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opinion:
our view
Don't swallow
what Bush is serving
In the '70s, a group of people following a self-proclaimed
religious leader named Jim Jones committed suicide on a massive
level by drinking Kool-Aid laced with poison. Mass suicides
of this kind have since become a common phenomenon that reoccur
every few years or so.
The reason this is mentioned is because as a journalistic
outlet, the need to drink the Kool-Aid that President Bush
and his leaders are giving us could quite possibly be our
own form of suicide.
Media outlets, which in recent history have become the evil
force blamed for polarizing political groups, cultures or
classes, have a sole responsibility to report what they see
as it is actually happening.
Sure, we realize certain media outlets disguise themselves
as journalists but are actually into nothing more than titillation.
But the media as a whole is the last unbiased institution
that is responsible for disseminating the truth.
The truth in these present times is the media in no way needs
to show support for Bush, the war in Afghanistan or the so-called
war on terrorism at home.
In fact, the media's job is to report accurately all the events
surrounding these topics and to disseminate truth from spin.
Spin in this instance is our government blaming the Sept.
11 attacks for our economic recession.
Wow, how convenient.
You should know that the truth of the matter is that Bush,
in a little over a year, has brought us back to the days of
Reagenomics, where the normal folk struggle while the rich
business types benefit from tax cuts and favorable treatment.
Bush and his advisors have, to this point, successfully used
the World Trade Center attacks to blame for many of the problems
we are facing, but this is not always necessarily the truth.
Again enter the media, who have the right to criticize the
president in the proper context. As journalists we cannot
just write disparaging comments about our government when
simply reporting facts. Our job is to report the facts and
let the reader sort them all out.
However, through commentary, we are allowed to make all the
comments we like regarding a wide range of topics, including
our president.
So in this case, we reserve the right to say all we want about
what we feel needs to be criticized.
Whether you like it or not, Bush and the way he is going about
politics needs to be both scrutinized and criticized.
Since the rest of society is blindly in support of everything
our country is doing right now, our last line of defense is
the media's right to expose the truth, or at the very least
show things as they actually appear.
Let's not forget that free speech is a still constitutionally
guaranteed right for all Americans. This being the case, we
will continue to criticize our government and stay away from
the Kool-Aid.
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