Thursday, March 25, 2010

He Who Controls the Pres, er, the Press . . .

I wonder if smokers will get second-hand treatment under national health care because of their unhealthy habit.

And isn't it considerably curious that our nations top notch journalists, crack investigators, and world class publications that publicized, analyzed, and castigated every peccadillo of Presdient George W. Bush, has not seen fit to publish a single photo of President Barack Hussein Obama, the health care champion, smoking a cigarette?

Of the handful I have been able to find on the web, as evidenced by the two I have posted here, they are all rather obviously photoshopped.

Journalists are sometimes referred to as the Fourth Estate because they are supposedly the guardians of the truth on behalf of the estate of the Citizenry. The idea is that they protect the Citizenry by keeping the estates of Church and Government honest as they report and expose abuses of power, instances of hypocricy, public lies and miscellaneous chicanery in their dealings with the common folk.

Author Oscar Wilde wrote:
"In old days men had the rack. Now they have the press. That is an improvement certainly. But still it is very bad, and wrong, and demoralizing. Somebody — was it Burke? — called journalism the fourth estate. That was true at the time no doubt. But at the present moment it is the only estate. It has eaten up the other three. The Lords Temporal say nothing, the Lords Spiritual have nothing to say, and the House of Commons has nothing to say and says it. We are dominated by Journalism."

Caveat emptor.

Be very, very vigilant in what you buy from the media, folks.

3 comments:

Crystal said...

I'm a little embarassed that I didn't think of this point on my own. However, to rectify the situation; I will now be talking about it as if I had. Thanks.

- JustaHousebear

I. M. Abaldy II said...

Success!

Now if one more has the same reaction based upon your talking . . . .

Anonymous said...

Peccadillo? Are you kidding me? Is that really the word you would use to describe deliberately lying to the American people about WMD's, starting a war in the wrong country that has killed thousands of innocent people, and allowing Wall Street to rob us blind? What about New Orleans? And the very unchristian Cheney and Rove? As a conservative LCMS minister's daughter,
I find your comments disconcerting. Peccadillo my bum! More like crimes against humanity. I expected better from an LCMS pastor. And to think, I was going to bring my family to Trinity tomorrow. You need a cross on your lapel instead of a flag preacher.