The truth, the whole truth,
and nothing
but the truth ...
Restoring America's 'democratic ideal' will require major media reform
Political Ploy No 1: The bigger the lie and the
more often it is told, the more likely it will stick.
Ploy No 2: Have opponents shamelessly accused of the crimes that you are
really guilty of.
Ploy No 3: Forget morality. Do anything to win - power, greed & deception are everything.
The lynchpin: Anticipate
getting away with it - count on the unquestioning compliance of the media.
... or the right to remain silent?
Rights and responsibilities
"Rights, if they are ever to possess any meaning, are always accompanied by responsibilities ...
not only to ourselves, but to others. In a democracy, the responsibility to vote is one of these. Being a truly informed
and active citizen and contributing day to day towards a fair and just society is another.
Time spent on
seeking reform of the media, enhancing free speech and diversifying opinion, will ultimately pay off with improvements to all
other areas of life - including necessary reform of the political processes and institutions themselves.
Efforts directed
at reforming the public media offer the best hope of building and maintaining a truly healthy, accountable and democratic society."
Truth, politics and marketing
'The influence of marketing shows itself in advertising and commerce, where we would expect
to find it, and in politics and war, where its presence should surprise us ... Marketing has no particular concern with the truth
...
Awareness is the only defence against (this) creeping plague ... (of abuse and manipulation of public language).'
-
Don Watson, Death sentence: The decay of public language
"We can't fix America without fixing the media system ..."
"... At its heart .. it is our media system that flattens our debates, distorts our perception, corrupts our language, narrows our
alternatives, limits our understanding, even as it massages and entertains our brains, reflecting the commercial and political agenda
of those on high.
... How can you have any kind of democracy if the people are not informed, not being informed, and in fact
being under-informed .. by a system that dumbs it down when we need it to smarten us up?"
