Brainwashed: Part 5
Part 5 – The Fourth Estate
Way back in the beginning of Part 1, I mentioned that if we ourselves are the only person blowing on our own pinwheel – without other input – the only way we could exist is with a mirror. Let’s revisit that now.
Mirrors reflect not only ourselves but the rest of our world back to us. They open us for our own scrutiny; they show us where we are right now.
Generally we have two mirrors: trusted loved ones who tell us what we need to know (broccoli in our teeth, for instance, or an unseen plumbing leak in the basement), and the Fourth Estate – the news media.
When we have good, solid reporting on what is going on – what we are doing, and what everyone else is doing, and what effect it is all having – we can adjust the way we are living to be more effective in our goals. (I am presuming that you and I have as our goals the improvement of the world and all that is in it. Peace and love. Forgive me if I presume incorrectly.)
The media not only serve as a mirror, they serve as a magnifying glass as well, and sometimes a microscope. I liken this to those makeup mirrors that can show you a speck of dust on your skin.
We no longer have as much really good reporting going on – especially not investigative reporting – as we had before. What we tend to have now is superficial reporting of what famous persons are saying and doing, or what official press releases say, and writers telling us how other folks are responding to what is going on.
For example, the Potentate of Gabinonia has announced he is engaged to be married. His wife will become the Potentatrix.
Reporter Fred writes the story by copying the press release sent by the Potentate’s press secretary, including all the glossy words describing the undeniable beauty of the Potentatrix-to-be. It says little about her background, education, profession, ability; it just focuses on her glorious hair and such. To Fred’s credit, he is the only reporter at a small local weekly newspaper on the other side of the world from Gabinonia, and he also does the typesetting and printing, much like Ben Franklin did, though without actually having to set the type.
Reporter Josie, at a somewhat bigger publication than Reporter Fred, phones the former Potentatrix (she divorced the Potentate), and asks her opinion of the new consort. (She does not have many good opinions about the new romantic interest, and holds that she herself might be judged still far more beautiful.) Josie writes up the prior Potentatrix’ opinions for her employer’s gossip magazine.
Reporter Dani interviews the higher-ups in the Potentate’s government, and gets their opinions on the pending new addition. They seem all to agree that the fiancée is quite attractive to the eye. Dani’s story goes to a major news outlet. They are pleased with her reporting.
Reporter Jim decides he would like to do an in-depth story on the fiancée’s background, and it takes him three days to convince his higher-ups. Once he gets started, he uncovers quite a bit of information. (Of course this takes him a lot of time, and meanwhile his major news company buys and reprints reporter Dani’s article to fill the public’s desire for instantaneous information.) Turns out that the future Potentatrix, who has a name – Gloria Gabin – holds a law degree from an esteemed university, along with an adjunct degree from a Gabinonian university, and she has practiced law for quite a few years. Her undergraduate work was in governmental relations, and she worked in a consulate. Moreover, previously Ms. Gabin was educated and served as a therapist at a Parkinson’s clinic, which was where she met and fell in love with the Potentate, who by the way has Parkinson’s himself. Ms. Gabin likely will be quite capable of leading the government should the need ever arise.
Reporter Jim also provides, for the enlightenment of and possible opinion forming by the readers, a photograph of Ms. Gabin, whose ancestors, Jim learned through further independent research, were some of the founders of Gabinonia. Jim includes pictures of the ancestors as well. Of course, Jim also interviewed Ms. Gabin for the story.
Of these four reporters, the only one who gives us information worthy of serving as both our magnifying glass and our mirror is Jim. The rest provide us with useless information.
When we are trained to accept the flimsy reports delivered by the first three reporters, who we understand protest that they work very hard, too, we do ourselves a disservice. We come to expect just that minimal delivery of fact and opinion, without any independent research. We are left, maybe, to do our own research, but we cannot for a large part trust our research sources, as we do not always know who has written them. And we have no direct access to the persons in the news for interviews.
Additionally, when we accept the press release about the engagement as a full news story, we are allowing the facts to be glossed over. And when we accept one other person’s opinion about the news, or even a bunch of other persons’ opinions, are we getting much more of a full story? Further, if the news medium has an overriding bias – not only for gossip versus glamour, for instance, but a political bias when reporting on politics – then we may receive a stilted report meant to affect our thinking about the matter. If presented with the important facts and as full a story as possible, then we should not need to be told how we should feel about the matter. We learned in school how to think, didn’t we?
There is a reason why dictators often gain power by disparaging the press: because the power-hungry need the populace to believe only them, and not the independent reporting. So as the budgets get cut for producing the news, the wealthy and powerful may gain even more wealth and power without us knowing about it – because there is no one left to report it to us.
And this is not even to mention that some owners of media demand a certain “spin” on anything produced, even to the extent that the local affiliates are required to report certain stories with certain words. Sometimes those words are being dictated by folks other than the owners. This is not, by the way, “freedom of the press.” It is getting farther and farther from it.
Thus we are more or less being had, being taken for a ride as they say: yet another form of mind control. As a friend points out, we are trading mirrors for smoke.
Fortunately, the Potentate of Gabinonia is a forward-thinking individual, and will invite Reporter Jim often to his office. The Potentate always tries to read the best reporters’ columns so that he can better understand how he is doing.
In coming discussions, we will examine the media which are not a part of the Fourth Estate, even if they appear to be closely related.
