{"id":1760,"date":"2016-11-21T23:32:36","date_gmt":"2016-11-22T07:32:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/?p=1760"},"modified":"2016-11-21T23:32:36","modified_gmt":"2016-11-22T07:32:36","slug":"media-and-knowledge-arent-the-same-thing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/2016\/11\/21\/media-and-knowledge-arent-the-same-thing\/","title":{"rendered":"Media and knowledge aren’t the same thing"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of the favorite refrains of the Tea Party element of the Right\u00c2\u00a0is that the only way presented with the facts that I could ever hold\u00c2\u00a0liberal positions is to be brainwashed by the mainstream media (MSM is how it’s abbreviated – I guess for more efficient Twitter character counts).<\/p>\n

To this, I just need to say a few things:<\/p>\n

(1) I know how to read. And because I believe in being an educated voter, I often read (or watch) the transcripts (or speeches) that the candidates make. I’m not watching any media’s version of the speech. I’m actually reading or watching what the candidate is saying themselves.<\/p>\n

(2) I know how to research. I can follow the trail of who writes a bill. I can follow the trail of what an organization with a friendly name may or may not stand for. And so just because it comes from a group with a nice name like the American Family Organization, I know that it’s not a group that would accept me because I’m not Christian.<\/p>\n

(3) I can find opposing views. And I actively look out for them. I really enjoy reading the TAC<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0blog – not because I always agree with Rod Dreher, but because it helps me understand the first principles from which he builds his arguments.<\/p>\n

Here’s another point to be very wary of. You’re getting your information from the mainstream media as well. The Mainstream Media includes – but is not limited to – the NY Times, Washington Post, CNN, Huffington Post, Fox News, the New York Daily, Rush Limbaugh.<\/p>\n

These are all for-profit<\/strong> organizations whose goal is to make people look at advertisements, listen to advertisements, and click on advertisements. Their goal is not to educate. If anything, it is to entertain. Sometimes entertaining requires informing, but informing is different than educating.<\/p>\n

Please don’t take as gospel what you read in your mainstream media any more than I do in mine. Educate yourself. It’s the only way we’re going to be able to have the conversations we need to have to put this country back together again.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of the favorite refrains of the Tea Party element of the Right\u00c2\u00a0is that the only way presented with the facts that I could ever hold\u00c2\u00a0liberal positions is to be brainwashed by the mainstream media (MSM is how it’s abbreviated – I guess for more efficient Twitter character counts). To this, I just need to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[4,1],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pQyAq-so","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":735,"url":"https:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/2014\/01\/03\/mass-consuming-my-media\/","url_meta":{"origin":1760,"position":0},"title":"Mass consuming my media","date":"January 3, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Micky started watching the CBS sitcom, \"The Good Wife\", and we're both hooked. I know the show has been on for a while, and that the reviews have been good, but we haven't gotten into it before. It got me thinking about how I consume TV these days. I really\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "just thinking out loud"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":43,"url":"https:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/2007\/01\/21\/encroachment-in-information-mining-technologies-part-i\/","url_meta":{"origin":1760,"position":1},"title":"Encroachment in Information Mining Technologies - Part I","date":"January 21, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Data mining has slowly, and silently, pervaded into the lives of everyday digital consumers. Using Gmail? Look at the advertisements on the right hand side of the screen and notice that they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re related to the contents of your e-mail. Are you a social networker? You\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve released information about yourself onto\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Information Mining Essay"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":48,"url":"https:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/2007\/03\/17\/encroachment-in-information-mining-technologies-part-vi\/","url_meta":{"origin":1760,"position":2},"title":"Encroachment in Information Mining Technologies - Part VI","date":"March 17, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"But what if we just didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know? Couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t ignorance be bliss? The problem is that many are using the Internet without, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153the cognitive ability to appreciate the possible consequences of disclosure of personal information\u00e2\u20ac\u009d (Friedman and Thomas). Even something as simple as describing one\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s daily route to school for a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Information Mining Essay"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1547,"url":"https:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/2015\/04\/23\/why-the-g-word-doesnt-matter\/","url_meta":{"origin":1760,"position":3},"title":"Why the \"G\" word doesn't matter","date":"April 23, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Today is the 23rd of April. It will be celebrated across Turkey as The Children's Festival. It's the day that the first government was established after the independence war against the Greeks and Allied occupiers after World War I. It's called the Children's Festival because Ataturk dedicated the government to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "just thinking out loud"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":140,"url":"https:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/2009\/06\/14\/too-many-numbers-and-not-enough-people\/","url_meta":{"origin":1760,"position":4},"title":"Too many numbers, and not enough people","date":"June 14, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"I think that as we've moved away from oral histories and now stress what's written, what's wiki-ed, what's memorized, we've lost one of the simplest and most profound methods of improving ourselves and the communities in which we find ourselves. We've lost the ability to listen. One strong piece of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "just thinking out loud"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":509,"url":"https:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/2012\/02\/10\/gosh-i-miss-college-basketball\/","url_meta":{"origin":1760,"position":5},"title":"Gosh I miss college basketball","date":"February 10, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Between NC State beating Georgia Tech tonight (which we desperately needed to keep NCAA hopes alive), and the quality of the last 4 minutes of the Duke\/UNC game, I'm reminded how much I miss college basketball. I genuinely believe that it is the purest form of the game. The level\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Sports Stories"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1760"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1760"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1760\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1760"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1760"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1760"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}