Failure

Being on a trip has allowed me to do things that I normally do not do, like going to McDonalds. No, I will not be talking about the evils of that restaurant. I do not come to eat, I come for the WiFi and the endless $1 iced tea. Instead I want to talk about the local newspaper that McDonalds provided.

The headline was that local healthcare businesses were going to lay off people. Shocking. Of course it was not mentioned that healthcare in America is a giant sink hole of disaster. The paper proposed that this layoff was the fault of the legislature which had "failed" to pass the extension of Medicaid required to fill in gaps in ObamaCare.

Two points I think are important. The first is that the article was not an editorial. Thus the article had the pretense of objectivity. Notice also the use of the word "failure." A loaded word that was designed to show that the Missouri had "failed." No, the Republicans had decided that to expand Medicare was a bad idea, they had not failed. Of course they could have been "dead wrong." My observation is not that there is a correct choice, I don't care about such things much anymore. It is that more and more the media is not even pretending to pay homage to the myth of objective journalism.

Never forget that you are being played. Never trust anything you read, see, or hear in the media. Of course you can trust me! No, you can't trust me either. I am just as biased as anyone else. As unlikely as it is, I could be wrong. The solution is to seek out books and articles you disagree with. Read them. Do not read the same old sources that already agree with your preconceived notions. Expand your horizons beyond the "usual suspects." Read critically. I doubt that most readers noticed the use of the pejorative word "failed." Be the person that notices such things.

Never forget that you are being played