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We Are Control
2002-06-15 2:55 pm
i have gazed into the gaping maw that is the face of the Enemy, and in its alien depths, i saw John Stossel.John Stossel, ladies and gentlemen, is what passes for "journalism" (in the loosest sense) on network television these days. last night, quite by accident, i stumbled upon a program entitled "tampering with nature" (or something similar). it caught my attention, as i thought it to be some kind of presentaion on climate change, bioethics, or some such topic. instead what i got was anit-environmentalist propaganda masquerading as "expository journalism". the apparent objective of this gem of american broadcast tv was to show the sheep (err i meant to say audience) that environmentalism is not what it seems. the movement to save the planet is, according to the program, a shady conspiracy fueled by politics (leftist anti-consumerism) and driven by indoctrination, shady figures on top, and disinformation. now, to some extent, this is true, and this is not what my problem is. my problem is that mr. stossel used these ideas in order to attack some scientific ideas about the effects of humans upon their environment. stossel integrated interviews of a very unflattering cross-section of environmentalists (these people were either inarticulate, flakey, or both) into a discussion of the validity of some of these ideas (global warming etc etc). to bolster the image he wanted to create the tone he used for the narration was sarcastic and dismissive. never once did he enter into a full discussion of some of these phenomena and the theoretical and methodological issues surrounding them. at one point, he was interviewing two native americans as part of a segment on whether or not pre-contact life in the Americas was "better or worse" than after the europeans. as they were maintaining that life was better, he told them about the benefits of european culture, how they improved quality of life for the poor naked savages. specifically, he spoke of the marvels of modern dentistry and how, without eurpeans, injuns would be toothless (!!!!!!!!!). at that point the omegaserpent became livid. for those of you who are not too familiar with anthropology- tooth decay (dental caries) is a condition associated with agricultural societies which depend on mass produced staple foods which are easily broken down into glucose (wheat, corn, tubers, etc). in hunter-gatherer societies, which was the predominant subsistance orginazation in the americas for millenia, the occurence of dental caries is extremely rare. that was as much of this show as i was willing to take.
so. is it irresponsible journalism, by a man who just does not know what the hell he is talking about? or is it propaganda? perhaps corporate/industrial america using the mass media to disseminate misleading information in order to cultivate negativity against those who would see their demise. you probably know which answer i favor, but i simply wish to speculate, and mourn for the millions of people who were gullible enough, uneducated enough, and trusting enough, to lap up the monkey shit being fed to them.
the war rages...
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