On Conspiracy
I've been reading all sorts of alternative press recently, Sign Of The Times, David Icke, Medialens. Watching YouTube videos of George Carlin, Bill Hicks, [Lenny Bruce? Denis Leary? Doug Stanhope? Mark Thomas?]
When you're first shown the evidence that your Government is lying to you...it's very easy to think that the person showing you that evidence is telling the truth about all sorts of other things too, and very quickly you find yourself walking through a door marked 'Conspiracy Nut-jobs This Way...'.
I liked what the Editors of MediaLens had to say about Conspiracy:
My introduction to MediaLens was a nice piece about the self-delusion of The Guardian.
More to come...
When you're first shown the evidence that your Government is lying to you...it's very easy to think that the person showing you that evidence is telling the truth about all sorts of other things too, and very quickly you find yourself walking through a door marked 'Conspiracy Nut-jobs This Way...'.
I liked what the Editors of MediaLens had to say about Conspiracy:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Media_Lens
[The Editors of MediaLens] strongly reject the idea that [mainstream media distortion] might be the result of a conspiracy, or that mainstream journalists may be guilty of self-censorship and conscious lying. Instead, they base their media analyses on Edward Herman and Noam Chomsky's Propaganda model which seeks to explain systemic bias in the media in terms of structural economic causes, and which proposes that news passes through five conceptual filters before publication. They stated that "We all have a tendency to believe what best suits our purpose; highly paid, highly privileged editors and journalists are no exception. In any case, professionals whose attitudes and opinions most closely serve the needs of corporate power, whether in media institutions or elsewhere, are more likely to be filtered through to positions of authority within such institutions."
[The Editors of MediaLens] strongly reject the idea that [mainstream media distortion] might be the result of a conspiracy, or that mainstream journalists may be guilty of self-censorship and conscious lying. Instead, they base their media analyses on Edward Herman and Noam Chomsky's Propaganda model which seeks to explain systemic bias in the media in terms of structural economic causes, and which proposes that news passes through five conceptual filters before publication. They stated that "We all have a tendency to believe what best suits our purpose; highly paid, highly privileged editors and journalists are no exception. In any case, professionals whose attitudes and opinions most closely serve the needs of corporate power, whether in media institutions or elsewhere, are more likely to be filtered through to positions of authority within such institutions."
My introduction to MediaLens was a nice piece about the self-delusion of The Guardian.
More to come...