We've reached a point in our history when there is so much information and so many perspectives that it is really hard to know what the truth is anymore. To understand what this means you have to step back in history. It was not that long ago that people did not watch television 24 hours a day. Believe it or not, 60 years ago most people did not even have a television set. When I was a kid we had a black and white set (only one TV) and my father woke up early to go to work five days a week. My parents watched the morning news choosing one of three stations. Of course back then there was no cable or satellite. You watched either ABC, NBC or CBS. PBS was reserved mostly for Sesame Street and Mister Rogers.
There was something scarier about the news when it was in black and white. I don't know why...it just was. There were no graphic effects, no music, or funny subtitles. You mostly heard typewriters in the background of a scratchy, monotone male voice. He delivered the news in a serious manner and it was not drawn out between fancy commercials. That was in the 60s. The pictures were still photographs and you rarely saw video. If there was video is was fuzzy and looked far, far away. With the exception of Friday night spooky movies and Alfred Hitchcock you did not watch the TV past 11pm. You got a flat-line. That's right. TV was off the air until 6:00 a.m. the next morning.
In the 70s it started to change. We got a color TV set but still no cable. The news became a little more focused and longer. The war was a popular topic. News people started focusing more on their evening newscasts and the male anchors gained in popularity. There was still no cable, though. Most people watched the evening news for definitive information if you can believe that. Most people still read the newspaper. My parents got the morning AND evening newspaper. It was a real treat when late night shows began to pop up. Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman was one of them. As my Dad used to say when I wanted to stay out late with my friends "There is no place you should be after 11:00 p.m." and he was right. He certainly would NOT have liked my choice of late night viewing but compared to today it was pretty tame. Saturday Night Live was revolutionary. Not only were they wild and crazy they were partiers! They made fun of politicians. They mocked adults.
CNN came out in the 80s it was great. CNN Headline news actually served a great purpose. You could turn it on any time of day and there were the most recent headlines of the day. It was usually partial and not opinionated. People had gotten busier. People began working all kinds of schedules. No longer did we have the stereotypical husband going to work with the house wife sitting at home watching soap operas. Everybody went to work. Cable became king. We were no longer forced to watch the boring daily grind of network television. We had a music channel with rock music!! We had a new brand of late night shows.
I remember in the 70s during the Nixon years how old the news people seemed and in particular politicians. I was quite annoyed that I had to watch old, greasy haired politicians going on and on and on about boring things during the Watergate years. There was no choice. That is all that was on TV. You either watched how awful the news was or you went outside to play. Terrorism reared its ugly head. Jimmy Carter and his failing economy and the Iranians taking hostages was the major news item in the mid to late 70s. Jimmy Carter was not liked by the news people then contrary to what you are told now. There were terrorist acts and communists and the world was scary. Nobody had confidence in Carter. People were tired of watching the news and seeing Iranians chanting DEATH TO AMERICA. It was scary. Carter had no clue what he was doing and he seemed to be blaming our own military for failing to stop it. Despite what they tell you now they did not like Carter and neither did most Americans which is why Ronald Reagan won in a landside election. People wanted a change and they wanted as far from the Democratic party as they could get.
The news media seemed to love Reagan and fear him at the same time. Reagan had incredible authority about him. We had been stuck in the mud in the late 70s. Reagan shook the place up. He demanded we love our country again. We had a bright new future to look forward to and we were taught how to love our country again. There were dangerous people out there and we were going to do something about it. We had a leader that made us feel secure, yet we were still a little afraid of how aggressive he was. But it worked. We cleaned up our act and instead of people running around with flowers in their hair smoking pot we went to work and became respectable again. It became apparent to all that the liberal news media did not like it but there was no denying that Reagan won over the American public. They didn't like it but they had RESPECT for it. That is a key word.
In the 90s things became more complicated. It is the first time I noticed that the news had a definite bias and a clear agenda. What I was being told by the news media did not jive with what reality was. It was the first time I yelled at my television set. I got frustrated at how the news people were saying things that obviously were not so. Why were they cheering so much for the Democrats and trashing the conservatives so much? A divide grew larger. It was becoming obvious that it was becoming a race between two sides. When I was young you did not tell people who you voted for. It was not appropriate. In the 90s it became apparent that the news media was definitely gunning for the liberal side of things. But they did at least TRY to be fair. When Clinton did stupid stuff...they called him out for it. They did not cover it up.
That changed in 2000. When Al Gore ushered in his whining and boo-hoo party when George Bush won the election the news media had polished and waxed its plan. It became apparent to everyone that the liberal news was determined to brainwash and manipulate public opinion. They censored the news. They edited the news. It became a Hollywood production. Hollywood and the news media joined sides. They adopted causes (those cute polar bears) and began to make huge money using fancy PR schemes and strategies to dupe the American people.
With the introduction of the internet we now have 24/7 news coming at us from every direction. People get their news and information from a huge array of sources. Network news is still there but it is hardly the dominant source. People have divided up into their political preferences and causes. The name of the game is to shock and awe the headlines. Whatever you can do to grab the most headlines across the huge spectrum of news sources the better. It does not even matter if you do something bad...in fact sometimes bad is good. It gets you noticed. There is so much competition for our attention people slander, trash and behave badly on a regular basis now to get the attention they need to make money. Look at Charlie Sheen. Look at Britney Spears. Look at Kate Gosselin. Hardly people you want your kids to look up to for inspiration.
We are now at a point where people call each other Hitler and bigots. Not exactly a shining example of American ingenuity. People are divided into political groups. Communists are using our freedom of speech and wealth to manipulate a new generation of Americans into believing our way of life is wrong. We have so much information coming from so many different directions it is almost impossible to focus people long enough to educate them on what is happening. We have allowed our enemies to exploit us.
There are enough people my age who remember the days of black and white television. We remember the American dream and that dream does not include communism and propaganda. We are at a turning point in our history. We have been deluged with so much information it is impossible to sort through it. But we know when life is good and when it is not. We still know right from wrong. We still recognize when our enemies are trying to do bad things...and this is one of those times.
Calling the American people racists and bigots is not going to win you an election. Dividing us up into groups to fight each other is not in the best interests of our country. Americans don't always make the right choices but we do know how to correct our mistakes. We learn from our mistakes. As the November election proved, it is not what the propaganda arm of the liberal media can do...It's what Americans know in their hearts that matters. The American dream does not include divided groups who call each other names. The root of this country is the melting together of groups to stand together to conquer our enemies.
We will do that. It's what Americans do.
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