Doing your part

Hybrid Hibiscus

i pick up little snippets from around the web that may or not have any meaning for you but did for me when i collected them.

Recently i read a piece by Robert F. Kennedy that explained why Canadians had voted against allowing FOX to have access to their TV bandwidths; apparently truth is very important in Canada and FOX coincidentally has a problem with truth.

The Canadian Radio and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) prohibits the broadcast of false or misleading news.  This law was passed to prevent political parties from spreading propaganda and as a result Canadians enjoy an exemplary level of news and journalism. Canadians are some of the most informed in the world.

  

Squid

“Political dialogue in Canada is marked by civility, modesty, honesty, collegiality, and idealism that have pretty much disappeared on the U.S. airwaves. When Stephen Harper moved to abolish anti-lying provision of the Radio Act, Canadians rose up to oppose him fearing that their tradition of honest non partisan news would be replaced by the toxic, overtly partisan, biased and dishonest news coverage familiar to American citizens who listen to Fox News and talk radio.” R.F. Kennedy

Here in the US we used to have a law(The Fairness Doctrine) that required news stations to present both sides of any topic.  The law required news outlets to present controversial issues of public importance and to do so in a manner that was, in the Commission's view, honest, equitable and balanced.  Equal time was not a requirement of the law.

Roseway passing by

PBS’s Lehrer News Hour is one of the few that still make an effort to let both sides have air time.  In 1987(during Reagan’s term in office) the FCC abolished the Fairness Doctrine claiming that it was unconstitutional.

Today, there is no law on our books demanding that news stations tell the truth.

On to another subject from the Associated Press:

NATO apologizes for killing 9 Afghan civilians. . . Local officials say nine boys, ages 12 and under, were killed as they were gathering firewood. . .Top NATO commander Gen. David Petraeus said the coalition was "deeply sorry" for the tragedy. . .

Gentle Winds

Hmmm is this a lesson in how to make friends and influence people or is this a sure way to make more enemies?  How would “deeply sorry” feel to you if that was one of your children?

Next up…..last Saturday over 100,000 people came out to support union workers in their fight to keep collective bargaining on the table in Madison,Wisconsin…all over the rest of the country thousands of supporters turned out in their cities and towns but if you were watching CNN, FOX News, or MSNBC you wouldn’t have known so many people were concerned. It seems whenever liberals demonstrate it is not news but when conservatives demonstrate it’s all over the news, i wonder if it has anything to do with those corporations being anti-union?

i was having a talk with my husband last night about the problems with budgets all over the nation when he rightly pointed out that teachers, firefighters, policemen and other hard working government workers are not responsible for the current government deficits. In this politically charged time of demonizing government workers the fact that Wall Street caused the economic recession seems to be left out of the hard discussions.

Another Squid

Balancing the budget on the backs of these government workers who had nothing to do with the state we are in and will cause more job losses seems misguided. Why aren’t we discussing cracking down on tax loopholes and tax dodgers or the special interest tax breaks given to corporations some of which have paid no tax at all?

So to end this piece i picked up this anonymous quote:

Why is it that a 3% tax increase for the wealthy is considered "socialism" and
an 8% wage cut for the middle class is "doing your part?"