Archive for category Politics
Do Not Let Politics and the News Get You Down
Every day we watch the news on television or read a newspaper. Sometimes we leave the radio on so that we have a bit of company and know what is going on in the world. But the tendency for these programmes is to tell us all the bad news and none of the good. Occasionally they might throw in a good news story for good measure, but the most important thing for the media is to attract viewers, readers, listeners, and sad to say, bad news attracts an audience more than good.
So it is easy to begin to feel down whenever we hear that the financial problems of the economy have not gone away, that unemployment is up, that there are spending cuts on the way, and that war is brewing in some far off land. Or perhaps there has been a natural disaster somewhere and people are in trouble, or a murder, or an air crash. Guaranteed at any given moment of the day something awful will be happening somewhere, and the efficiency of our news services today means that we will hear about it almost instantly. But if there is nothing we can do to help, the important thing is not to let it get to us.
Bad news can spoil your day. If you hadn’t have turned the telly on at that moment you wouldn’t have known about it. But the fact is that the world has always been the same and nothing has changed. There will always be evil, there will always be accidents, and there will always be politicians wondering what to do with the ailing economy. There´s no point worrying about any of it. By all means stay informed, but also try and stay detached. Concentrate on your immediate environment and if you feel safe there you have nothing to worry about. Read the rest of this entry »
Media and Politics – What Is the Role of Media in Politics?
There has been some rumbling in the UK media about the plight of a US media company over what a British media company did. Now both of these companies do share the same parent company, and there has not been any evidence that the media company, which is based in the US, did anything wrong. That has not stopped British liberals from salivating over the demise of a media empire, an empire that could be said donates millions of dollars to the very causes they support. It just so happens that the media empire covers the news of the day from a perspective that they do not agree with. In fact the owner of the company does not seem to agree with the news his company produces, if campaign donations are an indicator of his political leanings.
You might be asking yourself what this all about and if you are American, it would be understandable. Because lets face it, British scandals do not compete well with the next missing blonde on national TV or cable news channels. The scandal in question is the News of the World alleged hacking of cell phones in Britain and apparently 9/11 families now. Which is quite a serious charge and as we know with Liberals it is the seriousness of the charge that matters, not the evidence.
So the story goes that the British paper, News of the World, hacked a murder victim’s cell phone, hacked the cell phones of the 7/7 terrorists and even the phones of the royal family. Of course all of this is still being investigated and Rupert Murdoch has stated that it did not happen, he even said that his company investigated the issue when it first came up and found nothing. That has not stopped the British Parliament from trying to bring down News of the World though and Scotland yard is investigating the allegations. Read the rest of this entry »