who owns your news???

When you turn on the news, or look at your paper, or turn on your favorite talk radio, what are you really getting??? Do you know who owns your favorite outlet?

(originally this was going to become a more in-depth break down of what companies own which news outlets, but there are several websites that have documented this and I don't want to spend 3 hours reinventing the wheel, you can easily do a basic websearch and find the facts for your self or I will just include a few links on the bottom of the post if you are too lazy to type)

Basically, all your major news sources are controlled by a few multinational enormous corporations. Media giants (Disney, Time-Warner, Comcast, News Corp) and defense contractors(GE, Westinghouse) which profit handsomely when we are in wars or when we have some latest craze to be scared of (Y2K, bird flu, killer bees, terrorists......). Man, it really isn't hard to come up with these things, in the spirit of Halloween I will throw in razor blade apples and LSD/arsenic laced candy. If I turn on MSNBC they are screaming about the right-wing elitists that are trying to ruin our country. If I turn on, maybe I should say flipping through and happen to catch a glance of, Fox News they are calling our president a ___________ (fill in blank with whatever seems the worst) Muslim, Communist, Socialist, Nazi, Marxist.... or make up something else up. Do they even stop to consider that most of the ideologies are diametrically opposed to one another? Nazi vs Communist have you ever heard of WW2? Communist vs Islam wasn't it the Soviet-Afghan War which led to the rise of Bin-Laden? A man that America armed and trained because at the time the politicians thought they could control him and it led to........... lets get back on topic. The point is these people profit from you and I listening to them and mindlessly repeating what they say. The greater the crisis the more we turn on our radios and tv's and listen to the pundits.

Ok, parting example, and I don't mean to pick on Fox but it really is just too easy.
Fox News can't seem to go 10 mins without talking about the ground zero mosque and saying what a travesty it is and that Muslim's are rubbing it in America's face. Did you know that News Corp's second largest share holder is a Saudi Prince? He is a member of the board and he happens to be giving hundreds of thousands of dollars to build the ground zero mosque. Why would Fox's owners be against the mosque publicly but be building it privately? Because its a win-win for them. Money pours in to the mosque from those who want to show support or disgust for the hate mongering. Money also pours in to Republican campaigners who promise to rid America of Islamic extremists and terrorists. They win, we lose.

I'm not saying you have to spend all your time searching the internet to try and find out about whats going on, but you need to know who its coming from so you can read between the lines. Most of it isn't even important or real, so don't stress yourself out over it. Think for yourself, if it sounds silly when you say it out loud, it usually is.

Have a happy Halloween, thanks for the read.


http://www.whoownsthenews.com/
http://www.mediaowners.com/
http://www.stateofthemedia.org/2010/media-ownership/dashboard.php

The double down

ASSOCIATED PRESS 

Scientists are puzzling over an unexplained increase in stomach cancer in young white adults, even as a new study shows that rates in all other American adults have declined.

Young white adults, from 25 to 39 years old, have a relatively low chance of developing stomach cancer, the study found. Still, the incidence of the disease among this group climbed by almost 70% in the past three decades. The type of stomach cancer the study focused on has been linked with diets high in salt and salt-preserved foods, and low in fruits and vegetables.

Does this sound like the kind of food that is served in your typical fast food restaurant??

if it walks like a duck.....

and talks like a duck.....

then its a duck......

The words "terrorist" and "terrorism" are being throw around a lot this week after authorities caught the guy believed to be the Time Square bomber.  And this brings me back to something that really bothered me a few months ago.  I wrote down some notes and was planning to blog about it, but I had just started this thing and at that moment it just didn't feel right.  But now with it fresh in our minds again I have two questions..... what exactly is a terrorist?  and how is Joseph Steck not one?

This guy wrote a bunch of anti-US-gov statements, snapped, took a plane, and crashed it into a gov building with the intent to murder people.  And our elected officials and the talking heads did everything they could to NOT call this guy a terrorist.  Why?????????

Is it because he owned the plane?  Or that he looks too much like the "average American"?

Or was it that his "I pay too much taxes" rhetoric is gaining popularity in some political circles?????

Thanks for the read.

Girls drive bad too :)

According to a news report by the Wall St Journal (read it here) teenage girls are now worse drivers than teenage boys and insurance companies are taking notice.  Rates for girls are quickly rising and may soon be close to the amounts that are charged for boys.  So young men celebrate your new found equality.

I wonder...... what could be the cause of the sudden spike in teenage girls driving dangerously????

hummmmm............. well..... Nothing is coming to my mind :)