The impact of media on society

 The impact of media on modern society can trace its roots to the inflammatory works of authors Thomas Paine and Jean Jacques Rousseau. In an age where kings ruled every nation on the planet these men authored and published works which changed the course of human events. Faced with execution for crimes against the crown Paine and Rousseau wrote on despite the risks to life and liberty.

     We have come a long way since the 18th century from a media stand point no longer is the media merely the printing press with movable type. In the 21st century we have print, television, radio, movies and the internet screaming at us 24hrs a day. We live in an age where a slow speed car chase occurring thousands of miles away masquerades as breaking news. Beamed via billion dollar telecommunications satellites to your television, several experts offer a running commentary of the irrelevant event taking place half a world away. Today’s news and media coverage of world events is fast if nothing else, I mean if a cat is stuck in a tree in central Ohio we will know about it before lunch and before dinner we will have heard from the cats owner, seen the cat’s kittens and heard experts from the ASPCA and Arbor Society debate the value and safety of possible extraction methods.

     Meanwhile, on the other side of the world one hundred US and international firebases in Afghanistan have come under intense attack from the Taliban, and in Washington a billionaire CEO of the world’s largest corporation has a senator put an earmark in a spending bill building him a bridge at tax payer expense. (Shah)So who decides what is news and why that darn cat is so important while my friends and your tax dollars aren’t? The media of course, but who are the media exactly and what incentive would they have to steer you away from the real story of the day and onto the poor cat stuck in a tree. The media today are not the hundreds of radio and television stations or the thousands of internet sites or even the production companies who make movies, the media today are in fact only nine international conglomerates, these nine multinationals are not in the news business they are in business period. The boards of directors of these nine multinationals are populated with CEO’s of the worlds other great multinationals, not Walter Cronkite. Firms like Exxon Mobile, General Electric, Microsoft, Archer Daniels Midland and Boeing determine what you see and hear.

      In today’s world the classic “Common Sense” would not get a second look at any publishing house, not because they don’t want to publish it, because they can’t, they can’t because of the economics of the marketplace and the ownerships ties to the political powers that ensure their continued monopoly and utter domination of the media. The advertisers cannot be upset, no marketing executive want his or her commercials running after a news story which contains video of US Soldiers being dragged through the streets of Kandahar, so we simply don’t see it. A free press no longer exists in American life, free being the operative word. Opinion pieces are driven by one side of the argument or the other even “factual” reporting is tainted by high powered commercial enterprises in today’s media world. True media and news objectivity no longer exists. Richard Nixon would never have been impeached had he been president within today’s media environment, want proof look at the actions of the last president. Yet, the people are unaware as the media runs headlong in search of the next “cat in a tree” or Britney Spears story under the guise of breaking news. The commercial enterprise that is today’s media is simply that a commercial enterprise. News is a profit center not a public service ,attack the messenger has been replaced by purchase the messenger and shape the news to make your advertisers happy.

Works Cited Shah, Anup. Media Conglomerates, Mergers, Concentration of Ownership. 2nd January 2009. 6th November 2009 .

What you can do with $102,000 per hour

Did you know that the United Health Care CEO is making $102,000 per hour this year not per week, or per month per hour! Now, if I were him I would be anti-health care reform to. Heck I would even lobby congress to prevent any changes, I might even fund commercials to “expose” the public option as a SOCIALIST CONSPIRACY FOR GLOBAL DOMINATION.  The fact of the matter is that we are having the wool pulled over our eyes here in the US by dudes, yes, I said dudes.- The origin of the word is American in the 1880′s and was applied to a class of men all of whom were city slickers and came west to take advantage of the ignorant cowboys.  Hence the term dude ranch. Now we have a new class of  dudes who are really no different then the dudes of the old west. These modern day snake-oil salesmen  are taking advantage of the ignorance of the population for their personal business gains.

As the only Modern Western Country without a national health-care plan for its citizens, the USA is the last bastion of the  Health-care dudes. These dudes are well funded, and have multiple, so called think tanks spouting the benefits of the current system and the evils of not-for profit health-care like the snake oil salesman of the old west. These snake-oil salesmen have the cure for all your ills, and if you’re gullible enough to believe them you deserve what you get, nothing, nothing but denied claims and hassles every time you try to use the health insurance policy you pay for on every paycheck.

If on the other hand you don’t make $102,000 an hour for denying valid claims or sell snake-oil to the masses take the time to think about it. Who benefits from the status-quo by eliminating a public option ? To start with,  its those  dudes making a $100,000 an hour!  Once you get a grip on reality and understand that you and every other hard working citizen of the worlds richest nation is already paying for national health-care (see your medicare taxes on your next paycheck) you just can’t use it until your 65, it’s called medicare. As an American you should be entitled to a decent standard of health-care, not the 37th best in the world.  If you think (government run health care or-Medicare) sucks try and take it away from the seniors and see what happens. Ask your republican representative to sponsor a bill eliminating Medicare and see what he or she says. The fact is, that if you’re 65 or a veteran you already have a national health-care system and no one will sponsor a bill to eliminate VA or medicare spending why is that? Because old people and veterans vote, the poor and uninsured do not. The seniors have the AARP lobbying for them and its political suicide to attempt to cut veterans spending.  So what is the point of this rant… You are, you’re the point at least the deductions from you’re paycheck anyway. If you are reading this you are not the poor or the uninsured you are like me, an average American you are one of the 125 million Americans that all that all the hype is about. You see it’s about your money because it’s your money that pays the CEO of  United Health Care $102,000 an hour. So he and his army of high priced dudes are telling you in as many words to trust them, because the snake-oil they are selling is the best snake-oil ever…. The thing is it’s still just snake-oil..

Bill Gardner, reformed snake-oil salesman (former insurance executive)

If your still reading try this on for size.

Brian Beutler of TPM has posted a pair of tweets from some idiot named Scott Oskay of New Mexico who is encouraging anti-health care reformers to attend Town Hall Meetings armed and to hurt people from the pro health-care reformers.

Are you anti government health-care? Read this clickhere.

Do you agree with this point of view? Did you know that the Veterans Adminstration is th top rated healthcare plan in the US and it is governmet run and-profit?