Older Posts - August 2006

Friday 8/18/06 - FCC Inquiries of "Fake News"

The latest on FCC mailed inquiries to 77 television stations for using video news releases as "fake news" points to one major reason for public viewers to distrust the mainstream media. The spread of skepticism is like a forest fire where one can no longer tell the difference between propaganda and news.

As standards for news, FCC requires all video news releases to disclose "the nature, source and sponsorship of the material that they are viewing," but these stations not only broke the rules, they had the audacity to sabotage “the truth” in make-believe news stories for the sake of “considerations” (financial gain?) from private “creators of news releases”. In other words, these stations were bought to lie to the public.

Worse still, the stations have continued to release fake news despite the truth of their misconduct that surfaced earlier in March this year in "Fake TV News: Widespread and Undisclosed," a study conducted by the Center for Media and Democracy, a nonprofit organization that monitors the public relations industry.

From this news item, one saying comes to mind: “Money corrupts people” — the managers of TV stations, the corporations as creators of fake news, the news station reporters to air the videos, the paid actors pretending to be reporters and the list goes on…

Thursday 8/17/06 - Skepticism in UK on Terror Plot

Skepticism abounds in UK after the government announced that it had foiled a massive terror plot a week ago. In the article, 'People are definitely sceptical' Guardian (Aug. 16, 2006), the majority of the British citizens and tourists have given credible reasons for such skepticism:

“…whether these claims are just to clamp down on British Muslims.”
“Is it scaremongering tactics by the government or another reason to harass more innocent people?”
"It's propaganda, isn't it? It gets the whole nation on alert."
“A lot of these terror alerts seem to coincide with an announcement about ID cards for instance.”
“Some of it's for our own protection, but I believe a lot of it is spin.”
“We've been given no evidence yet.”
“I don't trust the government at all. There's no doubt that Blair lied about the weapons of mass destruction before Iraq."

I would add one more reason: Not only are these supposedly terror attacks well-timed with the government’s attempts to raise public support, but also that they are so predictable. For Bush and Blair, they should stop assuming that people, sometimes acting like sheep, are blind and stupid not being able to see through their ploys. In fact, according to the National Sheep Association, “Sheep are quite intelligent creatures.” 

Thursday 8/9/06 - Cause of Obesity Epidemic - GM Suspect

The article about the spread of obesity to infants conducted by scientists is troubling. (Raw Story, August 9, 2006) Over the years we have been bombarded by scientists trying to blame obesity on the lifestyle habits, fast-food consumption, or genetic hereditary in the US. Instead of looking at the real cause of the obesity epidemic, mainly in the US compared to the rest of the world, the scientists and doctors have examined the results related to obesity.

Since the introduction of GM products in the US food market for mass consumption in the 1980s, obesity has become most noticeable in the last ten years. Obesity is a sign of abnormal physical condition of the body that could be brought about by external and internal factors. The fact that obesity is epidemic at an accelerated speed points to more of an internal factor than an external one. In other words, junk food intake and genetic hereditary would have a direct association with quick body changes, more so than a lifestyle habit of being a couch potato. The GM element in the unlabeled food in markets seems to be the culprit more than anything else, for it’s found in most junk food and it does cause genetic hereditary changes. It’s amazing that scientists turn a blind eye to study the negative effects of GM food for human consumption. Perhaps, they were the ones who have been complicit all along with big food corporations and the government in burying the facts — all for the sake of reaping profits from an ignorant public.