Beware Media Manipulation

I am a member of the media. Honestly, this can be one of the most horrifying statements I make at times. For instance, I have no idea what happened in the George Zimmerman / Trayvon Martin shooting in Florida and here's the deal, neither did the mainstream media when they released these pictures of Zimmerman and Martin.

Here are some more recent pictures of both of them:

Don't misunderstand, I'm not passing judgement. However, if you had seen the second set of pictures first, how would the story have played out in your own head? I'm guessing very differently.

Our media today is in such a rush to get things out that making sure they have the facts straight takes a huge backseat to just getting it out there.

The other thing to look for is the purposeful manipulation of your emotions when it fits their agenda. The mainstream media is well known for publishing photos of people that make them look mean or stupid just because they don't like that person. President George W. Bush is one of the best examples I can think of.

In my opinion, the media in this country is far more liberal than conservative, and every chance the big media networks and publications got they picked a photo or still framed image from a video that just made him look like an idiot.

Don't believe me, try this at home: If you have a digital video recorder or Tivo then watch your favorite star on a show. While they are talking simply press the pause button until you catch them with a facial expression that would stop a moose in it's tracks... there you go. They do the same thing with Sara Palin or any other conservative they don't like. It's the same type of thing the supermarket tabloids do when reporting a celebrity's "scandalous" behavior that may or may not exist. They look at  thousands of paparazzi photos until they find the perfect one, then they write a story to fit the image. That's crazy I know, but as long as we keep buying that crappolla, they'll keep doing it.

I stopped watching most of the major news  broadcasts years ago, because once you start looking for and seeing the manipulation in their stories and images, you'll see it everywhere, and it will drive you nuts.

Listen to how they demonize the SUV. The story never says " a man ran over three people in his vehicle today." If he was driving a SUV, you bet they will point it out. They don't like SUV's. They don't think you should drive one because it drinks too much gas and they always point out how dangerous they are to other drivers and pedestrians. I promise you, if you hit a pedestrian at 60 mph, it doesn't matter what you're driving.

The same thing happens with the demonization of guns. It is always referred to as "gun crime" or "gun violence." Does it really matter whether a person is killed with a gun, a knife or a baseball bat? It certainly doesn't matter to the person that was killed. It's not the gun that committed the crime, but the person behind it. It's the situation they were in that makes it a crime or self defense.

A gun is no more guilty of a crime than a fork is guilty of making me fat, or music is responsible for making someone deaf. Playing it too loudly on their iPod or cranking up the volume on the headphones may have had something to do with it. Excessive use of that fork probably contributed to my extra poundage and the person behind the gun. Well, that should be up to investigators and a possible jury to decide.

Not the media.