red onion

I would like to expound on my belief that the corporate media "stole" away our right to dissenting views. When we as citizens did little to protest the auctioning off of our media to huge, multi-national corporations, perhaps it is more fair to say we abdicated our right to dissension. Essentially, for a very low price I might add, compared to the relative worth of what was purchased, the corporate world gained a monopoly in views expressed. Not many talk about objectivity in journalism anymore. Perhaps it never existed. It is my belief that what we choose to report on, and how we report it, is always filtered through not only the belief systems of the reporters, but of the various managerial positions who control editing content, as well as the beliefs of the masses the media is reporting to. We hear what we want to hear, based on our belief systems. With the control of the media in the hands of corporate America, including radio and newspaper, an ascendant of beliefs took place, relative to those who now own the media, and those that are chosen to report the media. The people who eventually became reporters and talking heads for these
corporate owned giants, must by the very nature of reality, share the beliefs, to a great extent, of the owners. Already, MSNBC is talking of canning Phil Donahue. Try as he might, and did, he doesn't fit in well with the corporate view of the world. He is not as willing as, well as the "media whores", to quash dissenting views and feelings within himself, in order to fit the mold and keep his job. He ought to be glad they are talking of canning him; it is a tribute to his integrity.

But a media reports only what the masses truly want to hear. I'm not going to let Joe-citizen off the hook. We are perhaps one of the most poorly informed democratic citizenry on the planet. We have, again, abdicated the running of our "democracy" to the very rich who can afford to run for office. Most don't participate at all in any kind of democratic process, including the right to vote.
American largely have descended into a collective amnesia in terms of how this country was formed, and what gave it life. It wasn't the power of the gun that gave it life, it was the power of the pen. If it weren't for Thomas Paine's"Common Sense", the presence of guns in the colonies would have been irrelevant.