While people do universally lie, people also universally acknowledge that it is wrong; at least they universally acknowledge that they do not want people to lie to them. But why is it wrong to lie? What is going on when lies are told and believed? Human beings condemn murder yet do murder; they condemn rape and yet commit rape. Should we just accept rape and murder because we don’t live up to our own standards?
(theroadupward.wordpress.com)
Why do politicians so easily get away with telling lies? In large part, the news media are more interested in bonding with politicians than in exposing them. People are encouraged to believe that the media will serve as a check and a balance on the government. Instead, the press too often volunteers as unpaid pimps, helping politicians deceive the public.
(campaignforliberty.com at campaignforliberty.com)
All governments thrive on lies. We might even say that apart from weapons and men cruel enough to wield them on behalf of the rulers, lies are a government’s most essential resource. Opponents of the state may be powerless in nearly every way, but so long as they are free to speak the truth, the rulers can never sleep soundly. It therefore behooves them to suppress the truth and to substitute the state’s propaganda at every turn.
(Robert Higgs at blog.independent.org)
There was once a time when the media understood it had a job to do: Question everything, take nothing for granted and do whatever it takes to ferret out the truth. Sadly, that time has passed. Now, the corporate media blindly accepts its nuggets of food from its government master — never questioning and often cheerleading rather than reporting.
(Bob Livingston at personalliberty.com)
It is not a matter of bias in the media; it is a matter of deception. Bias, however damaging, is nowhere as dangerous and destructive as the sheer deception that is taking place. People can detect bias, but unless they are actively exploring alternative news sources they might never even suspect that they are being deceived or lied to by omission. The corporate media have abused the trust that had been earned by journalists past. They know the public trusts them to tell the truth. They know that a public that trusts them will not spend time fact checking.
News is simply information about events taking place around us. What news is reported and how that news is presented influence and shape public opinion. The people who are responsible for reporting news have enormous power over public opinion. Corporate entities whose financial or political interest depends on the support of the people to advance their agendas cannot and should not be trusted to control the information that shapes public opinion. This is an obvious and extremely dangerous conflict of interest.
Journalism is a profession. It is a calling. Unfortunately, what the public sees as journalists are is far too often people staking out careers in corporate world. Why is it that we now can rely only on the independent journalist (or news organizations) for unfiltered information? Regardless of one’s political position, people must understand that a free press can exist under a capitalist structure. However, profits, ratings or agenda should play no part in reporting news events to the public. News should not be a business. Surely, everyone in the journalism industry should be fairly compensated, but we cannot permit vested interests, either political or economic, to affect the validity of the information that is delivered. And yet, this is exactly what is taking place today.
(Editor, TvNewsLIES.org)
Why are so many people so willing to accept the lies of the State? Is it simply “ignorance is bliss”? Or is it the inevitable result of many years of compulsory government prisons for kids aged 5-18, also known as public schools? You probably learned in government school that Abe Lincoln freed the slaves and saved the Constitution; that FDR pulled America from the depths of the Depression with his New Deal; that the Japanese perpetrated a sneak attack on Pearl Harbor; that if Truman hadn’t dropped the Big One on Japan – twice! – The war would have lasted several more years and hundreds of thousands more soldiers would have died.
The lies will continue as long as we have a system that perversely encourages the worst among us to rise to positions of power. As long as the government monopoly on education continues, the lies will continue to be drilled into the soft, mushy heads of our nation’s youth. No tactic will be considered verboten as long as it seeks legitimacy among the “docile and gullible.”
The wisest course of action for the independent thinker is to constantly question authority, to assume that anything he hears from the mouth of a politician or bureaucrat is unadulterated bullshit, and to recognize that the worst will always make it to the top. And because the worst among us always believe the ends justify the means, lying will always be a hallmark of their modus operandi.
(Rick Gee at lewrockwell.com)
We spend a good deal of time discussing the statements made by politicians and other dignitaries and test those statements against common knowledge, common sense, physics, economics and what others have stated on the same subject. Sometimes we look at each other with astonishment on how people of honor, in high places, could make such utterances, or believe such non-sense. Perhaps the prevailing words here are, “people of honor”.
We have come to two conclusions on what are the real political realities of today. The first conclusion is that the problems have grown so large and so complex, that puny man seems to be impotent in his attempts to solve them, especially when shackled by single-focused political constituencies. That complexity is largely of our own doing. The second conclusion is related to the first. Since the national problems are so huge, politicians resort to propaganda, hype, distortions and lies to convince the masses that they are in control of the situation and what they are doing is for the masses’ own good, in spite of the fact that for purely political reasons, there can be no common-sense solutions to any of the problems. The decisions the politicians do make, so they tell us, are usually made as a result of some emergency, real, imagined, or purposely cooked up for their own ends. The hard cold truth of the matter is, politicians lie and for the most part, cannot be believed, no matter which side of the aisle they reside. The unwise person that does believe them does so at their own peril. All of this is due to the growing lack of honor and integrity by those in power, to the principles of freedom and liberty.
(Ron Ewart at newmediajournal.us)
In general people already have their own ideas when they view television, read newspapers, or log on to websites. This leads to “selective attentiveness” and acts as a type of filter that allows the viewer to pay attention to the details that agree with his or her own opinion. The media are more effective with those who have not formed a stable political opinion, whether it is on issues or candidates. Studies show that commercials and debates aired right before Election Day have the most effect on undecided viewers. Voters who have already formed their opinions are hardly influenced by the media to the point of changing their minds.
(Tatum Wilcox at helium.com)
The media is conspicuously silent when it comes to holding the government accountable for the impact of special interest legislation on the well-being of the public. Although newspapers and reporters may occasionally run an ephemeral article about a gift to big business, coverage of the real social impacts rarely, if ever, evolve into sustained scrutiny and analysis. The media is obsessed with portraying the perfect body.
(Brandon T. Pacey at associatedcontent.com)
ROMPEDAS 