Well, thank God for journalistic integrity; employed to ask the hard questions and convey the undisputable facts; paid by private corporations to gather information about the world around us for those with enough time to skim the news over toast.
I suggest burning an effigy of the publisher instead. For instance, local reporters somehow deem spray painting as violent, while completely ignoring the actions which the demonstrators are opposing.
The recent demonstrations in Ottawa showed reporters jumping over each other to denounce the tens of thousands of people who took to the streets as crude, pointless and violent. Unafraid of repeating themselves ad nausea like a collection of identical pea-brained pull-string dolls, they sniveled and wheezed about what “direct action” meant and excitedly reported that a group of unfocused losers came from the depths of the earth to smash heads with riot police. Perhaps they were simply far too excited to be let off their leashes like mutts with worms in November. Unfortunately, it is a much deeper problem than simple worms.
When a window shatters during a protest, reporters cower and whine for months about savages and provocateurs smashing the city into shiny bits of tinted glass. When a politician is directly responsible for millions of innocent deaths, reporters somehow repeat the military jargon of “collateral damage,” without firing a single neuron in question.
Does anyone else see the double standard hanging over this narrow vision? One source is a millionaire, the other, normal citizens who are enraged at the gross amount of cash being funneled into bullets that find their way into someone else’s vital organs.
Why then is more credibility ultimately given to the rich, and no one else? Why is there a business section and a sports section but no labour section?
It is because our “news” organizations are multi-billion dollar operations which make their money trying to sell you things? A cheap flight to Buffalo, a new Internet connection, chunky soup, thousands dead in Iraq, unlimited minutes on weekends and evenings.
Some would argue that perhaps it’s the owners and not the journalists. However, when the coverage tacitly justifies the murder of innocent Iraqis, one must question the institution itself and all those involved. When they wail and bemoan a lone shattered window in icy Ottawa over the complete destruction and carpet bombing of cities bigger than Ottawa, windows included, one reels at the analytical paucity.
If the leaves are wilted and the smell makes you gag, the cabbage is rotten my friend.
This isn’t to say that all journalists are lying dogs, but it is to say that when gulping up your morning news, be aware that the person interpreting the world for you probably lives in Kanata and cares more about their wardrobe than the careful weighing of right and wrong.