Friday, January 22, 2010
Glenn Beck Show, Revolutionary Holocaust
It's nothing like you have ever seen before.
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Is The Media Biased?
This article gives some real insight into what makes our media tick especially the left wing media. Here are a couple of excerpts.
Explaining the Facts of Life - "Idea" Conservatives & The Media
The Question of Bias
"So while journalists may self-report as “moderate right” or “moderate left,” actual voting behaviour is tilted to the left, particularly so among members of the state-media outlet. The professed similarity to the public is in part due to an “I’m centrist” claim many journalists hold about themselves which I’ll soon analyze in more detail."
This particular piece from the article reminds me or the prorogation situation and how the media is handling it. They haven't really given the historical facts about prorogation.
Media facts: History is history in journalism
One useful aspect of journalistic culture to understand is that reporting and analysis too often reflects a “today” consensus, one deficient in historical perspective and which might otherwise call into question the approach some reporters take and also how the news is framed. (h/t) Canada's Journal of Ideas
Here's how you can determine media bias.
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Media and The Manipulation of Public Opinion
THE LITTLE SECRETS OF THE POLLSTERS
"Canadians might well ask what is going on. What are these polls about? Unfortunately, in some cases polls have become instruments of propaganda, with questions designed to generate a preferential outcome in order to manipulate public opinion, with "favourable" polls advancing a particular bias being reported. In effect, the polling results become insidious lies masquerading as news. The objective of such manipulation is to influence public opinion and undermine our democracy.How the Manipulation is Done
Polls designed to manipulate public opinion are carried out using the following methodology:
- Readers or viewers are saturated with "reporting" that reflects a particular bias;
- Public opinion polls are activated in concert with like-minded organizations on social issue campaigns which reflect the bias;
- Viewers and readers are proselytized (manipulated) into espousing the bias when these poll results are treated as "news";
- Promoting the "bandwagon" psychology (the banal tendency of those who do not have a strong ideological foundation to aspire to the side perceived to be in the majority) is then put in place.
Examples of troubling polls include those leading up to the November 2002 US elections. None of the left-wing media in the US reported polls showing Mr. Bush winning control of the House of Representatives and the Senate, which, in fact, he did Rather, the Democratic Party was reported as having the advantage in that election.
In regards to polling on the Canadian political scene, the EKOS Polling Company, which is the number one supplier of the polling data for the federal government, recently concluded a poll commissioned by the CBC showing that the Alliance has fallen to fourth place among the political parties. Competitors, Ipsos-Reid and Environics, found that the Alliance support was in second place between 19% and 20%. Which is right? Which is pushing an agenda?
Canadians should be forewarned - don't always believe the polls and treat their results with extreme caution."
(h/t)Realwomen
Opinion Polls: Getting the results you want
Here are a few interesting tidbits from a paper I found.
The Exercise of Power Round Table:
Vox Publica: Media as Arbiter, Interpreter, and Educator
May 14, 1997
In Attendance: round table participants; E. Alboim, C. Dornan (guests); J. Graham, C. McQuillan, J.
Walker (IOG).
"What role does media take on in the political process? Mr. Alboim argued that the media's primary
political role is to "prime" public opinion. Media emphasis -- both tonnage and display -- order
importance of information, creating a hierarchy for readers and viewers. In priming, the media
establishes an agenda with permissible limits for public discourse. Rather than "shaping" public
opinion, media creates a precondition for shaping. It is society's opinion leaders (talking heads on
television as well as friends, neighbours, and relatives who are interested in political issues) who do
the shaping. Media does, however, influence the public view of leadership, by assigning causality to
leadership for societal problems (often irrespective of government influence over causes or
solutions)."
and here
"Another participant disagreed, claiming that not only is the political agenda set by media, political
opinions are often shaped by media. This participant noted that pollsters actually wait three days
after debates to poll the public, until the public has time to take in the assessments of media pundits.
Given this apparent deference to media's interpretation of issues, a seeming paradox was raised.
Media leaders are perceived as "elites" by citizens, yet they do not appear to endure the same public
derision as political leaders and public servants often do."
"
Pray for Baby Isaiah
Precious Little Baby Isaiah May is struggling for his life and his parents are fighting in the courts to keep him alive. Baby Isaiah and his parents need our prayers and moral support right now.
This sweet little baby was born in October with the umbilical cord around his little neck and suffered some brain damage. Now doctors want take him off life support but his parents are fighting against it. They have been given a bit of a reprieve until Jan 27 to find an independent expert to assess the severity of Baby Isaiah's brain damage. Apparently he is showing some positive signs. So that's good.
I urge everyone to pray for a miracle in this case please and lend your support.
Here is the story.
Here's how you can lend some moral support. A Facebook page has been set up so you can go and give your support to the family.
Support Baby Isaiah
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
OOP's They Did It Again
First Climategate, now Glaciergate from Lorne Gunter. (h/t) National Post
Hot on the heels of Climategate -- the leaking of thousands of emails and computer files that show many of the world's leading climate scientists fudging the results of their global warming research and contriving to keep skeptics from being published in academic journals -- comes what could be called Glaciergate.
Prominent among the claims of impending environmental disaster in the UN's fourth report on climate change, published in 2007, was the prediction that all of the 15,000 glaciers in the Himalayas could melt away by 2035. That's just 25 years away. Now the Times of London has discovered that this claim was not based on scientific enquiry, but rather on speculation. And old speculation at that.
This:
Ok, what you gotta say now, Al Gore, David Suzuki, Lizzy May and all you alarmists?
Update: Al Gore issues statement he misspoke about Arctic ice. (h/t) Timesonline
"Al Gore tries to cool ‘climate spin’ by correcting claims of North pole thaw"