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Twitter is a great resource. It has become an integral part of my daily routine and I have met some interesting people there. Without question, this exceptional networking tool has found a place in today’s society. Having said that, I have to ask – am I the only one who is a bit concerned at the fact that television news seems to be doing some of their story research on Twitter?
We hear mor and more references to Twitter on daily programming. That is not what I am talking about here. No, what I’m referring to is the actual citing of Twitter Tweets as news. I was stunned to see the evening news, last night, reference the Tweets of opposing parties in their report of the Tehran conflict. Seriously, is this what news reporting in our country has come to?
For some time now, news disseminators have been getting their story ideas from the Internet, but now it seems that they are getting the story itself there. Has the Internet become one-stop-shopping for reporters? Will television and newspaper reporting agencies now be satisfied with regurgitating the same information we can find on our own computers?
I think my biggest problem with this, besides the duplicity of it, is the question of credibility. How easily could a twitter account, or many other Internet sources for that matter, be pirated, hacked or just plain manipulated to provide false information. Call me crazy, but when I tune into the nightly ‘news’ I would at least like to preserve the illusion that the stories I am hearing about have been researched and verified by a news reporting agency that I can trust.
I realize that news reporting, like so many things in today’s society, must change in the face of the Internet age. This change, however, does not seem to be progress.
Showing posts with label janus kane. Show all posts
Showing posts with label janus kane. Show all posts
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Friday, May 15, 2009
?????? by Janus Kane
Does anyone out there know what is going on?
Within a five minute period, I read two articles. The first was a cautionary missive, warning us to all learn how to prepare our own emergency food supply in preparation of the day when the store shelves would be empty. The second was the latest bailout news. Apparently, the powers that be have decided that six major life insurance companies deserve bailout money. It left me wondering how even the possibility of two such occurrences can co-exist in one country, state, city or even on the same block.
Is there a conceivable future where taxpayers will be paying BILLIONS to maintain greedy businesses while they are unable to afford groceries at the local bodega? I suppose we don't have to envision it because the reality is here. As companies like the Hartford and Prudential, who have built their businesses on a foundation of actuarial expertise, dig into the taxpaying public's pocket, thousands of people join the unemployment lines every day and those that can hold onto their jobs are scraping together enough to afford a trip to the grocery store.
A housing market that is going belly up, car dealerships closing left and right and prices for consumerables that are leaping by the day, don't bode well for our economy. And yet, we continue to hand out money as if we had a printing press in the basement of the White House.
Obama has made an impressive show over his short term in office and we all realize that he inherited this problem but, at some point, government officials will have to understand that throwing money at the problem is not helping. If we could be more confident that these decision makers were being more judicious about where this money is going and what strings were attached to its use...
The more we see, the more clear it becomes that there are few, if any, penalties for abuse of this system. Big corporations, cunning but not stupid, have caught the scent of money and are coming running, faster than hogs to the slop bucket. Just as with the banking industry, I fear that this money will disappear and the problem will remain, unchanged. Does anyone out there doubt that, at some point in the future, these big insurers will stop paying claims while crying poverty all the way to the bank?
Something is broken within our financial system. Capitalism is failing. Until we find out what the root of the problem is and cure it, we will continue to dig ourselves into an ever-deepening hole.
Within a five minute period, I read two articles. The first was a cautionary missive, warning us to all learn how to prepare our own emergency food supply in preparation of the day when the store shelves would be empty. The second was the latest bailout news. Apparently, the powers that be have decided that six major life insurance companies deserve bailout money. It left me wondering how even the possibility of two such occurrences can co-exist in one country, state, city or even on the same block.
Is there a conceivable future where taxpayers will be paying BILLIONS to maintain greedy businesses while they are unable to afford groceries at the local bodega? I suppose we don't have to envision it because the reality is here. As companies like the Hartford and Prudential, who have built their businesses on a foundation of actuarial expertise, dig into the taxpaying public's pocket, thousands of people join the unemployment lines every day and those that can hold onto their jobs are scraping together enough to afford a trip to the grocery store.
A housing market that is going belly up, car dealerships closing left and right and prices for consumerables that are leaping by the day, don't bode well for our economy. And yet, we continue to hand out money as if we had a printing press in the basement of the White House.
Obama has made an impressive show over his short term in office and we all realize that he inherited this problem but, at some point, government officials will have to understand that throwing money at the problem is not helping. If we could be more confident that these decision makers were being more judicious about where this money is going and what strings were attached to its use...
The more we see, the more clear it becomes that there are few, if any, penalties for abuse of this system. Big corporations, cunning but not stupid, have caught the scent of money and are coming running, faster than hogs to the slop bucket. Just as with the banking industry, I fear that this money will disappear and the problem will remain, unchanged. Does anyone out there doubt that, at some point in the future, these big insurers will stop paying claims while crying poverty all the way to the bank?
Something is broken within our financial system. Capitalism is failing. Until we find out what the root of the problem is and cure it, we will continue to dig ourselves into an ever-deepening hole.
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