>
>I have wondered for years, who it is that is teaching people that the
news
>media has an absolute responsibility to spoon feed us the truth (and
use
>good grammer and correct spelling in the process).
>
>We have an obligation to seek out the truth and even then, when we
settle
>on it, it will be the truth only from our own narrow perspective.  That
>means we must go to multiple sources and draw our own conclusions.  How
can
>you even begin to draw those conclusions (and with a good conscience,
>vote!) if you don't do that?

I wander - what percentage of the population reads a newspaper daily or
at least several days per week?  what percentage of the population
votes?  (this too is a small number)  and how much overlap is there.  I
would be willing to bet that the people that read the newspaper are also
the people that vote.  And I would be willing to go further by saying
that the people that don't read the paper, also don't vote.

Further, I think it is really funny that the news spoon feeds us the
"truth", but whose truth is it?  And how can what the American news'
truth be different from the truth according to the rest of the WORLD!
If you watch the news in America, no chemical weapons were used in the
Gulf War.  But if we had watched the news in any other country, we would
have been told that in fact chemical weapons WERE used.  How can the
news, presumably the truth, about the same subject be so COMPLETELY
different?

Oh well.  Just a thought.

>
>We are educators for crying out loud.  How can we begin to do that if
we
>are uninformed?
>
>
>------
>Robert Handy
>Brazoria County Historical Museum
>100 East Cedar
>Angleton, Texas  77515
>(409) 864-1208
>museum_bob
>[log in to unmask]
>http://www.bchm.org
>
>----------
>From:   Heidi Carroll[SMTP:[log in to unmask]]
>Sent:   Thursday, February 04, 1999 11:15 AM
>To:     [log in to unmask]
>Subject:        Was: Your TOP EVENT Now:  news
>
>I must admit, I am uninformed.  I do not read the newspaper every day.
>At some point, I did receive a daily newspaper, but most of the time
>they laid on the front steps in their plastic bags until they were
>collected and tossed in the trash on garbage day.  I also try to avoid
>watching the news.  It is frustrating and causes a lot of stress.  What
>ever happened to the professional journalist?  It seems anymore that
>news companies are hiring fewer educated journalists, perhaps to save
>money.  I open a newspaper only to find tons of mistakes, particularly
>grammatical ones.  These people can't seem to write a complete
sentence.
>Most of the articles make absolutely no sense - with both incomplete
>sentences and bad grammar, they seem to lack significant information
>that would clarify the article.  What college, if any, did these people
>attend that they did not even learn basic English language.  I realize
>that many of us speak it daily, but that does not mean that we use it
>correctly.  There is nothing less professional in this type of job than
>not having a solid grasp of the language.
>I also find it very frustrating the way the news sensationalizes
>everything.  Just give me all of the facts - no slants, no biased
>opinions, no taking sides - just the facts.  I have yet to find a
>newspaper or newsprogram that gives the facts without sensationalizing
>them, without trying to sway readers, that gives all sides of a story.
>Example: Lately on my local news, there has been a story of a police
>officer that shot a man.  The officer is being investigated again.  The
>news is making a big deal out of this 4 year old event making the
police
>officer sound corrupt and racist.  But the fact that the victim was
>fleeing, running from the cop, in a stolen vehicle no less, has been
>downplayed quite a bit.  And of course the reason the police officer
>shot the man was because the victim was a minority, not because he was
a
>criminal running from the law.  If I am not mistaken, fleeing is a
>shootable offense.  Personally, I'm tired of this story and really
don't
>care about it anymore.  Enough!
>I suspect that this is why many people choose not to read the
>newspapers.  They are frustrated with bad journalism, bad grammar, and
>blatant sensationalism.
>Thank you for reading my rant.  If anyone knows of the kind of
>newspaper or news program that I would want to read, please let me know
>about it.  I would like to be informed, just with lower blood pressure.
>H. Carroll
>
>
>>
>>You wrote:  Isn't that why we still read different newspapers?
>>
>>Don't we wish!  Twenty percent of the U.S. population reads a
newspaper
>on
>>a daily basis.  That figure drops to fifteen percent in Texas.  I ask
>just
>>about everyone with I come in contact, if they read a newspaper every
>day.
>> I am astonished at how many do not; even more so when I ask if they
>read a
>>weekly news magazine.  How on earth can people make informed decisions
>if
>>they do not read?
>>
>>
>>------
>>Robert Handy
>>Brazoria County Historical Museum
>>100 East Cedar
>>Angleton, Texas  77515
>>(409) 864-1208
>>museum_bob
>>[log in to unmask]
>>http://www.bchm.org
>
>>Subject:        Re: Your TOP EVENT / DECISION that shape
>>
>>Interesting point.  I would like to get cable just so that I can brush
>up
>>on my Greek by watching Antenna straight out of Athens, but it comes
>with
>>20 other channels I could care less about, so I am still holding
>strong,
>>no cable in my house.  I do watch ABC News but I also switch to PBS to
>>listen to the BBC to learn more about world events and to get a
>different
>>slant on things.  Switching from the visual media, Isn't that why we
>>still read different newspapers?  To get different viewpoints?  That's
>>why TV really hasn't been the greatest invention, you can still tune
it
>>out.
>>
>>O
>>Olivia S. Anastasiadis, Curator
>>Richard Nixon Library & Birthplace
>>18001 Yorba Linda Boulevard
>>Yorba Linda, CA  92886
>>(714) 993-5075 ext. 224; fax (714) 528-0544; e-mail:  [log in to unmask]
>>
>>On Wed, 3 Feb 1999 11:18:39 -0400 Jane Sproull Thomson
>><[log in to unmask]> writes:
>>>I find it kind of interesting that the major events you mention all
>>>happened
>>>in the US.  One of the reasons I had our cable disconnected was that
>>>my sons
>>>seemed to be getting the impression, since most cable stations are US
>>>based,
>>>that all world events happen in the US, and if it didn't happen in
the
>>>US it
>>>wasn't important. Now we only watch the CBC news, which gives us a
>>>Canadian
>>>slant on events worldwide and uses BBC as well as ABC news reports.
>>>Many
>>>Americans take this dominance for granted...many of you probably
don't
>>>know
>>>that at this moment, the US and Canada are engaged in a trade dispute
>>>over
>>>Canada's most recent attempt to protect its cultural industries
>>>internally,
>>>and the US's  insistence that we have no right to do this.
>>>What role do museums have in resisting cultural imperialism? Should
we
>>>even try?
>>>
>>>
>>>At 10:44 AM 03/02/99 -0600, you wrote:
>>>>In my opinion the invention of the Television changed everything.
No
>>>>longer did people have to rely on print or word of mouth the learn
of
>>>>events throughout the country or world.  We could watch Kennedy
being
>>>>assasinated unlike those who learned of Lincoln's death.  We could
>>>watch
>>>>the horrors of the Vietnam war instead of listening to reports over
>>>the
>>>>radio.  The television puts us at the delivery of septuplets and the
>>>>doorstep of death penalty vigils.  I believe that with the TV's
>>>delivered
>>>>to our home brought more immediate knowledge than had ever been
>>>known,
>>>>even those who are illiterate in this day and time can remain
>>>>knowledgeable through the TV; but we also lost our cultural
>>>innocence.
>>>> How much good news is reported in comparison to the amount of bad.
>>>How
>>>>many comparisons to the violence on television to the rise in
>>>violence
>>>>involving our youth, i.e. school murders in Jonesboro, Arkansas, do
>>>we
>>>>hear.  There are people today who do not have computers but how many
>>>>homes do not have TV's?
>>>>
>>>> -----Original Message-----
>>>>From: Roger Smith
>>>>Sent: Tuesday, February 02, 1999 4:08 AM
>>>>To: [log in to unmask]
>>>>Subject: Your TOP EVENT / DECISION that shaped th
>>>>
>>>>With Millennium 'madness' looming, I thought it might be rather fun
>>>to
>>>>invite LIST members and individuals to submit their pick of a single
>>>>event
>>>>or decision that, in their opinion, made the most impact upon this
>>>>Century?
>>>>
>>>>The recommendations no doubt will be purely subjective ( perhaps a
>>>trifle
>>>>quirky) and should come with a short sentence of justification!
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>The responses will be collated and published in the April edition of
>>>>GLOBAL
>>>>MUSEUM ( in the FORUM section).
>>>>To save bandwidth, could I invite you to mail your contribution off
>>>the
>>>>list
>>>>to:
>>>>[log in to unmask]
>>>>
>>>>I am picking we will have a wide range of choices and l Iook forward
>>>to
>>>>receiving the nominations
>>>>
>>>>Roger
>>>>
>>>>http://www.globalmuseum.org
>>>>
>>>>
>>>Jane Sproull Thomson
>>>
>>
>>___________________________________________________________________
>>You don't need to buy Internet access to use free Internet e-mail.
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>
>
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