Green Matters™
by Crissy Trask
Welcome to my blog where I share almost anything I think will help make greener living undeniable and simple. News, tips, insight and resources served up weekly. I also share my perspectives on others' perspectives and actions. Agree or disagree, I hope you will find them thought-provoking and a starting point for conversation.
Previous Post...Next Post...Information on Reprints...2010 Blog
SEPTEMBER 14, 2009
Gullibility is derailing progress
This piece could have been titled "lies derail progress," but truly, lies are only effective at derailing progress when they are believed by enough people…and one need only look at the confusion and anger surrounding the details of proposed health care reform to see that plenty of Americans have fallen for obstructive falsehoods about the substance of the President's plan. Even a day after President Obama clearly laid out his ideas and debunked the most absurd myths about health care reform, obstructionists were out chanting the same ole lies, insisting, when questioned, that they still believed what they were saying.
The same gullibility is obstructing progress on the sustainability front as well. Expensive advertising campaigns by big industry and news organizations that report rumors as fact and would rather pander to their audience than practice journalism effectively mislead millions of Americans on issues ranging from clean coal, to forest health to global warming. I blame mainstream news broadcasters and newspapers more than the industries that are trying to protect the status quo. It should be, no it is, a journalist's job to uncover facts and report them, but the way I see it, several so-called journalists have adopted sensational, shallow and divisive tactics; and their work lacks objectivity and accuracy. I'm not alone in my perception: According to a new survey conducted by The Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, 63 percent of Americans surveyed believe that news stories are often inaccurate and 74 percent of respondents believe stories are biased, favoring one side of an issue over another. Yet those inaccuracies are clearly shaping public opinion. Inaccuracies reported on the news are being repeated on Facebook, Twitter and in blog after blog--in a distinctly mean-spirited way I might add--warping the collective conscience and undermining genuine attempts to accomplish some truly life and world changing things.
The decline of mainstream journalistic standards and ethics in this country has so elevated collective misperceptions and national discordance that it is proving itself to be a venomous killer of democracy and progress. For this reason, media reform may be the most urgent reform of all. (Further reading: Truthout.org)
2009 BLOG INDEX
Posts by Topic
Air Quality
6/8/09, Leaf Blowers:
An Environmental Nightmare
Cleaning
4/14/09, Don’t
Be So Quick to Blame the Low-Phosphate Detergent
Energy
7/6/09, It’s Summer
Time and the Livin’ is ‘Green’!
4/7/09, Window Films Can Lower Your
Cooling Bills and Your Tax Liability
3/14/09, Bundle Your
Gadgets
Food
10/27/09, Super
Freakonomics Authors Come Down Hard on Local Food
10/22/09, Hey Foodies, What
Are You Feeding Your Pets?
Green Terms
5/26/09, A Closer Look
at the Definition of “Recycled” and Some Other “Re”
Words
Plastic, and other Trash
7/13/09, Will a
Ban on Bottled Water Lad to Bad Beverage Choices?
4/22/09, Bottled Water
Gets Reinvented
3/2/09, Inefficient Packaging
Awards (No. 1)
Perspectives
9/14/09, Gullibility
is Derailing Progress
8/24/09, Check
Your Lifestyle Before Bragging About Recycling
8/19/09, Simple
Solutions Won’t Work Alone: Comprehensive is the True Agent
of Change
2/22/09, The Unhappiest Generation
2/12/09, Inauguration
Attendees Fail to Demonstrate Change
Reduce
8/5/09, Direct
Mail Marketers Want to Force Junk Mail on Us
3/21/09, Better
Yard Sales
1/25/09, Wasting Trees:
Why I Hate Junk Mail
Reuse
10/14/09, Wrapping
with Your Butcher
5/7/09, Craigslist
Buyers are A Flakey Bunch on the Whole
Recycling
6/22/09, Not
Separating Your Recyclables from Your Trash Can Hurt
3/4/09, Recycle Your
Water Filters
Transportation
6/15/09, Avoid
Hot Car Syndrome to Reduce Emissions…and Discomfort
Water
3/27/09,
Water, Water Everywhere, but Not a
Drop…
Blog Archives