Letter to an Ignorant but Beloved Friend

I get it.  You’re in a different place than I am.  You weren’t into school, or it just didn’t work out for you.  Or you did that but your career didn’t pan out like you thought it would.  You didn’t have any job security.  You don’t make enough money.  You’re raising a family.  You’ve had health issues.  You can’t afford cable.  So all of your information comes from free media — in other words, Fox, Rush, and word of mouth.

If I tell you that you’re being fed information by corporations whose only interest is themselves, you say both sides are biased. It’s all opinion. Yes, I’ll, grant you, it’s true.  But you’re listening to the stupid side.

You know what I learned in school? Something called “critical thinking.”  You may have learned it at one time yourself, but you’re just too tired or busy to deal with it. You turn on the TV to relax, not to think.

Well, friend, if you’re willing to do a little critical thinking, you’ll discover some pretty important stuff.  Like the fact that Fox is controlled by a single billionaire whose only real interest is in remaining a billionaire.  Said billionaire has freely admitted that he used his media to support the Bush agenda. Certainly it kept people watching, “Shock and Awe” and all. That’s one man.  Just one man has enough power to manipulate the opinion of millions through something he calls “news.”  You bought the product he was selling.

Critical thinking leads to the discovery that Rush is paid by CC Media Holdings, which owns Clear Channel Communications, Premiere Networks, and over 850 radio stations across the country.  Headquartered in Texas, 70% of the company is owned by two partners, one of which is Bain Capital (Romney’s old haunt).  Do you seriously think these people are interested in what’s good for you?  Please.  They’re interested in selling you the products of their advertisers, and their programming had better keep you listening. That Rush guy is pretty compelling, isn’t he?

Let me save you the time and give you the benefit of the critical thinking I’ve already done:

Money = Power;  Wealth = Control;  You = Screwed.

Get the picture?  Now turn off the damned TV.

One thought on “Letter to an Ignorant but Beloved Friend

  1. A

    A couple of ironies:

    1) That people still think about TV as relaxing…It’s probably the pioneer technology of introducing a steady stream of colourful bouncing stress-cocain directly into the homes of millions of people, simultaneously. You’ve got all the psychological stresses of pressure to buy, which brings along with it the pressure to afford, which brings along with it the pressure to make lots of money and achieve a certain status or whatever the bullshit is that people are always calling, “to be successful;” I like to call that an abominable use of the word success *and it’s derivatives. I mean, there’s potentially an endless list there, depending on how specific you want to be. Maybe the most succinct way to state the stress induced by the content is to say that it pressures you to be something other than what you are (that’s right, we’re not even just talking about “who” at this point).

    And then we have the physiological stress; there have been scientific studies which indicate that stimulation from watching TV actually disturbs the body’s ability to properly rest. I’m sure we’ve all heard by now not to try to fall asleep with the TV on…I guess that’s with the exception of those who watch programs like FOX news…TV interfering with sleep? It must have been a communist who was spreading that rumour! Or a Canadian. *Shudder*

    2) That the free media you mentioned, FOX and Rush (is that a DIsney Movie?), happen to be advancing the very platform that ensures that fewer and fewer people can actually afford to buy homes, raise families, take care of their health, etc, and pay for cable which means that they’d have to watch free media that advances the very platform that ensures that fewer and fewer people…

    Hmm. It’s possible #2 isn’t all that ironic…

    Reply

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