With the United States in economic turmoil, everyone I know likes to question how we got here. They trace their steps back to when George Bush was first elected for president.We can remember how close the 2000 and 2004 elections were. I personally remember the 2000 presidential election quite well. I was eating dinner with my family when the results were coming on. I saw how FOX news was reporting Bush the winner. When my parents changed the channel and I saw differing election results, my cousin audibly yelled: "What the ****?"
Watching episodes of The Young Turks (http://www.theyoungturks.com) brought me to thinking about how close that election was. How It MIGHT have gone the other way. So comes the controversy that gave me a blast from the past.
It was when I saw the video regarding FOX news's battle with the White House did I realize how big an issue this is. What a lot of people do not realize.
The news is important. You tune in every day or so to check the weather and the new developments around your community. But did you ever stop to wonder how much of it you actually believe? How much of it is true? Whether or not you question the validity of what you are hearing?
Cenk Uygur, Youtube spokesman for The Young Turks, was talking about the 2000 election between Gore and Bush. Because Bush's cousin told FOX news that Bush had won, FOX was the first network to publish results. This started a domino effect with the other networks. Nobody bothered to sit and wait for it to be completely over and official. They just cared about being the first to report it. They rest as they say, is history.
I'm not going to speculate on the what ifs this brings up. I accept the fact that George Bush became president. And as much as I disapproved with his polices and actions, I have no doubt that he and his administration had the best intentions.
What really scares me is the fact that a news network MIGHT have completely influenced the election of a president. How could such a thing happen?
Then again I might be paranoid. I'm pretty sure that I will never know most things about the U.S. government. The administration might be controlling the media, or the media might be controlling the government.
Either way, I honestly think there is something really wrong with the system.
Check out the documentary "American Blackout." It's on youtube, in about 9 parts...that movie really breaks down specifically some of the dirty tricks used to mess with the 2000/4 presidential elections.
ReplyDeleteAlso you might be interested in Larry Lessig's work...he is the brains behind creative commons, but he's moved on somewhat from his battles about intellectual property and has got this political reform movement going. He is a smart cookie in my opinion.
Ah, so this is where the media-government-society triangle comes from. Yep, it was pretty close--so close that any form of media could've put forth any result and have it be believeable.
ReplyDeleteThe media might just be running a part of the government. Who does the voting anyway. The media can be secretly pushing forth a "truth," Americans would vote in accordance; thus having a democratic government run by the media, and not the people.
"Yikes" is the word.