Social Media

CNN And The Steubenville, Ohio Rape Coverage: Disgraceful!

Ronald 1 Comment

CNN has been declining in quality rapidly, and is losing its reputation as, supposedly, the most “balanced” cable news channel!

To watch Anchor Candy Crowley and correspondent Poppy Harlow talk ad infinitum about the loss of potential in two young football players in Steubenville, Ohio, who were convicted of raping a 16 year girl at a party, taping it, spreading it through social media, and bragging over their conquest, was enough to make one want to vomit!

What is the matter with these women, particularly the fact that they are WOMEN, that they express no concern or empathy for the female victim of the rape?

Who cares about whether these two young men are now to be listed as sex offenders, and that they will have a police record that will haunt them for the rest of their lives? Who cares that they will be incarcerated for their horrific crime?

This is a sign of what has happened in our society, the lack of respect for women and their basic human rights!

And when you have Christian pastors and Republican politicians who make clear their contempt for the rights of women, and can even justify rape as possibly having its virtues, including requiring that a child conceived in rape should be taken to birth, it makes one understand that with all of the great advancements for women in the past fifty years, there is still a long road to true respect and equality for women, in relation to men who seem to think, whether they are high school football players, clergymen, or politicians, that they should, somehow, be able to control women and their every action, including their pregnancies, their manner of dress, and their overall behavior, as, after all, men should, somehow, not be held accountable for their own actions, statements, and behavior!

It is also way past time for the news media at all levels, including social media, to stop degrading women in all kinds of ways, and for women reporters and anchors to do so, makes it even worse, so SHAME ON YOU to CNN, and a profuse apology is required!

The Death Of Andrew Breitbart: Not A Time To Celebrate

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Andrew Breitbart, an infamous right wing blogger, who ruined the reputation of Shirley Shirrod, who worked in the Department Of Agriculture; and participated in the destruction of ACORN (Association Of Community Organizations For Reform Now), a community based organization promoting voter registration, health care, affordable housing, and other social issues, died yesterday at the age of 43.

Utilizing lies, deception, falsehoods, and with no basis of fact, Breitbart had no problem with destroying the reputation of others in his mad quest for influence and power in the media.

His attempted destruction of Shirley Shirrod as racist was proved to be false, and she moved ahead to sue him, and was doing so at the time of his death. But she proved she was better than him, by expressing shock and sadness at his sudden death at a young age, a sign of her classiness.

ACORN, sadly, was destroyed, with Fox News Channel assisting in the dirty deed, based on false realities and facts.

Breitbart also helped to expose New York Congressman Anthony Weiner, who was stupid and arrogant enough to post inappropriate pictures on social media, and delighted in that expose, leading to Weiner’s resignation.

Breitbart had no ethics or morals when it came to destruction, and yet that is not a just cause for some to celebrate his passing. He was a devoted father and husband, and no one should celebrate the demise of anyone, other than a vicious dictator. And he was so young, only 43, dying suddenly of heart trouble.

So we can condemn his activities and lack of ethics, but still feel it is not a time to celebrate, and wish his family well.

The Growing Danger Of Social Media, Social Networking: Growing Discontent Among Young People Who Are Unemployed Leads To Potential Violence And Revolution!

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Social Media such as Facebook and Twitter have brought people together in all kinds of great causes and crusades, including the “Arab Spring” in many Middle East nations that are autocracies.

At the same time, social networking has also been leading to the ability of crime gangs to promote chaos and anarchy, as has been occurring recently in Philadelphia; to demonstrations interfering with freedom of movement in the BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) system in San Francisco; and to authorities attempting to shut down social media and cell phones to prevent such confrontations and violence, but in the process interfering with civil liberties, and the ability to communicate for law abiding citizens.

When one realizes that a lot of what has happened in the “Arab Spring” is not just based on politics, but also on the inability of many young people in the Middle East to find work or make an adequate living even with those who have educational attainment, one must also realize that millions of young Americans, who would never be ordinarily considering being lawless, MIGHT with growing unemployment and frustration help to cause some firebrands to incite people to rise up in violence and bloodshed in opposition to the lack of federal and state governments doing what they can to promote job creation. Whether with business assistance or through public works projects, as during the Great Depression, when millions of people contributed to the growth of infrastructure through the Works Projects Administration and other agencies, giving them faith in the future and a steady paycheck, it is ESSENTIAL that actions be taken immediately to prevent such an occurrence!

The fact that the US government under Republican House leadership has done NOTHING to promote job growth, and that state governments are cutting employment at the same time, means that unemployment is likely to grow, apparently part of the plan of the GOP to make Barack Obama look bad. But in the process, it is likely to provoke eventual violence and bloodshed, which can be fueled on the internet through Facebook and Twitter and other social media!

The potential for trouble is alarming, and the events in the Middle East, Philadelphia and San Francisco should ring alarm bells in our government at all levels, that we CANNOT allow widespread unemployment to grow and claim there is nothing that government can do, as they indeed did a GREAT DEAL during the New Deal years of Franklin D. Roosevelt and saved the country from revolution!

It is time for Congress and the states to stop the politics, and start promoting job opportunity, whether privately inspired or publicly created, and not later, but NOW!