The News

"news" that we get, is the "tidings" they need you to see and to read, true independent journalism is difficult to find. My news diet stopped abruptly. 9/11. The day of 9/11 was tough, I worked for a bank in a call centre, on that same day one of Australia's national airlines went bust, and our bank had a partnership with them for rewards on a credit card. All day calls came flooding through, people worried they had missed their points. It was so I realized that people are basically insensitive, self seeking individuals, and it disquieted me. It was really much "me me me". Its not as if points are a right, they are a gift! You've used the credit, you pay the bills, the points are a bonus. People have died. The barren world, as we recognise it, has been turned upside down, and your mithering about some points for free flights. After 9/11 I stopped reading the document or watching the news. What upset me almost of all was the way in which Islam was being misrepresented, and so the US war-mongering started, it was all too much, so I opted out. I stopped the word entirely. I stopped buying papers, I stopped watching news programmes. Now I do have half an eye on the news. I will determine our evening news, and occasionally show the word on line. I no longer buy a paper, or watch current affairs programmes, unless there is an issue I am particularly following. The final thing I actively sought out on this subject was "The War You Don't See", by John Pilger, which reinforced my suspicion of the intelligence agencies and governments. Particularly abhorent is the use of "embedding" journalists with the military. How can you possibly retain your independence and perspective is fastened up with those who are protecting you? How can you be truly critical? How can you, Mr/Ms Journalist, tell me what's really going on if you are embedded? You can't. Like him or loathe him, Julian Assange, who was interviewed for this programme, is turning modern journalism on its head. By giving a part and an issue to "leakers" to people who attempt to assure us what is actually going on, he is turn the world, governments and journalistic integrity on its head. I'm not certain that I set out to save a blog in defense of Wikileaks, and to be honest, I simply make a very extensive overview of it and how it all works, but I do know, that now more than ever, with the amount of sources we take of intelligence and information, truth and unity and more significant than ever.