Media distorting conservative cause
I was watching “Book TV” on CSPAN recently. I can't remember what book was being discussed because I heard a couple of comments that froze my brain. A member of the panel said that he had been a Republican, but his support of civil rights issues caused him to side with Democrats.
What? The Republicans dragged the Democrats kicking and screaming throughout the fight for civil rights. All the famous black leaders were Republican: Eldridge Cleaver, Frederick Douglass, Jackie Robinson, Booker T. Washington, Martin Luther King Jr. Somehow, after the battle was mostly won, the Democrats managed to convince the general public that they were the knights in shining armor in that fight.
Then another panel member asked what can be done about our tax schedule that transfers wealth from the poor and the middle class to the rich. What? Do they not know that the bottom half of wage earners in this country pay no income taxes at all. As a matter of fact, if they file for Earned Income Tax Credit, they get a refund for more than the amount their employers withheld, a kind of bonus to reward them for working. Do people not know that 70 percent of the income taxes are paid by the top 10 percent of the wage earners?
I was stunned. I questioned my perception of reality. I had a sense that I might be caught in that famous Matrix. But of course these comments only prove that propaganda works. If you repeat something often enough, the people will believe it.
The soothing, reasonable tones of members of the media, carefully dressed and coiffed, their white teeth glittering across the airwaves, have hypnotized us, bombarding us with mantras of half-truths and lies. It has been effective.
And they are still doing it today: Kathleen Parker of the Washington Post: “Are Republicans stupid?” Politico: “Is Rick Perry just plain dumb?” Maureen Dowd of the New York Times: “Republicans are the ‘How great it is to be stupid party.'” “Donald Trump that right wing nut job.” “Conservatives are mean spirited and intolerant.” “Harsh, extreme, radical.” Paul Ryan is a “zombie-eyed granny starver.” “Romney, the hollow man.” “Romney the cardboard cutout.”
That among the mainstream media is considered unbiased reporting. No wonder we go zombie-eyed to the polls.
Cora Lee Schingnitz
Yuma
