Let's assume people are trying to make up their minds about what Iran's recent missile tests mean for U.S. security. Let's see what they are being told about this story.
A single set of physical facts underlies all those stories.
It strikes me that the word truth has been disconnected from its meaning, which has been replaced by the meaning associated with the word "plausible." And what is plausible depends more on what you know than what is actually the case.
Let me give you another example.
Although Senator Obama would never embrace such a ludicrous analogy himself, the early debates among African Americans about whether he was “black enough” really stemmed not just from his mixed racial heritage or his rather atypical life experiences, but from his strikingly post-racial political persona and agenda, which seemed more than a bit disquieting to those who had grown up under Jim Crow and risked their lives to overthrow it.
That is James C. Cobb, Spalding Distinguished Professor of History, University of Georgia, Athens...which doesn't prepare him to deal with current events, it seems.
There were no early debates among African Americans about whether Obama was "black enough." None. Stanley Crouch and Debra Dickerson wrote articles advancing that absurdity; Dickerson got punked for it by Stephen Colbert and Crouch wisely stopped talking about it. After all, it was in the air at that point. As you know, anything you hear frequently becomes a thought you can think. It becomes plausible.
And I don't know if the Distinguished Professor simply paid no attention at the beginning of the campaign. It's pretty likely he saw no need to pay attention to the Black guy facing the Inevitable Machine. It's pretty likely he only knows what the mainstream media presents of discussions within the Black communities.
That's bad, because what the mainstream media has presented is objectively false. If you speak well based on this false information it is, in essence, an accident.
And it's worse for not being at all unusual.
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Amen, P6, amen. I don't
Amen, P6, amen. I don't recall any such discussion among the folks. Nada.
I don't either. But MSM was
I don't either. But MSM was trying to figure out when all black folks hadn't jumped on the Obama-train as soon as he announced. And we just know black people aren't politically sophisticated enough to want to support a candidate they know will do fair by them AND has a chance of winning. No. Black people just vote based on "identity" no matter what. That's why Michael Steele recently became the first black governor of Maryland since Reconstruction. ...Oh, what's that? ...He lost? ...My bad.
And as far as MSM representations - why is it that conservatives think MSM is too liberal. Liberals think it's too corporate. Everybody knows the Bush administration lied us into war. Everybody knows MSM bias can affect presidential elections; the whole thing about Al Gore being a nerd who claimed to have invented the "internets" was part of the reason he didn't win in 2000. Even though he had made no such claim. And Clintonites are PO that MSM pushed Obama to the win, even though Clinton didn't compete in 11 states in a row and didn't have a plan for caucus states, etc, etc.
So basically, no one trusts the media. Except when it comes to black people. Then the MSM and local news couldn't be more true. Well . . . there are exceptions to every rule.
And speaking of black folks and MSM. I've been seeing the promos for CNN's "Black in America." I'm starting to worry. Soledad has solid. But CNN isn't. Am I alone in my apprehension about what's going to take place? Plus, there's the fact - as opposed to truth - that mainstream America seems to glum on to whatever negative report comes out no matter how much positive news is told. And they'll ignore racism's impact altogether as well as any similar trends in their own backyards, ie absent fathers and teenage pregnancy.