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 .

9/11 plus 8 equals

 
Eight years ago an event occurred that transformed the American landscape and the lives of us all. I will remember where I was that day for as long as I live, not because of the television coverage of the terrorist events in New York, Washington, and Pennsylvania but because of the words of my oldest son, William who was seven years old at the time. Back in 2001, I was a Financial Advisor who traveled to New York and Florida on a regular basis, the bi-weekly travel was so predictable that the Blue Blazer I wore on flights was dubbed “ da’s airport” by my two sons (at the time) who had grown accustomed to dropping me off at the airport on Monday mornings. You see my five and 7-year-old understood that when dad puts on the blue blazer and tan pants instead of a suit he was going to the airport, thus the blazer became “da’s airport”.  It was William, age 7 who came to me that moring as I dressed and told me all the planes were crashing and he didn’t want me to wear my “airport” that day.  I remember looking at him with some wonder as he often claimed that there were dinosaurs or tigers in the backyard then, and told him not to worry that I was not going to the airport today. He looked at me as if assured and ran off to watch “more planes crashing” on CNN.  I was in a rush and left without checking the CNN coverage.

As I drove from our Paradise Valley home to my office downtown, the radio stations began filling in the gaps in William’s warning. As horrible as this moment sounded, my immediate thoughts were to my clients portfolios, and not to the potential lost lives. I stood on the gas and the Porsche Turbo flew down the empty 51 freeway I had to get in the office at Camelback and 24th streets now. In those days one did not have to worry about speeding tickets issued by corporations, err  local municipalities with corporate partners. When I entered the office with my security card, I saw many of the guys standing around television monitors, after a few mouse clicks to safeguard assets as best I could I joined the crowd at the monitors.

As the smoke billowed from the still standing buildings guys in the office related story’s of the people we all had contact with on a daily basis who were in those towers, and of our clients transaction records on computers located within the World Trade Center. At the time none of us thought the fires could bring down the towers, are concerns were as they would have been from a fiduciary’s view, on the money flying around digitally and the effects this incident was having on it. Then, in a moment it changed,  as I, and many of you looked on the world changed, the first tower came down, and the money didn’t seem as important anymore nothing did, the tower had collapsed and with it our naivety. People were in the tower, people we had conference calls with, people we traded with, people we sent dumb email jokes to. In that  moment, I turned and to my left was my boss, Brent Barth. Brent was my model of professional, he was a West Point Graduate and two tour Vietnam vet, an experienced Financial Advisor and a New Jersey native, tall and fair-skinned with red hair, Brent looked at me and I at him and we knew the world had changed, and it had. In that moment, I remembered walking from time square to the World Trade Center one Sunday morning. It was an early summer morning in 1985 , I was a young soldier on his way to europe with a few days off in New York.  The lasting impressions I have of that morning  as I approached World Trade on foot are the immense towers, and the absolute quite of the streets. I have never seen New York as quite as it was that morning, a few vendors here and there a few taxi’s looking for fares, the hustle and bustle were absent. As I walked the towers grew larger and larger, and the sunshine gleamed on them as if they were magical.  Once I arrived I stood like anyone seeing the towers for the first time and looked up mesmerized by the scale of humanity’s accomplishment the towers represented. It seemed that time stood still, I approached the corner of the Tower and looked up along the edge on the building, I became dizzy as my mind tried to grasp the sheer magnitude of what my eyes beheld. In a flash, I turned and the city behind me had come alive, there were people everywhere, how long I had stared up into the sky I don’t know, it seemed only a few seconds, but it was more likely minutes that the towers had held my imagination and gaze.

Today, as I write this I grieve not just for the Cantor Fitzgerald Traders I had done business with, but also for the Trade Center, and America  itself. We as American’s have lost something since that dark day in 2001. Men and women died that day, and many more have died since that day attempting to avenge the attacks, or in the misdirected invasion of Iraq. The man who caused this calamity remains at large despite 8 years of rhetoric about “smoke-em out”, “bring it on”,”dead-enders “, holdouts, wanted dead or alive and of course who can forget the “bring him to justice” line.  As a former Ranger I know a little something about war and warfare, and studied history so I know a little bit about Afghanistan and insurgencies, I just hope the American people understand and display the patience required to eliminate the two men most responsible both of whom remain at large, Al Zawahiri and Bin Laden.

While many of the chicken hawks who ran the last adminstration talked tough about getting Bin Laden, they really did nothing about it, and in fact they distracted the populace with talk of Saddam and weapons of mass distraction and needlessly sacrificed many brave Americans while leaving Bin Laden and Al Zawahiri free to hide in plain sight in Pakistan. As you sit in front of the computer reading I want you to remember Pat Tillman, and the thousands of others who have died securing liberty for you, and I want you to remember that the job is not finished, the men who destroyed the World Trade Center and killed thousands of civilians that morning eight years ago are still walking around talking about killing you and your family and destroying the America we love. 

To those if you who worry about President Obama taking over healthcare,  raising your taxes, or taking your guns away, you do not have to invent an enemy we have one and he is not plotting to take over healthcare, he is plotting something real, as I write this. So get off  your ass and do something about it? Call your representative, write a letter to a soldier, send a care package to Afghanistan for your troops, pay your taxes, or enlist and put your ass on the line for once and stop letting others bear that burden for you. Until justice has been served no one should rest.