Are the Media Dumbing Us Down?

 How Journalism and Discourse have changed; and have changed us.

     As I've said in this blog, my mother, Edith, was an old-fashioned journalist, working for a respected New England daily newspaper under the prevailing traditional ethical standards of objectivity no matter what her personal feelings about a story might be, thoroughness and honesty in both reporting and fact-checking information, and simple basic integrity. That job often required reporting in enough length and depth to do full justice to all sides of a given story, letting readers make up their own minds. The usual formula was to outline the overall story in a few succinct paragraphs on a front page (if the story seriousness warranted the front), and then continue on an interior page in much more objective detail for those who wanted a deeper understanding.

     All that has changed considerably, in some ways so subtly that we've hardly noticed, much less realized.

     Newspapers have declined dramatically, and the TV networks often don't bother to do serious fact checking or in-depth research before blasting out yet another juicy story. They feed news to us in brief easily digestible chunks. (PBS, in their standard objective news broadcasting and with their in-depth investigative FRONTLINE documentary series, is an admirable noteworthy exception, thank goodness.)

     In the frenzied competitive quest for ever more clicks to attract advertisers, truth in journalism no longer seems to matter. Or objectivity. Or often even basic civility and integrity. Conspiracy theories abound, and this or that network is heavily and unashamedly left- or right-leaning. Brief and often vitriolic social media posts bolster the trend toward only surface-skimming, short-lived "news" and discourse.

     Algorithms feed each opposing faction lots more of only the kind of news those within a particular faction have clicked on, thus deepening our divisions, training each of us to watch only the news that favors our preferred isolated group bubble. Effectively dumbing us down.

     We've come to expect no better. 

     How can we change the trend? We can encourage healthy debate in our schools and local governments. We can teach our kids to question everything before making important decisions. We can engage in civil discourse with family members and friends. 

     We can at least try to dig the truth out of the news by consulting more than our preferred network(s) before forming opinions. 

     And we can let our elected officials and our biased news feeders know we're tired of lies and fear mongering and conspiracy generating and sensationalizing. We can let them know we refuse to be conned or dumbed down.

Phil

Website: www.philbowie.com

The Ominous Future of AI

AI and Creative Writing

    A friend introduced me to ChatGPT a while back and suggested it could help me plot and write my fiction. He meant well, but despite my astonishment at what the AI app can do, I found it ominous.

     The foundation of all creative endeavors, including writing, is the exercising of the boundless human imagination and studied skills to inform, entertain (hopefully both), and influence others emotionally or philosophically, ultimately for the public benefit.

     Our technology has gained the ability to access all the world's recorded knowledge of history and data and current facts and commentary on any subject. Just ask Siri or Alexa anything and you'll instantly get helpful info. They'll even play your favorite music for you. The tech is already ostensibly more intelligent than any human can hope to be in several ways. It is self-learning and gaining refinement rapidly. Exponentially. Some people are concerned it could become so intelligent it no longer needs fragile and fallible humans to feed it. That it might even develop what might be considered a level of consciousness.

     Editors and publishers are already warning writers they won't accept work generated or assisted by AI. You must swear you haven't employed it if you want to be published on Amazon, which is a bit ironic because Amazon has recently itself employed AI to narrate audio books. I've added their audio formats to seven of my novels, which were already available in print and Kindle. Amazon gives you a choice of narrative voice from a generous selection. A few clicks and a whole book is magically converted to audio format in minutes. You even have the option to then go in and insert or modify any dramatic pauses in the narration, which is already remarkably realistic, even seeming to charge passages with something like emotion.

     After nearly half a century writing articles and short stories for magazines, learning a lot along that fascinating path, I spent 18 months researching and writing a series debut novel, GUNS, set on North Carolina's Outer Banks and in the Great Smokies, locations I'd long been familiar with. I had a friend who'd served in naval intelligence and knew a lot about the world trade in black market weapons, so that became the story background. For many years I was a light plane pilot with my own Cessna Skyhawk I'd named Angel, so the story protagonist, Sam Bass, was also a pilot. I created an elderly couple, Hank and Hattie, modeled after my maternal grandparents. My companion, Naomi, is part Cherokee, so that ancient and noble mountain culture figured prominently throughout the plot.

     The point is, I was able to infuse the story with genuine authenticity and emotion because it was based largely on my personal life experiences backed up with thoughtful research. The novel drew an advance from a traditional publisher, nice reviews from Publishers Weekly and other respected sources, and an endorsement from top international bestselling author Lee Child, creator of the Jack Reacher series. GUNS sold out two printings and still earns modestly well on Amazon along with three other subsequent novels in the series.

     Could AI have done a better job? I don't think so. AI could not have described to readers what it's like to contend with the challenges of piloting, or what it feels like to crank up a Skyhawk's engine, taxi across a rural airport, aim her down a runway, firewall the throttle, sense the yoke coming alive under your hands, and experience the shot of euphoria as the wheels leave the pavement and you cease to be a land dweller and become a creature of the vast ephemeral sky.

     AI will certainly impress us with its increasing apparent cleverness and unlimited wealth of helpful knowledge.

     But it will never have a human soul.

Phil

website: www.philbowie.com 

   

What's left to do?

     What do you do when your candidate for president Donald Trump runs low on fear-and hate-mongering rhetoric and lies you can parrot but you still want to show some good ol' in-your-face opposition to the Democrats you've been led to believe are monstrously evil?

     Well, for instance, you could take a cue from Mr. T's trashing of our military, our judicial system, our Constitution, all the news media who do not display their admiration for him like Fox does, our honorable traditions like the peaceful transfer of power after lawful elections, and our government agencies like FEMA, the FBI, the Capitol Police, and the Border Patrol.    

     And you could do a little fun trashing yourself. Like driving your pickup over Harris/Walz roadside signs here and there around the county you live in.

Donald will be proud of you.

A Final Comparison

 

Haven't yet voted?  Please take just a few minutes to consider the choice between the candidates based on verifiable hard facts:

Before entering politics, Donald Trump had no government experience, his only claim to fame being the star of a reality TV show. This was evident in his chaotic reign, during which his approval rating was one of the all-time lowest (a final 29% according to the Pew Research Center). Nobody from his former inner circle, including his own former vice president, supports him now.

Kamala Harris, on the other hand, was elected a U.S. senator in 2017. She served as vice president to Biden, gaining valuable experience and helping push trough major achievements (check her record online ). She has respectful support and votes from both parties (see the last post for a partial list).

               ***

Donald Trump owes half a billion dollars in penalties and interest to New York State for business tax fraud. He owes 90 million dollars to journalist E. Jean Carroll, with juries having found him guilty of defaming her after sexually molesting her. Carroll is one of two dozen women who've alleged sexual assault by Trump. He's admitted to a long-time friendship with convicted child rapist and sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, and former Sports Illustrated model Stacey Williams has alleged she was once the subject of a humiliating sex game between the two men. Trump's also been convicted of 34 felony charges involving hush-money payoffs to porn star Stormy Daniels.  

He's also under federal indictment by Special Prosecutor Jack Smith for stealing hundreds of secret and top-secret documents from the White House--which belong in the secure National Archives--storing them unsecured in Mar-a-Lago. The FBI finally had to confiscate them. The Biden administration has no say in these independent judicial matters, as our Founding Fathers intended.  

Kamala Harris, on the other hand, has never been indicted, much less convicted, of any crime whatever. On the contrary, she has an admirable record as a prosecutor of criminals, having served as San Francisco District Attorney and then as California Attorney General, directing that largest AG department in America, racking up a list of prosecution successes (again, documented online).

               ***

Donald Trump is constantly grifting his supporters, trying to sell them everything from digital trading cards showing him in heroic poses to Trump Bibles to golden sneakers to Trump steaks to high-dollar watches. 

On the other hand, can you imagine Kamala Harris ever trying to con us with a trading card showing her as, say, Wonder Woman? No. And you never will.

               ***

Donald Trump has repeatedly lied about the 2020 election results and a host of other made-up issues such as his recent claim of the faceless "enemy within." He has sown distrust, fear, and hatred among followers, trashing our nation, which he recently called "a garbage can," our citizens, our Constitution, our military, our justice system, and anybody who dares disagree with him. His former White House Chief of Staff John Kelly (formerly a four-star general) has revealed Trump's admiration for Hitler's generals and has called him a fascist. Trump has openly praised brutal dictators including Russia's Putin and North Korea's Kim Jong Un. His rallies don't include any specific realistic concrete policies, just more lies and rants.  

A favorite target is "millions and millions" of demonic immigrants flooding across our borders with knives and pistols in their pants and puppy and kitten recipes in their backpacks. Ironically, Trump is descended from German immigrants, and both Trump's and Vance's wives are from recent immigrant families. As I've said, every person in the whole Western Hemisphere, with the exception of native tribes, is either an immigrant or a descendant of immigrants. America is the greatest immigrant nation on the planet. 

Let's remember that the Biden Administration came up with a bipartisan bill to address the admitted border issues but Trump shot it down because he wanted the grossly exaggerated issue for his major campaign weapon.

Kamala Harris, on the other hand, offers hope of compromise and cooperation between the parties, a list of concrete policies to fix what ails us (again, check the Net), and an administration free of old fears, divisions, prejudices, and hatreds, with a happier future for our nation. She offers loyalty to our Constitution, to our established rule of law, and to all our people.

To me, the choice could not be clearer. If you agree, get out and vote for Harris, and persuade a family member, friend, or neighbor to do the same. Every vote is critical.

Phil

Please pass this message on.

A Bipartisan Movement Across America

Here, in no particular order, are just some of the people of both parties who are standing up for actual fact-based truth and supporting Kamala Harris and Tim Walz:

Cassidy Hutchinson, Republican former White House special assistant to Trump and star witness before the January 6 Select Committee that investigated the attack on the Capitol.

Sara Matthews, Republican former Trump WH deputy press secretary.

Alyssa Farah Griffin, Republican former personal assistant to the president in the Trump WH, now co-host of The View TV Show and a vocal Trump critic.

Adam Kinzinger, Republican former U.S. representative, veteran Air Force pilot with service in Iraq and Afghanistan, and member of the January 6 Select Committee, also a vocal Trump critic.

Dick Cheney, staunch Republican and former vice president.

Liz Cheney, attorney, Republican former U.S. representative, former chair of the House Republican Conference, and vice chair of the January 6 Select Committee, currently a professor at the University of Virginia.

Michael Cohen, Republican former personal attorney for Trump and heavily involved in that administration, convicted of fraud in violation of campaign finance laws and other crimes at Trump's direction, served time, now a vocal Trump critic.

Charlie Sykes, for 23 years a dedicated Republican radio talk show host, now a Never-Trumper supporting Harris/Walz.

Mary Trump, Donald's niece, clinical psychologist and best-selling author, with her own YouTube show dedicated to exposing her uncle and critiquing the MAGA movement.

Fox host Geraldo Rivera breaking rank to denounce Trump and support Harris/Walz.

General Mark Milley, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under Trump.

Two-term Democrat President Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle.

Democrat President Bill Clinton.

Democrat President Jimmy Carter.

Democrat President Joe Biden and his wife, Jill.

Taylor Swift, billionaire entertainer with a vast following.

Bruce Springsteen, also with a vast following.

Willie Nelson, ditto.

Mick Jagger, ditto.

Oprah Winfrey, ditto.

Best-selling Author Stephen King, ditto. 

Whoopi Goldberg, ditto.

Robert De Nero, prolific actor.

Julia Roberts, prolific actress.

Mark Cuban, wealthy businessman and a star of the TV show Shark Tank.

TV personalities Jimmy Kimmel, Stephen Colbert, George Conway, Seth Myers, Nicolle Wallace, Ari Melber, Adam Mockler, Jesse Dollamore, Chris Hayes, Bill Maher, Rachael Maddow, Jen Psaki, David Pakman, Keith Edwards, Robert Reich, Lawrence O'Donnell, Tennessee Brando, Ben Meiselas with Attorney Michael Popock and the other Meidas Touch hosts, Joe Scarborough and crew of Morning Joe, Jim Miller and crew at The Bulwark. (I'm sure I left some out.)

Some 40 unions with their many combined millions of members, including: United Auto Workers, AFL-CIO, United Steel Workers, American Postal Workers, Amalgamated Transit Union, International Longshore and Warehouse Union, American Federation of Teachers, National Education Association, Actors' Equity Association, American Federation of Government Employees, and the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees.

If you care about truth backed up by actual verifiable facts, about integrity and basic morality and honor in our leadership, about traditional American values, about the future of our democracy, about our constitution, you're welcome to join all of us and vote for Harris and Walz.

Phil

Please pass this message on. 

 

WHY did he do it?

    Bob Woodward, legendary investigative journalist who helped expose the Nixon Watergate scandal, recently revealed that during the raging Covid pandemic, while thousands of Americans were dying every day, then-President Trump secretly sent Covid test kits to Vladimir Putin before they were readily available to our own people. Woodward also documented several discreet personal phone conversations over time between the two men.Trump himself has bragged about his friendly contacts with Putin. 

    Hold that thought for a minute.

    Anybody who's been paying attention to verifiable facts knows of Trump's extensive efforts to overturn the 2020 election results: His refusal of a peaceful transfer of power--the first in our history--and his persistent claim that he actually won. His calls to Republican state officials to "find" him votes or to just declare their state's results invalid. The failed fake electors scheme. The 60 Republican lawsuits alleging election fraud committed by Democrats, all thrown out of courts across the country for lack of evidence. (See at least the last Jan 6 Select Committee Report on YouTube including sworn testimony from numerous Republican witnesses.) His dictate to Pence to derail the ceremonial process of counting the electoral votes in congress, which Pence rightly refused to do. As a last resort, him whipping up a mob of his supporters to assault the Capitol and ". . . fight like hell." (While watching the riot unfold for three hours on TV, refusing to call off the violence that severely injured 140 Capitol Police and ransacked the seat of our democracy, he was told that his rampaging Minions were shouting "HANG MIKE PENCE." His response was, "So what?") So we know beyond any doubt just how far Trump will go to achieve or retain power. 

    But that's only one of Trump's criminal liabilities (for which he has been duly indicted by Special Council Jack Smith).

    Let's consider another of his legal liabilities. He took dozens of file boxes filled with hundreds of Secret and Top Secret documents from the White House, which legally belonged in the secure National Archives, to his Mar-a-Lago residence/members' resort and had them stored unsecured in a toilet and elsewhere. When the FBI demanded them back he refused, so they finally had to go in and seize them. When pressed by reporters, Trump claimed he could declassify documents " . . . just by thinking about it."

    My question is WHY did he take those secret documents? Merely as souvenirs? Or could he have wanted them as strong bargaining chips to curry personal power or favor? We know that at one point he did call Volodymyr Zelensky asking him to dig up any dirt he could on Biden, implying the withholding of aid otherwise. So we do know Trump is not above manipulative maneuvering to bolster his power.

    We now know Trump shared Covid test kits with Putin, even before his own citizens had them.

    What else might he have shared? Possibly a few documents? And if so, in return for what?

Phil

If you agree with these posts, please pass them on. There are fence-sitting people out there who are perhaps tiring of MAGA lies and can maybe be persuaded to stand up and vote for the truth.     

   

    

    

    

    

Violence in Our Politics

   In October, 2022, Naomi and I visited Charlottesville, Virginia, to tour Jefferson’s Monticello and see Madison’s estate. Local election campaigning was underway. There were political signs along the scenic rural hill roads. Many Democrat candidate signs had bullet holes. I was recently reminded of that because along a rural road near where we live in New Bern, North Carolina, pro-Democrat campaign signs have been stolen or run over or defaced.

   During a February, 2016, primary rally in Las Vegas, Trump pointed at a protester who was being escorted out of the area and said, “The guards are being very gentle with him. I’d like to punch him in the face. You know what they used to do to a guy like that in a place like this? They’d be carried out on a stretcher.” The crowd cheered.

   After Trump had verbally attacked and defamed Nancy Pelosi repeatedly, far-right conspiracy theorist David DePape broke into the Pelosi home and attacked Nancy’s husband, Paul, with a hammer, leaving him permanently impaired. During a September California rally this year, Trump said he would “stand up to crazy Nancy Pelosi” if reelected president, asking his supporters, “How’s her husband doing by the way?” Prompting laughter from the crowd.

   With the impending certification of the Biden victory, and after several attempts to reverse the results that included: 60-plus fraud right-wing lawsuits across the country (all dismissed for lack of proof), claims that Dominion voting machines had been tampered with to favor Biden, repeatedly backed up by Fox News (claims that were later debunked and resulted in a three-quarter-billion-dollar defamation judgement against Fox), a recorded phone plea by Trump to Georgia Attorney General Brad Raffensperger asking him to “find” enough votes to reverse the outcome in Trump’s favor, a similar failed call to Republican Arizona House Speaker Rusty Bowers, and a failed fake elector scheme, Trump still refused a peaceful transfer of power and insisted the election had been stolen. He summoned thousands of supporters to Washington, telling them, “Be there. It will be wild.” He harangued them at length, telling them they’d better “. . . fight like hell or you’re not gonna have a country left.” Knowing they were armed, he sent them against the Capitol under their Trump banners, and fight they did, beating and severely injuring Capitol Police, battering their way inside, and ransacking the seat of our nation’s democracy. For three hours Trump watched the riot unfold on TV in the White House, refusing even pleas from his own family to call it off until law enforcement was gaining control anyway. He called the rioters (hundreds of them since legally convicted and serving time) “patriots” and “hostages” and has vowed to pardon them if elected.

   The bipartisan January 6 Select Committee hearings exposed the sordid attack details, and almost all the many witnesses were Republicans. (If you doubt the findings, watch at least the last hearing.) People who stood up for the truth, like Republican committee vice-chair Liz Cheney, Republican committee member, congressman, and veteran Air Force pilot Adam Kinzinger, and volunteer election worker Ruby Freeman received death threats.

   Trump has said in recorded quotations, “If I don’t get elected it’s going to be a bloodbath for the country,” and that cracking down on immigrants “. . . will be a bloody story.”

   The recent Trump and Vance claims that Haitian immigrants (in this country legally under asylum law) in Springfield, Ohio, were eating their neighbors’ pets have been debunked. The Haitians have, in fact, been a welcome addition to that community, hard-working and respected. Yet anonymous bomb threats have besieged Springfield, disrupting lives, stressing law enforcement, and frightening children in school lock downs.

   Are you noticing a thread here? MAGA leaders and their Minions obviously inspire, embrace, and promote violence. And all too often carry it out. Parallels to the early rise of Nazi Germany, which was founded on lies and political violence, are hard to ignore.

   Is this the America you want?

Phil

If you agree with these posts, please pass them on.

Please consider donating to one of the agencies bringing relief to all the people who have lost everything to Helene—loved ones, homes, businesses, jobs, treasured possessions. In researching for my novels, set largely in the rugged and beautiful Great Smokies, I’ve come to know many of the fine souls who live and work there. Naomi and I grieve for them during this devastating crisis.