Why 9/11

Many people ask why our own people would want to blow up or own buildings?  Two reasons, first the lease owner of the WTC complex happily collected  15 billion dollars from the insurance company that covered for "acts of terror".  Second reason, the government wanted a reason to go to Iraq.  For our oil and to stop the dictatorship in Iraq and control the weapons of mass destruction.  It is impossible for a country to go to war without public support and backing.  If one was to look at Pearl Harbor attacks and how quickly the nation rallied to go to war then you will see the comparison.  Looks like someone payed attention in history class because the day after 9/11 recruiting offices were filled with people wanting to go to war.  Now I am saying I believe or don't believe one side, I like to look at situations from different perspectives much like journalists do.  People can't believe the first thing they are told, they must always dig deeper.

9/11 Examined

This is to examine all things that happened on that memorable day.  First checkout this article, it explains how in the 1970's a B-25 bomber crashed into the top floors of the Empire State Building and the result was a fire that burned for 35 mins and no structural damage.  Now somehow the same steel structured building of the WTC collapsed.  Next, when examining the speed at which the buildings fell were at a free-fall speed which is impossible because the buildings are designed to slow up as the floor lands on the floor below.  Let's not forget about WTC-7, the building was hit by small amounts of debris but collapsed in a perfect demolition. The list goes on and on.

9/11 cont.

This video gives a basic overview of all the events that happend that day that most people did not know about. It doesn't get too specific on how but gives lots of reasons why.  It seemed that there were too many slip-up of words and too many coincidences going on that day.

9/11

The next thing I am going to examine is 9/11 conspiracy theories.  This doesn't go exactly with my topic but it is very intriguing none the less.

Watergate cont.

When Woodward was approached about the notion that they unseated the president he answers,""To say that the press brought down Nixon, that's horseshit,The press always plays a role, whether by being passive or by being aggressive, but it's a mistake to overemphasize."  To go along with that, the article explains how the whole story was a little dramatic and actually there were a few leaks prior to that night.



Watergate Revisited

Watergate Scandel

I would like to start out by saying that the Watergate Scandal is possibly one of the biggest stories ever uncovered by the press.  From what first appears one may say that two journalist for the Washington Post brought down the President of the United States.  That would be false.  In the article I read about the Watergate Scandal, it explains how the two journalists Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein  produced "The single most spectacular act of serious journalism [of the 20th] century," said media critic Ben Bagdikian. Or did they?  Everyone knows the story.  Five men were caught placing bugging technology in the Democratic Party headquarters and soon after the men were linked to Nixon the president resigned along with 70 other cabinet members.  The question is did Woodward and Bernstein actually reveal this by themselves?


Watergate Revisited

Changing it up

Alright so the topic of the past posts is getting a little dry.  Time to spice it up!  From now on will be examining a few different conspiracy theories, mainly 9/11 and  Watergate.  I am not completing abandoning the ideas of the press.  I am just taking a different approach.  I will continue to involve the press as I examine the theories.

"A fine quotation is a diamond in the hand of a man of wit and a pebble in the hand of a fool."-Joseph Roux

The Role of the Press

After reading another article out of Encyclopedia Britannica I further proved how the press is much different around the world.  In the United States people can publish just about anything as long as we are not in a military crisis.  Soon problems come up.  Monopolies can be formed and the so called "free press" is free but controlled by the monopolies.  In China things are a bit different.  They have complete freedom of press except for the fact that the government filters what will be published for citizens to few but technically it is free...kind of.  Staying in China, the government there is big on the censorship especially with the rising amount of the internet users there.  In past years they actually had Google censored but soon Google basically said screw it and unblocked all the censorship programs.  Let's just say the Chinese government wasn't happy.     

The Role of the Press

Free Press=Peace

I recently read an article written by RJ Rummel of Hawaii University.  In the article he talked about the direct connection between free press and peace/democracy.  With democracy comes rights, one of those rights would be freedom of press or freedom to criticize the leadership.  It is pretty simple, the most democratic counties and the most free press and vice versa.  Now to bring in the peace part.  If you notice around the world you won't see democracies fighting other democracies because there is no need to.  Everything can be solved diplomatically.
I still question how this can all link back to freedom of speech because he goes way off topic at the end of the article.  No offense to him but I believe I could write a better article than that.
Freedom of Press--a way to global peace

Sasa Vucinic invests in free press

This post is about the Ted Talk located on the right entitled "Sasa Vucinic invests in free press".  The Ted Talk begins by him saying that 83% of people around the world do not have free press.  Somebody (almost always the government) is filtering what the people get to see.  The Talk continues about Sasa's story of how he made a company that helped small newspaper companies get started and print the truth.  They started in what is formerly known as Yugoslavia and continue to expand around the world.

Objectivity cont.

Previously we looked at how Fox News was openly opinionated; now if we look at the British Broadcasting Corporation we see good objectivity.  They tell the news straight-up with little to no opinions present.  If you want real news, one must pay attention to the BBC.  I also questioned a correlation between higher ratings and the domination of opinions over objectivity.  I don't have a clear answer but noticed that MSNBC was openly opinionated and also received some very high ratings.  These types of approaches are, as Mike Wallace says, "easier, cheaper, and more profitable than old-fashioned objectivity."  That is the reason behind all of these companies being open about there opinions, money.  Money is what drives everything in our world.  Basically everything can be linked back to money.

Objectivity

Through research I have found a common theme.  Media (Press) is different all around the world.  We notice that in the United States, most of the news is opinionated rather than objective.  Whether or not that is meant, it is still noticeable in every station.  For example Fox News is strongly conservative political views.  The people at Fox News realize this and are out right with it.  The people there also notice that they receive the best ratings out of all United States news channels.  There may be a direct correlation with that, I will have to examine that.


"It is a newspaper's duty to print the news and raise hell."- Wilbur F. Storey

Heat & Light

To go along with this blog I plan on reading on reading a very intriguing novel.  The title of this novel is Heat & Light: Advice for the Next Generation of Journalists by Mike Wallace and Beth Knobel.  This was one of Mike Wallace's last works for he died recently.  Most people know Mike Wallace as the anchor on CBS 60 minutes.  Beth Knobel is a former journalist now professor at Forham Univeristy in New York.  In just the short amount of the book that I have read, it has already talked about many points that I plan on bringing up in the future. 


A journalist is a grumbler, a censurer, a giver of advice, a regent of sovereigns, a tutor of nations.  Four hostile newspapers are more to be feared than a thousand bayonets.
--Napoleon Bonaparte


Link to Heat & Light

Premise

Throughout this blog, I will be examining the major roles of the press in our world.  Some examples of things the press does are informing the public about current events, keeping the government in check, etc. 

There is a broad spectrum of people in this world regarding current events.  On one end there are the people that are highly informed and possibly at the drastic point of believing in conspiracy theories.  On the opposite end there are people that have no idea what's going on and believe whatever they're told regardless of the source.  With this spectrum in mind, the average person sits right in the middle.  In essence the average press keeps the citizens balanced.

This is my first ever blog post, save it, it will be worth a lot of money some day.