I know I haven’t been writing much recently, the reason is that I haven’t been spending much time on the internet. I guess I’ve just gotten bored with it. The lack of writing has kept some thoughts bouncing around in my head for a while. I guess I need to let them out now.

Gate keepers. As a student of journalism, I have been taught the relevant theories behind the practice of reporting the current events and the production of newspapers. One of the first classes I took was a media critique class. The purpose of this class was to teach students the impact of media on the general public. We studied the theory of cultivation, which states media do affect individuals. The more media watched the more the impact. But what I would like to address now, is the gatekeepers. Media have systems that are utilized to get the package delivered to the consumer. Whether it be television, radio, print or new media, all forms have filters that report on certain stories and leave others by the wayside. The most obvious to explain is that of the editor at a newspaper. Newspaper employees gather news by actual investigation and research or by finding the important stuff on the wire. Here in St. George we see more Associated Press stories than articles written by local staff members. There is nothing wrong with this, just pointing it out. Anyways, the reporters are assigned stories to research and write. These assignments are based on various characteristics and vary from paper to paper. It is the assignments and what is actually printed that gives newspapers and media in general such power. The editor has the final say he is the big gatekeeper of information for our area. The reporters have their say by how and what they write, but when the presses have started rolling everything printed will have the editors approval. If he doesn’t like it, it doesn’t get read. In this way it is possible for media to control the information we can access. Many people have no idea who these gatekeepers are. Ask the average citizen who wrote the story or edited the newspaper they read in the morning and most will not be able to give an answer. We consume the information but never analyze who is holding the keys to the information gateway.

The alarm has been sounded and gone unheard. Most media are owned by a few gargantuan corporations. There have been countless instances that news of value to our country has been placed on the back burner or even censured by the CEOs of these companies.

The important thing to understand from this, is that it is up to us to analyze where and how we get our information. To avoid missing the important stuff, we must access and support alternative outlets. The internet has been the biggest threat to the choke hold these corporations have on our info. They have been fighting for the past few years to alleviate themselves of this problem. We need to fight back, peacefully of course. www.freepress.net.

The Mason-Dixon Line. As you all should know the Mason-Dixon line was the border between slave and free states before the Civil War. I just finished reading Ralph Waldo Emmerson’s essential works. Within that tome, I was introduced to two of his speeches he presented in favor of emancipating the slaves. It was a short trip for me to draw a parralel between the M-D line and our southern border. In that time, it was viewed as an economic imperative that cheap labor, namely slaves, be perpetuated. It is now a given that any labor job, production oriented task that can be, will be exported. We didn’t remove the Mason-Dixon line with the emancipation of the slaves we slimply moved it south and made it someone else’s problem. ‘Mericans complain about immigrants coming here and living as parasites, but in the big scheme of things we are the parasites. We suck the blood out of every society that we can by exploiting their cheap labor and refusing them the opportunity to become our equals. We must have our cheap laborers, we must have our slaves.

On a lighter note, we are going to go for a ride tomorrow. I’m seeing a good, long ride on Little Creek tomorrow afternoon. In related news, I have been enjoying the Tour of California this week. The last stage was a great race, a seventy-mile chase to catch the breakaway just a km. before the finish. Bringing it down to the sprinters to see who would win.

Well, seeing that I have been listening to Forest Gump in the background, “That is all I got to say about that.”

Peace. Love. and Revolution. and it all starts with you.