Week 10 Opinion

People have always been influenced by the media. I can not remember which book, but in one by E. Phillips Oppenheim, a character says "Whoever controls the newspapers, controls all of England."

That was in the 1910s, now it has expanded even further. People are controlled by the media, which now encompasses the aforementioned newspapers, but more prominently news programs, and the internet.

With any newspaper, the people who write it will always have an opinion on what they are writing, especially if it has something to do with politics. They might think they don't, but it is lurking in their subconscious. The worst part is that they try so hard to be impartial, that all they do is conceal their prejudice so that the reader does not notice it, but is only influenced subconsciously themselves.

As an example, the Bangor Daily News for example admits that they are wholeheartedly Democrat. But when the BDN staff is writing an article about a Republican, their phrases and selection of information to publish is going to be harsher on him then on a Democrat, just because the first thing that comes to mind will be more negative of him.

News stations do this even worse. They focus on things like the upcoming "Fiscal cliff" months beforehand, and make a huge media and social deal about it. As soon as the election was over, they needed something else, so all of a sudden the stocks plunge and the media starts panicking and overreacting purely to get the viewer's attentions. Did the panic start after the election because if Romney won then there would be no danger of the cliff? No, because Democrats and Republicans still would have argued and not compromised. They wanted to save it for when they would not have anything to make a big deal about, after the election was over.

 They also do things such as with this fiscal cliff. They talk of how Obama wants to raise taxes to 39% from 35%. The really interesting thing they do not talk about however is the Laffer Curve, which explains both sides' opinions, that taxing more on the rich will bring in more money and be fair, and that taxing them less brings in much more in the long term.

Regardless of which is right, this difference from 39 to 35 is not the only fighting point with this bill. The Republicans have things that they are making demands on like Obama is demanding the 39 percent. They do not get publicized however, only Obama's got shown on the news. So as a result, as opposed to Obama demanding something and the Republican's demanding something, It now is at Obama demanding something and the Republican's not wanting it.

As a result, the media and Obama can use this to turn it into "The Republicans need to compromise". Obama, after getting the publicity on that, then challenged the Republicans to compromise. The Republicans will not get the attention if they challenge Obama to compromise on what they want. This way it gets turned into a case of Obama making a request and the Republicans being unreasonable. This way they can turn it into a one on one battle between Obama and Speaker Boehner, when really it is not near so much of a one on one struggle between them. But the media wants to turn it into an entertaining soap opera type of fight between two men, who will emerge victorious?

They do this with whatever party President is in, Republican or Democrat, they ignore most everyone else, and twist the information so that the viewers get fed opinions, whether they realize it or not.

The news industry is one that rules our country, and the opinions of most people in it. It is ruining our country, and sometimes, all it makes me want to do is read some real undramatized, unbiased, interesting and just as likely to be real news, such as The Onion. At least it does not try to form your opinions for you.