Wanted: A Voice of America - For America

[Donnachaidh]

http://smirkingchimp.com/thread/stephen-pizzo/34327/wanted-a-voice-of-america-for-america

I now know what it must have felt like to those folks stuck behind the old Iron Curtain back in the day. They couldn't watch or listen to western TV or radio because those signals were jammed by their own governments.

Over the past two weeks, if I wanted to get an unadulterated Middle Eastern take on the unfolding Egyptian revolution, I had to go on the Web and log onto al Jazeera to watch their live Web coverage.

Ironically, even as our own government prodded Egyptian officials to be more open, both we Americans and the Egyptian people were prevented from watching al Jazeera's own coverage on TV.

The reason neither country's citizens had access to al Jazeera TV is because, in both countries, those in charge of the transmitters were terrified by a news source they could not manipulate, control, limit or intimidate.

More at the link --

[MineralMan]

1. AJE has been available essentially throughout this to anyone with Internet

access in the USA. Over-the-air broadcasting is no longer necessary. Few people follow such news closely, and those who do had access to it.

Voice of America is a relic of the 1960s-80s. It's no longer relevant. Further, it was never objective in its reporting in any case, but was simply an arm of the State Department.

[tech9413]

3. Over the Air Broadcasting is no longer necessary? Hogwash!

The broadcast airwaves are the least common denominator, available to everyone, especially to those without the resources to pay for broadband internet, cable TV, or satellite radio. Probably 30 to 40% don't have access to one or more of those alternative delivery systems. This limits the views heard by a significant portion of our population to the extremely narrow worldview presented not only on the public airwaves but all of commercial media, most public broadcasting, and print media.

Drive across this country and listen to any broadcast radio and what do you hear? 91% of talk radio is pro corporate, US-centric ideology. In any city you'll probably have five stations with the same crackpot hosts. Other than that it's the same corporate music on half the stations on the dial. Then there are the religiosity hucksters that sell some perverted version of what should be a noble and ethical system of beliefs. Once in a great while you may find a station that presents some ideas that people really need to make an informed decision, unfortunately you'll probably lose the signal in 5 or 10 miles.

We can't allow a large portion of our citizens to be misinformed or dis informed through no fault of their own.

Our problem is that we are so socially isolated that our media resources affect our worldview more than how well we know our neighbors and what affects their lives. We've crawled into our shells. We don't talk to neighbor and friends about serious issues. We talk about the latest scandal of some celebrity or sports or the latest local news story. If we do talk about important issues, it's not an honest discussion. That is the product of 30 or more years or more of "perception management" through the likes of Edward Bernais and the "marketing" and "public relations" people that he spawned.

For the most part we live isolated lives and our best source of information is the media available. If that is controlled by corporate interests that depend on us for income without regard to how much information they present, they will always misinform us if it makes them money.

I know I got off topic a bit but my point is that too many people have no option other than broadcast media.

[bvar22]

2. Radio Free America!~

I love it.

:patriot: