totally what government wants us to know. I watched the inconvenient truth and I was surprised by it, it is a great movie.
One thing that I want to know is that “the polluted news” is distributed in every country but you got to realize that the well-rounded ones, that not many of them are out there, will not rely on what they are getting presented! If you have realized we are barely getting any news on Australia, Africa and SOUTH AMERICA. Have you though why is been like that?
At the end Politics is SAD, INTERESTING and COMPLICATED!
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