Media Editorial: Why Do People Pay so Much Attention to the ‘Casters?

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Why do people pay so much attention to the ‘Casters?

I notice many people supporting some ideal far across the web, from Youtube to random boards. Ron Paul supporters are a tad less guilty of it, but it still dumbfounds me how they approach what they believe in. Somehow a mass majority of these supporters of x, y, and sometimes z think that newscasters are magically the be all end all of what they support.

 By nature, these newscasters are automatically biased simply because they are paid to say what they say. So people like Tucker Carlson, Keith Olbermann, and even Jon Stewart really shouldn’t be trusted by what they say whether if it sounds like honey or the bell tolling.

 If this hits hard with some people, I understand, but maybe a couple examples are in order.

 First, let’s say I pull a neutral “I don’t care” face off the street and tell them I’ll pay them $1 million to act a certain way, every day. Could someone who gets $700b from a bailout (which I see called a “bandaid” constantly by the media) somehow find $1m a day to get an honest enough looking poker face? Sure. Another way to put it is everyone, up to and over 99% of the population has a price. I think these newscasters are more worthy of being compared to Jim Carrey, Robin Williams, and Queen Latifah than spokespeople for any cause. Churches are guilty of this too - even I can think of a bad pastor or two that was kept quiet for way beyond long enough. “Oh he raped Mrs Doe’s kid, but he has an honest face! We got to find a way to protect him!”

 With people like Ronald Reagan and Arnold getting the power at times, I guess it somewhat makes sense. Ron Paul didn’t get nominated maybe because he hasn’t had a leading role in an action flick yet.

Maybe this isn’t the best starting point for change, but there’s a chance that if we focus on the issues a bit more rather than “Oh I know him!”, people might change faster. It isn’t hard either - you don’t hum a tune because someone popular sang it, but because it’s a really good song. If someone tells you you need to listen to some random talk show or news host, make sure they know they’re humming the tune of money. Something like “Oh yes, I love Hannity! He got me to buy Apples to Apples for my kid! Eh wait, it really wasn’t that great of a game…” I never played the game, but the point should still be there. Someone really close to me needs this done constantly, too, now that I think about it!

Concluding, if we have to wipe the brown from around this hole, then maybe we really do have a long way to go. Does anyone have anything better than 1 ply that I can use?

  ~Phillip Andrew Graves

Phillip Andrew Graves is an entrepreneur from Tampa, FL who is involved and interested in Green Technology, Economics, the Web, and people in general. He currently is working on plans for a major development team. He supported Ron Paul’s ideals during his 2008 presidential run and is looking into alternative ideals now.

 Reach Phillip Andrew Graves via editor@globalpundit.org

admin @ September 24, 2008