Lloyd Lofthouse

The Costco Connection ran an interesting piece titled Won’t Get Fooled Again.  It does not take sides in the presidential election, but it does go into detail offering advice on how to sift through all the claims to discover what is real and what is bogus and provides links to sites that help find the truth based on reputable facts.

Sources mentioned are: Fact Check.org, Politi Fact.com, Washington Post Fact Checker, Urban Legends.com, Snopes.com, and Vote Smart.org

It is worth reading this Costco Connection piece and sharing with anyone that doesn’t want to be fooled by either side.

However, it is tragic to report that the GOP has spent decades, ever since President Reagan vetoed the Fairness Doctrine in 1987, a policy designed to insure balance and honesty in the media, contributing to an environment of distrust in the US.

Since then, special interests with personal and political agendas have planted seeds of doubt in a large portion of the population to distrust the sources mentioned in this article that will help people discover the facts that reveal the truth of an issue.

When Reagan vetoed the Fairness Doctrine, he opened the door to a one-sided media environment based on lies and deceit, because it was about the same time that conservative talk radio exploded and Rupert Murdock, a known neoconservative, laid the foundations of his Fox Network in 1985 and launched Fox in 1986 right on time to take advantage of President Reagan’s veto.

Then there is this: “In 1987, the FCC abolished the Fairness Doctrine, and AM radio began to make changes. The changes paved the way for syndicated personality Rush Limbaugh and others like him to rise to prominence by “offering a voice for the ‘silent majority’” that he believed had gone unheard by the mainstream media (Which he nicknamed the ‘Drive Bys’). Helped by a syndication arrangement that was financially appealing to local stations, conservatives like Limbaugh began to take over the airwaves.”

In fact, the same TV and radio programs that benefit from the vetoed Fairness Doctrine use fear tactics to keep it from coming back.  They claim it will create censorship.

However, all the Fairness Doctrine did was ensure a reasonable opportunity for the airing of opposing viewpoints on controversial issues so Americans could hear both sides of an issue from the same radio or TV program.

What is wrong with being informed? Why does the Republican Party and conservative talk radio and TV want to censure the other side of an issue that someone such as Rush Limbaugh or Glenn Beck promote in a one-sided way?

Maybe that is why America now has sites such as Vote Smart.org and the others that The Costco Connection recommends that I listed above with links.

Discover The going, going, gone American Dream

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Lloyd Lofthouse, a former U.S. Marine and Vietnam Veteran, is the award winning author of The Concubine Saga.

His latest novel is Running with the Enemy. Blamed for a crime he did not commit while serving in Vietnam, his country considers him a traitor. Ethan Card is a loyal U.S. Marine desperate to prove his innocence or he will never go home again.

And the woman he loves and wants to save was trained to hate and kill Americans.

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