From: mccall@mksol.dseg.ti.com (fred j mccall 575-3539)
Subject: Re: The Media (was Re: Who's weakening the constitution?)
Organization: Texas Instruments Inc
Distribution: usa,tx
Date: Mon, 25 Jan 1993 14:02:41 GMT

In <J45ls*gC1@caleb.UUCP> jdp@caleb.UUCP (Jim Pritchett) writes:

>In article <1993Jan21.214706.17023@montagar.com>, David L. Cathey writes:

>> In article <4lNis*zz1@caleb.UUCP>, jdp@caleb.UUCP (Jim Pritchett) writes:
>> > WRONG!  No media succeeds in telling me what to think.  They may try, but
>> > that is all they can do.  You are making a false assumption when you
>> > assume that I am repeating what "my media" told me to think.  I think for
>> > myself.
>> 
>> 	Are you sure?    Your thoughts are in no way influenced by the way
>> the "media" filter information (good and bad) to you?  Slight flaws in logic
>> are always caught and disgarded?  False propositions are always discovered,
>> and all resulting conclusions are expunged from your memory?  You are a
>> completely unbiased individual?  Have you applied for Sainthood yet?

>Yes, I'm sure.  You see, I have something that is rare on the Net.  It is
>called a brain.  I use it often, most people don't.  I use multiple sources
>of information.  I know the biases of those sources.  I know who I trust.
>If you listen carefully to what people say, you can learn more than they
>intend to tell you.  (e.g. Clinton's admission that he planned middle class
>tax increases in the 2nd? debate.)  None of these things require Sainthood.
>In fact, none of them require great intellect.  All of these abilities come
>from God.  They have been given to all of us.  However, the further one is
>from God, the more difficulty he will have using them.  If I do make a
>mistake, He will correct me - NOT because I am some sort of Saint, but because
>I am His.
> 

Ah, I see.  And here we missed it all this time.  Jim, and only Jim,
is correct and capable of seeing what's going on, and the rest of us
are only pitiful dupes.  Yes, it is the Divine Right of JIM. 

>> 
>> 	I don't think so.  However, if you would care to prove it, I would
>> enjoy reading such a post.  People are generally shaped from an early age into

>I don't know how I could "prove" such a thing.  However, you should know
>that "environment" is NOT everything.  I spent four years at THE University
>with the "Daily Texan."  Instead of becoming a left-wing, radical flake,
>liberal like my "media", I learned a lot about slanted news stories, and
>about how to see past the bias.  Of course, you'll say that I had already
>been "conditioned" before that.  I didn't write this as a proof, merely an
>example.  I do have a better one.  Remember Adam and Eve?  Perfect environment,
>but they sinned anyway.  Why?  Because it was in them.  What is in you is
>more important than the environment you are in.

You are a sick, sick man, Jim.  As I've said before, if you didn't
exist I think some Leftist would have to invent you, simply for the
horrible example you provide of the extremes of the political and
religious right.  With you areound to point to, all they have to do is
point and say, "See what we mean?"

You've convinced me.  I'll have to take you about as seriously as I
take Joe Bob Briggs.  <wink><wink>--<nudge><nudge>

>> some basic set of beliefs, and will tend to listen to those that match those
>> beliefs.  I don't think that all media tells you what to think, just certain
>> sources of media (nothing radical, they present an argument and you accept it,
>> even though it may be unknowningly flawed in some way).  Much of what is
>> discussed here is opinion and speculation, anyway, not "facts".  Even the
>> statistics that people dig up generally come from sources that support their
>> opinion.  And occasionally, someone changes their mind on an issue...

>Somehow, this sounds like it is heading toward the silly argument about how
>it is impossible to prove to me that you (or anyone) exists.  You could all
>be a figment of my imagination...

No, Jim.  For us to be a figment of your imagination, you'd have to
HAVE one.  All your fantasy ability is tied up in missing the real
world; you don't have any left over to invent us with.

-- 
"Insisting on perfect safety is for people who don't have the balls to live
 in the real world."   -- Mary Shafer, NASA Ames Dryden
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Fred.McCall@dseg.ti.com - I don't speak for others and they don't speak for me.
Newsgroups: alt.politics.elections,talk.politics.misc,tx.politics,misc.legal