Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Hello everyone. My topic for today is information. Accurate information to be exact. I am currently reading, as a part of my college composition course, Academic and Professional Sources and where to find them. I am all for sources but, the news and information we receive on a daily basis is mostly opinion. For instance, my wife watches The View frequently and I hate the show. To me it is a ridiculous show. At least the hot topics portion of the show.
The problem I have personally is that none of the information we get is fact based. It is full of opinion. How many times have you watched a news program or televised discussion and almost every word is "I think", "I believe" or "I feel". This is not news but opinion. Too many times we as Americans take the opinion of others and make it the news.
If you watch the evening news the first 5 minutes is news and the remaining portion of the program is fluff. For all of our education and knowledge we seem to not know much. Watch Jay Leno, the portion where he goes out and asks people questions like "who is on the twenty dollar bill?" 9 out of ten people get this question wrong. You would think with our insatiable appetite for money and wealth we would know who is on the currency we crave, yet we do not.
Ask a person a question and oftentimes the answer will start with, "I think".
New and information have morphed into opinion. This is sad. It is sad because it is a reflection of our public education system. I say this because only in America can you graduate from high school and not be able to read the diploma they have received I say all this to say money can't buy everything and it is important to get news, not opinion. One cannot make an informed decision on the opinion of someone else. One must have access to reliable news to be able to give an informed opinion or a knowledgeable answer. As with anything else we may love or be fond of accurate news should be loved also. You cannot give an opinion about North Korea for instance if one cannot locate North Korea on a map. One cannot keep up with the workings of government if one does not know who is heading the various departments within the government.
Do you know who is on that ten dollar bill that you lied to get?

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