Propaganda Machine
Sometimes the best way to sway public opinion is by telling the truth-- but only half of it. You can either whitewash or vilify a person without lying simply by giving out only the parts of the truth that suit your purpose. The news services are masters at this, as seen in their treatment of one Bill Maher (source).
It seems a “9/11 Truther” (someone who doesn’t buy the government’s conspiracy theory) disrupted Billy’s HBO show, and he cursed and helped get the protester thrown out. Gee, what a take-charge guy, eh? But this is the very same Billy who sneaked into the Creation Museum to force an interview with Ken Ham. He had sent in a video crew under false pretenses to distract museum staff, then went to Ham’s office to mock Christianity and creationists (source).
Funny how Fox never mentioned that in their glowing praise for Billy when things were not going his way.
Then we also have the open bias of PBS over its decision not to air a documentary about “moderate” Muslims (source). Ironically, it’s Fox that will air the offending film. But the PBS officials openly stated their distaine for anyone who doesn’t share their narrow political views. What happened to the Public in PBS? (Oh, could I have some fun with what those letters really stand for!)
We could hope to avoid being so easily controlled by consulting many news sources, but even then we find that they are all under somebody’s thumb. News bureaus run on lots of money, and that means lots of control. But the superficial differences among the agencies are like the alleged differences between the Republican and Democratic parties. They’re all going in the same direction, one “we the people” don’t want, and they continually get away with it by throwing a few crumbs to the masses to keep them at bay.
The old saying is still true: Don’t believe anything you hear, and only half of what you see.