Tweet
FacebookI read an article online that said the earth has four billion phone lines and one billion computers. That ratio doesn’t seem right. Four to one? I have one phone line and about a dozen computers–I must be throwing the scale off.
This story is a little old, but it took me a while to gather all the facts before I attempted my spin on it (whaddya know: I can do research). A while back, the LA Times reported that an LA judge named Alex Kozinski had a pornographic website. I’m giving you the gist of the story because there’s no need for me to reiterate the whole LA Times piece. The highlights include “a video described as a half-dressed man cavorting with a sexually aroused farm animal” and “the judge acknowledged maintaining his own publicly accessible website featuring sexually explicit photos and videos.”
Once the story ended up on wire services, it took off. Why wouldn’t it? It was sleazy and involved a prominent judge…who just so happened to be presiding over a trial about porn. This story was as juicy as they come. For almost a week, Judge Kozinski got ripped in national media. He was considered a pervert in the worst sense. He was accused of illegally distributing MP3s. The case he was presiding over was declared a mistrial. An investigation into his personal life was launched. I know all this because I’m a staunch follower of talk radio and Judge Kozinski was America’s worst sexual deviant. It seemed too unlikely that a closet pervert was the judge in a porno trial. He must have intentionally made himself the case. He must have an agenda. He’s trying to prove a point. The media speculated because there was a million different ways you could take the story.
But then the truth came out. It was a slow trickle, but eventually the public caught wind of what was going on. The Times story turned out to be horribly misleading. The judge’s ‘website’ was a personal server that could be accessed from the World Wide Web–not something you pay $29.95 a month to view. It was a file server–not a website with pages and design. The infamous donkey video is a staple on YouTube and is nowhere near as sexual as described. The site had thousands of pictures and less than ten came close to the description the LA Times painted. Despite swirling criticism, the LA Times stood by the story…even though bloggers and other media outlets called it misleading and biased.
Here’s the point I want to make: this is exactly why you should never trust the media! I’ve been screaming it for years. The media doesn’t report the news–it makes the news! The press always spins stories to push its own agenda: increasing viewers/readers/subscribers. The truth is irrelevant–not when a juicy story can be told.
The LA Times misrepresentation on this story is a friggin’ crime against human decency! They can clamor all they want about others misinterpreting what was written but it’s all a load of garbage–nothing but a friggin’ smear campaign. I know the power of words. The right adjective; the proper synonym–you can change any story to be whatever you want.
I remember a story someone told me. During the height of the Cold War, the Soviet Union engineered a race to prove to the Russian people that the Soviets were superior carmakers than Americans. After the race, the Soviet media reported the Russian car finished in second place while the American car finished in second to last place. What they didn’t tell the public was there were only two cars involved in the race.
I don’t know if the story is true but I absolutely love it. It shows just how easy it is to manipulate facts. Nothing reported was false…just a few crucial details were left out–kinda like the LA Times story.
If I get one wish before I die, it’d be to not die. But if I get two–if there was anything I wish everyone would do–it’s to question the world around you. Never, ever, under any circumstances accept the story someone tells you to be the absolute truth. Teachers aren’t always right. The media does always tell the truth. Textbooks leave facts out. I’m going to teach my kids this–that even their old man might be wrong. You gotta learn to think for yourself. Never assume the media is telling the truth–it’s always part of a story. Learn for yourself–take everything anyone tells you with a grain of salt. It’s easy to be manipulated. The only way to stop it from happening is to think for yourself. People make mistakes. The media exaggerates. Don’t trust anything you’re told anymore than you have to. Listen to what others say, but don’t accept it as absolute truth–not without researching it on your own!
Our history books are filled with inaccuracies. King George had a reason why he ruled the American colonies with an iron fist. The Indians were swindled out of Manhattan; the French in the Louisiana purchase. The South had its reason to seceded from the Union. The Japanese courageously struck first at Pearl Harbor. North Korea was invaded by American forces. All stories have two sides–the only thing we know is what we have been taught. I’d like to leave this world a better place than it was before I got here: since I’m not likely plant a tree or drive Prius, education is all I have to offer.