I may wander around a bit before stumbling onto how I want to cover my unassembled thoughts which have to do with my observations on our ever decaying social structure here in America and around the world. I started the morning reading the Houston Chronicle website, an article by Michael Hedges and James Pinkerton, “Images of dying soldier renew war coverage debate” ( linked via title bar). The New York Times, well known for its desire to supply a story without thinking of the consequences, printed pictures of Army Staff Sgt. Hector Leija as he lay dying from a wound to the head during combat in Iraq.
“A photograph and videotape of a Texas soldier dying in Iraq published by the New York Times have triggered anger from his relatives and Army colleagues and revived a long-standing debate about which images of war are proper to show.”
I said that the New York Times prints stories without thinking of the consequences; more accurately that should have been that they might have thought about it, they just disregard decency, moral obligations to those involved and leaking sensitive information to our enemies all in the name of obtaining a dollar. The New York Times, as are most large media outlets, are not in the business of providing news; they are in the business of providing entertainment to a customer base which requires instant gratification.
Before going on I’d like to point out that Army Staff Sgt. Hector Leija was an honor student and a member of the football team at his local high school; not some drop out who couldn’t get a job other than flipping burgers or emptying waste baskets. I continue to hear blanket insinuations that the military seeks the lowest, the dregs of society, to fill its quota of bodies. This past week one our local NBC affiliates, KPRC, had a special teaser, a short piece of film intended to spark interest in a more detailed documentary that would air at later time. It was included at the end of each news broadcast, something to do with how Army recruiters were able to side step the qualification process to get less than qualified and possibly dangerous individuals past certain check points.
This past week Stephen Littau of Fearless Philosophy For Free Minds wrote and posted, ”Old Media VS New Media”, http://fpffressminds.blogspot.com/2007/01/old-media-vs-new-media.html#comments having to do with the way the media covered certain stories in a haphazard and sloppy manner, or worse, intentionally slanted information in order to sway public opinion. Stephen had many good points that were brought out and I left a comment, some of which I will print here:
“You are correct, “Yes, you and I are the main problem. Far too often, we do not think critically about the news and receive it passively.” You continued to identify the issue when you asserted that we need to ask the proper questions, “As consumers of the news, we should ask the same questions journalists are supposed to ask: who, what, when, where, how, and why.””It is not enough to ask the proper questions, I believe that we are not waiting long enough for the process of questions and answers to run its proper course. We are geared for instant gratification, so much so that we throw the baby out with the bathwater. We have no time to follow up on a story that caught our interest on Monday, desiring instead to hear something different or new on Tuesday. The news media, at all levels, caters to instant gratification, not news.”
Our society has been on a constant rate of decay, sometimes taking huge leaps toward unbridled depravity under the delusion that any and all is fair game and covered under the constitutional right “freedom of expression”. We have been lowering the bar of what is acceptable in news, entertainment, representative government and social order in general. How’s that for rocking the boat in one sentence?
Our Bill of Rights prohibits our government from making laws that limit the free exercise of or abridging our freedom of speech or of the press and there are many who would have us believe that to mean “anything goes”. I’m reminded of specific exclusions to freedom of speech, yelling “Fire” in a crowded theatre simply to create chaos being one; thanks to DL at TMH Bacon Bits for the thought he left in a comment this past week.
Our televisions are full of reality shows, an odd assortment of survival situations staged to show scantily clad bronzed beauties running through the jungle attempting to capture the flag. Our movies splatter the screen with enough blood and gore to fill a cesspool to overflowing while portraying our society as devoid of morality or social order, at least nothing worthy of redemption. Is it any wonder that the New York Times had few if any qualms when it decided to proceed with its coverage in the death of Army Staff Sgt. Hector Leija?
A friend of mine from way back in junior high, that’s middle school for the newer generation, Alan McClung, ( spelling not guaranteed correct ) had some insight regarding the proper way to honor the dead. Alan and I didn’t get along much in the 8th grade but; thinking in retrospect, we were really two of a kind, smaller than most and the target of bullies. Alan grew up to be a veterinarian and I found him quite by accident one night when my black Labrador Retriever, Oscar, got hit by a car, having jumped the fence one night, his last night.
The lady whose car struck Oscar stopped and read the information on his tags, giving us a chance to learn of his need for immediate treatment. We found a late night animal hospital and that’s how I was reunited with Alan, now Dr. McClung.
Alan took Oscar in the back room to see what could be done. I waited in the empty lobby for what seemed forever. Alan eventually came back to let me know that there was nothing he could do to save Oscar and asked if I would let him take care of the disposal. I asked Alan if I could go see Oscar, a farewell to an old friend. Alan’s thoughtful advice has stayed with me all these years, “You shouldn’t look at him the way he is now. You’re better off remembering him the way he was before the accident.”
I’ve wandered around quite a bit while trying to put my finger on why the New York Times printing of some war photographs ate at me this morning. I won’t even go into another story I read about, some young man’s demented video that ended up on MySpace showing how he staked a stray cat to the ground just so he could tape his pit bull tearing it to shreds. We have to decide what we watch, what we listen to, what we think about, with whom we associate along with and all the other choices that go along with the freedoms afforded each and every citizen here in America. I’m afraid that far too many are making poor choices, the kind that drag an entire society into the gutter to be swept down the drain; but isn’t that what drains are for, to receive the remnants of decay left exposed to the light?
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