Interesting perspectives…

Well, I stirred up a can of worms at Thanksgiving lunch by accident…

Let me set the stage here. There were probably 25-30 people present ranging in age from 12-89; of those three were in their 80’s (husband-WWII vet 101st Airborne, wife and wife’s sister), fourteen of us between 50 and 60 (six couples, two stragglers; five veterans- primarily Vietnam), six in their mid-20’s (two couples, two stragglers; one National Guard), and three to seven kids 12-17 at various times.

I was asked by the kid in the Guard, who is just back from a second tour, what my perspective was since I work in DC, I told him based on what I was seeing, we were definitely gaining on the problems in Iraq, and Afghanistan was a break even, better if Bhutto gets back in and gets us into the tribal areas where bin Laden is hiding.

One of the old ladies overheard my comment and basically called me a liar, she said that was NOT what she had seen on the news, or read in the papers and how could I possibly know, etc…

The next question I asked was, “Well, what news are you talking about?”

Her answer, echoed by her sister was CBS, NBC, ABC, they didn’t believe cable news.

The wife of the lawyer in our age group piped up that she agreed, because she listened to NPR and they were ‘official sources’ so they had to be right. She also said she watched a lot of the news shows; Oprah, Dr. Phool, etc. and they all said we were losing.

The former Recon Marine, whose son asked the original question, jumped in and said he agreed with me, so did the rest of the veterans. Of course the lawyer just had to jump in, and he pretty much parrotted the “we’ve lost and need to bring the boys home, it was all about oil and no WMDs, and, and…

The 89 year old rather succinctly called B.S. on the lawyer in language I won’t use here 🙂 He then started in on his wife and sister about how they were being brainwashed by TV and the papers and that they needed to listen to the people who were actually there.

The wife of the kid in the Guard spoke up, and she said everything she was hearing from the other wives was that progress was being made, but it was slow and dangerous. She admitted she had been scared s**tless while her husband had been gone, but believed in him and the Commanders that it was the right thing. The other young couple agreed, and said they were getting their information from the Internet and cable.

One of the wives in our age group chimed in that she listened to talk radio and regularly surfed the Internet to stay abreast of what was happening. She also said they almost never watched the mainstream media, just CNN, Fox News, Discovery and History channels, and sports.

The seventeen year old boy was asked what he thought and he indicated he wanted to go into the Marines like his dad had done. When asked why, he gave a rather interesting answer for a 17 year old- “Well, I see what kind of a man it made my Daddy, and I don’t think I could do better, and a lot of the teachers don’t tell the truth in class. I know I’m not ready to go to college, so if I go in the Marines, I’ll learn a lot and get money for college too. I’m not scared of the fighting, or guns, cause we’ve always had guns and Daddy taught me right.”

Of course Daddy was beaming, and so was Momma, but Grandmother threw an absolute hissy fit…

Bottom line I gathered- Media definitely controls viewpoints. The older generation that is not computer literate and doesn’t watch cable are getting nothing but the MSM point of view. Lawyers and soccer moms are tending the same way adding NPR to the mix. Working parents and veterans are using their experiences, cable news and the Internet to form an opinion based on multiple inputs. The younger generation is living the war with family members going over, and they are using the Internet and networking to get the real scoop unfiltered by any media organizations.



Comments

Interesting perspectives… — 7 Comments

  1. Interesting, and that 17 year old kid’s parents should be very proud of him. 🙂

  2. Living out here on BI, we get all kinds of “celebrities” all the time. One day this past summer we had a very small fire at a disused pump house right on one of the main roads. So I kind of followed th fire engine on my 1100 cc Yamaha up to the site. I pulled up next to the police chief who was talking to someone else and watched the show. Then I really looked at the guy the Chief was talking too, and sure enough it was Brian Williams of NBC, here on a weeks vacation. Seeing as I was two feet away from him I asked if he was who I thought he was. Yes he says all smiles. I asked if I could ask him a question and he agreed. Soooo-, I asked, “Can you tell me why it is you people in the MSM have to lie, and distort the truth so much when you talk about the War? Why can’t you just tell it like it really is?” The smile just evaporated, and if the cop wasn’t there, he looked like he would have liked to slug me. Then he turned around and just walked off. So much for interaction with the little people, and integrity!

  3. There is a word for brainwashed individuals… Cult members. The MSM is turning our society into a class of the brainwashed and the self educated. which do you think will stand up for thier rights and believe in what our country stands for?

  4. Ev, I’m not suprised… You didn’t follow the script 🙂

    Mark, ONLY the self-educated will stand up, the rest will stand dumbly by and watch the world go past without a clue.

  5. There is actually a lot of study about how media controls viewpoints. They call it “agenda setting.” Basically, it’s media determining how much importance we place on issues based on how it is reported and where in the newscast/newspaper/etc. Interesting stuff.

    btw…love your blog. I’ve been reading off and on for a little while now, but this is my first comment.