IF it is NOT on TV, the Net, or Observed in Person, Does It Matter To Most People?

[Blackhatjack]

Bush intentionally prevented all photography of soldiers' bodies returning from Iraq. Keeping the images off the TV and out of the newspapers and magazines helped him control the attitude of people toward the war.

Bush and Cheney kept photography of abusive interrogations(some of which ended in death of the detainee) from being disclosed, which shaded the public's understanding of what went on in the name of our country.

It is a fair question to ask if most people depend upon visual confirmation in important matters before they become outraged by such conduct? In the internet age, things have definitely changed....

[elocs]

1. I've gotta say, on DU, if you don't have a link it never happened. n/t

[Scout]

2. +10 n/t

[Uncle Joe]

3. I believe the Internet is changing society by increasing the number of

ears and eyes in the forest. With each passing day it's becoming less likely that a tree will fall without someone there to hear it.

Thanks for the thread, Blackhatjack.

[Blackhatjack]

6. You're welcome! and I agree ...

... eyes and ears are multiplying. But are people any smarter or educated about important matters that affect us all? I have my doubts when non-news sources become the primary sources of news information for voters.

OF course, newspapers continue to abdicate their responsibility to practice real journalism, and tend to reprint whatever comes across the wire whether it is true or not.

[Uncle Joe]

7. I believe people are becoming smarter and better educated about important matters but

recapturing and even exceeding lost ground is a marathon, not a sprint.

I also believe the majority of the power/influence/profit obsessed, traditional, one way, top down corporate media; is fighting a rear guard action, they're slowly but surely consuming their most valuable resource; that being their journalistic integrity in a attempt to keep the American People dumbed down as a means to easier manipulate them. By turning the inane and celebrity in to the main virtually non-stop news of the day/week/month, they devalue their own precious product.

The same dynamic happens to starving people, their bodies begin to literally consume themselves as a means to stay alive, this can go on for only so long.

[damntexdem]

4. What's this "observed in person" nonsense?

Do you think that Americans would trust something they see with their own eyes if Rush tells them it isn't so? ;-)

[Blackhatjack]

5. It strikes me that the Beck's and Limbaugh's of the world rely upon this to keep listeners in line

It is the 'substituted eyewitness syndrome' with these guys. They say they saw it, so it must be true.