I’m interested in talking about the fears people have from the fake news and the destructive qualities of a media controlled by the oligarchy. The worst example is the national tv media brought to you by big pharma. Ask your doctor if you’re sick enough to believe this crap. It’s bad enough that the news anchors are reading from the same governmental press release of untruth, but the commercials themselves are trying to make you so sick you’ll need more medicine.
They silently recite side effects of the latest pill for you to sublimate in your subconscious while you’re cooking dinner or drinking your first beer. It is insidious mass hypnosis intended to sell pills and make you believe you are ill. Then back to the news that makes sure they report on dead soldiers, or returning soldiers, or cops who died from unfortunate, tragic events.
The news also wants us to be afraid of other countries. But everyone thinks it’s real because the formality of the venue. It’s all just a ruse to make us think that we get to hear the truth of what’s going on. By the time the TV news is over, we’ll all be pretty sure the soldiers are saving our freedoms and we are so sick we need to ask our doctor gods for more pills. What could go wrong in this scenario? Just think about it.
Fortunately, the human interest feature is still okay with the corporatocracy. We end up finding some hope when the news shows people saving animals or each other. Then we feel glad we watched. Or it confirms fears we have that are growing day by day as some stories drag on for eternity. I’m thinking that maybe I don’t want to see this anymore.
It isn’t that I don’t believe some of the news. Of course I do. It’s just maybe every other story I believe, and maybe it’s the news trends I resent. The trends like we’re all at risk from the Zika virus, or the SARS virus, or the measles or some other disease. It’s as if they can’t wait for the next pandemic or the next war. Maybe it’s because those are the main priorities of the corporate-controlled media to fund wars and sell pharmaceuticals. It’s freaking sick.
These days if a journalist tries to do real investigative journalism, she or he is as likely to end up in jail as they are to get published. The days of journalism in the US as a watchdog of the government are over. The universities still teach journalism, I’m sure, but I’m curious if they teach ethics or morality, or the more sinister governmental or corporate controls on the media. I think if not, they need to add that to their curriculum as the bad times unravel these hard days in our country.
I believe someday that real journalism will prevail. I beg those who try to keep trying. I’m happy to know those values exist somewhere in the media. I’m just hoping that those capable of transforming the truth tellers back into telling the truth win out one day. All I can say is, thank God for the artists and poets. They don’t lie. When the truth tellers yell out the truth, I’ll be listening. For now, I find it unnecessary.
photo by Carolyn Reed