I’ve been watching FAR more main stream media news lately than I care to admit (CNN, FOX, ABC, YahooNews, etc) and I am convinced now more than ever that a news agencies purpose is not to educate the public but rather to shape public opinion (i.e. manipulate us). All news agencies selectively decide what issues we hear about, but, more disturbingly, they are sure to tell us exactly how we should feel about them too. They do not even remotely try to hide now that they are giving you their personal (and politically motivated) opinions and commentary. It’s not news reporting, it’s political ideology and each network has their agenda on what they believe you should think about during your work day. Furthermore, news outlets will ridicule and shame their own audience into being afraid to voice any other opinion other than that of their network news anchors. Your choice of news source is now a political declaration on your part. If you listen to CNN you must be a liberal Democrat because they are way left. If you listen to Fox News you must be a conservative Republican because they are way right. You simply cannot be caught watching one or the other without someone labeling you because of which side you decide to be manipulated by. Good luck finding an unbiased news source. I’m convinced that probably never has existed but now it’s impossible. Meh…rant over for the moment
Work
- Work is super slow. The Seattle office is still a ghost town and not sure it shows any signs of changing anytime soon. It’s a little depressing.
- Travel is still off the table, so no trip to Sequim this month for sure.
- This Friday I have another online class to take. One thing I can really be thankful about is that our company hasn’t been stingy about paying for training and increasing our skill set.
Home
- I almost can’t believe I’m saying this but I’m actually playing Dungeons and Dragons again. I recently stumbled upon a video by Matt Mercer and his “Critical Role” gaming group and became fascinated. On a whim I asked our board game group if anyone was remotely interested in trying D&D again and not only did I get responses but I got enthusiastic responses from people I would never have suspected. I actually hope none of my members watch Matt Mercer DM a game because I’m not sure ANYONE can compare (he’s a charismatic professional voice actor) but he inspired me to try my hand again now that I’m older and wiser.
- Along with my new D&D campaign starting August 8th, I have created a new blog titled “Leecifer, Prince of Dorkness“. I actually started this concept a few years back when I was invited to a one off D&D game at the lab as a player. I blogged about our adventure from my players perspective in a humorous fashion and several people who read it kept asking for me to republish it years later so they could show a friend. So, I decided I might try my hand at a humor blog for our current campaign from the DM’s perspective. I’m already writing it but the official campaign and humor style hasn’t started. I’m sure I’ll provide a link to the first humorous piece when I write it.
- In a couple of weeks I get a new tattoo outlined on my arm continuing the Alice in Wonderland theme I love so much. This one is going to be a pin-up style Alice bending over looking down the rabbit hole. I’m officially going to be stuck wearing short sleeve shirts in professional environments but then again, nothings’ different there anyway.
- Oh, and just a reminder. Epstein didn’t kill himself and you’re missing a HUGE story if you’re not researching a little all the shit going on with that whole mess. WOW. Makes me wish I was running a conspiracy blog again.
Spiritual or Philosophical
- When I do wake up early enough to get in a morning meditation, I’m always glad that I did. One of the coolest things about meditation so far has been my ability to shift my consciousness from one area of my body to the next and feel sensations there I am not normally aware of. As one brief example, I shifted my awareness during meditation to my cheeks and only then realized that my right cheek had a tremor in it and was twitching. I focused on that for a bit and observed it and then shifted my attention away to my jaw and the twitch went away. I find that fascinating for some reason. I can feel my heart beat in whatever part of the body I’m focusing on and can sense things like twitches and tremors when I’m focused there. Makes me wonder if meditation can self diagnose some underlying medication condition brewing.
- During a recent camping trip with friends at Lake Tyee, a brief discussion about reincarnation and astral projection organically took place. Around the campfire was a Christian, an atheist, an agnostic and myself. For a brief moment I was hopeful that this was going to lead to a deeper conversation of the type I’ve been craving so much lately but alas it didn’t really materialize into that. What I did find interesting however was how strongly the atheist seemed to need to reaffirm over and over that everything can be explained by chemistry in the brain and that only his position can be proven factual while all the other opinions around the fire (i.e. about God) were just that, opinions not based on facts. When I pointed out that his adamant belief that all things can be proven by science was in fact HIS religion, he seemed to reluctantly agree. He puts his faith in science while others put their faith elsewhere. I don’t think it changed a thing about his view but it was interesting. It was also interesting to me how I was triggered to anger every time he’d cut someone off sharing their opinion with a firm, “Nope! It’s just chemistry, that’s all!” I should not get irritated like that when someone expresses their opinion. I think it was the way he tried to shut everyone else down as being stupid that triggered me. I have a problem with that but I need to not have an emotional response to triggers like,”NOPE!”
Nope. Stardust.
Eat a dick!
Ooops, bad! I need to stop that. Being angry that is, not eating dicks. Wait….I’m not eating dicks…oh screw it…thanks for commenting.
I think news as reported facts is one thing, but the long news cycle modern tech has created has pushed folks into an arena where “editorial” style is more popular. This is a dangerous thing in my opinion as news orgs begin to “cater” do their audiences. There is no doubt that some agencies are highly biased liberal and highly based conservative. And even within those groups certain news agencies focus on certain content/stories in more or less specific ways. One of the biggest mis-conceptions about news is that their top goal is to push an agenda. Some agencies may be trying to do so, and of that there is little doubt, but this is a false understanding. The #1 goal of all news/media groups is to make money, and they will push whatever agenda is necessary with whatever click bait headlines are deemed clickable to get your eyes on the ads that are their true income generator. If people are truly interested in de-powering the modern news cycle, their are only 2 things they can do. Firstly, don’t watch. If you catch a news source acting a manner inconsistent with your beliefs turn it off. A lack of eyes/audience will quickly go up the chain to business people behind the scenes. News producers and reporters are important, but the business people/ad reps are far more highly paid than the news talent in most organizations, and they get paid to hock advertising. If that flow of income starts to waver due to lack of audience, that org will change their message to something that will earn them money, guaranteed. The second thing people can do is advocate for a non ad based news medium. The reason BBC England and Canada retain the neutrality and even tone they do in their news reporting is that their income is not based on advertising for the most part. If the news is boring, and no one watches, they can simply carry on reporting the boring facts. Many people bitch about state paid or public paid media, but it is one of the few and true ways to keep news from being sensationalized to catch eyes.
I can’t argue with this logic. Indeed the driving factor is money as it always is. And, because the agencies pander to one political party or the other, they are targeting their audience with things that will generate add revenue to those who they are targeting. In the end I’m not sure we are saying much different things. It’s not news reporting that is important, but getting clicks. I know you don’t like the word agenda and react very negatively to that term. I would argue however that even writing news to generate ad revenue is an agenda. I don’t mean to be argumentative and will try to limit my use of the word “agenda”.