Brain Fertilizer

This is a "ponder" piece. Meaning, I don't want you to just react, I would like you to think, consider, and use some introspection to remember how you felt about certain issues several years ago.

The impetus for my post is a recent one by Dean Esmay. In his post, he wonders about the stunning lack of coverage of Kerry's negatives by mainstream news media, particularly regarding the allegations of the the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. He says:

I would have to ask why a single 20 year old drunk driving charge made screaming national headlines four years ago, but none of this is making it into the mainstream press, except on the editorial pages of a few small newspapers.

I am honestly stunned. This isn't bias. This is... it's... I don't even know the word for it. It's obviously not a conspiracy, and people who think it is one should take off their tinfoil hats. But what do you call it? Groupthink? Mass delusion? Blind spot? You cannot gush praise at a guy's military record and then just ignore the fact that he has heavy duty critics. Even if all of those critics were right-wing Republicans, that doesn't make it less of a story.

The comments in that post are also important, as they take the discussion further. Go read this post by Dean, then continue here.

Back? Good. Now, here's the thinking exercise portion.

I'm sure the reporters and writers and editors see nothing wrong with the way they are not approaching this issue. Nor do most Democrat supporters care much. After all, they want President Bush out of office, so who cares what happened 30 years ago? (Well, people who care about character do...)

The news media is actively attempting to monitor and moderate debate on Kerry. This is having an effect on our society and voting patterns, no?*

Doesn't this also call into question other issues that the left-leaning news media covers? Can we really trust the mainstream news media on the question of abortion?

Stop and think a moment. Did you care about homosexual marriage 5-10 years ago? Did you fight for it? Did it ever really cross your mind that it might be a human rights issue? Would you have considered making your votes for government contingent on this single issue?

I think few people can honestly answer all those questions in the affirmative.

I am leaning toward the feeling this issue was manufactured, highlighted, and foisted upon society at large by the mainstream news media. Lawrence vs Texas raised the issue in the minds of citizens, thanks to news media who covered it far out of proportion to its impact. The news media distorted Sen. Santorum's remarks as a tactic to allow them to vilify conservative viewpoint...they went so far as to insert the word "gay" into the interview, which word was not even implied! The mainstream news media has used its power and reach to popularize the view SSM is a human rights issue rather than the behavioral issue it clearly is...and everyone convinced of it thinks they are fully rational and reasonable about the issue...just like Kerry supporters regarding the allegations of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth.

It's not a conspiracy, no. It's just that Left/Liberal ideas currently have an extreme advantage in competition for adoption by the common citizen, since Left/Liberal idealogues control several of the main channels of culture/idea communication: News media, entertainment, and education.

Will the internet/blogging be enough to flip things around? I'm not sure. It will have an effect, surely...

*The internet and particularly blogging allows large groups of influential people to share information without the mainstream news media Stamp of Approval, which is why we can actually have an inter-regional discussion of the issue of the news media's non-coverage of news items.