First real Ramble of the New Year

Well ... I'm not going to talk about things in the past. Ferguson, and the protests surrounding it seem like ripe grounds for a rant, but you know what. It's done. I'm sick of it and the people around it. What I will say about it (and some other incidents) is that we in this country need to look at the media as a whole. They a quick to judge and slow to correct themselves even when shown to be absolutely wrong. (And often times even if they DO correct themselves no one sees it and so the 'false' information keeps getting quoted and passed around anyway.) There was a time when the news was just that, news. It was the events both local and national that you NEEDED to know about; you might not LIKE to read/hear it, but they weren't reporting it for you to like or dislike, they were reporting it so that you would KNOW about it. Then it became something more like entertainment and sensationalist. Go over the top, hit our emotions to get us mad, or sad, or sympathetic about an issue. Now it has taken the next step ... in many cases it is trying to get us to think a certain way. The media plays loose with the facts because it know that almost no one is going to check up on them. It will pick a side in a story and do everything it can to make that SEEM like the right side, even when evidence is brought up to show that the narrative that the media is pushing is a lie.

Now 'journalism' is about the 'narrative' and young journalists, when it's pointed out that the facts don't support the story and that the whole thing is a fabrication, say things like 'Well I don't think that it's a good idea to let the facts of a story dictate the narrative.' (This was said by a journalism student a month or so ago in regard to the fact that a gang rape story published by Rolling Stone was debunked.)

Wait ... what?

Did you not just say that you don't think that a 'journalist' should report the truth and the facts. Did you not just say that you believe that a 'journalist' should LIE to people if it better fits the narrative that you're trying to push?

Let me give you a hint. If the FACTS don't support the narrative then you don't HAVE a narrative, you have a work of fiction. Fiction comes from 'creative writing' classes not 'journalism' classes. Maybe you've been attending the wrong courses at your school. Or maybe you've been mixing the two and getting confused about which is which.

I mean, how am I supposed to take them seriously if they're just going to make up stuff to fit the agenda that they're trying to push? Want to say that a minority is oppressed by greedy corporations that exploit their hard work and pay them pennies but can't actually find any evidence of this? No problem! Just make up a 'story' and get it published (or better yet post it on the internet and then use it as a 'source' on Wikipedia or get quoted in a magazine or 'news' paper site. You're golden then.)

No one will question it ... and if they do, you can just smear them by saying that they're part of the oppression. That they are 'victim shaming' or racist for suggesting that the story might not be factual or accurate. Again, you don't need facts to back any of that up, you just need to further the narrative. Get enough traction and maybe you can get Michael Moore to make a documentary about it.

 Okay apparently I lied ... I did end up ranting about things in the past .... deal with it.

Look ... when I'm not rambling here or over on the Gaming Corner I write fiction ... I don't need to be competing with 'journalists' too.