Friday, September 18, 2015

Media Jackals and the need for Populism



 
Media Jackals and the need for Populism

The Drama plays out as the Media struggles to control the GOP Presidential Primary.  All they wanted was a clash of the dynasties that are beholden to the same financial interests that brought us the Crash, Derivatives, Too Big to Fail and all the other bailouts that ushered in stagnant incomes for the middle class, high levels of poverty and the rich got richer and very little of it trickled down.  The Media is now part of the establishment, much like the state owned Media in other countries.  Their involvement in Media manipulation is reprehensible and does not serve the people as in freedom of the press.   

The Democrat Presidential Primary was said to be all in Bill and Hillary’s control group until Sen. Bernie Sanders dared challenge the Democrat establishment.  Where is the data about the sizes of the crowds Bill and Hillary attract?  I am tired of being ‘directed’ by the Media instead of the Media reporting what is going on.  Of course the Media reserves the right to tell you which ‘fact’ they prefer, like the annoying practice of cutting off a live speech in favor of an interpretation of the speech made by a talking head.  Are they assuming people are stupid and need their assistance in interpreting?  The USA population is extremely literate and I do believe they can decide for themselves what some candidate is really saying.

The CNN people are gleefully reporting that Mr. Trump was hiding after the ‘controversy’ he stirred up by not ‘correcting’ a member of the audience.  Freedom of speech apparently needs defense against these members of the Media.   The only ‘controversy’ about the ‘incident’ was stirred up by members of the Media and now they actually expect viewers to take them seriously as they vilify Mr. Trump for not doing what they thought he should.   I really don’t care what members of the Media believe about the candidates.  I don’t even want to know what they think.  The way they are going about ‘reporting’ is interspersing their opinions into the ‘news’ instead of having an official time for commentary that is clearly defined as an editorial.  They blur the line between fact and opinion and fiction. 

An e message going around shows that the Democrat Machine has placed friends, beneficiaries and relatives in key media positions.  Instead of appealing directly to the people, they chose to go behind the scenes to restrict and slant the ‘news’ they feed to a gullible public.  It’s despicable and is an insult to the intelligence of the American people. 

In just a few minutes, I heard at least six negative references to the GOP frontrunner made by the ‘journalists’ at CNN.  I am not so foolish as to fall for this kind of mental manipulation.  Why should a candidate correct a questioner?  Who decided that?  Bash ‘em!  Set the candidates on each other and report a biased result?  Give us all a break!   And this morning CNN is touting candidates response to Trump’s Obama comment, which was actually made by a member of the audience.  It was too much for Rick Santorum, who put down the Media for even dealing with the fake ‘issue’.  So I see some members of the Media as wildly prejudicial and totally unfair to Mr. Trump.  The Jackals of the Media attack at will and if there is no reason to attack, they make one up. 

Is the fight breaking down as a struggle between the Populists and Wall Street?  It seems that the candidates on both sides are lining up for this epic event and the Media is on the side of Wall Street instead of reporting the news from a balanced perspective.  I detest the idea of the Media choosing presidential candidates.  It’s not their job.    

So why would a struggle between Wall Street and the Populists occur?  A recent opinion on Reuter’s recalled the ‘financialization’ of the nation and the concentration of money in the hands of the few as a result of financial manipulation, rather than in investing in a business and making money on the free market by providing jobs, services and goods.  I always envisioned this as basketballs of money being thrown back and forth above our heads, like lottery balls that never hit your number. 

This financialization has cost jobs and huge sums sit in offshore accounts and I guess there is no more moral imperative to invest in the good old USA.  So where is the reporting on this important topic?  It’s obvious that Mr. Trump is correct when he says some of the financial people need less preferential treatment than they are now getting from the tax code.  Dirty fighting is nothing new from Wall Streeters or politicians but the freedom of the Media should be sacrosanct against dirty influence.   

Rumor has it that Wall Street backed both sides in the Presidential Elections and so won the election, kind of like China allegedly buying ISIS oil and funding it by selling goods to the USA markets?  The emergence of a populist candidate is astonishing in the face of all this certainty that the most well funded candidates will compete and one of them will continue the status quo in favor of continuing the financialization trend. 

Mr. Trump is a populist who made good and learned along the way and I believe he truly wants to do right by the people of this nation.  Investing in the nation and in job creation and grand projects and small businesses and a flowing of money back in the hands of the people with creative employment, services and innovation needs to happen now. 







Wednesday, July 22, 2015

Responsibilities of the Press


The press has succeeded in turning the next presidential campaign into the social event of the season, complete with raw personal criticism and a neglect of the true issues of the campaign.  The press has a lack of respect for the electoral process, given their willingness to exploit anything that leaves them in control of the discussion. 

Why is there so little on the issues and so much on the personalities?  Let’s talk about the issues instead.

Possible Issues?  How about:

  • Defense capabilities and condition of the military and veterans and bases
  • The economy and joblessness and interest rates and taxes
  • National Infrastructures  
  • Forced unionization
  • The European Union
  • The Middle East
  • The Orient
  • Latin America

I know there are more issues, many more………

I’m tired of seeing the talking press heads insisting that this presidential campaign be held in the arena of the trivial instead of the land of real issues.  The press is covering the sideshow instead of the main act, which leads viewers to believe the sideshow is the main act.  These candidates need to give detailed analyses of issues so the voters can make intelligent choices and the job of the press is to report on the stands of the candidates on various issues that are of importance to our nation. 

Tuesday, May 19, 2015

The Media and Self Regulation


To the Media

To the Media and Self-Regulation

 

I just heard on the news that the feds had requested the press stop showing stale footage of the Middle East while discussing new news about it.  I know it is inappropriate for anyone to tell the press what to cover……

However, the stale footage issue is important.  I suggest that the press self-regulate and do this:

If you are showing footage more than x days old, either label it as such or announce it as such.  It is misleading to show old footage while you are discussing what is happening now.  Match the visuals with the actual new news.

Keep track of how many times you show a segment.  Pete and Repeat loses news hounds and if it goes on for days and days like on CNN, it loses the casual viewers also as they see there is no new news and not everybody wants to see the same thing from yet another slant. 

At least program a large, important prime time world news segment that is inviolate and dependable for the viewers.  Viewers are being kept in the dark, like mushrooms, when there’s a whole world out there.    I think part of your duties as Press is to inform and thus educate the public.   

‘Breaking News’ should be reserved for x number presentations as such before it is relegated to normal news.  And ‘breaking news’ is not really just another ‘expert’ opinion.  Avoid trivialization and only use ‘breaking news’ for the most important NEW stories. 

Seek footage that matches the news you are talking about.  If Ferguson is discussed, show the streets as they are now and if you show riots, put the date and time on the segments during the whole segment run.  Matching the view with the words is part of honesty. 

Show respect for the stories you are covering by leaving out the drum beat in the background during news summaries.

 

I love all you reporters who risk their lives to give us the worldwide information our citizens need and crave.  My appreciation goes out to all of you and the people who prepare and present the news in the media, the technicians who bring it to us and everybody else who shares in the process.   

Thursday, December 11, 2014

Tucson Unified School District Gives Raise




 
I read about TUSD giving teachers all a $500 a year raise and then noted the fact that all other district employees will get a 2.5% raise. 
Teachers make from $32,000 to $71,000 a year with an average of about $58,000 per year, which shows this is an older workforce.  $58,000 a year would yield about $1450 at 2.5% but $500 is the raise.   There are 1750 regular teachers and 760 special education teachers and the teacher raise is expected to cost about $875,000.
Certificated Administrators make from $58,000 - $107,000 and their raise at 2.5% is expected to cost about $400,000.  There are 237 administrators.     
This raise is expected to cost $1,275,000 for certificated staff, with administrators getting 31% of the certificated money while they are just 13% of the total.   
The Superintendent’s contract has a base salary of $210,000 but is pumped up by bennies to $247,000 and possibly more.   At $210,000, a 2.5% raise would generate $5,250 for the Superintendent.  If the raise is based on $247,000, it would be more.
To quote from Tucson News Now:   TUSD officials have estimated it will take $4.4 million to implement these increases and that it will be funded by money from the Maintenance and Operations budget.”   It looks to me like this raise is mostly going to support staff.   Given their dire budgetary predictions and dropping student enrollment, can they really afford this raise without taking needed materials from classrooms, cancelling field trips, and limiting student options?
After looking over this ‘raise’, it is obviously a palliative for the teachers and a bonus for the administrators.  If TUSD is truly on the financial ropes, then this raise is only self-serving to the administrators and does not assist the students at all.  As for the teachers, they get $500, which is something in the teaching world but they are being preempted by the administrators, who are getting way more than that.  How about the lower paid workers who get way less than that?  How about a $500 raise for everybody and funnel more money into the classrooms for the use of the students and teachers?