I am beginning to blame the major media outlets for the confused situations in both Health Care reform, and the Global Warming issue.
And particularly, I’m blaming NPR and The Christian Science Monitor. We all understand that most other media outlets are publicity whores, and shills for corporations that benefit from continued turmoil and misunderstandings, and news outlets profit from continuing crises as long as possible. Bad news and crises sell papers and air time, after all. But NPR and The Christian Science Monitor at least pay lip service to having ideals that are supposed to help mankind. And in these two issues they have failed abyssmally.
As soon as Al Gore’s movie came out, it was easy to factcheck the assertions and statements he made in that movie. I am not aware that any of them did. Much of the past several years’ confusion about climate change would have been cleared up immediately, but instead, here we are, still debating the same issues years later.
And in the Health Care debate, it was clear to me from the outset, that news reporters continually used the phrases: “Health Care Reform” and “Health Insurance Reform” interchangeably, as if they were synonyms. They are nothing of the sort. We respond differently to them, and they engage our emotions on different levels. Try it yourself. Say to yourself: The government is going to change my health care. Now, say to yourself: The government is going to change my health insurance. Different reactions. They mean different things. And I’m sure that health insurance executives react differently to those two sentences also. When all the public news reporters use them interchangeably, it significantly alters the tone and clarity of the discussion. And I’m sure news organizations are sophisticated enough to have understood this from the beginning. I have to conclude then, that they were doing it on purpose. And for that, I’m really angry.