Due to a love of reading and that lucky job I had at a newspaper, I can see the "slant" and propaganda in most news pieces. As soon as I read that DHS had a "Disinformation Board" I thought: No. 1, sounds like the "Ministry of Truth" or something out of "Animal Farm," and No. 2, what are they doing getting involved in such a thing in the first place?
I've done way too much research to trust everything coming out of the beltway, and you're right about our access to information today. Even the constant drumbeat of news stories about your own country in our news always points to the failure of your system but not the role our interventions and sanctions have on it.
Not to mention what caused the reaction in the first place...
Reminds me when I served in the Navy and we all watched from the ships binoculars as we strafed people on the shores of a Latin American country. I interviewd the pilot when he returned, and he admitted our government was killing innocent farmers just trying to make a living. I watched on my radar screen in CIC as we willfully violated their maritime boundary despite warnings from my team that we were getting too close.
I know what I saw.
Didn't mean to turn this into a post, but it struck a nerve with me. These days I look at the news with a wary eye. Monkeypox photos from 30 years ago showing only brown people: we know what they're doing... Even the terms they use "Officer Involved Shooting" instead of "Police Shooting." "Less Lethal Munitions" instead of "Rubber Bullets." We know what's going on. Hearing only one side of a news story prompts me to want to hear from the other side. I'm just glad we now have the ability to do so.
Thank you for your comment as always, man! What a tough thing to witness, especially for the personal implications, not being able to speak up about the abuses that you saw.
I'm deeply thankful for my time in the news business because it opened my perception, so I can notice exactly the things that you're mentioning here: the way the information's used and presented bears close observation and should inspire more than a bit of skepticism.