Print

Welcome, Guest

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[NightmarePatrol]

TMZ probably has a pretty big budget. I think most people here are aware of the pitfalls of the internet and other digital exposure, though not to N'th degree. I find it odd Obama would appoint someone that "media inept" to a public position though.

[Puffin]

do you think the citizens take their cues from  the media and are infulenced on how to feel or the media just report what the mood ot the people happens to be.


do you think the dynamic is the same for a fox viewer as a cnn  nbc or a msnbc viewer? or any other cable or mainstream source of news.

BH , yeah , I think the media (some more than others) shapes the news to influence beliefs toward a specific view.
As far as the dynamic, I also believe that FOX goes beyond the other networks in inflametory statements that when checked thru Fact Chek or snopes prove to be incorrect or way out of context or innacurate. Many of those same statements end up here on the forum, so in those cases the posters either believe them or want to.
Here's the issue I have with that:
FOX is a foreign controlled company, that is attempting to influence the American political landscape.
In many statements, the truth, or accuracy is not always relevant, as evident by a large number of Fact Check/Snopes hits on FOX statements.
Scott McClellan, the onetime Bush press secretary, remarked that "the truth is no longer relevant"(  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scott_McClellan ) in describing todays politics. So is that view also permissable in the news?
Do we sacrifice or just ignore our moral compass "Thou shalt no bear false witness", as long as the exaggeration, falsehood , dishonest statement furthers our political interests/beliefs, and damages those we disagree with, or dont like? Afterall that would still leave us with 9 perfectly good commandments!


 
     

[NightmarePatrol]

They're all guilty of spinning the news to get market share. Fox incorporated Delaware in 2004 after taking flack from the FCC. News Corp owns a ton of stuff here and abroad.

The company I work for is a constant battle with News Corp (among many others) about a number of things.  Look at the board of directors for a lot of media companies and you'll start seeing the political ties. I worked for Gannett in the 1980. Rosalyn Carter was on the board of directors at the time. What do suppose the edict handed down to all the little papers around the country about who they were supporting in the presidential election was? The editors didn't have much of a choice.

The political sphere is huge and very much all encompassing. In today's world though it's not just us, it's the world.

[bighair80s]

what i find interesting is that all media outlets are biased, (so i sift them all,) as are all people. our wisdom lies in knowing our biases and guiding facts to our convictions if we find them to be true. there we run into a snag.. i cant answer your questions and you cant answer mine. i do think we can circumvent the media to some extent, or use it to our advantage to get information to help us make decisions , compile it from many sources and analyze it ourselves.

some  have "team" mentalities.  . some hate a team and want to be loners by default, unfortunately none of that really has any bearing on the truth of matters,  it sometimes clouds things.  not only has our journalistic crowd abandoned responsibility the political discourse has become  nonsense.

you brought up moral matters... my friend sent me this, in our age of postmodern political relativism i thought it was ironic but funny as heck...  ( i study with a platonist- conservative so as to keep my biases at bay)

Kant Attack Ad

reason for edit...i had to add parenthesis to make a sentence make sense  ..

[Kimmi]

Prepared Remarks of President Barack Obama
 Back to School Event

Arlington, Virginia
 September 8, 2009
 

The President: Hello everyone – how’s everybody doing today? I’m here with students at Wakefield High School in Arlington, Virginia. And we’ve got students tuning in from all across America, kindergarten through twelfth grade. I’m glad you all could join us today.  I know that for many of you, today is the first day of school. And for those of you in kindergarten, or starting middle or high school, it’s your first day in a new school, so it’s understandable if you’re a little nervous. I imagine there are some seniors out there who are feeling pretty good right now, with just one more year to go. And no matter what grade you’re in, some of you are probably wishing it were still summer, and you could’ve stayed in bed just a little longer this morning. I know that feeling. When I was young, my family lived in Indonesia for a few years, and my mother didn’t have the money to send me where all the American kids went to school. So she decided to teach me extra lessons herself, Monday through Friday – at 4:30 in the morning.    Now I wasn’t too happy about getting up that early. A lot of times, I’d fall asleep right there at the kitchen table. But whenever I’d complain, my mother would just give me one of those looks and say, "This is no picnic for me either, buster." So I know some of you are still adjusting to being back at school. But I’m here today because I have something important to discuss with you. I’m here because I want to talk with you about your education and what’s expected of all of you in this new school year.  Now I’ve given a lot of speeches about education. And I’ve talked a lot about responsibility. I’ve talked about your teachers’ responsibility for inspiring you, and pushing you to learn.  I’ve talked about your parents’ responsibility for making sure you stay on track, and get your homework done, and don’t spend every waking hour in front of the TV or with that Xbox.  I’ve talked a lot about your government’s responsibility for setting high standards, supporting teachers and principals, and turning around schools that aren’t working where students aren’t getting the opportunities they deserve.  But at the end of the day, we can have the most dedicated teachers, the most supportive parents, and the best schools in the world – and none of it will matter unless all of you fulfill your responsibilities. Unless you show up to those schools; pay attention to those teachers; listen to your parents, grandparents and other adults; and put in the hard work it takes to succeed.  And that’s what I want to focus on today: the responsibility each of you has for your education. I want to start with the responsibility you have to yourself.  Every single one of you has something you’re good at. Every single one of you has something to offer. And you have a responsibility to yourself to discover what that is. That’s the opportunity an education can provide.  Maybe you could be a good writer – maybe even good enough to write a book or articles in a newspaper – but you might not know it until you write a paper for your English class. Maybe you could be an innovator or an inventor – maybe even good enough to come up with the next iPhone or a new medicine or vaccine – but you might not know it until you do a project for your science class. Maybe you could be a mayor or a Senator or a Supreme Court Justice, but you might not know that until you join student government or the debate team. And no matter what you want to do with your life – I guarantee that you’ll need an education to do it. You want to be a doctor, or a teacher, or a police officer? You want to be a nurse or an architect, a lawyer or a member of our military? You’re going to need a good education for every single one of those careers. You can’t drop out of school and just drop into a good job. You’ve got to work for it and train for it and learn for it. And this isn’t just important for your own life and your own future. What you make of your education will decide nothing less than the future of this country. What you’re learning in school today will determine whether we as a nation can meet our greatest challenges in the future.  You’ll need the knowledge and problem-solving skills you learn in science and math to cure diseases like cancer and AIDS, and to develop new energy technologies and protect our environment. You’ll need the insights and critical thinking skills you gain in history and social studies to fight poverty and homelessness, crime and discrimination, and make our nation more fair and more free. You’ll need the creativity and ingenuity you develop in all your classes to build new companies that will create new jobs and boost our economy.  We need every single one of you to develop your talents, skills and intellect so you can help solve our most difficult problems. If you don’t do that – if you quit on school – you’re not just quitting on yourself, you’re quitting on your country.  Now I know it’s not always easy to do well in school. I know a lot of you have challenges in your lives right now that can make it hard to focus on your schoolwork. I get it. I know what that’s like. My father left my family when I was two years old, and I was raised by a single mother who struggled at times to pay the bills and wasn’t always able to give us things the other kids had. There were times when I missed having a father in my life. There were times when I was lonely and felt like I didn’t fit in.  So I wasn’t always as focused as I should have been. I did some things I’m not proud of, and got in more trouble than I should have. And my life could have easily taken a turn for the worse.  But I was fortunate. I got a lot of second chances and had the opportunity to go to college, and law school, and follow my dreams. My wife, our First Lady Michelle Obama, has a similar story. Neither of her parents had gone to college, and they didn’t have much. But they worked hard, and she worked hard, so that she could go to the best schools in this country. Some of you might not have those advantages. Maybe you don’t have adults in your life who give you the support that you need. Maybe someone in your family has lost their job, and there’s not enough money to go around. Maybe you live in a neighborhood where you don’t feel safe, or have friends who are pressuring you to do things you know aren’t right.  But at the end of the day, the circumstances of your life – what you look like, where you come from, how much money you have, what you’ve got going on at home – that’s no excuse for neglecting your homework or having a bad attitude. That’s no excuse for talking back to your teacher, or cutting class, or dropping out of school. That’s no excuse for not trying.  Where you are right now doesn’t have to determine where you’ll end up. No one’s written your destiny for you. Here in America, you write your own destiny. You make your own future.  That’s what young people like you are doing every day, all across America.  Young people like Jazmin Perez, from Roma, Texas. Jazmin didn’t speak English when she first started school. Hardly anyone in her hometown went to college, and neither of her parents had gone either. But she worked hard, earned good grades, got a scholarship to Brown University, and is now in graduate school, studying public health, on her way to being Dr. Jazmin Perez. I’m thinking about Andoni Schultz, from Los Altos, California, who’s fought brain cancer since he was three. He’s endured all sorts of treatments and surgeries, one of which affected his memory, so it took him much longer – hundreds of extra hours – to do his schoolwork. But he never fell behind, and he’s headed to college this fall.  And then there’s Shantell Steve, from my hometown of Chicago, Illinois. Even when bouncing from foster home to foster home in the toughest neighborhoods, she managed to get a job at a local health center; start a program to keep young people out of gangs; and she’s on track to graduate high school with honors and go on to college. Jazmin, Andoni and Shantell aren’t any different from any of you. They faced challenges in their lives just like you do. But they refused to give up. They chose to take responsibility for their education and set goals for themselves. And I expect all of you to do the same.  That’s why today, I’m calling on each of you to set your own goals for your education – and to do everything you can to meet them. Your goal can be something as simple as doing all your homework, paying attention in class, or spending time each day reading a book. Maybe you’ll decide to get involved in an extracurricular activity, or volunteer in your community. Maybe you’ll decide to stand up for kids who are being teased or bullied because of who they are or how they look, because you believe, like I do, that all kids deserve a safe environment to study and learn. Maybe you’ll decide to take better care of yourself so you can be more ready to learn. And along those lines, I hope you’ll all wash your hands a lot, and stay home from school when you don’t feel well, so we can keep people from getting the flu this fall and winter. Whatever you resolve to do, I want you to commit to it. I want you to really work at it.  I know that sometimes, you get the sense from TV that you can be rich and successful without any hard work -- that your ticket to success is through rapping or basketball or being a reality TV star, when chances are, you’re not going to be any of those things.  But the truth is, being successful is hard. You won’t love every subject you study. You won’t click with every teacher. Not every homework assignment will seem completely relevant to your life right this minute. And you won’t necessarily succeed at everything the first time you try. That’s OK.  Some of the most successful people in the world are the ones who’ve had the most failures. JK Rowling’s first Harry Potter book was rejected twelve times before it was finally published. Michael Jordan was cut from his high school basketball team, and he lost hundreds of games and missed thousands of shots during his career. But he once said, "I have failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed."  These people succeeded because they understand that you can’t let your failures define you – you have to let them teach you. You have to let them show you what to do differently next time. If you get in trouble, that doesn’t mean you’re a troublemaker, it means you need to try harder to behave. If you get a bad grade, that doesn’t mean you’re stupid, it just means you need to spend more time studying.  No one’s born being good at things, you become good at things through hard work. You’re not a varsity athlete the first time you play a new sport. You don’t hit every note the first time you sing a song. You’ve got to practice. It’s the same with your schoolwork. You might have to do a math problem a few times before you get it right, or read something a few times before you understand it, or do a few drafts of a paper before it’s good enough to hand in.  Don’t be afraid to ask questions. Don’t be afraid to ask for help when you need it. I do that every day. Asking for help isn’t a sign of weakness, it’s a sign of strength. It shows you have the courage to admit when you don’t know something, and to learn something new. So find an adult you trust – a parent, grandparent or teacher; a coach or counselor – and ask them to help you stay on track to meet your goals.  And even when you’re struggling, even when you’re discouraged, and you feel like other people have given up on you – don’t ever give up on yourself. Because when you give up on yourself, you give up on your country. The story of America isn’t about people who quit when things got tough. It’s about people who kept going, who tried harder, who loved their country too much to do anything less than their best.  It’s the story of students who sat where you sit 250 years ago, and went on to wage a revolution and found this nation. Students who sat where you sit 75 years ago who overcame a Depression and won a world war; who fought for civil rights and put a man on the moon. Students who sat where you sit 20 years ago who founded Google, Twitter and Facebook and changed the way we communicate with each other. So today, I want to ask you, what’s your contribution going to be? What problems are you going to solve? What discoveries will you make? What will a president who comes here in twenty or fifty or one hundred years say about what all of you did for this country?   Your families, your teachers, and I are doing everything we can to make sure you have the education you need to answer these questions. I’m working hard to fix up your classrooms and get you the books, equipment and computers you need to learn. But you’ve got to do your part too. So I expect you to get serious this year. I expect you to put your best effort into everything you do. I expect great things from each of you. So don’t let us down – don’t let your family or your country or yourself down. Make us all proud. I know you can do it. Thank you, God bless you, and God bless America.   

[bighair80s]

that is an appropriate speech, motivational and in no way worthy of the rabid attacks it has received.

that being said...

there were lesson plans originally involved with this that raised red flags with people, they were promptly removed.   respected persons from conservative and liberal sources i have seen (in several respected news venues) say it was good they were removed as the lesson plans were political in nature. (that was the rub i surmise)  they were initiated by bureaucrats at the dept of education as far i can tell.  the question is should it have upset people??  here is the rub... president obama has many other folks in his administration  like mr van jones i brought up earlier in this thread that have similar ideology.  when you employ or are surrounded by people with those ideologies, (for years and years) after  awhile you can no longer put people off with mere benign fronts.  when there are  videos of  many different people in an administration (and there are)that have radical views, i imagine parents got nervous when they heard about a speech from the president accompanied by those politicized lesson plans.    to dismiss their concerns as baseless by just looking at the presidents "near perfect" speech is not taking into account the entire argument.

to criticize the "speech only" would make someone look like a fool, we would not want to make someone look like a fool by misrepresenting their argument. 

[lifefeedsonlife]

Take a look at the ideology of the Chicago Annenberg Project (CAC) that William Ayers co-founded and who had Barack Obama as a board member . . .

From the Wall Street Journal:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122212856075765367.html?mod=rss_opinion_main

A quote from the article:

"The CAC's agenda flowed from Mr. Ayers's educational philosophy, which called for infusing students and their parents with a radical political commitment, and which downplayed achievement tests in favor of activism."

That'd be a soundbyte for emails there - - - but, like I said, read the rest of the article.
 
Also - here's a synopsis of an evaluation of said project in 2003.
 
"An August 2003 final technical report of the Chicago Annenberg Research Project by the Consortium on Chicago School Research said that while "student achievement improved across Annenberg Challenge schools as it did across the Chicago Public School system as a whole, results suggest that among the schools it supported, the Challenge had little impact on school improvement and student outcomes, with no statistically significant differences between Annenberg and non-Annenberg schools in rates of achievement gain, classroom behavior, student self-efficacy, and social competence."
 
(Source: ^{http://ccsr.uchicago.edu/downloads/p62II.pdf )}
 
So - what was the point of the CAC again?
 
I honestly don't think the American public really knows anything substantive about the fellow they elected President . . . nor do they know the people who helped formulate his political ideas . . . .

[Jayhawk]

I honestly don't think the American public really knows anything substantive about the fellow they elected President . . . nor do they know the people who helped formulate his political ideas . . . .

He won. Handily.

Get over it already. Get on with your life.

[lifefeedsonlife]

Meh.

bh's article on ideology kinda explains the deal about gettin' on with my life. Fact is - I get on with my life every day . . . and did when Dumbyah was in office too. (I don't care for either major party - I'm "anti" them.) My personal "ideology" is where the rubber hits the road for me. the view from the rarified air of Washington does have its trickle down though. I'm just interested in what's gonna be tricklin' -

Yeah - he won . . . but now he's lookin' at approval ratings that aren't all that great (from Rasmussen: "Overall, 48% of voters say they at least somewhat approve of the President's performance. Fifty-one percent (51%) disapprove.") and folks are starting to question a lot of the folks he has around him, and some of the thoughts behind the decisions he makes . . . so - when stuff comes out about things he's been involved with or decisions he's making now that could have significant impact on the structure of government - it's OK - cuz he won?

I mean - Iraq was justified - cuz Bush won? (Didn't vote for him either. I think dunderhead frat boys with privileged Daddies that look Ok in snappy suits but that have little going on in the headspace don't make for great leaders in the long run either . . . and for the record, going to the Sandbox was not a very good move at all - IMO.)

Nah . . .

It's Monday - no pro football yet. Don't care for the 'Canes or the 'Noles . . . entertaining myself by digging.

Cuz I'm allowed to!

Timothy Leary had some cool ideas on me thinking for myself.


:-)

[lifefeedsonlife]

BTW - that is a nice speech and totally appropriate.

Thanks for putting that up Kimmi!

[Puffin]

BH, I likes the Kant video. I tried to read Kant and Neichze a long time ago. Could do about 2 paragraphs of either before I needed to score heroin or something, Way beyond me. I dont think I know anyone who considers them a moral compass. Most of the people I know are Golden rule,10 commandments types. Based on those I could answer your question I think.

[Kimmi]

You are welcome.  I should have made sure the paragraphs were separated.  Sorry if it is hard to read.  I'll be watching today.  I may even go into work and see how many kids are in the media center not watching.

[Lifetime]

Maybe a bit of History....
 
http://newsbusters.org/blogs/noel-sheppard/2009/09/03/flashback-1991-gephardt-called-bushs-speech-students-paid-political-a
 
 
 
18 years sometimes has a way of making people forget.... This is an ongoing P Fght... nothing more... nothing less and we act like this is NEW NEWS.... some of us should be ashamed.
 
While he waves his "right hand" ...what do you think the "left hand" is doing while we are taking our eyes off the real ball?? A good magician keeps fools busy at nothing.

[Jayhawk]

I worked for Gannett in the 1980. Rosalyn Carter was on the board of directors at the time. What do suppose the edict handed down to all the little papers around the country about who they were supporting in the presidential election was? The editors didn't have much of a choice.

Mrs. Carter didn't get on the GCI board until the mid-80s, by which time jimmy's only ambition was to get the roof on the latest Habitat home before dark.

Hearst may have done so decades ago, but few if any modern media chains order their managers to endorse any candidate; certainly not gannett, one of the better managed chains. I believe USA Today goes out of its way not to endorse anyone. (However, i understand the family-owned Ogden chain out of w. va., owners of the warren trib and some nearby ohio papers, DOES push conservative candidates on its papers)

If you want to promote conspiracies and interlocking alliances, you might as well point out that tom brokaw's wife, meredith, a children's-book publisher, is or was on the gannett board, too. I'm sure she ran home after board meetings to tell him which stories to cover.

[NightmarePatrol]

I stand corrected. Rosalyn Carter officially became a member of the board of directors in 1983 and served as an advisor to the board

However I distinctly remember talking with the editor who told me that the corporate told all the papers that they were to promote Carters reelection in in the editorial section. There's a tie to politics there somewhere, but that being said I can't tell you what the smoking gun is.