I grew up in a time that there were only three TV stations. As a child it did not take me long to notice that they all three had a nightly “news” PROGRAM on at the same time. I also noticed that, as my father changed from one station to the next, they all were talking about the same thing at the same time. Somehow, the folks who produced these PROGRAMS all thought that the same things were news worthy and would present them in the same order at the same time. At a certain point I was forced to consider the possibility that this was not a coincidence and this piqued my curiosity. I mean, in the world I live in, no two people are in total agreement about what is worthy of the next person's attention much less the order in which we should offer such thoughts to each other.
Indeed when TV was young those who owned this new media were not yet quite as subtle in their efforts as they are today and they were much more forthcoming about their endeavor. Occasionally something thought to be even more worthy of our attention was offered in breathless delivery and, when the time was deemed right we would be told, “We now return you to your regularly scheduled PROGRAMMING.” It was some years later before the nature of what was being said here occurred to me. We are being PROGRAMMED.
I don't mean to take on the subject of TV and other media in the full depth and breath that their efforts probably deserve as shapers of our vision of the world around us and how we react to it … I'm just talking about “the news.” Who do you trust to tell you the “truth” about what is going on around us and why?
Indeed when TV was young those who owned this new media were not yet quite as subtle in their efforts as they are today and they were much more forthcoming about their endeavor. Occasionally something thought to be even more worthy of our attention was offered in breathless delivery and, when the time was deemed right we would be told, “We now return you to your regularly scheduled PROGRAMMING.” It was some years later before the nature of what was being said here occurred to me. We are being PROGRAMMED.
I don't mean to take on the subject of TV and other media in the full depth and breath that their efforts probably deserve as shapers of our vision of the world around us and how we react to it … I'm just talking about “the news.” Who do you trust to tell you the “truth” about what is going on around us and why?
