The past year has been an education in discernment. I used to trust the big-name news services much more than I do now. But things have changed, and I think it’s been a good experience over all. I’d like to share what I’ve learned.

  • On many important subjects, Americans don’t usually get the same story as the rest of the world. For example, Newsweek published an article, “Losing Afghanistan” last month (October) which was printed everywhere but the U.S. I’m sure there was a lot of political pressure that went in to that decision, considering the GOP was about to lose congress to the Democrats.
  • According to Reporters Without Borders, an international watchdog association, Freedom of the Press in the United States ranks 53rd in the world. President Bush’s “War on Terror” is often used as a pretext to suppress truth, citing “national security” as his wild-card reason.
  • American News seems to me to have deteriorated in to a kind of entertainment. I’m not a big TV watcher these days, but shows like Planet Mancow and Hannity and Colmes are ridiculous. They don’t look for new input, they look for ways to mock and make fun of people who hold opposing points of view. I urge anyone who wants to get more of the truth to visit websites such as TV News Lies and What Really Happened. I also highly recommend this roundup of untruths: “What Else is the Mainstream Media Lying About?”

With such a poor record of late, I wonder how Americans can with such naivety claim that if it wasn’t reported in the mainstream news, then it must not be true. For example, on a recent Planet Mancow show, there was a “debate” on the subject of whether or not 9/11 was an inside job. The primary evidence used by Fireman Brian Harvey (in support of his belief that it was not an inside job) was that if 9/11 were an inside job, then we’d have heard about it on the news—and we haven’t, so it wasn’t.

I’m sorry, but you have to find other ways to discern the truth these days. The media companies aren’t doing it for you.