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ATTENTION BLOGOSPHERE!
George
Washington's Blog
Friday January 25, 2008
As of November 2006, only
26 million Americans watched any
nightly news program on television (down from 52 million
in 1980). And the percentage of people who believed "all or most
of what news organizations say" fell
dramatically between 1996 and 2006.
On the other hand, social sites like Digg, Reddit, Del.icio.us,
Technorati, StumbleUpon, Propeller, Newsvine etc., and alternative
news websites on both the left and the right have attracted huge
numbers of eyeballs. Indeed, there are currently at least 112.8
million blogs and over 250 million pieces of tagged social media.
We are actually on the verge of becoming bigger
than the audience for tv news. And we are certainly much more
involved and active than the couch potatoes passively consuming
the drivel coming from the MSN.
(Article continues below)
In fact, mainstream news
is a misnomer. Why? Because the corporate, controlled news does
not reflect the views of mainstream Americans. Instead, it reflects
the views of the government and the large corporations which own
or advertise on the news networks.
The blogosphere, on the other hand, runs insightful and uncensored
stories. The blogsphere gives voice to, and reflects the views
of, mainstream America. In other words, I would argue that the
blogsphere is now the
"mainstream" news source.
Attention Blogosphere . . . We are now the mainstream news.
Making News of Our Own
There are now enough of us reading and writing political and news
blogs that we can affect history.
Instead of rolling our eyes at the newest inept and cowardly act
of the politicians, or getting hot under the collar at the latest
attempt of the White House to turn America into a monarchy, or
yelling at our monitors over the latest corrupt and illegal act
of our "leaders", or twitching over the latest spin by the "mainstream"
media, we can -- together -- actually make
some news of our own.
Like what?
Well, that's for us to decide. I'm not the spokesman or the leader,
but just one member of the very large blogosphere.
But if we pretend we are just passive spectators, the inept, cowardly,
fascistic and/or corrupt politicians and media are going to run
our country into the ground.
You know it, I know it, the entire blogosphere knows it.
The one-way model of television news -- where the talking heads
talk at us and tell us what to believe -- is dead. The power of
the blogosphere is that it is two-way:
- With social networking sites, by definition the most important
news stories (as determined by the users) get voted up
- With alternative news sites, those sites which carry the important
stories which the MSM censors get the most readers; that's why
such sites have grown exponentially while the mainstream
news is losing viewership
All of us in the blogosphere collectively have the power to change
the course of events, to keep our country from plunging off of the
cliff, and to restore sanity in a nutty time. If we just embrace
and accept our role as active participants, rather than passive
consumers of bad news, we can make things right.
Attention Blogosphere . . . The future rests in our hands.
But the [people], if only
they could somehow become conscious of their own strength, would
have no need to conspire . . . They need only to rise up and shake
themselves like a horse shaking off flies . . .
-
George Orwell, 1984
You
let one ant stand up to us - then they all might stand up. Those
puny little ants outnumber us a 100 to one. And if they ever
figure that out, there goes our way of life.
-
Hopper (a grasshopper speaking to fellow grasshoppers in the Disney/Pixar
movie A Bug's Life)
There
is no act too small, no act too bold. The history of social change
is the history of millions of actions, small and large, coming together
at points in history and creating a power that governments cannot
suppress.
- Howard
Zinn, historian
To hell with circumstances;
I create opportunities.
- Bruce Lee
The people who get on in
this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances
they want, and, if they can't find them, make them.
- George Bernard Shaw
If
you don't like the news, go out and make some news of your own.
- Scoop Nisker, radio personality
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INFOWARS:
BECAUSE THERE'S A WAR ON FOR YOUR MIND
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