When the “Media” Intentionally Misleads
While interviewing the daughter of Joseph Stark – the man who flew a small plane loaded with fuel cans into an Austin building housing the Internal Revenue Service, killing a worker – a cable TV news anchor woman stated, “Wouldn’t you call your father a ‘hero’”? It wasn’t so much a question as meant to entice the daughter, I believe, to say something … out of the ordinary. After pausing, Stark’s daughter agreed, and that made for the sensational story today’s TV news lusts after.
Joseph Stark
“Daughter calls father a HERO!” screamed the banners across TV screens.
But, did the daughter really mean to give that response about her father or was she tricked during a shocking moment in her life? Wasn’t it the cable TV anchor who first said it? That’s what I heard. The question by the TV news reader was inappropriate, not journalism and only intended to be sensational in tone. It worked. Stark’s daughter later backed down from the statement but by then, it was too late.
Stark was no hero; he was a murderer.
If you scan the cable TV news channels, what appears to be happening is growing competition to be shriller over a theme that would seem to foster revolution … give power back to the people. It started with Beck and Limbaugh, both actors, and has spread to other cable TV news channels as they desperately grab for audience and the resulting advertising revenue. Now, even CNN is onboard … power to the people … take control back! (Where’s Huey Newton when we need him?)
What cable TV news is doing is dishonest. It’s not news. It is drama. News became entertainment and has now become drama with inflammatory tendencies.
Other than PBS NewsHour and HD Net’s World Report, there is very little television news reporting left on the air.
My concern is that cable TV news will spur other crazies to act out in violence and murder.
Category: Featured, Personal notes
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Steck was nothing more than a childish narcissist who couldn’t have his way with the world. He saw himself (and people in general) as victims of a heinous, conspiring government, and had absolutely NO regard for the people who loved and cared about him. He left his wife and child w/ no life insurance, NO HOME, a mound of debt including, now, estate taxes, and lives forever marred by incredible, deep emotional scarring. He reminds me a lot, actually, of the GOP and the ‘teabaggers’ – screaming and whining and never listening or learning b/c all they want is their way – no matter the facts or reality. It’s not productive, it’s not kind, it’s not thoughtful or intelligent; it’s just unbalanced and moronic and childish. Steck was a murderer and a jerk. Nothing more interesting than that. So shame on the media for buying into his ridiculous rant and trapping his daughter in her time of shock and grief. Walter Cronkite would be disgusted.
Thanks for the scoop on this, David. I’ll Tweet about it now so people can get the inside story.
Best,
Jamie Turner
60SecondMarketer.com
http://lauraflanders.firedoglake.com/2010/02/22/joseph-stack-cpac-tea-party/