ETHICS IN JOURNALISM - THE PUBLIC DESERVES THE TRUTH

To paraphrase a rather crude phrase, "Opinions are like (blankety blank blank), everyone has one." But when the public is denied access to the facts, opinions are a worthless use of air and print.  People have nothing upon which to base their opinions other than the rantings of mainstream media hacks.  There are people in this nation who have realized the supposed "facts"  in the mainstream media are unfounded rubbish and went looking for truth and facts elsewhere.   The deceptions in the mainstream media are so prevalent now that it has become cliché.  A large part of the public is either misinformed or not informed at all.

How do you converse with someone or respect their opinions when their opinions are based on what you know to be lies?  Impossible.  The trigger used on such people is emotional response to fiction.  Well, we all have emotional responses, but you would hope you are responding to something attached to reality.  (That is, unless you buy into Freddie Kruger movies and LOVE to entertain yourself with horror stories.) Reading the newspapers or listening to the news can trigger all kinds of emotional responses.  But what if what you are reading and hearing is pure fiction, deliberately intended to yank your emotions into high gear?  This is where Madison Avenue and the government meet the press room.

A drug company wants to sell more of its product. The drug company advertises in the newspaper, magazine, or on the TV network.  The next thing you know, there is some news story that says your physical well-being depends on taking that drug or one like it.  The news reporter will tell the public that some affliction is SO predominant in the human race that everyone should be tested for whatever that drug will cure.  Uh huh. 

An energy sector company wants to sell wind turbines to the public.  The wind turbine manufacturer advertises the benefits of their new system on the news station. The next thing you know, there is a news story on how we are running out of fossil fuels and the nation MUST switch to alternative power sources.   Uh huh.  And you never see a news story that shows the detrimental effects of that wind turbine farm on the channels who sold the advertising to the wind turbine manufacturer.  Never.  Sadly, your neighbors and friends saw the news stories about peak fossil fuels and swallowed the whole fiction.  They didn't connect the dots between the advertising and the news reports.

The government is an advertiser, too.  How many public service announcements from the government do you hear and see?  Every one of those is a tax deduction for the news provider.  The radio station or TV station sets a rate per second or per minute for air time.  The government then grants them a tax break based on those rates for every public service announcement aired.  The broadcaster doesn't want to jeopardize that tax break, now does it?  Next thing you know there is a news story on the benefits of X, Y, or Z government program.  But you never hear anything to the contrary.  Ah....the benefits of depending on the government.  "Big Gov will take care of me," is the message that gets through to those emotional wrecks who want the government to ....take care of them. Or, "Look at what great things the government is doing with my tax dollars!!"  "What a great thing!!"  The poor consumer of that message never connects the dots...that their tax dollars were just used to convince them, subsidizing the broadcaster at the same time.

The mainstream media is making up stories and choosing stories to hit triggers of emotional response.  That may sound naive.  Editors have always chosen the stories to feed to the public.  They need consumers. They also need advertisers to pay the bills. But advertising used to be separate from the news.  I'm good with advertising, branding, and Madison Avenue.  I am NOT good with Madison Avenue buying out the truth and having the mainstream media print and broadcast lies to the public.  And I am NOT good with the government using my tax dollars to advertise itself and dupe the public.  

Years ago, when I was in high school, I thought I would pursue a career in journalism.  I was fairly proficient in English and writing.  Between my Junior and Senior years I was offered a summer program for two weeks at Ohio University in Athens, Ohio.  One of the classes I recall was a class on journalistic ethics.  Seems like a hundred years ago now, but there was such a thing as journalistic ethics taught at a State university in this country.  The major lesson of that particular class was to never let anything get between your writing and the facts.  Do research to verify what you are saying.  Check your sources.  At the least, do all you can in those efforts.  If you fail at that, print retractions and caveats that correct the mistakes.  Don't fail the public's need for truth.  This is the responsibility of journalists.

The public still needs the truth, but is starving for it.  The case for journalistic ethics has been tossed aside for a different agenda, purposely manipulating the public with lies and deception. 

Ted Cruz and a few other Republicans did yesterday what journalists have failed to do.  He spent 20+ hours on the floor of the Senate telling the truth about the so-called "Affordable Care Act."  The mainstream media and sycophantic pundits have mocked him for his efforts.  If we had ethics in journalism, or ethics in government, we would not be suffering through the worst presidency of our lifetimes or the consequences of it.  Our nation is suffering from a lack of truth.

Kudos to my blogger friends and facebook friends who are exposing the deceptions.  You are doing what my journalism class instructed.  We are all citizen journalists now.
     

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YUPPIES + HIPPIES = YIPPIES - STARBUCKS AND GUN CONTROL

I was paying attention to a few news stories on Starbucks over the last few days and all that crossed my mind is .....Yuppies must have "the Yips."  I come from a golfing family and "the Yips" is the condition of confidence crisis that grabs you over your next shot and you duff it or you mishit the ball.  The Yips...a crisis of confidence.  Combine the Yuppies with the Hippies...and what you get are Yippies with the Yips!  I hope the Millennials are not taking notes on how to run a country. < href="http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=millennial">Millennials

From what I can tell, we have two types of mass shooters in the last 5 years.  We have the Islamic terrorist.  And we have the deranged, mentally ill.  In both of those categories, the government has neglected to protect the public from such persons.  In all instances the shooters have picked a place where guns are forbidden to be carried by law abiding citizens.  The movie theater.  The schools.  The military bases.  But what does the liberal want to do about this?  Disarm the entire public even more and deny innocent, law abiding citizens, the opportunity to defend themselves.  (It suddenly just occurred to me that the same people who claim their property rights for a "gun free zone," are also the same people who deny property rights to people who don't want Smart Meters or squirrelly light bulbs or 1.5 gallon toilets. Hmmmm....)

We are living in a society where a lot of people have lost confidence in their abilities to do much of anything real.   Real, like working to create something real.  I know people like this.  They dismiss any possibility that they could run a business or make a product that people would buy, or work for a company that does.  They dismiss their ability to stand up to anyone who is doing something wrong.  They don't change the oil in their cars anymore or know how to change a tire.  They don't know how to bang a hammer into a nail to fix something.  Occasionally they will grab a hammer for a couple of hours at a Habitat project and pat themselves on the back.   They take their own bags to the grocery to save the planet, while at the same time buying tomatoes grown and shipped from Mexico or Central America.  They are terrified of using up their carbon footprint, so they fool themselves by buying hybrid vehicles...or they are fooling everyone else and purchase the car so they can get the $7500 Federal tax deduction.  It looks good to their friends, I guess.  If they do any manual work at all, they boast about how martyred they are for doing it.  They are usually the first ones in line to reduce their property taxes when revaluations come through.  They are seldom grateful for the labors of someone else, but talk about anything they have done as if they created the Holy Grail.  Too many people are pushing papers, collecting data on other people, shoving their noses into other people's business, and generally creating nothing but a chaotic mess.  Let something bad happen and bingo...you have the Yips!

Ask them about carrying a gun to defend themselves or someone else against a thug.....WHOA....no, no, no.   Ask them if you should walk into Starbucks to buy a latte with a concealed carry on your person.....OH MY HEAVENS, DON'T EVEN SUGGEST IT!

The normal human reaction to violence is to defend one's self and one's family.  The reasonable action in case of an attack is to try to stop the attacker, be it a snake, a wolf, or a predatory human.  Hence we have laws on the books that allow a self-defense plea .....you are reasonably allowed to defend yourself and your family. (Or you used to be allowed.)  If society and / or government renders you defenseless, who is to blame when the deranged, the terrorist, and the criminal take you and several others out?  Well, the way things are going I don't expect those self-defense laws will continue to hold up, given the culture of moral relativism and the idiocy being taught in law schools over the last years.  The Yippies want us to show understanding and sympathy to the attackers.  (Meanwhile, you aren't allowed to shoot a bear or other animal predator on your own property....poor predators.) This way, the Yippies don't have to take any responsibility upon themselves for disarming an entire nation that has a 2nd Amendment right to defend themselves.  And they also get to feign shock and dismay when a mass tragedy occurs against defenseless people.   

Just another day in Wonderland!

RANDOM THOUGHTS FROM THE RECOVERY ROOM

UPDATE ON MY ABSENCE -  Over the last several weeks I have had some crazy health issues.  First of all, a neighbor's dog bit me in the face on August 7th.  Fortunately, this dog had its rabies vaccinations, but unfortunately, has a habit of doing this to people.  I was healing nicely from that when I came down with a very high fever.  I discovered several insect bites on my legs, swollen ankles and feet, and spent a week of misery with those symptoms, plus more.  I couldn't eat by this time and had horrendous leg cramps that would not allow me to sleep.  I went to our Doctor who shot me full of antibiotics and said he thought maybe I had a sinus infection???  Say what?  Still sick a week later they sent me for a battery of blood tests and a sonar-gram.  The outcome of that was it must be a virus, and oh by the way, I have a gall stone.  The gall bladder was not infected or inflamed, but they sent me to the surgeon who said he'd be happy to take out my gall bladder anyway, but he didn't think that was the cause of all of these symptoms.  I went home to contemplate this.  The high temperatures by this time were going down.  Then I was sent to an infectious disease Dr. who said he thought I had some mysterious unnamed virus and it would go away in a few weeks.  Suffering three more days, I decided that if the gall bladder was causing the eating problem, I'd better get that fixed...so back to the surgeon.  And he is a good one at that.  Two days later...voilá...the gall bladder was out and I could eat again.  Now, I am a week beyond that.  The swelling and cramps in my legs are gone, things are slowly getting back to normal.  BUT, I am as weak as a kitten and going to take a few more weeks to regain my strength.  So that's the story on me...just letting you know what happened.  I must have looked like a delicious target to something(s) evil.  Do you suppose it was a communist plot?  LOL

O.K...so....before I was hit with all of that, I started to write this:

Random thoughts as I witness the theft of freedom and the most idiotic, stupid, moronic, lying, and evil people in leadership in this nation who ever lived.

Gee, do you think the House of Representatives has control of the purse strings?  Not if you listen to some of the GOP who swear they cannot defund Obamacare. But...but...wait....Obama knows how to get Congress to stay with the program!  Exempt them all, their families, and their staff personnel!  That way they can't deny the funding because they won't care anymore!!  Great idea....

Since when is Charleston, South Carolina on the Gulf coast?  Since the Emperor with no clothes says so on late night entertainment?  But the audience applauded.  Who is dumber?  The Emperor?  Or the audience? 

Let's keep cheap available energy away from the third world nations so they can continue to live the poverty life.  Yep, great idea.  We wouldn't want the third world to be too comfortable, now would we?  They might actually be able to produce something of value for themselves and rest of the world if they had available energy.  We can't have that.

And while we're at it, let's put the American coal industry out of work for good.  What have they done for us, anyway?  Really.  Just keeping us in productive comfort for years and years...that can't be a good thing, now can it?  Yeah.  Shut 'em down. 

Oh, how about putting low income housing into every neighborhood in America?  That's the ticket!  Let's do that.  Everyone should live next to or in a ghetto.  It's only fair.  We can all be like Chicago and the crime rate there...or like Detroit where no one can live anymore.  Perfect!! 

Here's great idea!  Let's make every road a toll road.

 Oooooohhh, I really like that one.  That'll keep those slippery citizens from moving around!  You know.  They use those very bad cars to get to work and school and ...the grocery and the mall.  Sometimes they are really indulgent and drive on vacations.  Make 'em pay even more to even try to do those things.  That'll show those bad Americans what it's really like to live.  Bicycles and sidewalks, subways and light rail, bullet trains and greenways...."these are a few of my favorite things!!"  (I think I feel a song coming on.)

Meanwhile, back at the school system:  Let's make sure those little munchkins get it through their little minds full of mush that whatever they do will kill the planet! Global Warming is the ticket!! How dare they consider growing up, having more children, owning homes, eating hamburgers...those bloodsucking parasitic kids.

Now let's move on to the Smart Grid, shall we?   The good Dems have put a bill forth that will make sure EVERY citizen will be attached to the Smart Meters we spent so much money on as we subsidized the high tech energy companies. We can radiate everyone and at the same time we'll be able to control every appliance and HVAC system in the nation!  Whoo hoo....that is going to be sosoooo much fun!!  When Suzy goes to turn on that washer, BINGO, we can turn it off...or turn her refrigerator off while she washes her clothes. 

Black boxes on every car by 2014!!  Of course!  That way we can hijack anyone's car at will.  We can control the speed, too! 

Oh yeah, don't forget to instruct the kids how to be homosexuals.  That ought to fix things.

Today:

On top of all of this chaotic destruction, by all means let's bomb Syria!!  Yeah, that'll get our minds off of Obamacare, Common Core, Amnesty, Benghazi, the NSA, and all of the other corruption in Washington DC.  Keep the focus elsewhere.  Let's bomb Assad without any concrete proof that he is responsible for using chemical weapons and let's, by all means, arm the same Al Qaeda that is our known enemy.  What a great idea!! 

You can't make this stuff up.   

Those are just a few of my random thoughts as I went through the trials of this last month.  I am going to be taking it slow and steady to get my strength back.  As the Dr. reminded me after the gall bladder surgery, "Lady, you have four very deep stab wounds.  You need to take time to heal."  

All's well that ends well.  I'm going to rest again now.  Back later!!

Thanks for stopping by!!