A Nation of Whores?

Folks, I don't know why I am not seeing more comments here. If you have trouble logging in, please email me at penny@pennyfletcher.com. The same post Jan. 28 (below) about the wealthy being the only ones who can now be elected because of a recent Supreme Court decision brought out 14 comments on one blog and 22 on another. Come on fans, hit me here on my own ground!

In regards to comments saying that we have become a nation of whores by our own choice (many saying it is because we have elected people who no longer represent us but carry their own agendas to the legislature) I have written the following answer in the form of this new post. Yes, it is commentary and this blog is here to report "true news." But my Internet posts under the name Americans for Truth in News on several other sites seem to be crystallizing a general dissatisfaction with today's media as a whole, and as a long-time journalist, I am compelled to answer their questions. For this reason, I offer the following post:
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I agree with H.M.'s comment on (the blog) "Alexandria" that we have become a nation of whores. My explanation of this is that our decision to prostitute ourselves began when we decided to be a Republic instead of a Democracy. To elect people to represent us (as we do in a Republic) instead of having a one-person, one-vote society which is a true Democracy, has finally led us to an Electoral College system that is no longer a true representation of our voters.

Here in Florida where I live, we have 33 registered parties, with 20 of them being serious contenders that have actual platform planks and goals. Yet only two parties receive air time on our news. That is precisely why I decided to blog as Americans for Truth in News. It isn't that we get lies; we just do not get the whole truth. We don't see an accurate picture of what is really happening in politics as well as in our own state and national "political back rooms."

Instead, we get a micro-vision of what has occurred, filled with commentary, advertorials, and agendas based on the arbitrary decisions of editors in charge who now - after tremendous industry layoffs- do jobs that were once performed by four or five coworkers.

As a paid journalist of more than 35 years, I too am (or rather was) a whore, until I chose to freelance. This was a choice of great peril to me, as a widowed grandmother raising a grandchild for a disabled son because I have enough serious medical conditions to be forbidden to purchase medical insurance in our great United States of America due to the state of our broken health care system.

Still, I could not stay in the major media system any longer because the days are gone where news decisions are based on reality. No, sadly they are based upon what will "grab buyers." The word readers is now rarely used, but has been replaced by "customers" and "buyers" as though news was a "product" like a T-shirt or shoes.

We must realize that what is reported is not all that happens, but a two-second (or in the case of print) a 12-inch "condensation;" the content of which has been edited to fit a slot based on the amount of advertising is paying for that slot. What goes in is editor's choice.

When powerful parties offer to pay bankrupt media for advertising time, naturally they also get news coverage. Therefore, political party candidates without $$$$ have a piss-poor chance of having their say. So yes, H.M. from Alexandria, I agree: we are a nation of whores.

But there is a cure for our STD if we choose to use it. Better than antibiotics is a loud voice across the land. Like the Tea of old thrown into the harbor, we must cast our voices across the airwaves and Internet taking the same risks as Paul Revere. Yes, some of us will be called traitors. But others will be called true patriots.

Benedict Arnold was a great man to some and a traitor to others. Shall we stay whores by allowing our representatives to take our power for themselves or will we take a stand and risk our lives.

And yes, "Virginia," I believe the time that we will have to risk our lives to speak the truth is not far away.