There was a time when all people had for news about the
world had been main stream media with an occasional word of mouth story thrown
in. Things have changed since then with advent of the internet. Now people have
that for getting news and views too, at least those who have frequent access to
it.
There is a huge problem with mainstream media. In
authoritarian countries it pushes a colored narrative of ruling powers. In
compromised democracies it may just close a media house that opposes a ruler as
seems to have happened in Turkey
yesterday. In the best of democracies too media is not free of undesirable
influences. For example in UK
the BBC habitually refers to refugees fleeing violence as migrants and not
refugees. This has implications in the way fleeing persons are treated because
different international treaties and obligations apply to refugees and
migrants.
As regards the most recent conflict between Israel and Palestinians around Gaza,
where thousands of children and homes were destroyed in Gaza,
with none on the Israel
side, BBC has repeated several times– Children on both sides suffered. The idea
behind this slanted reporting is to keep up public support for disproportionate
assistance to one side only by politicians who in turn are supported by
interests from that side. An American politician during his election campaign
for the American Presidential race criticized an opponent for mentioning fair and
impartial treatment to both sides He said he would be unashamedly impartial and be on the side of
one country only - even if they perpetuate evil. Fortunately he has not been taken seriously by many.
Returning to the media again, while in democratic countries
a dictator may not control media, big money interests do. They own it. Thus
when a politician like Bernie Sanders emerges who says that he shall work to
restore economic equalities and not let the Billionaires take most all, such
big money interests would naturally like to oppose him. They do it through the
media that is under their control such as the CNN. The slanted reporting on
Bernie Sanders may just be regarded as immature or childish but in fact it has
vicious consequences. Large sections of the population including many from the older
generation do not access the internet much at the present time. As a result
their choices are influenced by such coverage.
The vicious consequence of perpetuating big money interests
is that economic inequalities would continue to rise as they have over the last
thirty years or more and as a result of it more shall be driven to homelessness,
more children shall go to bed on a hungry stomach, more of the middle classes
disappear into poverty. This same media and its staff then become responsible,
at least in part, for this grave inhuman injustice for the sake of a fistful of
dollars. At stake is the blood of
children killed like flees not just in far away places like Syria but at times
on the streets near their places of work.
Presently, in America,
the prevailing economic system has succeeded in producing the highest child poverty rate among
all countries in the developed world.
The public would be well advised to take with fistfuls of
salt whatever is thrown at them from big media houses while trying to become
aware of motivations behind the news. Older persons who are not familiar with
internet use would gain hugely by exchanging views with younger members of
society who can access the truth through social media. It is true that
everything on the internet is not true either, there are echos of information
and information bubbles that exist on it but the advantage is that these are
created largely by independent democratic voices, not those vested interest who wish to
gather more wealth while driving children to hunger and profiting from bombing
the life out of sweet innocent children in countries from Libya to Afghanistan
with Sudan, Gaza, Yemen, Iraq and Syria in between. As regard the Billionaire himself, it might be said that he would not gain more joy by acquiring a few more millions but would most certainly do so if he can bring a smile on the face of small innocent children in need. The simple light poem at the following link makes it very clear why:
http://someitemshave.blogspot.in/2015/08/billionaires-lament-poem.html
http://someitemshave.blogspot.in/2015/08/billionaires-lament-poem.html
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