Fake News

Boy have I got a deal for you my friend. How about I give you a whole five dollars if you run nude through the Guelph Humber University building. No? Well how about I sweeten the deal and make it a crisp ten-dollar bill? Still no? Twenty? Not a chance? Well how about I give you a million? Now your thinking aren’t you?

There was a hidden message behind all of these questions (other than the obvious pleasure in seeing a streaker getting taken down by a security guard of course). The point I’m making is the fact that if enough cash is put on the table moral decisions tend to change, and the same goes for ad agencies. If a large organization had enough money and were sinister enough to do so they could control a large amount of the media we digest. This fact seems a bit scarier when we look at the idea that all of our life’s decisions are loosely based upon the media we digest. In short somebody with enough money could be influencing your life’s decisions. Scary eh? Although that’s taking things to an extreme it’s always good to be aware of what you’re ingesting. Chuck Klosterman seems skeptical as well when he asks the question “Are media outlets controlled by massive, conservative corporations? Well, of course they are. Massive conservative corporations own everything. Are most individual members of the media politically liberal? Absolutely.” As an aspiring journalist the preceding quote kind of freaks me out. I mean if I have no say in the material I cover, how I cover it, or even my writing style, then I’m a little more skeptical in the career choice I’ve made.

I guess we can all just throw away the coined phrase ‘freedom of the press’, because apparently it no longer applies. I figured that the news couldn’t possibly be controlled. I guess that notion can rest in my recycling bin right next to the mass amounts of water bottles consumed whilst reading newspapers. In a world in which the dollar rules and people are willing to compromise morals for cash I guess we are all doomed to be controlled. Still willing to take me up on that million dollar offer? Too bad it's off the table.

Klosterman, Chuck. Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs. New York: Scribner, 2004.