Hey Everyone! 😊
Happy Tuesday! Hey, at least it's not Monday anymore, right? 😉 In celebration of that fact, I thought it might be fun to share a little more of Alyce's insights. Enjoy...
"It's not that they want a criminal in charge as much as they don't really care all that much because the crimes the president is under investigation for either don't affect them or benefit them. On the other hand, they wanted the judge the president nominated to be confirmed because the judge is extremely friendly to large corporations and has almost always ruled against regular people and for big business in his career as a judge."
"And so they minimize or ignore the corruption," murmured Squid-boy.
I shrugged. "To be fair, some print media outlets have done a decent job of covering this issue, but a lot of people only consume television news, and they haven't talked about it much."
"If your print media more reliably covers important news, why would many of your people restrict themselves to less informative television news outlets?" asked Yax.
"Because it's easier. You can watch the news on TV while you're making and eating dinner, or have it on in the background while you're doing laundry, cleaning your house, or doing any other chore that doesn't take your full attention. Some people listen to the news on the radio, instead, because they can listen in the car on the way to and from work."
"Are news reports on the radio more informative than what's on the television?"
"Some are. It depends on what station you listen to. But, as far as mainstream media outlets are concerned, print media is most likely to do investigative reporting on our government and to do in-depth analysis of important news stories. They still aren't great, honestly, and a lot of independent media outlets do a better job. But for the mainstream media, print media is the most likely to provide important information to the public. But people have to take the time and trouble to read it, and a lot of people can't or won't do that."
"So then why don't more of your people turn to independent media for their news?"
"Some people have. Unfortunately, independent media doesn't have the kind of money that mainstream media has, which means they don't have the infrastructure necessary to promote and share their stories the way mainstream media does. Independent media is mostly on the internet; there's not much in the way of hard copy print or radio independent news, and pretty much no independent media on regular television. So, people have to go online and look for independent news sources, and a lot of people either don't know to do that or don't want to take the time. And even if someone does know about independent media and does want to seek them out, they first have to figure out which independent media sources are reliable. Because some people call themselves media when all they are, in reality, are crazy conspiracy theorists and/or hatemongers."
"Crazy conspiracy theorists and hatemongers?" asked Squid-boy. "I don't understand; I thought you said your independent journalists were more truthful and more interested in exposing corruption and criminal behavior among the powerful than your mainstream media journalists are."
I nodded. "Yes, those who are actually journalists, who do the work that journalists are supposed to do, are more honest and focused on speaking truth to power than the mainstream media is. But not everyone on the internet who calls themselves a journalist actually is a journalist. It's easy enough for people who have an agenda to call themselves journalists when they have no interest in reporting facts or investigating news. And if a person is looking for news sources online because the mainstream media has let them down, they have to be careful not to be fooled by people who claim to report news when all they do is spew hate or make outrageous claims with no evidence to support them."
"Which goes back to what you said before about many of your people not being well-versed in how to evaluate purported news to determine if it is supported by evidence and if the evidence comes from a reliable source."
"Yep. Exactly."
"A problem that would be solved if your mainstream media could be relied upon to provide the information your people require to make informed decisions. But they can't be, as is evidenced by their failure to focus on important news stories like that of your president appointing a judge to the highest court in your government who does not believe a president should be held to account for crimes they commit."
I smiled. "You got it, sugar. That's the conundrum. And, of course, we haven't even talked about resources."
"Resources?"
"Yep. Resources. Money, support personnel, equipment, these are all things that most independent news outlets have very little of, which means the number of stories they're able to investigate is limited. Mainstream media has lots of resources, but they rarely use them to do the kind of deep investigative journalism that only they are able to do."
"Which further limits the information your people have access to."
I shrugged. "Like I said before, we have lots of information. We're bombarded with information 24/7/365. We have so much information it's overwhelming; we're drowning in it. Unfortunately, very little of the information we have is the information we need. And in order to find even that little bit, we are forced to dig through the piles of nonsense, trivia, misinformation, and hot air that surrounds us constantly.""That sounds tiring," ventured Yax.
"Oh, sugar, it's exhausting. That's why so many people are so ill-informed. And why most of them don't even realize it."
Want to find out more about what Alyce has to say about life in these United States? Grab your copy at the link below. Happy reading! 😊
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