Why Call It News Any More?

I have always listened to NPR, but found them to be pretty biased (you will NEVER hear them criticize Israel or their army no matter what the action, that is just one example, there are many), but for the most part I am happy.
Air America, biased again, but good info and most hosts do give both perspectives, regardless of their editorial slant.
Started getting the NY Times on-line e-mail daily updates and check the website as often as feasible and am much happier.
I'm sorry.... I just cannot watch Fox... too much wasted time.

[tw]

Originally Posted by rkzenrage

I'm sorry.... I just cannot watch Fox... too much wasted time.

I was raised on propaganda; advertisements that lie by telling half truths. That was my father. Before toothpaste had flouride, back then, all toothpastes and mouthwashes did nothing. Classic suckers for propaganda are easily identified. They even buy Listerene and believe it actually does something.

Do you really believe Pond's Institute makes age defying creams? Sales say so many women do when not one fact is ever provided. Not one fact. Classic worshippers of propaganda.

In another example more based in science: from The Economist of 29 Apr 2006 entitled 'Filtering the evidence':

Judged by their waistbands, Europeans are much healthier than Americans. More than 30% of American are obese, compared with 13% of Germeans and under 10% of the French. But judged by their lungs, Americans are fitter than their peers across the Atlantic. Only 19% of adult Americans smoke, against 34% of Germans and 27% of Britons. Why do Europeans light up so much more?

... Since they are both economists, the first thing they look at is price. ... Perhaps smoking is more expensive in America? Not so. ... cigarettes are 37% cheaper in America ...

The second explanation an economist will look for is income. Smoking rises then falls with with affluence. ... The rich ... don't like to smoke as much as they could, because they put a higher value on a long and healthy life. This might explain why so many more Turks than Americans smoke, but it can cover only about a quarter of the gap between Americans and western Europeans.

In fact, the gap is best explained by neither prices nor incomes, but by ignorance. Europeans are less likely than Americans to believe that smoking is harmful. Only 73% of Germans, for example, believe smoking is dangerous, against 91% of Americans.

The two authors conjecture that beliefs are the result of smokers' habits, not the cause of them. ... even non-smokers in Europe are less likely than their American counterparts to beleive the weed is dangerous. These differences in beliefs may account for 20-40% of the trans-atlantic gaps, the two authors argue.

In America, cigarette dangers were well published and broadcast since 1964. Not so in Europe. However if knowledge was so available, then why do 40% of youngest Americans smoke? Have we raised a generation that is manipulated by spin rather than by facts? Whose beliefs 'don't need no stinkin science' to somehow know? At least Europeans have an excuse. Dangers of smoking were not promoted aggressively and continously since 1964 in Europe.

Why, a) with a sudden upsurge in extremist politial views, b) with people actually saying, "Rush says what has to be said", c) with massive attraction to extremist religious beliefs, d) with a generation less technically educated, and e) with people so even inspired by lies of pre-emption; why is this same generation also so easy to addict to cigarettes? This is the first generations fully cognizant of the dangers. Why is this generation, instead, so easily attracted to the 'dark side'? Why are so many younger Americans so easily perverted by propaganda - have so much difficulty cutting through myths and half truths? Notice how many actually believe those 'power drinks' provide more healthy energy? Coca Cola once promoted that myth - by including drugs. Caffine can make anyone feel 'healthier'. He did not say "I feel; therefore I am". And yet 'feeling' somehow becomes how facts are 'proven'.

It's called propaganda. It works when a victim is that naive. So naive as to not see a difference between real news and "Hard Copy".

[tw]

They are called Video News Release or VNR. To promote spin, make a video, release to the press, and some 'local gossip' stations will air it as news. BTW, my favorite example of a 'local gossip' is one of 77 stations listed.

The study by Center for Media and Democracy is read located at:
Fake TV News: Widespread and Undisclosed

The list of stations cited for airing VNRs without noting the source is:
http://www.prwatch.org/fakenews/stationlist

Originally Posted by tw

I was raised on propaganda; advertisements that lie by telling half truths. That was my father. Before toothpaste had flouride, back then, all toothpastes and mouthwashes did nothing. Classic suckers for propaganda are easily identified. They even buy Listerene and believe it actually does something.

Do you really believe Pond's Institute makes age defying creams? Sales say so many women do when not one fact is ever provided. Not one fact. Classic worshippers of propaganda.

In another example more based in science: from The Economist of 29 Apr 2006 entitled 'Filtering the evidence': In America, cigarette dangers were well published and broadcast since 1964. Not so in Europe. However if knowledge was so available, then why do 40% of youngest Americans smoke? Have we raised a generation that is manipulated by spin rather than by facts? Whose beliefs 'don't need no stinkin science' to somehow know? At least Europeans have an excuse. Dangers of smoking were not promoted aggressively and continously since 1964 in Europe.

Why, a) with a sudden upsurge in extremist politial views, b) with people actually saying, "Rush says what has to be said", c) with massive attraction to extremist religious beliefs, d) with a generation less technically educated, and e) with people so even inspired by lies of pre-emption; why is this same generation also so easy to addict to cigarettes? This is the first generations fully cognizant of the dangers. Why is this generation, instead, so easily attracted to the 'dark side'? Why are so many younger Americans so easily perverted by propaganda - have so much difficulty cutting through myths and half truths? Notice how many actually believe those 'power drinks' provide more healthy energy? Coca Cola once promoted that myth - by including drugs. Caffine can make anyone feel 'healthier'. He did not say "I feel; therefore I am". And yet 'feeling' somehow becomes how facts are 'proven'.

It's called propaganda. It works when a victim is that naive. So naive as to not see a difference between real news and "Hard Copy".

There is a lot of popaganda out there, one that kills me is that shampoo and conditioners can heal or fix hair... hair is dead. Can't be done.

Your smoking example is another, there are no facts to back-up the American Lung and Cancer Associations claims, in fact OSHA and the department in charge of measuring how dangerous second hand smoke is in the workplace for the AMA (I think it was the SEC) got called on the carpet in front of congress for lying about their numbers.
In fact the restarunts were perfectly safe and met OSHA standardards.
There has never been a link between second hand smoke or smoking and cancer in any clinical trials... NEVER. It has never been shown or provenpropagandarestraintsstandards in any way. We are being lied to.

information from:www.cdc.gov/nchs/hus.htm
Clrd stats on page 72,smoke % on page 64:
"In the real world of real numbers, realpeople, and real deaths;this is
what the 2005 report by the National Center for Health Statistics has to
say. From 1965 -2002,the % of smokers is down by 47%. From 1980-2002
the death rate from chronic lower repiratory diseases (bronchitis,
emphysema, asthma, etc) is up 54%. The cardiovascular death rate for men
and women from 1979-2002 is down by a whole 3%. From 1979-2002,asthma
alone death rates are up 1.5%. Lung cancer death rates from 1973-2002
are up 27%. From 1979-2002 the Asthma rates for children is up 56%."

You don't see this type of information being reported, and we hear things like, "if you smoke you will die", but when we actually look at the data, lung cancer accounts for only 2% of the annual deaths worldwide and only 3% in the US.**
When we look at the data over a longer period, such as 50 years as we did here, the lifetime relative risk is only 8 (see Appendix A). That means that even using the biased data that is out there, a USWM smoker has only an 8x more risk of dying from lung cancer than a nonsmoker. It surprised me too because I had always heard numbers like 20-40 times more risk. Statistics that are understandable and make sense to the general public, what a concept!
James P. Siepmann, MD

An ironic thing is that smoking may contribute to cancer... sure but hell, many things do... one thing we do know is that cooking fumes are far more toxic than second hand smoke and much that we do is far more toxic than smoking.
The black lung used by the American Lung Association's and the Cancer Association's fear posters on smoking is not just a smoker's lung but one from a miner who smoked who had black lung and rampant lung cancer.
A normal smokers lung cannot be told by a mortician from a non-smokers lung.
A lot of this is on junkscience.com, but I have been reading about it for a while.
Personally I think asphalt and atmospheric nukes have a lot to do with it... funny Japan and France have low lung cancer rates. Think about it.

[tw]

Originally Posted by rkzenrage

Your smoking example is another, there are no facts to back-up the American Lung and Cancer Associations claims, in fact OSHA and the department in charge of measuring how dangerous second hand smoke is in the workplace for the AMA (I think it was the SEC) got called on the carpet in front of congress for lying about their numbers.

Stop right there. Smoking has clearly been proven to cause lung cancer and other killing diseases such as heart attacks. So what would a scum news service like Fox do? Do exactly what you have done here. Where do references to sceond hand smoke come from? It is a classic Rush Limbuagh and Radio Moscow trick. Nobody, for one minute, at any time, said anything about second hand smoke. You have thrown in second hand smoke to outrightly decieve.

Furthermore, no doubt that smoking kills people - as the Surgeon General accurately reported in 1964. The Surgeon General is a responsible source of facts not to be confused with propaganda from a shampoo commerical.

Yes hair is dead. Why do you assocate outright and intentional propaganda with science fact? Smoking kills. That from those who report facts. 'Curing dead hair' commercial proves the Surgeon General is wrong?

Demonstrated is my point. All news sources lie because Fox News lies? Bull. Because propaganda lies about 'curing hair' then smoking really does not kill? Bull. Not only did you use classic distortion techniques by adding second hand smoke. You have also associated science on smoking with claims of 'dead hair cures'. One is science. The other says a TV viewer is that science ignorant.

rkzenrage - your two paragraphs suggest how one cannot see a difference between propaganda and accurate facts - why a president could lie about WMDs and so many believed his outright and now known to be intentional lies. Why Rush Limbaugh - arrested again this weekend for drug violations - is respected. You are an American? You cannot tell the diference between a responsible Surgeon General's report verses propaganda about curing dead hair? No wonder the 'local gossip' is watched by 77% of TV viewers. I get this sinking feeling that most Americans have become that dumber.

Please tell me you did not use a 'dead hair cure' commerical to disparge well proven science - that smoking kills. Please tell me you made that association - and another reference to second hand smoke - all in error.

[xoxoxoBruce]

That means that even using the biased data that is out there, a USWM smoker has only an 8x more risk of dying from lung cancer than a nonsmoker.

He made that distinction but that's yesterdays news.
Today, and for awhile now, it's all about secondhand smoke. That's the justification for all the smoking bans going on today, both indoors and outdoors. Shit like you can't smoke in your own house if you have an employee (maid, housekeeper, etc) or the Maytag Repairman coming in.

Originally Posted by tw

Stop right there. Smoking has clearly been proven to cause lung cancer and other killing diseases such as heart attacks. So what would a scum news service like Fox do? Do exactly what you have done here. Where do references to sceond hand smoke come from? It is a classic Rush Limbuagh and Radio Moscow trick. Nobody, for one minute, at any time, said anything about second hand smoke. You have thrown in second hand smoke to outrightly decieve.

Furthermore, no doubt that smoking kills people - as the Surgeon General accurately reported in 1964. The Surgeon General is a responsible source of facts not to be confused with propaganda from a shampoo commerical.

Yes hair is dead. Why do you assocate outright and intentional propaganda with science fact? Smoking kills. That from those who report facts. 'Curing dead hair' commercial proves the Surgeon General is wrong?

Demonstrated is my point. All news sources lie because Fox News lies? Bull. Because propaganda lies about 'curing hair' then smoking really does not kill? Bull. Not only did you use classic distortion techniques by adding second hand smoke. You have also associated science on smoking with claims of 'dead hair cures'. One is science. The other says a TV viewer is that science ignorant.

rkzenrage - your two paragraphs suggest how one cannot see a difference between propaganda and accurate facts - why a president could lie about WMDs and so many believed his outright and now known to be intentional lies. Why Rush Limbaugh - arrested again this weekend for drug violations - is respected. You are an American? You cannot tell the diference between a responsible Surgeon General's report verses propaganda about curing dead hair? No wonder the 'local gossip' is watched by 77% of TV viewers. I get this sinking feeling that most Americans have become that dumber.

Please tell me you did not use a 'dead hair cure' commerical to disparge well proven science - that smoking kills. Please tell me you made that association - and another reference to second hand smoke - all in error.

Please show me the study that has shown that smoking, or any carcinogen, causes cancer.
It has not happened... I can tell you that.
Carcinogens increase your risk of cancer, they do not cause it, at least no study has shown that to date. Smoking is no different.

Common knowledge = superstition, people have a hard time with that, I understand.
Having well respected groups like the American Cancer Society and the American Lung Association lie about it does not help.

The hair commercial example was just of propaganda, it was not tied to the smoking example.

[Happy Monkey]

Originally Posted by rkzenrage

Carcinogens increase your risk of cancer, they do not cause it, at least no study has shown that to date. Smoking is no different.

A distinction without a difference. If you gamble with weighted dice, those dice are a cause of your winnings, even though all they did was increase your chances.