What's Your Media Bias?
Do you automatically dismiss information from "outside" sources?
I am a US citizen. I’m not proud to be an American. That doesn’t mean that I am anti-American. I’m not “anti-” anybody. I am “pro-” human dignity.
All governments have agendas to maintain (or gain) power through military and economic pursuits, in order to remain sovereign entities. The people of all countries share the goals of adequate shelter, ample food, meaningful employment, and safety for their families.
Governments often do not represent the will of their peoples.
The mainstream media is a propaganda arm of government, especially here in the US. People like Noam Chomsky and Chris Hedges have been exposing the corporate media’s takeover of information sources, but not enough people are aware of the extent of that process.
Many independent journalists have turned to alternative media sources to get their stories out to the public, as they have been censored, suspended, or fired from their positions as newspaper columnists or TV news anchors, or have their social media content demonetized or nearly impossible to find due to algorithms that prioritize the content that represents the government’s desired viewpoints.
I tune in to Radio Sputnik to listen to Political Misfits, with John Kiriakou and Michelle Witte. I subscribe to Al Jazeera English. While some of my favorite podcasters are on YouTube, many of them are turning to Rumble.com, as YouTube is becoming more and more censored.
It’s important to look for bias in any media content, whether from Moscow or Washington, DC; from Qatar or Beijing. All governments use propaganda. I don’t want to become a useful idiot for any ruling power.
My desire is to have access to many differing points of view, in an effort to widen my understanding of situations in order to form my own opinions.
Many hours of our lives are spent working to pay taxes to our governments. I believe that the people should have a say in how that money is allocated.
Here in the US, I seriously question our astronomical military budget, and the constant cuts in funding for social services and infrastructure.
The US mainstream media pounds home the message that this military spending is necessary, and that we should believe their experts about the “success” of our military spending. I have to turn to alternative sources of media to learn about what is actually happening in the multiple areas where our military is active.
Full Disclosure: My ex-husband was career military, and I have, in the past, lived on or near US military bases around the world for nearly 20 years of marriage. In many places, the US military presence was not welcome. Here are some videos (Hawaii, Okinawa) of recent protests, but I was actually present at similar protests in earlier years.
My interest in digging deeper into stories is not to promote cynicism, but rather to abate the deepening divide between people who are becoming evermore cemented in their opinions. If we are not even aware that there is another side to a story (that all things can’t be explained by simply “good vs. bad”), there is no hope of gaining the understanding that could lead to a more peaceful world.
As Caitlin Johnstone explains so well in her recent article:
Whistleblowers and investigative journalists provide an invaluable service to humanity for which we should all be grateful, but what this civilization needs more than anything right now is not so much new information about what the powerful are doing, but rather the ability to lucidly perceive the information that’s already been made public. We need people clearly seeing what’s already right in front of them, without the lens of distortion and obfuscation that the powerful have placed over their eyes.