Meanwhile, many newspapers began to publish versions of their issues. Many of us loved this. No longer a soggy paper thrown under one of the cars or out where you had to get dressed to fetch it. You can just pop the 'on' button of your computer and get English versions of many of the best newspapers of the world as well as newspapers from all over our own country.
There was a time when you could trust a newspaper as being reasonably factual, knowing that three sources had to be checked before a story was published. When that began to erode as a standard, it only got worse as the Internet and other sources helped diminish the paper's subscribers to the point that ad money began to fall. As with all slippery slopes, when the money got tighter and tighter, the good reporters, who were higher paid, often got let go, taking with them integrity of the news being printed. It is not unlike the manufacturing company that fired workers until there was no longer enough product being made to carry the overhead and pay of the executives. We are seeing that in too many places today. Sometimes it's not the torso that is let go, it is the brain...as in academic institutions when the effective Deans and Professors feel they have to move on as the working ethos is no longer acceptable.
But now, there is no longer any governing principle and people are getting an overload of information and misinformation. Remembering that half the people are below average, many remain unable to sort out what to believe. YouTube, blogs, AlterNet, Huffington Post, Drudge, right wingers, left wingers...it is just all too much. Now the television shows all. Today I got to see Rush Limbaugh for the last 30 minutes of his 20 minute time allotment which went an hour and a half, while some people were chanting for him to run as the Presidential candidate in 2012. It will be interesting to see how someone who has lied publicly and has had the lies proven without doubt, can withstand the resistance to his campaign by those who know his lies.
It is more than the 'Eyes of Texas' upon us today. You can get rather in-depth reports such as on Obama's choice of new HHS appointee, Kathleen Sibelius. Or you can choose headlines in all sorts of places. If you hear a piece of something on TV but didn't capture the whole report, it is simple to go the network for detail, or to Google for more clarification. If someone is uninformed on anything published somewhere today, it is their own fault. What is not their fault is whether they know if the information is fact or not.
The speed of information circling the globe is staggering. I can remember finding out that Roosevelt had become President by watching a searchlight circling off the top of the Great Blue Hill in Milton MA. It took hours, if not days, before the win was confirmed but there was no Internet, and radio did not have the number of newscasts it has today. Many homes didn't even have a radio, in fact. The sudden availability of knowing what is going on everywhere seems to make everyone an authority. Expressing opinions has never been limited. Even in Colonial days there were soap box orators, they just didn't reach so many people. We not only can hear it, but we can see more with our own eyes.
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