This morning this writer got a real eye opener, as if I
needed one, in regard to the bias of the news media and how they use the ‘freedom
of the press’ to drive certain ideas or limit others from surfacing. I was watching, well mostly listening to, a
local newscast this morning as I do every morning while putting on my make-up
to ready myself for work. This morning
one of our local news stations, the one we watch every morning, had a segment
about the Yellow Ribbon Project which is a grassroots movement by dog owners to
create a way by which other people can understand that their dog should be
approached with care or caution when in public.
If the reader hasn’t heard of this Yellow Ribbon Project the premise is
that if ‘everyone’, and it would take EVERYONE knowing about this to work, knew
that when they come across a dog sporting a yellow ribbon, a yellow collar, a
yellow vest or anything yellow and conspicuous that the dog wasn’t one that was
comfortable with being approached and one should ask the owner first and/or
approach calmly. I won’t speak to what
this writer thinks of this method of helping one’s dogs feel less threatened by
strangers or other dogs in this blog but at a later time I will give my opinion
on the program. Today I want to speak to
what one of the news anchors commented during this segment, what the segment
guest (who was a veterinarian) said and the stations reaction to the public’s
comments on the post on their Facebook page that ensued.
At any rate I was listening to/watching this segment of the
newscast and thought I heard the anchor man say something that didn’t sound
quite kosher. I asked my husband to
rewind it so I could hear it again to be sure that what I thought he said was
actually what he said. Well yes he did
say what I thought he said and that was, “So this yellow ribbon isn’t
necessarily just for aggressive breeds like pit bulls right?” To which the veterinarian replied, “Yes that’s
right.” I don’t know which person this
writer was most angry with; the news anchor who suggested that there are
aggressive breeds and pit bulls are one or the veterinarian who should know
better missing the opportunity to correct the news anchor about his assumption
that first of all there are aggressive breeds and secondly pit bulls are one of
them. Either way I wasn’t about to just
sit there and listen to it and felt that as a pit bull owner and advocate that
I had to do something to let the news station know that ignorance of that
magnitude needed to be addressed and corrected.
So when I got to work I immediately penned a message to the
news station that I posted on their Facebook page as a comment on the thread
that was started by their posting of the information about the segment about
the Yellow Ribbon Project. It was
calm. It was rational. It was pretty much a request for their anchor
reporter to educate himself about aggressive breeds, in that there aren’t any
inherently aggressive breeds, and about pit bulls in general. I also invited the news anchor and any of
their news reporters to meet with my advocacy so we can share some valid
information with them as well as stating that there was a standing invitation
to their news staff to join us on one of our monthly bully walks so they would
be able to see that responsible dog owners have safe dogs no matter what kind
of dog. I hoped that through commenting
in a rational, calm, non-judgmental manner and inviting them to come and learn
from personal experience about pit bulls and what determines that a dog becomes
aggressive that they might actually take us up on it. I invited them to come meet with us or walk
with us with or without their cameras in the hope that they might be interested
in finding out some information that would actually be a benefit to the public
to hear as opposed to misinformation and conjecture based on a news anchors
personal opinion or maybe just a lack of knowledge on his part.
We all know the way the news media handles pit bulls when
there’s an incident where an alleged pit bull has harmed someone and I suppose
we’ve learned that there’s nothing to be done to change this approach by the
news media, however suggesting in passing when discussing a totally unrelated
issue that pit bulls are one of the ‘aggressive breeds’ is something that we
can address and should not allow to stand without public comment. So in addition to commenting on their
Facebook page myself I called out the troops and asked all of our Bully Walks
to please comment on the news stations Facebook page as well; on the thread
about the Yellow Ribbon Project. People
started posting their comments and as requested by me when I called them to
speak out they posted calm, rational and informational comments asking the
station to please become more educated about what determines that a dog is
aggressive, not the breed, and about pit bulls.
Some people posted photos of their dogs along with their comments. I was so proud of the pit bull owning
community because EVERYONE without exception posted mature, calm, rational and
non-judgmental comments on that thread.
In fact so many people were posting that the thread kind of turned into
commentary on how the news media presents information about pit bulls in
general. I guess you could say that we
took the thread over but in a good way without a single negative comment.
Well I guess the news people decided that they would refuse
to hear it so they took the thread off the page. It started around 8:00 AM and by around noon
the whole thread was gone…the original post and all. People still posted their comments however
without the thread being there which was good.
So there you have it.
The news media selects what stories to report and also what details they
share when reporting a story. I guess
you might say that they own the information so they can twist it all they want
(thanks John Mayer for the words) but if anyone stands up and points out that
their information is twisted, inaccurate or incomplete they won’t have it. Wow.
They have ‘freedom of the press’ and we are all expected to support
their right as given by our forefathers so long ago by not trying to censor the
press. But on the other hand when they
use their right to report what they want when they want and we stand up and ask
them to correct it or withdraw it because it’s simply not true on any level
then they feel they can censor us. I’m
not too sure exactly how that works really.
This writer is extremely confused as to why they can say whatever they
want, true or not-based on actuality or not, and then when we say we won’t
accept that information because we know it’s misinformation they can silence
us; well at least when we are posting on social media on their account. Freedom of speech is supposed to apply to
everyone but I guess it doesn’t, not anymore, not in our country.
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