Dear Editor:
As an individual who follows current events and politics fairly
regularly, I’m feeling very insecure and anxious and confused
today. On Monday, Aug. 2, financial centers on the East Coast were
credible and pending targets of specific terrorist plans.
Dear Editor:
As an individual who follows current events and politics fairly regularly, I’m feeling very insecure and anxious and confused today. On Monday, Aug. 2, financial centers on the East Coast were credible and pending targets of specific terrorist plans. Today, I learned that our decision to upgrade the alert status was based on information that was three years old and last updated seven months ago. Why did this happen? Was there a political strategy involved? Did we have another intelligence failure? What is going on behind the scenes?
The images of police deployed in riot gear and with automatic weapons at checkpoints was sobering, but was it necessary?
Fortunately, I arrived home to find a column by Bill O’Reilly telling me “The Truth about America”. He cannot understand why countries who are supposedly our friends, even our neighbor Canada, are so anti-American and suspicious of our intentions in the world.
Mr. O’Reilly correctly reminds us that America has been a tremendous force for good in our world listing our achievements against tyranny. He fails to mention though, the many times our policies have caused great injury and turmoil as in Central America. He complains that the foreign press, such as the BBC and Canadian Broadcasting Company, are not reporting in a balanced manner.
My response is that Mr. O’Reilly’s brand of psuedo-journalism, as practiced by his employer Fox News, is actually part of the problem in our world. It’s hypocritical methodology relies on narrowness of perspective, an intolerance for those with whom we disagree, an “us vs. them” strategy, a black and white framing of issues, and an unwillingness for self-examination and for questioning our motivations. This tactic, under the guise of news reporting, is very effective psychologically as people do not want to live with insecurity and seek a message of control and leadership. The constant drumbeat of “we are always right and everybody else is wrong” only deepens antagonisms and ensures long-term discord. But it’s great for selling copy.
What is happening today in our media is very dangerous to the founding principles of our country. The reporting of what’s going on in our society is incrementally being editorialized for the purposes of political manipulation. People feel confused and uncertain, and we hesitate to question because our perspectives are so churned by strident partisanship and misinformation that we either retreat from political discourse or take on the same intolerant line as the pundits.
My concern is that the scale and scope of this disinformation paradigm is infecting people and societies around the world. We need to know what is going on from a free and unbiased press that holds governments accountable and does not spin the news to cater to particular political agendas.
Mike Monroe, Gilroy
Submitted Tuesday, Aug. 3 to ed****@ga****.com.
