Starts With Us’ Post

I invite you to do an exercise this evening: watch a TV news program from cable news program from the side of the political spectrum you most disagree with. Everyone is covering the same story tonight. If you feel a visceral disgust, especially, I invite you to push past that. That feeling of disgust is a protection mechanism for your identity—it’s primal and you don’t need to heed it, because you are an evolved human capable of critical thinking. Watch for half an hour, at least. Try to imagine what it would be like if you liked this content and agreed with it. Try to imagine if all the news/news-like opinion & analysis you consumed sounded just like this. How do you think that would affect your perception of the world? Most people resist this sort of exercise, but it is essential to understanding why we are so deeply divided in what we believe. We inhabit bespoke realities crafted by our information sources. This is why 2/3 of Americans insist that absolutely no set of facts or circumstances would change their planned vote. That’s an absurd position, because facts and circumstances matter. Understanding someone else’s world is key to overcoming stubborn intransigence, and is necessary if we hope to overcome our entrenched polarization. Ad Fontes Media

"Searching for News in an Era of Propaganda: Randy Mayeux and Ed Bark, on the changing nature of news coverage" -- That was the presentation that I shared with Ed Bark, former TV critic of the Dallas Morning News (who also covered politics, and especially political conventions) . With great stories and insights from Ed, to insights from a great book by Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, on propaganda, and the classic Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman, which warned of the danger of "news as entertainment," this presentation dealt with information and misinformation, disinformation, propaganda... In other words, a really timely presentation. We may give this presentation another time or two. I think it addresses the need of the era. Here are Ed and Randy at CC Young, were we made the presentation.

Et tu brut? I can't count the times I sent Andrea Lawful Sanders proposed questions and talking points in advance. This is standard operating procedure with ALL media. It's interesting that a media that may have participated in a national coverup of Biden's condition for the last few years is shocked that talking points were submitted. Talking points and questions are expected. Otherwise, hosts and guests would look like Joe Biden on debate night. It's how you plan interviews. During my decades as a publicist who works with public figures and celebrities, most media personalities have expected and even requested question submissions. Andrea has used my questions to build a structured interview for the few minutes that airtime allows. She has also passed on some of my questions for various reasons. Usually it's due to time, as responses to other questions generate more questions. This has been the same with almost every other journalist with whom I worked . Now that Andrea's got national exposure, I bet she lands a gig on something huge like The View (I'm not endorsing that show-- just emphasizing the kind of reach Andrea could attract). She is as much a wonderful a person as she is a professional. Andrea Sanders is a person people just like. She can brighten a room by walking into it. Her best days still lie ahead. She did no wrong. She wasn't the shooter. She just got hit with the shrapnel of something ugly. Watch the number of people thrown under the train over the next few weeks. It's going to get bloody. In the interim, don't dismiss the next victims of this massacre. Question the media and research those, like Andrea, who are being used. If you do, chances are your conclusions will differ from the headlines.

Where is Walter Cronkite when we need him? When JFP was assassinated, Cronkite stunned viewers by tearing up when he broke the news. Journalists and news anchors used to report the news without emotion or bias. They presented the facts plainly and without embellishment, allowing readers, listeners, and viewers to form their own opinions. Everyone is entitled to their own views, beliefs, and political leanings, but it's important to consider news from different viewpoints. If you only consume FOX News from the right or CNN from the left, you're getting one-sided coverage. Watching both channels will reveal that the same news story can be presented very differently. Please take a few extra minutes to watch the news from various perspectives or to check out neutral news sources like News Nation or BBC. The country is deeply divided, and biased news reports only exacerbate the problem. I miss the time when journalists were trusted to share the unvarnished story, not selective soundbites, slanted commentary, and even downright lies. Can we please get back to, “And that's the way it is,” not “And that’s the way I want you to believe it is.”

Positive Media Day, celebrated every year on June 22, is a special awareness holiday that aims to promote positive, inspiring, and uplifting news in the media. Did you know that Americans get most news from television and online? Yes, according to recent research, 41% of Americans like getting their local news on television, and 37% prefer getting it online. Only 13% of Americans prefer a printed newspaper, and a mere 8% choose radio.

Yes but is this not an outcome of intentionally gaslighting the public for decades. CBC is going a similar path but we must understand that at the heart of our national identities are democracies - to weaponize our press to push our citizen to disengage is intentional. It is the kind of goverance structure that leads to social decline and make our nations vunerable. Ultimately - even in #Quebec (and of course, Canada too) - we live in a very #caste based societies where we do not believe our nationals can make the decisions for themselves and thus we are giving a few choices which are pushed by the same ruling classes that allow them to govern. The time has come to ask if those in charge of our nations and our national interest are truly working for us. I think not … It rarely work and at least the history of Canada is one where we gain enough confidence to choose to stand for our selves. Take the UK and her former English colonies: 🇨🇦🇺🇸🇬🇧🇦🇺🇳🇿- The challenges of the new multipolar world is related to supply chains and expected distruption - hence why UAE, India and China are busy investing into strings of ports across the world - to secure but also control the supply chains. Power dynamic due to #climatechange is a very real thing. We expect signficant distruption that can lead to hunger - yet, our politicians decided to make our people vunerable and for sins pushed by the same governing elites. Plus, let us not forget David Cameron trying to profit by pushing our agricultural supply chains into speculative territory and that by using priviledge information we gained as PM. Do you know how many times 🇬🇧 used starvation as a tool to control and dominate? These were also used against the Indigenous people of Canada. So while #China controls the United Nations food program, and Russia attacks and secures about 20% of #ukraine’s agricultural land and while both #Russia and #China invest heavily into acquiring agricultural land - all while #SouthAfrica and #Israel together are underming the United Nations and using #starvation to carry our a genocide in our name and so called national interest while bp seeks to develop #Gaza gas reserves and #Kushner sees beachfront properties. The control of supply chains (ports) and agricultural production is key to power in the 21st century. Its why its so problematic that Pierre Poilievre and Jagmeet Singh underdermine our climate policies makes no sense. See -Justin Trudeau and the Liberal Party of Canada • Parti Libéral du Canada in Canada needs to put forth a new vision for Canada, one where we stand united together but ultimately- our stength and ability to defend our national interest lies in our democracies and our institutions so many have built over centuries. Also why you have to call for a trial for the #genocide.

KEY POINTS: (1) News organizations cut short the live broadcast of Trump’s lie-laden news conference; (2) Trump uses lies, smears, fake news and conspiracy theories to sway people based on their fears, greed, ignorance and bigotries.

CNN Faces Backlash for Hosting Unchecked Trump Town Hall: CNN recently hosted a town hall with former President Donald Trump, where they allowed him to spew lies and misinformation… Read More: CNN Faces Backlash for Hosting Unchecked Trump Town Hall via #TheCityCeleb