BRAINWASHED

We didn’t even notice.

A time not long ago, the news came on the black and white television for 30-minutes at the dinner hour. We sat at our TV trays and watch a fuzzy screen of a guy reading a sheet of paper with all local and whatever national news could be scraped up. Another guy would stand up in front of a map with a bunch of H and L’s on it and tell some jokes about what might happen tomorrow. Then to end it all up some other guy would talk about the local high school teams for the national scores had to wait for the newspaper to print.

Then it was onto nightly entertainment until 9 PM when the station shutdown. The next news event would be the next night at the same time.

But the media wasn’t done yet. The three networks started an early morning news show. Bright smiling faces shared their coffee with you to start the day with a repeat of the nightly news and most important traffic report. We still depended on the radio to announce if schools were closed due to snow.

With advances in technology and more free time, our culture has become absorbed with what is now described as ‘news’. On any device imaginable, a steady stream of news, weather, sports and opinions are sent out 24/7 to keep the public well informed.

Any event from a presidential assassination to a political downfall to a natural disaster or a sports event can be viewed instantaneously to satisfy our curiosity. The question is ‘Are we more informed citizens of global events or are we being brainwashed?’

As we find a news source that matches our taste for information / entertainment, we tend to stay with it. As the formatting changes we continue to believe whatever and whoever is presenting their particular slant on the factual events of the day. Journalism and Marketing have always been separate entities that never cross (like church and state) but you see that line is becoming fuzzy. Every clip is sponsored and with the cash comes a commitment to please. Even the reflection in the voice or facial expressions can sway the audience’s perception.

To brainwash is to indoctrinate, condition, reeducate, persuade, influence, propagandize, and inculcate different beliefs by using systematic repetition.

Time to shut down.