News = Money!

February 7, 2010 – by Gregory Franklyn

Nothing has illustrated to me the crisis in the dissemination of factual news and information more than the Health Care Reform debate over the last year! The most significant problem the 4^th Estate faces in disseminating useful and/or factual information is Money, and I’m sure that’s no surprise. But, what may be a surprise is how deeply the financial pressures on the Mainstream Media has effected what is presented to you as News & Information, on a daily basis.

Rising costs for television broadcasting and more broadcasting facilities have caused ad revenue to be squeezed because it has to be distributed over more hours of local programming by more broadcasting outlets. It’s a jungle out there! The overall result has been fewer reporters, with less time for in depth research scrambling everyday to fill expanded hours of news. At the same time, they are competing for ratings with several other stations in their local market.

As corporations are want to do, they saw a need and they filled it. Roughly a third of the stories you see on your news every evening are what is called “VNR’s” (Video News Releases). They are the video equivalent of a Press Release. The US Government originates a lot of them too. The Government releases are usually designed to direct your attention to something they want you to think or feel. The corporate ones, usually focus on a product or service.

A good example of corporate VNRs are the stories you see about expensive new technologies that corporations are selling to The Homeland Security Department for use in airports. VNRs are easy to recognize. If you see a story and none of your local personalities appear on screen, it’s a VNR. These releases are available to your local news stations at no cost that are used every day to fill time that the stations need in order to sell more advertising. No one is required to tell you that what you are watching is a VNR. They simply mix it in with the rest of the stories. It’s up to you to determine what’s a Press Release and what’s a news story. The question you need to ask is, “Where does this VNR come from, who’s paying for it and what’s in it for them?” The likely-hood that there’s something in it for you is slim at best!

The integrity of news has long since been compromised. If you’re old enough to remember Dan Rather walking off the set of the CBS evening news one night, that should have been a red flag about what News and Information had become at the Network level. Dan Rather was an old school reporter that came up in the news at a time when it was actually News and Information. The man had some balls and some integrity.

He saw the writing on the wall way back then. He returned the next night, but personally I’d have a lot more respect for him if he had just kept on walking. I think he realized way back then that it was already too late to change the force of inertia that killed journalism as a public service.

It’s a fact that stories critical of companies that buy advertising on local stations are almost never covered by that station. In Dan Rather’s case it would have been criticism of the company that OWNED the frigging network and signed his paycheck.

I have always liked a bumper sticker I see a lot here in Portland. Our local paper is called “The Oregonian” and their slogan is “If It Matters to Oregonians, you’ll find it in the Oregonian”. Several times, we will learn of a story that is critical of a company like Kroger Foods from a national news outlet, but not from a local one. (Kroger owns “Fred Meyer” stores which are a big deal here and spend millions every year on print and broadcast advertising).

The bumper sticker I’m referring to came out of our local realization of the fact that big advertisers are generally immune to criticism in local media. The sticker reads, “If it matters to Oregonians, you’ll find it in the Washington Post!” The amount of money a company spends on media advertising is directly related to how immune they are to criticism and affects what you see and read in the media.

However, it’s the competition aspect of the news that affects what you see more than any other factor. News = Money. It’s a very simple equation. It’s the top AND bottom line in mainstream Media and there are no exceptions! If you don’t get the ratings, you don’t get the money! It’s as simple as that!

Every year in Phoenix Arizona you will see a story about how hot it is. How hot is it? Your friendly neighborhood TV reporter will fry an egg on the hood of a car for you right there on TV. That’s how hot it is. Here in Portland, every flu season, local stations will take a scientist into someone’s kitchen and bathroom and do a germ count. You think your kitchen and bathroom are CLEAN? “Think again”, our local bubble-headed bleach blonde sternly warns! “Coming up next; Is your water safe to drink?” The answer, after you’ve endured yet another warm and fuzzy love note from your local Toyota Dealer apologizing for selling cars that kill people and promising not to do it again, is always “YES”, but by that time the program has successfully gotten you to sit through the message that Toyota paid them for.

What you see on the News is no longer about anything you need to know. It’s about compelling you to remain in front of the TV set during the commercials. Compelling teasers and compelling stories are how they do that. Here’s a partial list of the things that compel you to sit through commercials, and this applies to all programming, not just the news:

Fear of Danger, Scandal, Disaster, Conflict, Outrage, Greed and Shock!

These are the primary tools used by the media to compel you to remain in front of your TV or radio or to buy that magazine or newspaper. What do they all have in common besides the fact that they are compelling? They are all negatives!

Which brings me to the Health Care Muggings! You watched your fellow Americans acting out, up to and including carrying loaded weapons, over wild imaginings planted in them by Conservatives who oppose reform to a system that is clearly broken,,, for most Americans, that is. It’s working our swimmingly for corporations involved in Health Care that have enough disposable income to spend millions on political campaigns and lobbyists!

The reason you saw those town halls and not the ones where everyone was civil to one another is because the media needs compelling drama to keep you in your seat. The more outrageous the lies about the Health Care Bill, the more you were told about them.

That’s how you know about “Death Panels”. The media feeding you that garbage knows it’s an out and out lie, but it’s compelling and that’s why you saw so much of it. You know all about Senators Larry Craig and John Ensign’s sex lives and Senator Chuck Grassley’s “Kill your Grandma” BS. The reason that you know who these people are is because the media needs them to compel you to stay tuned!

All forms of Media’s very existence depends on their ability to manipulate you to stay put so they can sell that attention to advertisers. That’s why Radio Stations do promotions. Right now here in Portland KUPL radio is doing a promotion where they send out an intern to accidentally drop a dollar bill on the floor at a local mall. If you pick up that dollar bill and call the station with the right serial number you win thousands of dollars to go along with it. The result is that more people tune in to KUPL to find out clues as to which mall the dollar bill got dropped in and, of course, while you’re already there, you’ll likely buy something from one of their advertisers.

The content of your news and information has become whatever the media can dream up to manipulate your behavior, rather than anything you might need to know about. Meanwhile the FCC, which is charged with stewardship of YOUR public airways that should be advocating for YOUR best interests stand idly by watching, and being manipulated, right along with you, while fewer and fewer corporate interests buy up more and more media outlets. Not only is it a jungle out there, but you’re out there on your own, too!

I learned all of this from my decade as a television producer and educator and my advise to you tonight is to consume media with trepidation and to educate yourself to consume media with a critical eye. Please be cautioned; just because someone says something on TV, Radio or in print does not make it true. There is no requirement in your constitutional guarantee of free speech that anyone has to tell the truth. It’s up to you to determine who IS and who ISN’T!

My point is, because it’s so obvious what will attract the media and the fact that they don’t have the time, money or desire to check out your story, they have become easy to manipulate into saying whatever you want them to say. Think of modern day reporters as stenographers, typists or copy machines. The more compelling or outrageous your story, the more coverage it will get regardless of whether it’s true or not!

Much Love,

Gregory

March 7, 2010 Tags: Corporate Greed, Current Events, Economics, Health Care, Media Posted in: Current Events, Health Care, Media No Comments

Republican Logic vs Sanity

February 27, 2010 – by Gregory Franklyn

CAUTION: Journalistic Hatchet Job Directly Ahead!

While watching the Health Care Summit on Thursday this week it occurred to me that The Republican Party, as a whole, may be insane! Now, hold on a minute. When I say that the Republican Party may be insane, I’m not just saying that to be mean (Well, OK not this time, anyway!). I’d like to make my case that they actually are clinically insane!

Here’s an example of what I mean; Every Republican who spoke at the summit said that something needs to be done about health care because our system is clearly broken. Each of them also said that America’s health care system is the very best in the world right now. Notwithstanding the fact that every entity charged with evaluating health care systems among nations ranks the US somewhere between 18th and 37th on health care among the nations of the world depending on whose ranking you like best. So, according to Republican logic, the very best health care system in the world ranks at #18 at best, and is clearly dysfunctional!

Each of them said we should scrap the current health care bill and “Start over with a clean sheet of paper.” Each of them also said we need to fix health care in, “Slow, incremental steps.” Now, to be fair, Democrats had their own set of talking points about health care and each of them expressed different versions of the same concepts; fixing health care can’t wait, it needs to be done now and it needs to include some 45 million people in America who do not currently have health care coverage. It needs to be affordable for the average American, it need to include subsidies for those who really can’t afford it and Blah-blah-blah. You know the drill.

But when I say that each Republican that spoke said that we need to, “Start over with a clean sheet of paper” and that we need fix our health care system in, “Small, incremental steps.” I mean each one of them said those exact words in that exact order, check your TIVO! They actually got together beforehand and agreed that each one of them would say the exact same words in the exact same order during the summit. Wow!

Each of these Republicans are seasoned professional politicians that know the Senate and Congressional rules backwards and forwards. This is what they do for a living! They know that the most effective way to stop something from happening is to use those rules to stop a bill from reaching a vote or to delay its consideration until it dies on its own. Like they’re doing with health care reform, for example.

So, the Republican contribution to the health care summit is to recommend that to fix a health care system that is clearly dysfunctional we should scrap the bill that we’d been negotiating for the last 12 months and “Start over with a clean sheet of paper” and make changes in, “Small, incremental steps.” so that each step can be delayed indefinitely or killed altogether. So, according to Republican logic the reasonable way to fix the health care system is to slowly and carefully prevent any changes to it.

Each of the Republicans that spoke, also demanded a pledge from Democrats, including the President, not to use “Reconciliation” (a senate rule that allows an up or down vote with a majority rule of 51 votes instead of a super-majority of 60) as a means to pass a health care bill. That would be the same “Reconciliation” rule the Republican Party used 16 of the last 21 times the rule has been used when they were the majority party in the Senate. They used it for some pretty far reaching legislation too. That’s how they got Newt Gingrich’s “Contract with America” rammed through. So, according to Republican logic it is a gross misuse of Senate Rules for Democrats to use Reconciliation in the very same way they, themselves, have used it since 1981 when I was first instituted.

All of that convoluted logic was employed by Republicans in ONE DAY last week. But let’s take a look at a few more deeply held Republican ideals that far outreach this one issue. Let’s take the Republican ideal of smaller government that stays out of the lives of American Citizens. They hold fast to that ideal,,, unless you’re gay and want to marry whom you freely choose, or in the case of a student who wants to freely read a controversial book in a school library, or a woman who wants to freely make a controversial health care decision, or a Buddhist, Hindu or Atheist who doesn’t want to be forced against his or her will to say Christian Prayers in school every day. In which case bigger Government that intervenes in the private lives of its citizens is a good thing. So the Republican logic here is that Government should stay out of people’s personal lives and should intervene in the personal lives of its citizens.

Republicans say they want smaller government that taxes its citizens less, unless you’re a contractor who wants to sell expensive tools to the military or Homeland Security or an energy company that wants to build nuclear power plants on the Government’s dime. In which case bigger government is a good thing.

Now, you’re going to have to help me with this one! If the government is smaller and also cuts taxes, how, exactly are we supposed to come up with the money to pay for all that military and Homeland Security expansion that Republicans fought so hard for? Fiscal Discipline, that’s how! (see below) So, according to Republican Logic, America should have smaller Government with less taxation to accommodate the expansion of the military, and Homeland Security and drilling for oil in Alaska and building nuclear power plants.

Republicans insist that the stimulus package is a failure at creating jobs and a waste of taxpayer’s money. Unless the stimulus package handed over money to the Military Industrial Complex, or to construction projects in their home districts. In which case it DOES create jobs. So according to Republican logic, the stimulus package is a failure that successfully created jobs for Americans in their home districts.

Republicans hold fast to the ideal of fiscal discipline. Unless, of course you are a Republican President or a Republican majority in the House and/or Senate. In which case radical spending beyond your means is a good thing. President Ray-gun left office leaving the highest deficit in the history of the United States, up to that point, and he is regarded by Republicans with the same kind of reverence they reserve for the men who founded this government. George Bush Sr., left a deficit even higher than his predecessor. That was followed by Democratic President Bill Clinton, who left office with a multi-billion dollar surplus. That, of course, was swallowed up by Republican George Bush Jr. who expanded spending to yet another record high deficit and left the country free-falling into depression. So according to Republican logic, the way to exercise fiscal discipline is to spend money radically beyond your income.

Republicans hold fast to the ideal that what’s best for America is to let the marketplace fix whatever problems come up for us. Corporate America lives or dies based on doing what needs to be done with greater efficiency and at a lower cost than government can. Their very lively-hood depends upon being better at doing that. That’s why Republicans worked round the clock, last year, to provide tax money to prop up wall street firms that were failing because of bad management and for the past year have been working to stop health care reform in its tracks because the marketplace is doing such a great job of efficient and cost effective stewardship of our health care system that they agreed, as recently as Thursday, is clearly inefficient and not cost effective. So Republican logic holds that a free and open marketplace is a crucial cornerstone of Freedom and Democracy and that socialism is how we insure that.

This is my case tonight; Republicans are insane because they are able to hold fast to two mutually exclusive and diametrically opposed realities at the same time without their heads exploding. They work hard and diligently to insure that Americans are free to do as the Republican Party wishes without Government intrusion.

It’s a skill that requires Christian-like devotion to things that don’t make sense. And that’s an important piece of my explanation of how Republicans are able to accomplish that feat. Every Republican in the House and every Republican in the Senate is an avowed Christian. Right now there is no exception. Not one!

Christians are trained from birth to believe with all their hearts, that things that could not physically happen, happened anyway. One of many good examples of what I mean is the Christian belief in a 14 year old virgin giving birth to the son of God. Invitro-fertilization did not exist at the time. There was no such thing! And as an aside, I’m interested in knowing whom, exactly, did a physical examination of this little girl to determine that she was, in fact, a virgin after she became pregnant? There is no mention in the scriptures about how her virginity was established. Far be it from reality that a 13 year old girl might “Embellish” an explanation of becoming pregnant at that age!

Christianity teaches that the God of Abraham is a loving God. The kind of loving God that destroyed the entire world in a flood because he didn’t like how they treated Him and instructed one of his chosen to take his own son, who was innocent of any wrongdoing, up to a mountain top and burn him at the stake.

Jesus professed that the God of Abraham is a forgiving God! The kind of forgiving God that instructs you to kill your mother if she works on the Sabbath, plants two different crops next to one another, wears clothing made of two different fabrics or eats shellfish! Christians are conditioned, for a lifetime, to accept such contradictions as spiritually harmonious.

And this leads me Republican Logic. The evidence suggests that Republicans feel comfortable with contradiction in other aspects of life because they are already predisposed to accept contradiction as a matter of course.

This, in my view, allows Republican’s heads to remain intact while standing firmly for two mutually exclusive, diametrically opposed ideals. As a result of that conditioning they are able to think, believe and act upon belief, in a manner that is diametrically opposed to reality. More succinctly, they are conditioned to be “Insane!”

Defense Rests!

Much Love,

Gregory

February 27, 2010 Posted in: Current Events, Economics, Health Care, Media, Politics, Spirit One Comment

RESPECT

February 13, 2010

Senate Majority leader John Boehner

Beginning with the Bush Regime’s refusal to allow the Obamas to move into Blair House within the standard time ordinarily allowed a President Elect’s family, all the way up to the Republican’s veiled accusations about being ambushed at the upcoming bi-partisan Health Care Reform Summit, Republicans have consistently treated the President with unprecedented disrespect!

“I don’t know what we’re going to be walking in to.”, Senate Minority Leader John Boehner said earlier this week when asked to respond to the President’s invitation to a new bipartisan Health Care Summit. I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised that Republicans on Capitol Hill would be suspicious of the President’s intentions. Given their behavior towards the White House, specifically, and Democrats in general, it would be a natural reaction for them to suspect that the White House might want to retaliate. There’s quite a laundry list of transgressions to retaliate for and Republicans are keenly aware of that fact.

But what’s going on here is clearly projection! Republicans have been trashing Obama at every turn for just over a year now. Boehner is assuming that the Obama White House is motivated by the same underhanded distructiveness that the Republicans are. That’s why he is approaching the coming summit with fear and trepidation. He knows that the appropriate and well deserved ass whipping for his party’s deplorable behavior over the past year is coming and he suspects that the summit might be the wood shed!

I can answer that one for you, Mr Boehner. You’re in for another session of being slapped around by the truth just like at the meeting you had with the President two weeks ago. You remember that meeting don’t you? That was the meeting where Republicans, including you, tried to ambush the President with loaded questions carefully written and designed specifically to make him look bad in front of the whole country!

At that meeting it was Republicans who demanded the summit AND that it be televised for public consumption. That was near the front of that meeting, just before he politely handed their lying asses to them on a platter. Now they’re not so sure they want it to be public! I guess not! However, the President is just continuing to follow through on his promise to include Republicans in the development of meaningful Health Care Reform. “Include” is the key word here. Evidently the minority party doesn’t get that!

Last week Senator John Boehner responded to the President’s initial invitation to the summit with a litany of demands. As a condition of Republican participation, he said “Throw out the whole bill and start over.” Evidently the veritable cornucopia of compromises the Democrats had already included in the bill were not nearly enough for Republicans. They want it ALL and they have vowed to filibuster anything less than the whole ball of wax.

They want tort reform, it’s in the bill. They want insurance companies to be able to sell across states lines, it’s in there. They want the public option off the table, it’s gone! Everything the Republicans have asked for is included and they’re still not happy with it. They’re still not happy because some of the provisions will actually reform Health Care in America and, as I’ve mentioned before, if reform actually works, a central theological platform of conservatism will be proven wrong!

That’s why they have been lying to their constituents, filibustering everything that comes from the White House, questioning the legitimacy of the President as an American, calling him names intended to frighten voters and making up “Facts” to discredit any truth he might utter!

I turn 58 years old this May, Harry Truman was President when I entered the world and I have never seen a President treated like this! Not even Dick Nixon was treated with this level of disrespect, and HE was thrown out of the White House for CRIMINAL behavior! What has Barack Obama done?

In all fairness, I was passionately critical of George Bush and to this day I question the legitimacy of his regime. You’ll notice that I never refer to the Bush White House as an “Administration”, I do that intentionally. I avidly joined the chorus of cheers for Keith Olbermann, Ed Schultz and Rachel Maddow as they did pretty much the same thing.

Today, when I’m talking about disrespecting the President I’m not including talk show hosts and pundits. The difference between these man and women (including me) and Republicans in the house and senate is that we are not elected by the people and did not swear an oath to protect the United States Constitution against enemies, both foreign and domestic. What we say doesn’t have much impact on the affairs of state. Theirs does, in the only way that matters!

The men and women who have been trashing the President since January 20^th last year, questioning his motivations, his legitimacy as an American, a Christian and a President, accusing him of lying about where he was born, lying about his intentions for the United States, disabling every attempt he makes to do his appointed duties, and manufacturing fear and loathing to the extent that their constituents show up at Presidential appearances boldly brandishing lethal weapons, ARE the people I’m referring to!

These ELECTED men and women in the Republican Party appear dedicated, down to the very last one, to stop government from functioning on behalf of the American people. Fear, lethal weapons, propaganda, questioning the legitimacy of the Office of the President of the United States of America, disabling the government from performing its duties? Isn’t that the definition of Domestic Terrorism? That wasn’t a rhetorical question, I want an answer and you should too!

Much Love,

Gregory