MAKING NOTHING OUT OF SOMETHING

MAKING NOTHING OUT OF SOMETHIING

By Domenick J. Maglio PhD Traditional Realist

Our media often makes something out of nothing. Making something out of nothing only requires an emotional hook to connect with the audience. This is often a big part of entertainment and news.  A middle aged Hollywood star dies of a heart attack and it becomes a weeklong saga. A well-known entertainment personality had spoken with this deceased star for a few hours a month before he died. This personality is treated as if he knew him intimately. A murderer, a potential cancer cure and epidemics that never come, an airplane that narrowly misses another, a forecast that fizzles after days of constant dire predictions are a small sample of what is a daily dose of making something out of nothing.

The reverse of making nothing out of something is becoming much more prevalent and frightening. In the past people have referred to this phenomena as censorship. Today the mainstream progressive media's agenda has taken priority over searching for the truth. Anything that may contradict liberal sacred cows is ignored as not newsworthy. 

Making nothing out of something without straightforward censorship takes a much more creative thought process than telling the truth. Distortion, overt falsifying of statistics and poll results and outright lying as often and loudly as possible is used to sell the disasters as a non-issue to the public. Additionally it requires obfuscation by a large section of the media who become expert accomplices.  The winning of favors by the supposedly objective reporters requires them selling out their professional integrity to become official members of the state run media.

There is a concerted and pervasive effort by the ruling class to avoid acknowledging any information that conflict with the progressive agenda. This is currently happening with the spreading of misinformation about Obamacare, Continuing Resolution, CR, and raising the debt ceiling. Picking winners and losers on who can use the Washington Mall or will be exempt from healthcare regulations is unconstitutional on its face. The media’s non-handling of these events has magically made them non-events.

 Accomplishing the task of making nothing out of something is often an exercise in deviousness and diversion. When these tactics fail, the ace in the hole is to target and attack the messenger, a lesson stressed by Saul Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals.

The Bengazi debacle in Libya has been covered in the mainstream media almost from the beginning as an old story that is irrelevant. They have refused to demand answers to obvious voids and inconsistencies in the lead up, the seven-hour siege and its aftermath. It is being called a “phony scandal” to bury its significance. The IRS denial of profit status based on political bias the Department of Justice’s unwillingness to release vital information pertaining to border agent’s, Brian Terry’s, death in a secret federal gun running operation and the NSA recording of citizen’s phone and computer transactions have not been investigated by the media. They have also been referred to as “phony scandals.” These are disgraceful attempts at censoring very important events.

In many controversial issues we hear only one viewpoint on multi faceted situation. The increasing of sexual abuse allegations in the military is featured as only a male sexual domination of female soldiers. There is no mention of male on male sexual assaults. Most shockingly there are no accounts of the past predictions of high-ranking military experts that the rapid expansion of female soldiers in close proximity with male soldiers would naturally result in higher claims of sexual abuse.

In discussing education the decline of our public schools as compared to other nations has been mostly overlooked. The public is constantly informed about the great innovative education programs that have great promise for the future of education. Hardly anything is discussed concerning the cause of this decline even after spending trillions of dollars on education over the past 40 years.

Cultural issues like the negative psychological, physical impact of abortion on the woman and on the soul of the nation have not been topics open for discussion. The epidemic of children born outside of wedlock and the ever-increasing fatherless families where there were once two parent homes are ignored. The statistical negative effect on children, particularly Black children, and its horrific impact on society are being dismissed as inconsequential.

The negative aftermath of the 1960s counter culture revolution/sexual revolution is treated as a taboo subject by the mainstream media. It would be considered blasphemous by the progressive elites presently on both sides of the political aisle and the media to question past counter cultural predictions of improvement. The hope of equality, fairness, peace and racial harmony in our society has not approached their great expectations. They have been broken promises. The elites want the people to focus on the utopian ideals not on the actual results.

Our constitutional republic cannot function with government-controlled public relations professionals disguised as bonified reporters. Legitimate reporters should find the truth to keep the government honest and in check. By the press informing citizens of important issues that need their scrutiny citizens can make educated decisions. Americans without facts can be easily manipulated by government propaganda, which will result in the relinquishing of their power and freedom.

A free press does not make nothing out of something. It uncovers the facts reporting them to the public. Ethical representatives of the media write and say the truth, which is essential in retaining our constitutional republic.

Dr. Maglio is a columnist carried by various newspapers, an author of several books and owner/director of Wider Horizons School, a college prep program. You can visit Dr. Maglio at www.drmaglio.blogspot.com.