Melanie, of Sparks from a Combustible Mind, is still filling in for Frank, aka PCGuy, who is taking a temporary hiatus from his Truthful Tuesday prompt. This week Melanie asks…
What is your honest opinion of the news and how it is shared right now? Are we being informed or fed Pablum designed to keep us uninformed and in the dark?
My honest opinion about the news is that what is represented as news today is primarily clickbait. Sensationalized sound bites or headlines intended to draw eyes and ears. Everything is labeled “Breaking News” to the pointed that the term breaking news has lost its meaning.
Much of the “news” is also biased, promoting a particular ideological agenda. Whether it’s Fox News or MSNBC, conservative newspapers or liberal newspapers, right-leaning talk radio shows and podcasts or the relatively rare left-learning talk radio shows and podcasts, they are presenting the “news” in a way that preaches to their respective — and receptive — choirs.
Most people watch, listen to, or read the news that reinforces their existing perspectives and biases. They don’t bother to read the details, understand the specifics, or even critically think about what is behind the headlines.
I don’t think the news today is designed to keep us uninformed or in the dark. It is geared more toward swaying us to buy into a particular perspective by promoting specific ideological beliefs and downplaying or ignoring anything that contradicts them.
Where is Walter Cronkite, “the most trusted man in America,” when we need him?
This, That, and the Other 
Amen, brother.
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Definitely agree. It’s all about the money. 💰
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Truth
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I haven’t seen a single positive comment about the news (including mine)!
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Humans seem attracted to negative sensationalism. Media in turn exploit this. For money. As Gypsie says……..
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I agree with you.
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Indeed
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I did not know that Tucker Carlson actually said on his “news” show, that the “we” should side with Russia!
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I’ve wondered that Fandango…where did the ‘honest news’ go? Oh right. They all ‘aged out’ and were replaced with people who think sensationalism and faux news are ‘good enough.’ No wonder we’re in this pickle.
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Former Security Advisor Admits
To Orchestrating Foreign Coups
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Medicare Advantage: Supreme Court Case, Biden-Bush —
Russel Brand Speaks Out [insurance agent appreciates him]
Medicare Supplementing not so confusing, tricky, expensive
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BidenThwarts Massive 100+ Railroad
Strike to Protect Wealthy Corporations
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I think the two above presenters/commentators may have overreacted a bit, specifically with regard to Biden. Biden has been inactive on quite a few things (with a lot of disappointment), but this problem was brought forth from a “federal judge in Forth Worth Texas.”
One clue is simply looking at the date of this article. If the new news, this month, is that Biden did something not reported in January or soon thereafter… presumably something further or different, then he might be trying to mitigate what could have otherwise followed unmitigated without intervention involving a larger-picture perspective.
As I see it, we can keep an eye on the matter and watch. If the inserted and previously-lacking benefit of more interest in what is going on will improve the situation after all, then good. [I see it as a decision to hope there is added interest or goodwill to contribute substantive consideration rather than assume there will be no attention to workers and best ways going forward. This is possible without assuming, on an opposite side, that good will come of it.]
Unless Biden appointed the federal judge mentioned, or had interacted with him before January toward that decision (reported below), I don’t think it’s correct to say Biden did the thwarting. (Plus, I see as wrong their frustration that built up to saying the reporting from the left is “worse” [than that supporting Republicans or right-leaning policy]. It might not be better [and might ultimately be right-wing anyway as Democrats usually are], if there is no follow-through on accountability that doesn’t favor making a buck for the higher end of the income spectrum.)
Or maybe our new value system is to send everybody home and pretend we will hand out universal basic incomes while we put the remaining workers in unmitigated danger until we can get robots into place to do everything and shift the last known workers onto a basic income too. Although Andrew Yang ran as a Democrat, my opinion is that said policy idea is more authoritarian than left (could be otherwise if not tied to firing). I prefer to be careful about presuming that getting rid of workers and a human touch, instead favoring what the upper echelons want for a penny, is the price for lifting technology and portfolios.
https://www.wqad.com/article/news/local/judge-blocks-bnsf-worker-strike/526-ae24dabc-8491-418e-9817-cff7b4a3abd1
Published January 25th, 2022
Updated January 26th, 2022
{I’ve skipped a good bit of the article here. It’s all relevant. Additionally, there are two video presentations with the article: one above the printed article and one at the end of it.}
One worker told News 8 the main feeling right now among workers was outrage.
“I think it’s a bad judgment,” a 15-year BNSF employee said. “BNSF tells people we get rest days, but if they need someone to run a train, they will force us off our rest days, which happens all the time.”
Another who’s been an engineer for 10 years said he was “disappointed but not surprised.”
….
Several workers said they want to quit and are looking for new jobs after hearing the Court’s decision.
“I can tell you many are thinking about resigning ,” one said. ‘Including myself, and I have worked for them 12 years.”
…..
In a joint statement from SMART-TD President Jeremy Ferguson and BLET National President Dennis Pierce on January 13, both predicted workers would resign because of the new policy.
“Our membership is tired, frustrated and fed up with the treatment they continue to receive,” the statement said. “As is the growing trend among all major rail carriers, the working conditions at BNSF have deteriorated to the point that there are many tenured employees leaving the railroad industry because they can no longer tolerate the treatment that they must endure on a daily basis. This new attendance policy may be the tipping point for what may be the ‘great railroad resignation.’”
The engineer explained how the time commitment was no secret when he started this job, but now, he said it’s just too much. He said one of the most frustrating things was how the railway saw workers as dispensable.
“It’s not something you can hire tomorrow and have somebody ready to go the next day,” he said. “So that’s where we feel like we’re getting a little bit of the shaft here. We’re being treated as unskilled labor.”
Multiple workers told News 8 they thought BNSF wants workers to quit.
BNSF is one of the freight railroads included in contract talks that began in fall 2019 and still haven’t been agreed upon. One of the most contentious points in those negotiations is the railroads[‘] desire to cut crews from two people to down to one in some circumstances. Unions oppose the change partly because of safety concerns.
“Then (BNSF) can try to push through the one man crew deal, saying that there’s not enough workers to run with two crew members,” one employee said.
“That is 100% what they’re doing,” the engineer said. “… [With] this new [‘]high visibility[’] policy …. what they want is one-man crews. And that’s what everything is kind of lining up to be. One thing I will say is I will not work on a train by myself.”
……
{One final thought, at this time. There are far more than “100+” people involved in this labor dispute. As, sometimes, the banners or headings get reworked, the “100+” might go away (down the road with regard to someone coming fresh across the YouTube offering) for the TYT video designation I shared on this subject (above).}
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Politico: Lower Wages Are A Good Thing For Workers
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Re my 7:37 pm post: I’m guessing I overlooked the “K” in “100K+“ when I first saw the video; otherwise, they’ve already fixed it. Anyway, there’s a K (appropriately while, not to be missed,15k more than the 100k is pretty huge).
Second: The initial reader was working off of an AP News article by Josh Funk, which said (from this past week), “President Joe Biden on Friday blocked a freight railroad strike that would disrupt shipments of all kinds of goods for at least 60 days by naming a board of arbitration to intervene in the contract dispute.”
I see that sentence as non-artfully composed. Nevertheless, it shows sufficiently that a bigger and older and more widely relied upon news outlet is who was blaming Biden. More likely, Funk/APwas trying to credit Biden.
I would surmise Funk (for the AP service) wanted to make things sound like Biden was taking tough action, because the administration has been looking so feckless. I’m not familiar with the named writer.
Making the action sound more like Biden is being harsh to workers isn’t likely to make people who lean left feel more assured. It’s not toughness for toughness’ sake that is what we are looking for. But maybe Biden will benefit from a cover that he’s being hard on the common man; the companies involved might have their psychopathic egos soothed. Perhaps the workers were going to ignore the court decision, and perhaps Biden gave them a spark of hope. If that’s the case, more fitting wording would be that Biden staved off a strike for now. Or he convinced an organized group to give him a chance to try and help them.
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https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/biden-intervenes-railroad-contract-fight-block-strike-86902267
Josh Funk
The board of arbitrators will hold hearings with both sides to learn more about their positions before issuing their recommendations about a month from now. The the unions and the railroads will have 30 days to negotiate a new deal before a strike could be permitted under the federal law that governs railroad contract negotiations.
So far, the two sides have remained far apart because workers want raises that will offset inflation and cover increased health insurance costs while reflecting the current nationwide worker shortages.
Railroads maintain that the double-digit raises they are offering over the five year contract that would date back to 2020 are fair based on the kind of raises other companies gave their workers at the time.
The unions are expecting significant raises because the railroads have been reporting record profits in recent years since they eliminated nearly one-third of their employees over the past six years as they overhauled their operations.
The unions also want the railroads to back off their proposals to cut train crews from two people down to one and ease some of the strict workplace rules they have adopted in recent years that workers say make it hard to take any time off.
….
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https://www.columbian.com/news/2022/jul/14/deadline-to-block-freight-rail-strike-looms/
Thursday
The unions say a better contract would likely help ease the railroads’ struggles to hire more workers to reduce delays in deliveries and improve service in response to complaints from shippers and regulators.
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“President Joe Biden on Friday blocked a freight railroad strike that would disrupt shipments of all kinds of goods for at least 60 days by naming a board of arbitration to intervene in the contract dispute.”
I said:
I see that sentence as non-artfully composed.
See what I mean, below?
https://www.ketv.com/article/president-joe-biden-blocks-freight-railroad-strike/40627749
The Associated Press has reported that President Joe Biden has blocked a freight railroad strike on Friday.
The strike would disrupt shipments of a variety of goods for a minimum of 60 days.
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While my “7:37 pm post” (on July 17) linked to a helpful article by Jenna Webster, written in January for a local news station…
here is an update article written in
February by Josh Funk (who put together the non-artful line) for the AP.
https://www.wfaa.com/article/news/nation-world/bnsf-union-strike-blocked/287-1ac4cee5-9cbf-4e87-930f-9c311af2ef17
{There’s a meaningful news video, presented by the local channel, before the article.}
February 25
A federal judge has extended an order preventing the two largest unions at BNSF from going on strike over a new attendance policy the railroad imposed this month.
The judge ruled that a strike by the unions that represent 17,000 BNSF workers … is a minor dispute under their contracts.
The unions ….
Judge Mark Pittman…
The presidents of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and
Trainmen[ and others]… will consider consider appealing [the ruling].
BNSF… is based in Fort Worth, Texas…
…
…
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The Real News Network: 40-year railway engineer
guest about “Hi-Viz” points-based feudalistic policy
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TRNN; Railroad Workers
are Being Ground to Dust
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A More Perfect Union: Why 100,000+ are likely to join
17,000 in a nationwide strike against the sociopathic
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https://www.profarmer.com/news/policy-update/biden-announces-emergency-board-block-nationwide-rail-strike
Jim Wiesemeyer
Now what?
The White House action forces a 60-day pause to permit a “neutral” panel of three to spend 30 days coming up with a potential solution to the impasse between labor and the railroads. After the PEB makes its recommendations, all sides have another 30 days to work out a deal or accept the PEB’s solutions. This past week, both the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET, a unit of the Teamsters) and the SMART-Transportation Division overwhelmingly approved a strike vote. Appointing a PEB stops that process, at least temporarily. If no agreement is reached after the cooling-off period, work stoppages are permitted. That puts the earliest possible strike/lockout date at Sept. 16.
……………
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Trump Voter Charged After Blaming
BLM/Antifa for Crime HE Committed
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Man Who Reported [supposed]
Politically Motivated Arson Found
To Have Lit His Own Camper On Fire
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Depending on the news source I think we are fed what will possibly sway us in our way of thinking from one side to another. Do I think we are getting the full story… rarely if ever.
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I agree.
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Actually, I think we need to work more on ourselves! I mean, we need to educate ourselves so that we can judge everything righteously
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I think we need to learn how to think critically and not rely on any one single source for all of our news.
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You are right! Sometimes, we conceive (get attracted to) the news depending on our culture background. It is why I wrote before that we need to educate ourselves well. I meant that we need some healthy mentality to judge everything right. We spent many years trying to understand how people get attracted to the news and discovered that their culture background does it all. For example, people may support Chaos (news leading to chaos) trying to arrive at full freedom. There is no doubt that these people enjoyed no religion, ill education and have sick ideas about freedom. On the other hand, educated people with morals and wisdom would deal carefully with news to avoid chaos. This example applies to everything else in life …
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I agree, the news these days is all sensationalised! Its disgusting!
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