Connection Magazine, The Premier Good News Publication www.connectionmagazine.org

Just Whose Media Is Motivating You? And Which Media Is True?

Those who believe that such a thing as "sin" still exists are considered "fundamentalists" like the Taliban
by Ben Kinchlow

Whether you know it or not, your character and opinions are by some form of media almost everyday.

If you think what you see on television is simply chance, and the news or entertainment programs on TV are without conscious design, or that commercials simply inform you of products, then the media has been successful in its brainwashing of America. "Strong words, Ben!" OK.

"Media" has several definitions in the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition.

Media, plural of "medium":

A means of mass communication, such as newspapers, magazines, radio, television, or the internet.

The group of journalists and others who constitute the communications industry and profession.

You've observed, of course, that any criticism of the media status quo generates a great hue and cry as "an attempt to muzzle the media". Vociferous, expensive, legal scholars assault the courts with great indignation in vigorous defense of the "…freedom of the press…".

"It is clear", they argue, "that the intent of the 1st Amendment guarantee was to provide for a free press, which would contribute to the freedom of the citizenry." This part is unquestionably true. Unfortunately, what the Founding Fathers had in mind has been subverted by the new doctrine of "political correctness". Freedom of the press is now construed to mean the propagation of a particular viewpoint which insists that only those tenets held dear by certain segments of our society should be reported as news. Differing viewpoints must be so labeled and reported not as news, but as the opinions of "fringe groups".

Prominent among these "fringe groups" are Bible-believers, whether Jewish, Christian, or even some agnostics. No moral absolutes are tolerated, and only the "rights" of people who are "liberated" from "antiquated thought patterns" are to be protected by the 1st Amendment rights of the press. Conservatives are always labeled "conservatives", and likened to the terrorists who blow up buildings, dispatch suicide bombers, and in other ways abrogate the rights of citizens. Conservative politicians are always described as narrow minded, inflexible, dumb, and when all else fails, racist. Pastors and other of us "religious extremists" who believe that such a thing as "sin" still exists are considered "fundamentalists" (like the Taliban).

People who dare to consider that "alternative lifestyles" are not just the modern evolution of freedom, are "hopelessly irrational". Murder has become a right (as in abortion). Nonsense like "the first offense" has raised crimes such as DUIs, armed robbery, drug dealing, and child molestation almost to the level of a "constitutionally protected right". Homosexuals, and groups such as NAMBLA and GLAA, are simply considered "individuals exercising their right to choose". Parents who object to their children being taught that "alternative lifestyles" are normal, are banned from public expressions of outrage and/or sued.

How has "our media", with its 1st Amendment rights, contributed to some of the directions our society is taking? "Innocent!", they cry. "People are not influenced by the media."

Consider… an unknown product was advertised in a 30-second commercial during a recent Super Bowl. Product sales went from 10 orders per day to 6,000 per day!

A 60-second Super Bowl commercial costs $2.6M, 30 seconds on "ER" is $600,000, $250,000 on "Who Wants to Be A Millionaire?". The average national 30-second commercial costs $343,000 to produce.

Question... Would you spend $2M to air a commercial, and almost $350,000 to produce it, with no hope of influencing behavior?

Now consider this… when was the last time you saw a program, read an article in a national publication, or heard a newscast containing some really positive, uplifting news about America… the family… and the future?

Makes you wonder whose media this really is, doesn't it?

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