Censorship, new millenium style

I think lots of folks have linked to this, but I don't think there can be too many links to The Top 25 Censored Stories of 2007. I just spent over 45 minutes scanning the list and reading a few of the rather detailed descriptions provided by faculty and students of Sonoma State University.

Now, I am pretty liberal (and by "pretty", I mean shockingly handsome), but I still try and read things with some objectivity (I fail sometimes). But I also understand that wanting to hear all sides of a story doesn't mean that every side deserves equal weight. The synapses don't encapsulate everything about these stories, but they shed light on many important facets that aren't reported as heavily as they need to be.

In terms of politics and justice and such, I have always been conflicted between two points. First, it is in many ways our responsibility as democratic citizens to understand what is going on in our country and world. Second, there are so many stories and sources it is difficult to get the information that is necessary to gain that understanding. The second point is what makes it so easy to ignore what is happening in the world.

Now I may be babbling a little. The gist is, take the time to at least read the headlines in the list. Hopefully you'll be tempted to read about a few of the stories that we don't hear for one reason or another.

AM Radio

While driving in the Bay Area late this morning, I thought I'd spin through the AM stations. Normally I just have KCBS ready on the AM dial for my "Traffic and Weather together every 10 minutes". I came across a national talk radio station advertising an upcoming special they are going to have on the "Global Warming Myth". The guy told me (and, I suppose, everyone else listening) that this wasn't going to be a balanced report, because we already hear too much of the "propaganda" of the left. They also let me know that this was their second investigative report following the wildly successful piece on Muslim Extremists. Indeed.

This is about when I thought it would be good to cruise the dial a little. Next up was Dennis Miller. I remember liking him as a teenager watching SNL, but had heard he was a full on "loyal Bushie" now. Odd. Anyway, he had a guest on to discuss how lopsided the "debate" on Global Warming was and how so many network news stories on the subject don't even mention alternate points of view. I love when pundits grab onto one piece of information and use it as the most indicative point of the "other side's" position. In this case Dennis Miller must have heard that one thing we could do to help the environment was to use less toilet paper. So now the whole conservation movement is absurd because all those greenies have as a solution is to use one sheet of T.P. per bathroom visit. His guest was saying he didn't think the bad ol' liberals tell everyone the whole story--in particular how they don't discuss the cost of some unnamed initiative, which the pundit put at $400 billion dollars. He also noted that he hadn't decided one way or the other if global warming was real and wanted to debate the topic more. Are you convinced that molecules are real? Are you convinced that laparoscopic surgery is the best option for removal of a gall bladder? Are you convinced that multiple, slower CPU cores are a better option than larger, faster single cores? (I would ask about the Big Bang and evolution, but know better). We live in a world of vast knowledge. So much knowledge, that people can't be experts in many fields like they used to. We allow those who are experts to advise the rest of us who don't have the time to learn about their field. If the vast majority of recognized climatologists say global warming is real and we are accelerating it, I will believe them. And if the cost of profiting off of the exploitation of the environment has forced us into a situation where we need to spend lots of cash to fix it, then so be it.

OK, back to the task at hand: touring the AM dial. I listened to Dennis Miller until my last ounce of respect for him dissipated. I found that there were 4 or 5 Asian language stations and 4 or 5 Spanish language stations (I can't know for certain, but I don't think these stations were spewing right-wing claptrap) to go with 2 news station and 2 sports stations. To round out the trip there were TWO stations with the same Rush Limbaugh broadcast. Yikes. That whole "liberal media" conspiracy that the right has passed off as real was done very well the last 10 years.