A while ago a friend of mine and myself were debating whether a certain news item from Fox News had any truth in it. The story was quite incredible, and given that both of us have seen stories reported in the media and known the truth behind those stories, we were quite cynical about its veracity. We hoped that our cynicism was well-founded, because if the story was true it was truly terrible.
And my friend, who works in local government, wrote back to me, something that I'd like to share this New Year's Day, in the hope that maybe you will begin to trust the media less readily, that maybe one of you will question what you hear, be less accepting of what the government and the news agencies tell us, be more independently-minded.
I share your cynicism. And as you know I spend a large part of my day effectively persuading and manipulating the press to promote my department's agenda (it is XXX and YYY, so not really evil). For just about every story you see there's someone like me, sometimes more evil, sometimes less, sometimes more naive, sometimes less, pushing their team's agenda. There have been lots of good examples recently. Seriously, I can't think of a single thing that your average person in the street knows of current events, a product, or history that hasn't been fed to them by someone like me with an agenda. I really can't, and it's awful.
Happy New Year.
Comments
Urgh. I'm trying to avoid being force-fed video of Saddam's execution at the moment. Not something I really need to see.
Happy New Year right back at ya.
Posted by: I whiffles, I does | January 2, 2007 03:28 AM