Free Thought??
Whether we are talking about local politics, the City Council, Floyd Memorial Hospital or the Cultural Worldview, there is a common thread to the thoughts. We are influenced by what we allow ourselves to see, hear, and believe.
We are constantly bombarded by the media and they really control much of the thought and beliefs in our society. Those who control the media, control the culture.
Although we have much more freedom than most other nations, we are still heavily influenced by only a small percentage of individuals and their agendas.
Other thoughts on this topic come from a variety of individuals but the theme remains very similar. Here are a few:
If you want to change the culture, you will have to start by changing the organization.
Mary Douglas
The control of information is something the elite always does, particularly in a despotic form of government. Information, knowledge, is power. If you can control information, you can control people.
Tom Clancy
When we, through our educational culture, through the media, through the entertainment culture, give our children the impression that human beings cannot control their passions, we are telling them, in effect, that human beings cannot be trusted with freedom.
Alan Keyes
The range of debate between the dominant U.S. [political] parties tends to closely resemble the range of debate within the business class.
Robert McChesney, author and media critic
In a dictatorship, censorship in used; in a democracy, manipulation.
Ryszard Kapuscinski, journalist
They just don't come in contact with people not in their [income] bracket. They've lost touch with their community.
Stan Opotowsky of ABC News, about the journalistic elite - On Bended Knee
The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society.
Edward Bernays, "father" of modern public relations (PR), on government propaganda
One of the intentions of corporate-controlled media is to instill in people a sense of disempowerment, of immobilization and paralysis. Its outcome is to turn you into good consumers. It is to keep people isolated, to feel that there is no possibility for social change.
David Barsamian, journalist and publisher
To keep information from the public is the function of the corporate media.
Gore Vidal, Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace
The media serve the interests of state and corporate power, which are closely interlinked, framing their reporting and analysis in a manner supportive of established privilege and limiting debate and discussion accordingly.
Noam Chomsky, American linguist and US media and foreign policy critic
The modern susceptibility to conformity and obedience to authority indicates that the truth endorsed by authority is likely to be accepted as such by a majority of people, who are innately obedient to authority. This obedience-truth will then become a consensus-truth accepted by many individuals unable to stand alone against the majority. In this way, the truth promulgated by the propaganda system - however irrational - stands a good chance of becoming the consensus, and may come to seem self-evident common sense.
David Edwards, author of Burning All Illusions
In the United States, both the Republican and Democratic Parties, with only a few prominent exceptions, have been and are in the pay of the corporate media and communication giants.
John Nichols and Robert McChesney
The purpose of commercial [media] is to induce mass sales. For mass sales there must be a mass norm ... By suppressing the individual, the unique, the industry ... assures itself a standard product for mass consumption.
John Whiting, writer, commenting on the homogenization of corporate media program content
Anyone who challenges the prevailing orthodoxy finds himself silenced with surprising effectiveness.
George Orwell, author of the book "1984"
I know of no country in which there is so little independence of mind and real freedom of discussion as in America.
Alexis de Tocqueville, 1805 - 1859, French political thinker and author of Democracy in America
... the airwaves belong to the people.
from the 1934 Communications Act
The range of debate between the dominant U.S. [political] parties tends to closely resemble the range of debate within the business class.
Robert McChesney, author and media critic
If you want to know about the world and understand and educate yourself, you have to dig; dig up books and articles, read and find out for yourself.
John Stockwell, former CIA official and author
To accept opinions is to gain the good solid feeling of being correct without having to think.
C. Wright Mills - from the book The Power Elite
When everyone is thinking the same, no one is thinking.
John Wooden
The media serve the interests of state and corporate power, which are closely interlinked, framing their reporting and analysis in a manner supportive of established privilege and limiting debate and discussion accordingly.
Noam Chomsky, American linguist and US media and foreign policy critic
We are willing to accept lies if they make our lives easier.
Producer from the TV series "People's Century"
One of the intentions of corporate-controlled media is to instill in people a sense of disempowerment, of immobilization and paralysis. Its outcome is to turn you into good consumers. It is to keep people isolated, to feel that there is no possibility for social change.
David Barsamian, journalist
The internet and blogs have allowed much more openess and an ability to publish thoughts and views without significant challenges. We still live in the greatest country on earth, but don't be fooled by believing the media doesn't control much of the agenda.
We are constantly bombarded by the media and they really control much of the thought and beliefs in our society. Those who control the media, control the culture.
Although we have much more freedom than most other nations, we are still heavily influenced by only a small percentage of individuals and their agendas.
Other thoughts on this topic come from a variety of individuals but the theme remains very similar. Here are a few:
If you want to change the culture, you will have to start by changing the organization.
Mary Douglas
The control of information is something the elite always does, particularly in a despotic form of government. Information, knowledge, is power. If you can control information, you can control people.
Tom Clancy
When we, through our educational culture, through the media, through the entertainment culture, give our children the impression that human beings cannot control their passions, we are telling them, in effect, that human beings cannot be trusted with freedom.
Alan Keyes
The range of debate between the dominant U.S. [political] parties tends to closely resemble the range of debate within the business class.
Robert McChesney, author and media critic
In a dictatorship, censorship in used; in a democracy, manipulation.
Ryszard Kapuscinski, journalist
They just don't come in contact with people not in their [income] bracket. They've lost touch with their community.
Stan Opotowsky of ABC News, about the journalistic elite - On Bended Knee
The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society.
Edward Bernays, "father" of modern public relations (PR), on government propaganda
One of the intentions of corporate-controlled media is to instill in people a sense of disempowerment, of immobilization and paralysis. Its outcome is to turn you into good consumers. It is to keep people isolated, to feel that there is no possibility for social change.
David Barsamian, journalist and publisher
To keep information from the public is the function of the corporate media.
Gore Vidal, Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace
The media serve the interests of state and corporate power, which are closely interlinked, framing their reporting and analysis in a manner supportive of established privilege and limiting debate and discussion accordingly.
Noam Chomsky, American linguist and US media and foreign policy critic
The modern susceptibility to conformity and obedience to authority indicates that the truth endorsed by authority is likely to be accepted as such by a majority of people, who are innately obedient to authority. This obedience-truth will then become a consensus-truth accepted by many individuals unable to stand alone against the majority. In this way, the truth promulgated by the propaganda system - however irrational - stands a good chance of becoming the consensus, and may come to seem self-evident common sense.
David Edwards, author of Burning All Illusions
In the United States, both the Republican and Democratic Parties, with only a few prominent exceptions, have been and are in the pay of the corporate media and communication giants.
John Nichols and Robert McChesney
The purpose of commercial [media] is to induce mass sales. For mass sales there must be a mass norm ... By suppressing the individual, the unique, the industry ... assures itself a standard product for mass consumption.
John Whiting, writer, commenting on the homogenization of corporate media program content
Anyone who challenges the prevailing orthodoxy finds himself silenced with surprising effectiveness.
George Orwell, author of the book "1984"
I know of no country in which there is so little independence of mind and real freedom of discussion as in America.
Alexis de Tocqueville, 1805 - 1859, French political thinker and author of Democracy in America
... the airwaves belong to the people.
from the 1934 Communications Act
The range of debate between the dominant U.S. [political] parties tends to closely resemble the range of debate within the business class.
Robert McChesney, author and media critic
If you want to know about the world and understand and educate yourself, you have to dig; dig up books and articles, read and find out for yourself.
John Stockwell, former CIA official and author
To accept opinions is to gain the good solid feeling of being correct without having to think.
C. Wright Mills - from the book The Power Elite
When everyone is thinking the same, no one is thinking.
John Wooden
The media serve the interests of state and corporate power, which are closely interlinked, framing their reporting and analysis in a manner supportive of established privilege and limiting debate and discussion accordingly.
Noam Chomsky, American linguist and US media and foreign policy critic
We are willing to accept lies if they make our lives easier.
Producer from the TV series "People's Century"
One of the intentions of corporate-controlled media is to instill in people a sense of disempowerment, of immobilization and paralysis. Its outcome is to turn you into good consumers. It is to keep people isolated, to feel that there is no possibility for social change.
David Barsamian, journalist
The internet and blogs have allowed much more openess and an ability to publish thoughts and views without significant challenges. We still live in the greatest country on earth, but don't be fooled by believing the media doesn't control much of the agenda.
posted by Anonymous at 5:55 AM
7 Comments:
Amen. That's why I quit taking the local newspaper, quit watching the evening news and I don't have cable TV. (There's a country song in there somewhere.)
Last week I was sitting in the OR waiting/eating area from 9-2 and CNN was on the TV and I feel for the kids at VT, but CNN was just driving the story into the ground. My brain was so saturated with that information that the only thing you end up talking about when people come in is, "Isn't that a shame about those college students?"
To show you the power of the media, look at the VT story. My god, every sports team in America was wearing a VT hat the next day and Simon Cowell is apoligizing about comments he made.
I think Orwell was right.
Fight the talking heads, turn them off. Live your own life.
Your paranoia is showing again HB. There is so much diversity in the media that saying that the "message" is controlled by anyone is just...silly. There are newspapers, magazines, television and radio programs which span the entire spectrum of political (and religious) thought and opinion. No one has a monopoly on delivering the news or the spin on the news. You can find whatever you want to believe.
I couldn't agree more with the notion that the main purpose of the media is to push consumerism. The national media don't even pay lip service to balanced and unbiased reporting anymore, instead, shaping the content and presentation to a particular demographic to attract advertising dollars.
Our country became very smug at the dismantling of communism, to the point of believing the capitalist system was a panacea to all the world's ills. Unfortunately, we will choke on the excesses as a goose prepared for pate'.
I had this debate with someone last week. 12:14 and 2:06 said it--it's not about a liberal agenda, that appearance is just a symptom of the illness. Spin = controversy = ratings = $. There's little substance left to the idea of fair and balanced reporting...a local reporter actually said to me once, "We don't care if it's accurate as long as it's news."
How disgusting.
If it makes money, it doesn't seem to matter that it feeds the dysfunction of some our uglier human tendencies. It's like the rumor mill, only set to interpretive dance and available for our viewing pleasure 24/7. How many of us would pay to see that? I bet more than would admit to it out loud...we can't blame the media for pushing itself on us if we're the ones consuming. The market isn't driving itself here, people. It takes at least two parties to engage in codependence.
Not everything can be categorized as left wing/right wing. The development of media from its earliest days has been liberal in nature, though, from a more theoretical perspective. Meaning that regardless of political platforms and issues, journalism has been about challenging people’s thinking through the dissemination of information, exposure of truth, development of critical thinking skills, progressiveness, growth, etc. Something along the way must have backfired, though, because look what we have now. More blind followers than ever. But again, liberal ideology is not the same as liberal agenda. If you ask me, the only free thinkers we have at all anymore are the people who don’t vote party lines.
I think I’ll start a petition to have GDI included as an option on voters’ registrations. We can make tee-shirts!
$
Watch Fox News. It's fair and balanced.
Not only that, but Shepard Smith is one sexy bitch.
Did Rush Limbaugh really blame the VT shooter on liberalism? I wonder if he'll be going deaf again any time soon.
Lord loves a workin' man; don't trust whitey; see a doctor and get rid of it.
Navin R. Johnson
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