Thursday, April 1, 2010

Misuse of the media via Fox and Sarah Palin's upcoming show.

Everyone should care about a disagreement between LL Cool J and Fox News, because its an example of a media outlet executing an act of misrepresentation. Basically LL Cool J was interviewed in 2008 by Fox for a show called Real American Stories, at the time neither he nor Fox knew Sarah Palin would be the host. However, the issue is, she has come to represent the Tea Party, which has been accused of racist views. Country singer Toby Kieth who is also supposed to have an interview on the show, also says that, he was never interviewed by Sarah Palin, and his interview was done in 2009. The commercials for Sarah Palin's show which airs tonight, have stated that, she will be interviewing the guests on her show. This is no different than, a company misusing a public figure's name, image, or other representation to garnish their product, political view, etc some notoriety and or market share. I have seen this on a similar show as to Palin's upcoming show, where people who overcame medical crisis were interviewed and their event reenacted. The show had 99.99 percent of their stories involve Christians, which implies only Christians can over come such challenges, and that only through God/Jesus can you do so. The case with LL Cool J is that, his values and Sarah Palin's political views are probably 180 degrees from each other. He was interviewed by someone else, where the political/religious views of the intended show were not presented, Upon finding out that, his representation is being used to represent an agenda he objects to, LL Cool J rightfully feels he was misled. This is the equivalent of, an Atheist unknowingly being interviewed for a show that supports religion. The Atheist would rightly feel that, their persona is wrongfully being used to support religious views they don't support. If Fox so blatantly misrepresents such a public figure as LL Cool J, they surly have no qualms about misrepresenting the general public, experts on various subjects, etc. We see this on various conservative outlets who still make it seem as if, there is debate on weather global warming is happening. When media outlets misrepresent individuals, news stories, etc, the public ends up misinformed, mislead, and uninformed. Stuff like this happens in legal cases as well, to paint the innocent as guilty, and the guilty as innocent. Such misrepresentations, as I have presented here, have happened throughout history. As throughout history, the public needs to take a stand against such misuse of the media, public speech, etc. For without such restraint, the media will rather than being a highly useful technology, will degrade into nothing but rhetoric, and render itself useless.

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