Blog #34 – Examination of the sage-like words of Edward R. Murrow
Choose three statements – one from each speech – and discuss how each statement can be applied to our world and political or social situations today.
” No one familiar with the history of this country can deny that congressional committees are useful. It is necessary to investigate before legislating, but the line between investigating and persecuting is a very fine one and the junior Senator from Wisconsin has stepped over it repeatedly. His primary achievement has been in confusing the public mind, as between the internal and the external threats of Communism. We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty. We must remember always that accusation is not proof and that conviction depends upon evidence and due process of law. We will not walk in fear, one of another. We will not be driven by fear into an age of unreason, if we dig deep in our history and our doctrine; and remember that we are not descended from fearful men. Not from men who feared to write, to speak, to associate, and to defend causes that were for the moment unpopular. 
This is no time for men who oppose Senator McCarthy’s methods to keep silent, or for those who approve. We can deny our heritage and our history, but we cannot escape responsibility for the result. There is no way for a citizen of a republic to abdicate his responsibilities. As a nation we have come into our full inheritance at a tender age. We proclaim ourselves, as indeed we are, the defenders of freedom, wherever it continues to exist in the world, but we cannot defend freedom abroad by deserting it at home. The actions of the junior Senator from Wisconsin have caused alarm and dismay amongst our allies abroad, and given considerable comfort to our enemies. And whose fault is that? Not really his. He didn’t create this situation of fear; he merely exploited it — and rather successfully. Cassius was right. “The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves.” Good night, and good luck.”
– See it Now broadcast, March 9 1954
If we confuse dissent with disloyalty — if we deny the right of the individual to be wrong, unpopular, eccentric or unorthodox — if we deny the essence of racial equality then hundreds of millions in Asia and Africa who are shopping about for a new allegiance will conclude that we are concerned to defend a myth and our present privileged status. Every act that denies or limits the freedom of the individual in this country costs us the . . . confidence of men and women who aspire to that freedom and independence of which we speak and for which our ancestors fought.”
– Ford Fiftieth Anniversary Show, CBS and NBC, June 1953
The real Edward R. Murrow
“We are currently wealthy, fat, comfortable and complacent. We have currently a built-in allergy to unpleasant or disturbing information. Our mass media reflect this. But unless we get up off our fat surpluses and recognize that television in the main is being used to distract, delude, amuse and insulate us, then television and those who finance it, those who look at it and those who work at it, may see a totally different picture too late.
Our history will be what we make it. And if there are any historians about fifty or a hundred years from now, and there should be preserved the kinescopes for one week of all three networks, they will there find recorded in black and white, or color, evidence of decadence, escapism and insulation from the realities of the world in which we live. I invite your attention to the television schedules of all networks between the hours of 8 and 11 p.m., Eastern Time. Here you will find only fleeting and spasmodic reference to the fact that this nation is in mortal danger. There are, it is true, occasional informative programs presented in that intellectual ghetto on Sunday afternoons. But during the daily peak viewing periods, television in the main insulates us from the realities of the world in which we live. If this state of affairs continues, we may alter an advertising slogan to read: LOOK NOW, PAY LATER.
For surely we shall pay for using this most powerful instrument of communication to insulate the citizenry from the hard and demanding realities which must be faced if we are to survive. I mean the word survive literally. If there were to be a competition in indifference, or perhaps in insulation from reality, then Nero and his fiddle, Chamberlain and his umbrella, could not find a place on an early afternoon sustaining show. If Hollywood were to run out of Indians, the program schedules would be mangled beyond all recognition. Then some courageous soul with a small budget might be able to do a documentary telling what, in fact, we have done–and are still doing–to the Indians in this country. But that would be unpleasant. And we must at all costs shield the sensitive citizens from anything that is unpleasant.
I am entirely persuaded that the American public is more reasonable, restrained and more mature than most of our industry’s program planners believe. Their fear of controversy is not warranted by the evidence. I have reason to know, as do many of you, that when the evidence on a controversial subject is fairly and calmly presented, the public recognizes it for what it is–an effort to illuminate rather than to agitate.
I do not advocate that we turn television into a 27-inch wailing wall, where longhairs constantly moan about the state of our culture and our defense. But I would just like to see it reflect occasionally the hard, unyielding realities of the world in which we live. I would like to see it done inside the existing framework, and I would like to see the doing of it redound to the credit of those who finance and program it. Measure the results by Nielsen, Trendex or Silex-it doesn’t matter. The main thing is to try. The responsibility can be easily placed, in spite of all the mouthings about giving the public what it wants. It rests on big business, and on big television, and it rests at the top. Responsibility is not something that can be assigned or delegated. And it promises its own reward: good business and good television.
To those who say people wouldn’t look; they wouldn’t be interested; they’re too complacent, indifferent and insulated, I can only reply: There is, in one reporter’s opinion, considerable evidence against that contention. But even if they are right, what have they got to lose? Because if they are right, and this instrument is good for nothing but to entertain, amuse and insulate, then the tube is flickering now and we will soon see that the whole struggle is lost.
This instrument can teach, it can illuminate; yes, and it can even inspire. But it can do so only to the extent that humans are determined to use it to those ends. Otherwise it is merely wires and lights in a box. There is a great and perhaps decisive battle to be fought against ignorance, intolerance and indifference. This weapon of television could be useful.
Speech at Radio-Television News Directors Association, Chicago, October 15, 1958.
Minimum word count after picking a quote from all three speeches and then analyzing them is at least 300 words. There should be plenty to talk about b/c even though Murrow said these words over 50 years ago, they still ring true.
Due Wednesday, May 2 by the beginning of class. That means YOU!
Movie review from the NYT – http://movies.nytimes.com/2005/09/23/movies/23luck.html
“We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty.”A parallel can be drawn between this statement depicted from the See It Now Broadcast by examining the arguments for and against continued military spending. On the one hand, there is a camp of legislatures who believe that no expense should be spared or no exotic weapon should be eliminated in the name of defending our country and providing our military personal with the latest and greatest military gadgetry. By rejecting excessive spending which seems wasteful, others feel that our monies can be spent more wisely on alternative programs. This does not necessarily make the argument of prudence against excessive military spending “unpatriotic”. In such instances, it is easy to draw comparison that parallels criticism of anyone not towing the party line as “unpatriotic”.“
if we deny the essence of racial equality…”The Ford Fiftieth Anniversary Show speech can be compared to the Travon Martin case in Florida. On occasion an event captures our attention, as it should, and leads us to reexamine our values and perception of equality. There seems to be very little doubt that Travon Martin’s skin color lead to his death. When such a horrific event comes to light, it must lead us to redouble our efforts to stamp out prejudice and stereotyping. These situations are alike because in that time and at this time we still need reminders that an individual’s independence and freedom must be protected without bias.
“I do not advocate that we turn television into a 27-inch wailing wall, where longhairs constantly moan about the state of our culture and our defense.”The TV program Barney is a great show for kids. Everyone is happy, playful, and care-free. But of course it is not reality. While it presents a point of view that serves a purpose namely entertaining toddlers it says nothing about the famine in Darfur, where tens of thousands of people including toddlers died because of lack of nutrition. Media in general, whether it be written or televised, should educate and inform the public not only about the good the fun in the world but also the less desirable but significant events that occur. Because only then will they be helping in trying to promote and create solutions. This speech connects to today’s life for that very reason. While we do not want to present a one sided dismal view of the world all the time, a more balanced approach would seem appropriate.
Quote: “We can deny our heritage and our history, but we cannot escape responsibility for the result.”
In my eyes, this statement talks about how change can be for the better and to be of best status, it doesn’t mean that one has to stick to one’s roots. It is not saying to be a nonconformist and change just to change; but it acknowledges that what may have worked so many years ago may not necessarily work now. George Washington had slaves, but that doesn’t mean that it should still be okay now–morals have changed and people have gotten smarter (to whatever extent that is of course). Things like the Civil Rights Movement happened for a reason–you can’t stop the beat. On the terms of not being able to escape responsibility for the result of denying our heritage and history, perhaps one day, citizens of the U.S. will want to establish a constitutional monarchy. If something goes wrong and it is being debated as unconstitutional or immoral for some reason, one can’t just say “whatever.” That is where we should keep grips on our roots of our rights. Let the wind sway the tree in whatever way it wishes, but if it ever falls down, it is our responsibility to clean up the clutter and plant a new tree.
Quote: “Every act that denies or limits the freedom of the individual in this country costs us the . . . confidence of men and women who aspire to that freedom and independence of which we speak and for which our ancestors fought.”
The Pilgrims came to America to set up a new life, one with new morals and freedoms–freedoms Americans have fought for with so many lives and legislations. Hearing about the jailings of people because of their views and ideas during (and even not during) wartime frightens me. This is seen with the McCarthy cases and the anti-red feelings that were stirred up and amuck after World War I. Growing up, I used to always think that America was the best country in the world–no flag could match our star-spangled banner. Now, history classes have really made me disillusioned. The anti-Communist feelings (though still around today), greatly reflect our ironic ‘War on Terror’ today. If I were to speak out about supposed feelings supporting the views of known-to-be-terrorist-groups, I wouldn’t doubt that I would get some looks and maybe some questioning or investigation. Things like the Espionage and Sedition Acts deprived citizens of their basic rights of freedom of speech and only brought us closer to the type of nation that the pilgrims first wished to leave.
Quote: “We have currently a built-in allergy to unpleasant or disturbing information”
In the 50’s, Americans dreamed of living the “American Dream”: a cozy house with a white picket fence in a ‘Pleasantville.’ In this movie, the citizens of the small and jolly town seemed to be perfectly satisfactory: no shot missed in a game of basketball and the mother of the family would always greet her husband smiling while wearing a proper kitchen smock and holding a batch of fresh muffins. All was well… well, until Reese Witherspoon and the guy from Spiderman show up. These two siblings opened up the eyes of the people of this secluded town; they showed them that Elm Street doesn’t just loop back into Elm Street, but there’s more to this world! The community was blind at first, and when new information and ideas found in things like books started splashing colour into the town, the ‘big guys’ of the town got pretty worked up. This reminds me of America and its government. Even with amendments and cases like New York Times vs. United States, censorship could still be a problem in our nation. The government can censor if information endangers the safety of the nation–the measure of the threat is up to them. The media truly does cover up, or just not cover as much as they should, a lot of information. When I thought of FDR, I always thought of the New Deal, and the heroic man leading us to victory in World War II. I never thought about the deportations of the Japanese in the USA at that time–that happened?? Not until this year, too, did I realize the magnitude of the terrors in the Pacific of that war. Apparently my great grandfather in Indonesia had to flee into the jungle for months with his family because of the Japanese invasion! Why is it when I used to think about WWII, it was really this: “D-Day, Pearl Harbor, Holocaust, Hitler, and darn Commy’s?” This quote also sums up my defensiveness of my views and ideas. Honestly, if I see an article that reads “Why Obama is doing a bad job,” I most likely won’t read it, but if I see an article that reads “Santorum gets boo’d again,” I’d probably bookmark it. I become scared of being wrong and feeling disillusioned or stupid; things like this happen with racism, historical events we’re not proud of, etc… People were terrified of communism in the 50s, and we see practically the same thing today with the Middle East. Watching Disney Channel, there were always whites, African Americans, Latin Americans, Asians, etc… There were also movies like Full-Court Miracle, a Disney Channel Original Movie about Jewish high school kids who want to play basketball, but I don’t know if it’s just me, but I don’t think I’ve seen many Middle-Eastern characters in any shows or movies. Is there some fear of offending or aggravating some (racist) families in the nation or is it just a coincidence? I don’t know–don’t take my word on it.
In the broadcast on March 9, 1954 it was said that; “We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty. We must remember always that accusation is not proof and that conviction depends upon evidence and due process of law. We will not walk in fear, one of another. We will not be driven by fear into an age of unreason, if we dig deep in our history and our doctrine; and remember that we are not descended from fearful men.” This statement is very similar to the terrorist problems we have in America because we are so afraid of terrorist attacks. Since our fear makes us do crazy things, many Muslims are looked down upon, accused, or shunned. It is only a specific group of people that are actual terrorists, and to accuse all of them is terrible. No Muslim or other race should be ostracized because of their religion and because they are accused for terrorism. We must keep open-minds so that everyone has a fair chance to prove themselves.
In the broadcast in June 1953, he said “Every act that denies or limits the freedom of the individual in this country costs us the . . . confidence of men and women who aspire to that freedom and independence of which we speak and for which our ancestors fought.” This sentence is a great comparison to all of the poor individuals that grow up without the best supplies to living out their dreams. Some people will discourage them because of their ethnicity, wealth, and appearance. This deters the individual from growing up and becoming who they want to be. By doing this, we (Americans) do what our people have been fighting for all along; equal pay, equal chances, and equal freedom.
In the broadcast on October 15, 1958, it was said that; “We have currently a built-in allergy to unpleasant or disturbing information. Our mass media reflect this. But unless we get up off our fat surpluses and recognize that television in the main is being used to distract, delude, amuse and insulate us, then television and those who finance it, those who look at it and those who work at it, may see a totally different picture too late.” Many Americans watch the news, but do they really understand what happens in our world. When one hears about a murder or a terrorist attack, they understand the danger but they still go on with their lives because TV informs on the basics but not the details. Television blocks us from knowing the truth about everything because if every detail were told to America, our reactions may hurt our country. People will never know the truth about America and how our government handles it unless we are there when it happens. Still we go on with our lives even though we know a little girl is missing, somewhere out there cold and scared because we shut out the bad and don’t want to think about it. This also compares to children who grow up watching cartoons and TV shows that block them from the world outside. Not until they are old enough to understand, do they learn more about society.
My first quote is “we must always remember that accusations is not proof and that conviction depends upon evidence and due process if law.” This is very important because someone can start a rumor with no factual evidence than it gets talk about enough to the point that people think it is true. This is like what is happening with the New Orleans Saints GM and the wire taping scandal. The scandal is that in between the years 2002 and 2004 the Saints GM had the ability to listen to visiting teams headsets. Even though this hasn’t been proven true people are acting like the Saints GM is already convicted for it and this will forever affect the Saints image even if they are proven non guilt because all the rumor spreading makes you think it is real. My Second quote is “Ever act that denies or limits the freedom of the individual in this country cost us the . . . confidence of men and women who aspire to that freedom and independence of which we speak and for which our ancestors fought.” His is very true today with what the republicans are trying to do with limiting women’s rights. If we take away the right of women to choose what they want to do with their lives we are going asking the very principles on which we built this country. My last quote is “There is a great and perhaps decisive battle to be fought against ignorance, intolerance and indifference. This weapon of television could be useful.” Television is used as a weapon against intolerance today. For example, when Bryan Ward for the Washington Capitals scored the game winner in overtime in game seven against the Boston Bruins some Boston fans took to tweeter and sent out racist tweets against the fact that Ward is African American. Sports Center took time out of their show to show people just how wrong what the b/ruin fans were doing was.
Quote 1: “The line between investigating and persecuting is a very fine one and the junior Senator from Wisconsin has stepped over it repeatedly.” This quote is referring to McCarthy, and how he unfairly persecuted many Americans and exploited Communism. It would have been one thing if McCarthy suspected Communists in America, but he accused people of being Communists without any substantial evidence. It would have been okay in my opinion for McCarthy to want to investigate Communism and try to find more evidence against people, but that is not what he did. McCarthy threw people straight into jail. By so greatly exploiting Communism, he was able to get the majority of the nation and government on his side, and that made it easy to put people into jail without evidence. This quote means investigation of Communism would have been justified, but persecution without evidence was unfair and very wrong. Today this would be parallel to putting people you thought were terrorists into jail without having any evidence. It would not be the right thing to do.
Quote 2: “if we deny the essence of racial equality then hundreds of millions in Asia and Africa who are shopping about for a new allegiance will conclude that we are concerned to defend a myth and our present privileged status” This quote is saying that if we don’t treat people in the U.S. equally and fairly, than the idea of freedom in the U.S. is only a myth. We would not be the land of the free. McCarthy did the same thing by not giving people a fair trial, and not providing those rights. He didn’t investigate the situation and find proof. He just accused people and had them sent to jail or blacklisted. Although he is put mostly at blame, the American people had a large part in it, following McCarthy, and agreeing with his doings. This quote is an example that would be a similar situation to McCarthyism.
Quote 3: “television in the main is being used to distract, delude, amuse and insulate us” This quote is saying that the television is shielding the American people from the real world problems. Television blinds the American people from the real world, and gives them a false sense of what the world is like. It makes people believe everything they see. This is exactly how Hollywood played a huge part in the spread of McCarthyism. Communists in America were portrayed in movies and on T.V. so everybody believed it. Americans have become gullible because of television, and also ignorant.
Quote: “We can deny our heritage and our history, but we cannot escape responsibility for the result”
I think the best way to apply this to today’s social or political situations is just how people can try to let go of that they came from or who they are or even what they have done, but they won’t be able to change the results of what they did. For example, it’s been one full year since we killed Osama bin Laden, and that is something we will never be able to change. We like to try to forgot about the war and that we killed him because of how horrible it was, but we can’t let the result of killing him go at all. It will be with us forever.
Quote: “…If we deny the essence of radical equality…”
The first thing that came to mind when reading that passage, was the Trayvon Martin Shooting down in Florida. The 17 year old boy was shot and killed because of the color of his skin. Zimmerman took things into his own hands just because Trayvon looked at a sketchy kind of guy walking into a gated sub. If the racial problem wasn’t so huge, this death wouldn’t of happened because maybe Zimmerman would have been more rational and wouldn’t of shot the kid at all.
Quote: “Television in the main is being used to distract, delude, amuse and insulate us…”
On T.V., the kid shows are always showing their watchers how unrealistic life is with constant happiness and no problems around the world, when that isn’t how life is. There are majorly problems all the time, and when those kids grow up they are going to be more and more shocked on how cruel and horrible the events that happen are. Although shows like NCIS, and Criminal Minds happen to make these things seem a little over the top, they show the horrors of this world, and I know those shows are for older audiences, but shouldn’t shows be more informational then what they have right now?
“We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty”
In our society today, there are many differing viewpoints. For example, there is the issue of gay marriage and adoption. Many people would say that those who are gay or support gays are “unholy”, and the opposite side would call them-to put it delicately- jerks. In fact, there are some who would say that anyone who doesn’t wholeheartedly support gay marriage to the point that they want to be gay themselves is automatically a homophobe- a term used to describe someone who hates gays. The reality is that not everyone has to agree completely with everything everyone says. Disagreeing with someone does not make a person inherently bad or good. Another example of a controversial subject would be the war on terror. While there are some who advocate this as good self defense, many would say that we’re just being paranoid. Those who disagree with the extra security could be labeled as “unpatriotic” “anti-American”, or even terrorists themselves. The reality could be that they are just annoyed that they have to go through all this crazy security every time they just want to go on vacation!
“Every act that denies or limits the freedom of the individual in this country costs us the . . . confidence of men and women who aspire to that freedom and independence of which we speak and for which our ancestors fought.”
Speaking of the war on terror, it seems to me that the fear of terrorists and their attacks on our country greatly replicate the fear of communists felt by so many back in the ‘50s. Just like people were labeled as communists, people today could be seen as terrorists for all the wrong reasons. Muslims, for example, seem to be a relatively easy target for discrimination, since most of the terrorists who attacked us in the past were in fact Muslims. If we let this fear get the better of us, it could result in the limitations of the freedoms of these people. People would justify this using the threat of terrorism.
“There is a great and perhaps decisive battle to be fought against ignorance, intolerance and indifference.”
As I said before, there are many reasons people come up with to discriminate against a certain race of people. To use the example of terrorism, the 9-11 attack left a bitter taste in the mouths of many Americans, which, for some, led to the belief that Muslims posed a threat to this country. Because of this, many Muslim-Americans are suffering from the prejudice and hatred of others, a fate they don’t deserve. To refer back to the example of gay marriage, many of those who support it tend to use Christians as a scapegoat for its opposition, holding protests against religion itself and all who support it. While there are some religious groups who openly oppose gay marriage, some Christians don’t oppose it, and are even for it. I agree with this quote that there is an ongoing problem of intolerance that must be solved one day.
“We must not confuse dissent and disloyalty.” This can be related to the war in Afghanistan and the Middle East right now. Some people are disloyal, where they are not faithful and have given up hope. Now this by itself is confused. Some people think other people thinking we should bring home the troops is disloyal but thats just silly. It’s more wanting peace. Where dissent is to disagree with something someone says. This goes back even to the the Atomic Bomb when people didn’t want to fund it and stopped paying taxes. This is an example of disloyalty. While some people decided it may not have been a good idea to do, but still contributed. This is dissent. Now, this may have been before this quote was said, but it still applies today. The same kind of people exist today with making weapons and using them for the war.
“Every act that denies or limits the freedom of the individual in this country costs us the . . . confidence of men and women who aspire to that freedom and independence of which we speak and for which our ancestors fought.” The founding fathers found this land we call home on the various rights we have today. This statement is so true because if we get told we can’t do something, we won’t want to try anything like it! It is just like “yellow journalism” that occurred throughout our history. This also is present in Germany, where it is illegal to do something like say the holocaust never happened.
“We have currently a built-in allergy to unpleasant or disturbing information.” This occurs all over right now. Some examples are the stock market crashing after 9/11, which we resolved by just shutting it down completely. In the 1950s, Americans were living the life with the standard house in the newly developed suburbia and there family, thats all they need! When we got attacked at Pearl Harbor, we were not going to stand around and take it! It was unpleasant and disturbing (like said in the quote) so we had to go out there and kick some butt to make us feel better!
“We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty”-
This quote relates to our generation because most people tend to think that you are against them if you do not agree with something they are doing or say. It is like the world is black and white; but sometimes there is gray. In the social aspects of the world, opposing someone’s methods is like back-stabbing them. It should not be because dissent is clearly different from disloyalty. The definition of dissent is: to differ in sentiment or opinion, especially from the majority. While the definition of disloyalty is: the quality of being disloyal. An example of dissent vs. disloyalty today is if a soldier were to leak a video of something immoral that the U.S. Army did; he would be sent to jail for treason/ being disloyal. The soldier is not technically against the Army they just did not like what the Army did and wants the Army to change.
“..if we deny the right of the individual to be wrong, unpopular, eccentric or unorthodox if we deny the essence of racial equality then hundreds of millions in Asia and Africa who are shopping about for a new allegiance will conclude that we are concerned to defend a myth and our present privileged status.”
This quote deals with many social issues of today’s world. Being different is something that most people try not to do; while others are thriving on being eccentric. Denying the right of being unorthodox or eccentric is basically saying that people must be a certain way all the time and that will lead to chaos. Everyone is different and making people conform into the same person is not logical or ethical. An example would be, as mentioned in the quote, racial equality. For centuries, people with skin colors that do not match the majority, have been mistreated. So, in today’s world, we try to die down racism but it still has not.
“..that when the evidence on a controversial subject is fairly and calmly presented, the public recognizes it for what it is–an effort to illuminate rather than to agitate.”
This quote applies to today because we, the people, do not always tell the whole story. For Example, if a person gets an argument with another person and they are telling someone else about what happened; they tell his/her story so that the audience is on his/her “side”, with exaggerations, facial expressions and different tones of voice. If you tell the story calm and correctly not leaving anything out, the audience knows that you are just trying to explain something and that you don’t just want to persuade them to be on your “side”.
Quote “We proclaim ourselves, as indeed we are, the defenders of freedom, wherever it continues to exist in the world, but we cannot defend freedom abroad by abandoning it at home”. While the area where we are trying to help freedom exist, is a very different battlefield than in the past, this quote still speaks true. In general it would be very good not to be hypocritical; by this I mean the conflict in the middle east and the Patriot Acts I and II. Although radical islamists (some would put their number around 200 million) denounce freedom as treachery to allah, many moderate people in the region would prefer to see their autocratic theocracies overthrown. If we do not have our own personal liberties secured how can others who may be wanting freedom trust us to help them establish their own?
Quote “If we deny the right of the individual to be wrong, unpopular, eccentric or unorthodox… then hundreds of millions of Asians and Africans who are shopping about for a new allegiance will conclude that we are concerned to defend a myth and our current privileged status” Murrow was talking about the freedom of speech and other constitutional rights. Our government as well as others, have been moving on a dangerous path towards strict internet regulation, while the politicians are trying to protect Copyright holders of digital content, in reality it is limiting the concept of unlimited internet access to all and freedom of speech across ALL of the internet. While there was an amazing uproar about SOPA, other acts have been speedily drafted and some accepted widely such as ICYMI,CDA (only section 230 of CDA was constitutional) and many others. Many of these laws present a direct threat to freedom of speech, the flow of information, and education of those who cannot access traditional sources. I suggest looking at article 12 of the udhr (The universal declaration of human rights) many of these laws mentioned so far hehem Patriot Acts, *cough* and maybe *cough* SOPA and its lookalikes, violate it?
Quote “We currently have a built-in allergy to unpleasant or disturbing information. Our mass media reflect this… television is being used to distract, delude, amuse and insulate us,” We are subject much to the whim of television producers because they have the exclusive power to prevent most of us from ever hearing of many types of conflicts, also many events that are reported on for a short amount of time still continue despite a lack of international focus. It is really quite odd how many people are relatively unaware of the how unaware we all are. For example Bashar assad (ruler of Syria) is still killing many of his citizens because they want a government who respects human rights and freedoms, but many people thought all that arab spring was in the past while it has lasted more than a year. Insulate is a particularly applicable adjective for our mass media. While some Newspeople try to keep integrity when reporting things, but often times the very commercials on their shows contradict their message (I was watching NBC Nightly New one night and they did a spot about NSAIDs and their long term risks such as cancer and Severe Intestinal damage and then there was an ad for advil).
“We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty.” I chose this quote because I see many parallels between it and politics today. Usually when a politician says something that someone disagrees with they are called “Unamerican”. I’ve seen Obama referred to as “Unamerican” because he wants equality for Arabs and doesn’t support intervention in the Middle East. Obama’s predecessors were all very pro-Israel and because Obama doesn’t necessarily agree with them on all points, they think he is disloyal to America. This happens very often in our politics.
“Every act that denies or limits the freedom of the individual in this country costs us the . . . confidence of men and women who aspire to that freedom and independence of which we speak and for which our ancestors fought.” I think this quote not only applies to our current situations today, but is actually timeless. Ever since our country was formed we have been hypocritical. The very beginning of the Declaration of Independence states that “All men are created equal”. Our country was built on the idea that everyone should be equal and free, yet all through our history there are clear examples of someone being treated unjustly and unequally. The quote is saying that as long as we continue to do that, people will lose faith in America.
“We have currently a built-in allergy to unpleasant or disturbing information. Our mass media reflect this.” Americans tend to ignore things that make them feel uncomfortable or unhappy. When serious war, genocide, and famine are occurring all around the world, the media still focuses on the Royal wedding and what celebrities are breaking up. More often than not, songs that you hear on the radio are happy or upbeat. People usually are aware of the awful things happening all around the world, but they choose to ignore it.
Quote One: “We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty. We must remember always that accusation is not proof and that conviction depends upon evidence and due process of law. We will not walk in fear, one of another. We will not be driven by fear into an age of unreason,” is a quote that comes from the first speech. This is applicable to the status quo because of the terrorism frenzy America is in right now. Literally, almost every person that looks like he/she comes from the Middle East is usually viewed as a shady person. I think this quote really focuses on how ridiculous the thought of accusation being true. I think a lot of people are trained to see someone from the Middle East and have a thought they might be involved in a terrorist group. Iraqi and Afghani have a negative connotation in today’s society, just like communists did back in the day.
Quote Two: “Every act that denies or limits the freedom of the individual in this country costs us the . . . confidence of men and women who aspire to that freedom and independence of which we speak and for which our ancestors fought.” I think this quote can be related to a lot of things in our country today, but particularly current marriage rights. Even though in this quote, the speaker is talking about communists, he’s saying that denying freedom and individuality in the country conflicts with the freedom that we have fought for. Currently, gay marriage is only legal in eight states in the USA. That’s a little awkward because nowhere in the Constitution- which most people like to say the country was formed around- does it say marriage is only allowed to be between a man and woman. So, this freedom we fight for isn’t really worth the fight. The fact that this “free” country doesn’t let marriage happen for everyone, no matter what gender, is pretty true to this quote.
Quote Three: “But unless we get up off our fat surpluses and recognize that television in the main is being used to distract, delude, amuse and insulate us, then television and those who finance it, those who look at it and those who work at it, may see a totally different picture too late.” I actually think that television greatly impacts the way Americans view politics today. If you watch any political campaign commercials, a lot of them will be completely exaggerated and ridiculous. TV can either strengthen your political awareness, or just tell you stupid and false things that you want to hear. Unreal threats can be constructed because of a show one watches, and I think politics is corrupt in the way it presents itself publicly on television.
“If we confuse dissent with disloyalty — if we deny the right of the individual to be 1.wrong, unpopular, eccentric or unorthodox — if we deny the essence of racial equality then hundreds of millions in Asia and Africa who are shopping about for a new allegiance will conclude that we are concerned to defend a myth and our present privileged status. Every act that denies or limits the freedom of the individual in this country costs us the . . . confidence of men and women who aspire to that freedom and independence of which we speak and for which our ancestors fought.”
This still rings true with the ideals of today because we still confuse dissent with disloyalty. People still don’t understand that rebelling is much different from being disloyal. Sure, you can do both at the same time but they are also very separate words. Being disloyal means your being unfaithful or even treacherous. Dissent means that your rebelling against something or opposing something. Also I think the rest of the quote applies as well.
2.“We are currently wealthy, fat, comfortable and complacent. We have currently a built-in allergy to unpleasant or disturbing information. Our mass media reflect this. But unless we get up off our fat surpluses and recognize that television in the main is being used to distract, delude, amuse and insulate us, then television and those who finance it, those who look at it and those who work at it, may see a totally different picture too late.
Our history will be what we make it. And if there are any historians about fifty or a hundred years from now, and there should be preserved the kinescopes for one week of all three networks, they will there find recorded in black and white, or color, evidence of decadence, escapism and insulation from the realities of the world in which we live. I invite your attention to the television schedules of all networks between the hours of 8 and 11 p.m., Eastern Time. Here you will find only fleeting and spasmodic reference to the fact that this nation is in mortal danger. There are, it is true, occasional informative programs presented in that intellectual ghetto on Sunday afternoons. But during the daily peak viewing periods, television in the main insulates us from the realities of the world in which we live. If this state of affairs continues, we may alter an advertising slogan to read: LOOK NOW, PAY LATER.”
I find this quote to be 100% applicable to the world today. To take his words literally, a good percent of the population is obese. Also the majority of people that live in this area, just as a generalization, are welll off if not managing. It Is also true to say that television plays a big role in peoples lives, both positively and negatively. Another valid point he brings up is that history is what we make it. Well that will rein true now and forever because it is us that shape our own destinies. Also what he says about television is true, that there is a small portion of it dedicated to educating people but the majority of it is just to put it quite frankly. Trash.
3. This is no time for men who oppose Senator McCarthy’s methods to keep silent, or for those who approve. We can deny our heritage and our history, but we cannot escape responsibility for the result. There is no way for a citizen of a republic to abdicate his responsibilities. As a nation we have come into our full inheritance at a tender age. We proclaim ourselves, as indeed we are, the defenders of freedom, wherever it continues to exist in the world, but we cannot defend freedom abroad by deserting it at home. The actions of the junior Senator from Wisconsin have caused alarm and dismay amongst our allies abroad, and given considerable comfort to our enemies. And whose fault is that? Not really his. He didn’t create this situation of fear; he merely exploited it — and rather successfully. Cassius was right. “The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves.” Good night, and good luck.”
It will ALWAYS be true that those who deny their heritage and history, because we have to feel the results. It is also very true that we cannot defend freedom abroad by deserting it at home. And we cant. You have to take care of business at home before you can go out helping everyone else. I think America has a really hard time grasping this concept. He also made a good pint when he said that you cant put th blame of something on any one person. Really unless its really simple, like breaking a glass, you cant just blame One single person for causing something bad to happen.
1. “The line between investigating and persecuting is a very fine one”- In my mind it means that you can investigate in to something or someone, but you shouldn’t accuse them while you’re investigating. Especially in this country where there is supposed to be due process. I think this is applicable today because there are times where we are just blindly accusing people without first investigating. A good example is the recent case of Trayvon Martin. When we first heard the story, everybody jumped all over Zimmerman for allegedly shooting the teenager and everyone was saying he just shot him out of nowhere. People started accusing him of being a racist and a murderer. Since then, some evidence has been brought up suggesting that he acted in self- defense. But because of pre mature accusations, it may already be too late to change the opinion of the public. In no way am I condoning what Zimmerman did, but I am saying that some people did a lot of accusing before investigating.
2. “Every act that denies or limits the freedom of the individual in this country costs us the . . . confidence of men and women who aspire to that freedom and independence of which we speak and for which our ancestors fought.”- This is a very powerful statement because it basically says that any sort of action that limits freedom takes away confidence of men and women who want this freedom. It also goes against our ancestors who fought for this freedom they are limiting. There are times, even today, where congress or something else limits the freedom of Americans who aspire to this freedom. It’s really a shame because our ancestors fought for this freedom. When McCarthy started blindly accusing people of being communists, he took away the freedom and confidence of many Americans.
3. “I do not advocate that we turn television into a 27-inch wailing wall, where longhairs constantly moan about the state of our culture and our defense.”- This essentially says that T.V should have a more of a purpose than just entertain, but also inform the public of what’s going on in the world. There are many shows today that show a great point of view for kids which is just that everything is just great and happy, and that there are only minor problems that occur. On the other hand, there are also shows that only analyze problems and moan about the state of our culture. This is what he was talking about when he said he didn’t want it to become a wailing wall. I think that a nice balance that showed the goods and not so goods would be perfect.
Quote: “Every act that denies or limits the freedom of this country costs us the… confidence of men and women who aspire to that freedom and independence of which we speak and for what our ancestors fought for”
The idea that certain individuals could be jailed or lose their job without a real trial is a very scary proposition. During the McCarthy years many people lost their jobs and some went to jail. This was seen as unconstitutional by many and believed that a person has a right to fair trial in a court of law not a senate committee. This quote reflects the unconstitutional feeling towards these senate committee hearings and refers to our nation’s founders as well. When our country was formed in the late 18th century our founding fathers believed that all men are equal and are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law because a fair trial was not an option in colonial America and our founding fathers believed that everyone should be subject to a fair trial. There have been many times in America’s short history were people have not been given a fair trial and were imprisoned or fired based on hearsay and accusations without evidence. The most recent example of this is of those being detained at Guantanamo bay in Cuba. None of those individuals being detained at GTMO have been tried because there is no clear classification for them and they are being held as if they are POW’s. As of this year the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2012 states that the government can detain those who are might be involved in terrorist activities could be imprisoned indefinitely until the “conflict” is over (also applies to American citizens). This makes GTMO “more constitutional” and is pushing America farther from its roots. This seems to reflect what this quote is saying. The more we try to limit the freedoms of others the more we move away from our true believes.
Quote: “I do not advocate that we turn television into a 27-inch wailing wall, where longhairs constantly moan about the state of our culture and our defense. But I would just like to see it reflect occasionally the hard, unyielding realities of the world in which we live”
This quote does not only reflect the way television programs are presented but also the way history is presented. As young kids we watch T.V. and for the most part the shows we watch show happy people being successful and showing us what is good in life. The same goes for history in elementary schools. We are taught that America is great and that no country is better than the U.S.A But once we reach middle and high school we soon realize life is much different. We learn about the grim realities that the world as well as America face every day and how much of the world the U.S has unintentionally disrupted. The same goes for T.V, as we get older we start to watch the news and other more informational shows and also learn the world is not full of smiling people doing their jobs without anything to be worried about. I believe that this excerpt from Murrow’s speech is quite fitting. Sure we do not want to only see the bad nor the good but a perfect balance of good and bad must be presented so that we can be fully informed on all matters of life.
Quote: “We can deny our heritage, but we cannot escape responsibility for the result”
This quote is not only appropriate during the McCarthy hearings but will hold always hold true in any context. This quote is saying that anyone can deny an action but they will always be held accountable for the result of their actions. For example if a person murders another individual, the murderer can deny they killed someone but that person they claimed to not have killed is gone forever. This quote is one that every person should live by and is a quote that will always hold true in society.
Mitchell August
5/1/12
APUSH
Quote #1: “We proclaim ourselves, as indeed we are, the defenders of freedom”
This quote is not complex our metaphorical yet it is extremely powerful. It clearly shows even at that time the perception that America had of itself that still holds true today. As a nation we believe that is our divine right to police the rest of the world. We hold freedom as the highest standard and the only one we stand for which is exactly what this quote is saying. Although now we fight against different issues around the world, America, and as a country we try to defend what freedom. This quote shows what was wrong with America than and what is wrong with it now. Our sense of entitlement to protect the world creates people like McCarthy who take things to far and end up causing chaos. America did not need wars than and does not need wars now; this quote in my opinion was America’s problem than and is still our problem now.
Quote #2: “Every act that denies or limits the freedom of the individual in this country costs us the . . . confidence of men and women who aspire to that freedom and independence of which we speak and for which our ancestors fought”
By denying people the right to be different we are denying the right to the freedom that as a country we have always fought for. This quote is relevant to the modern era through issue of immigration and denying people the rights to be Americans. Everyone deserves freedom is our countries stance; we even fight for it in other countries but, for some reason we do not allow others to have the freedom of being an American. No one started out as Americans, all of our ancestors at some point immigrated to America. Now though we are denying the rights of people to come into our country and enjoy this freedom that our ancestors fought to maintain in America. We are killing the very thing that we are founded on which is freedom and that is costing us. Just like during 1953 (although a different issue at that time with communism).
Quote #3 “We are currently wealthy, fat, comfortable and complacent. We have currently a built-in allergy to unpleasant or disturbing information. Our mass media reflect this. But unless we get up off our fat surpluses and recognize that television in the main is being used to distract, delude, amuse and insulate us, then television and those who finance it, those who look at it and those who work at it, may see a totally different picture too late.”
Unfortunately Americans are starting to see the “…totally different picture…”. We as Americans at one point had a booming economy and found ourselves to be very comfortable just as Americans did in 1958. Unfortunately times have changed and now America’s status as the world’s super power is slowly dwindling. Our news does not tell the full story of wars and does not express the full effect of how bad our economy truly is. The media’s job is still to engage us as it has always been and sometimes distract us from other news. Americans are only satisfied when we are on top and when we are we become to greedy and comfortable to remain on top. Now China and India are among the fastest growing economies, threatening to overthrow Americans off of their thrown, if they have not already. We must as a nation now move to recovery and when we do become wealthy, we must stay that way.
“We can deny our heritage and our history, but we cannot escape responsibility for the result.”
–This quote is particularly stirring because it clearly states that we have to show that things have happened, but even if they did not, the results are still there. The first and easiest modern-day example of this is holocaust deniers. Even if it did not happen, which there is clear enough documentation and proof for the horror, but I digress, the effects are still there. Six million Jews and more than three million blacks, gypsies, handicapped people, mentally challenged people and others do not simply disappear. Even if typhoid had selectively killed all of these people across Europe, the people are still gone. Millions of Jews and others fled Europe, especially Eastern Europe, and now most are still not there. The modern Germany that exists in 2012 takes responsibility for the actions of their predecessors, even though they do not necessarily agree with what they did. They finally paid off their World War 1 debt in late September 2010, after 92 years. Now all they have is their World War 2 debt and the horrors and PTSD that people are still facing.
“… [if] we deny the right of an individual to be wrong, unpopular, eccentric or unorthodox … then hundreds of millions in Asia and Africa who are shopping about for a new allegiance will conclude that we are concerned to defend a myth and our present privileged status.”
— Most notably, with the “Arab Spring” of last year with many governments and regimes being uprooted and tumbled by the people, The United States needs to keep freedom strong so that new developing governments will become allies and possibly make the government that we want them to have. The USA is without a doubt the most powerful country, if not in just military strength but also with influence and business among other things, and we need to support the little guy sometimes. We have been known to support/attack “big countries” (i.e. ones with oil and/or lots of money) in recent years, but we need to show support where it counts. Second-world countries are going to be the most important countries in the future, like India or Brazil or Egypt. These “+5” countries and others like them are still finding their political voice, and we need to help them chose the right thing. People will not always choose the right thing, Gaza democratically elected a terrorist organization to lead the, but we still need to let them choose. The choice should be advised, so that countries will not pose a threat in the future. And countries will be more likely to be friendly to us in the future if we are friendly to them now when they really need it.
“ [If] there are any historians about fifty or a hundred years from now … they will find [in our record] evidence of decadence, escapism and insulation from the realities in which we live.”
— We need to show as much of what the country is doing now so that we do not leave a bad legacy behind us. With The Monica Lewinski scandal more than a decade ago, Bill Clinton’s legacy was tarnished. He left the country in amazing economic shape and we were not in any wars! But because of simple as simple as getting oral sex in the Oval Office, he is not viewed nearly as positively as he should. If one looks at his presidency other than that one scandal, he would most definitely be the greatest president of the second half of the twentieth century. And if JFK had been alive during 24-hour cable news networks, some skeletons from his closet would have almost definitely tarnished his legacy for the future much more. People look at administrations like Harding and Nixon with disgust because of what they did and what they kept from the country. Presidents keep secrets, and they have to for national security, but things like sex scandals and cheating in elections should be told to everyone always. Cover-ups are usually the bigger problem, not the original action. Bill Clinton was impeached because of perjury, not for adultery. But after that scandal, a whole new argument over whether or not what he did with Lewinski was adultery came up. But that it an Entirely New (LIKE THEM ON FACEBOOK) argument that there is no way of winning for either side.
Quote: “We must remember always that accusation is not proof and that conviction depends upon evidence and due process of law.” A good example of this is The Casey Anthony Trial that happened months ago. Casey Anthony was accused of murdering her daughter and a large portion of Americans believed that she was in fact guilty. This quote tells us that accusation is not proof and that conviction depends upon evidence and there simply was not enough evidence proving Casey Anthony guilty.
Quote: “Every act that denies or limits the freedom of the individual in this country costs us the . . . confidence of men and women who aspire to that freedom and independence of which we speak and for which our ancestors fought.” I can draw a parallel to this from when congress tried to pass the SOPA bill just a few months ago. This bill would basically give the Government and other big businesses complete access to control our internet, thus taking away some websites that we use daily. In the quote it says that every act that limits our freedom costs us in some way. The SOPA bill would be majorly limiting our freedom of the web by not letting us have access to many websites, kind of what happens in Communist Countries.
Quote: “But I would just like to see it reflect occasionally the hard, unyielding realities of the world in which we live.” This quote I believe is very relevant to our world today. This quote is basically saying that even though the television is such a huge part of our lie today, it doesn’t show a fair representation of how many American’s live. About 15% of American’s live in poverty today and if you toon in to the average sitcom the family that is supposed to be “normal” lives in a house much nicer than the average American. This gives American’s a skewed view of how the majority of citizens are living today.
Quote: “We proclaim ourselves, as indeed we are, the defenders of freedom, wherever it continues to exist in the world, but we cannot defend freedom abroad by deserting it at home.”
As to what I see in this quote is that we are in charge of our lives, and we choose what/ who can be free in our lives. As we choose who can be president a democrat/republican, and we choose to live out our own freedom thanks to the freedom of speech and we are able to express who we are today, and nobody can tell us otherwise. And America will find freedom even in the darkest ages, and we will since we are such a miscellaneous country and freedom is what we stand for, and we will always find freedom in the darkest ages. But if we leave freedom behind us, at home and don’t believe in it 100% than we will not be able to find freedom within ourselves.
Quote: “Every act that denies or limits the freedom of the individual in this country costs us the . . . confidence of men and women who aspire to that freedom and independence of which we speak and for which our ancestors fought.”
The Pilgrims came to America to set up a new life, one with new morals and freedoms–freedoms Americans have fought for with so many lives and legislations. Hearing about the jailings of people because of their views and ideas during (and even not during) wartime frightens me. This is seen with the McCarthy cases and the anti-red feelings that were stirred up and amuck after World War I. Growing up, I used to always think that America was the best country in the world–no flag could match our star-spangled banner. Now, history classes have really made me disillusioned. The anti-Communist feelings (though still around today), greatly reflect our ironic ‘War on Terror’ today. If I were to speak out about supposed feelings supporting the views of known-to-be-terrorist-groups, I wouldn’t doubt that I would get some looks and maybe some questioning or investigation. Things like the Espionage and Sedition Acts deprived citizens of their basic rights of freedom of speech and only brought us closer to the type of nation that the pilgrims first wished to leave.
Quote: “Their fear of controversy is not warranted by the evidence. I have reason to know, as do many of you, that when the evidence on a controversial subject is fairly and calmly presented, the public recognizes it for what it is–an effort to illuminate rather than to agitate.”
This quote seems to me as that controversy, is not founded by evidence but it is founded within you, and shows your true self. Also controversy maybe over seen by the public and the public may either over exaggerate it or under exaggerated.
“As a nation we have come into our full inheritance at a tender age” this statement is saying that today in our world everyone is being exposed to the real world a lot faster than how it used to be back in the day. It is also applied to us in our social world because people exposed to more profanity and other things through the social media like television, radio, computers and a lot more. “Every act that denies or limits the freedom of the individual in this country costs us the . . . confidence of men and women who aspire to that freedom and independence of which we speak and for which our ancestors fought.”” this statement is basically telling u exactly what it means, our country is supposedly supposed to be the best in the world but we do experience a lot of problems, like penalizing the freedom of an individual. We do have different laws here though in order to allow people to speak there minds and they have a lot of freedom not like in other countries. Even though that type of thing occurred back when we discriminated against black and other ethnicities and are not supposed to take place today it still does. “We are currently wealthy, fat, comfortable and complacent. This quote is trying to say how we rely on television and the social media as a main resource today and back then we didn’t have anything like that. Today it would almost be like a part of you is missing without your laptop, cell phone or a TV. In this speech there talking about how the TV is affecting us negatively and positively and even today it still does affect us in both ways. It can teach us, inspire us and fill us on the latest news right away but also people can rely on it too much.
“We can deny our heritage and our history, but we cannot escape responsibility for the result.”
I think that this statement is saying that we can try to forget and reject the memories of what we did in the past, but we can’t escape what will happen in the end because of our original actions. It’s saying that whatever we did in the past, we will have to pay for and won’t just be able to forget it like we want too. An example of this was when Mr. Wickersham told us how textbook’s wanted to change their prints that said that George Washington had slaves. This is an example of our heritage and our history. During that time slaves were thought of as an acceptable thing, and just like everyone else our president went along and even participated in it. You can’t polish and cover up the ugly parts of history just to make our history look perfect. The result of George having those slaves is that it has to be reported and we have to learn how much of an affect slavery had, and how most people, even in high government positions continued these evil practices. It also on a more pop culture note, shows that just because you are celebrities and had affairs (tiger woods) in your history/past, the truth will catch up to you and you will have to take responsibility for the truth and result of your past indiscretions.
“Every act that denies or limits the freedom of the individual in this country costs us the . . . confidence of men and women who aspire to that freedom and independence of which we speak and for which our ancestors fought.”
I think that this is saying that every time we have a sort of unjust act within our country it reflects poorly and makes the tireless effort of our ancestors that they put into the war, pointless. Going with the racial type of example again, every time something happens in our government or really in our country that is a racial segregation or racist action it makes us look bad. It’s basically saying that our ancestors just wasted time fighting for freedom and that we really don’t care. Every time some type of event like this occurs, it knocks our countries confidence level and trust in our society down. Once you start to really dig into our history and take a closer look at all the details, like we do in APUSH, you really start to see where we go wrong and where our country has controversial decisions, that end up losing peoples confidence. Also another example is how in Texas they passed that law that the police could pull you over at any time just for looking like an illegal immigrant. It shows arrogance and unprofessional, and even racist behavior and it makes our country look bad. It therefore causes people shame, and then they lose faith in our government.
“ If Hollywood were to run out of Indians, the program schedules would be mangled beyond all recognition. Then some courageous soul with a small budget might be able to do a documentary telling what, in fact, we have done–and are still doing–to the Indians in this country. But that would be unpleasant. And we must at all costs shield the sensitive citizens from anything that is unpleasant.”
I think this is trying to tell us that the producers of things such as television/movies try to hide or shade the citizens or viewers from the nasty cruelty of the real world. The government and other big companies try to hide any “unpleasant” events from us and instead try to focus on making us happy. A lot of shows are not based on reality, and instead supposed to make you feel happy and good about yourself, rather than tell us the truth and show us how ugly our government can really be. I feel that the media should work to find the balance of showing us the good and bad. For example, I recently saw on 60 minutes them talking to the head of the US’s like torture facility where the planners of 9-11 were taken. Never had I once heard about this and the government tried to keep it a secret from us, not mentioning what they really do down there. The news found out that they torture the people and do the sick things that our enemies do to us. It shows that we are just as bad as our enemies that were trying to fight against and claiming that they are “sick” people, when really we’re doing the same thing. The government tries to hide these things from us so we think the world is all good lalalla, when really there’s a lot more going on than we know.
“We can deny our heritage and our history, but we cannot escape responsibility for the result.” This quote can be used in most issues that we have today. One of the more important topics is the war in the Middle East, or now the War in Afghanistan. This War is the product of our mistakes all the way from the end of WW1, moving around territories for money, not caring about people, up till now, getting fully involved militarily. We created this war, and now we have to fight it until the end following the leave no trace rules. People who say that we should just leave have no respect for our country, our dignity, and to others whom we have hurt, they want an easy way out that doesn’t exist.
“Every act that denies or limits the freedom of the individual in this country costs us the . . . confidence of men and women who aspire to that freedom and independence of which we speak and for which our ancestors fought.” I would like to relate this quote to a topic more close to home, and that would be the debate on weapons. Our country was founded on many new Ideals, and one of them is the right to bear arms, which means a person’s is allowed to own and carry weapon as long as federal and State laws are followed. People are trying to put restrictions on this amendment and they might as well put restrictions on the freedom of speech also. This subject doesn’t get talked about a lot mostly because it doesn’t pertain to most Americans any more.
“I am entirely persuaded that the American public is more reasonable, restrained and more mature than most of our industry’s program planners believe.” People today do not realize how powerful we really are in numbers. Thanks to things like Face book and twitter, people feel like all they have to do is rant a little bit or like a post to let out their feelings, instead of taking to the streets and fighting for what they believe in by demonstrating and voting., and that is way company and our government are getting away with so much, we let them, we don’t do anything to stop them. This country can be ran by the people for the people, but the people have to do something first
“We will not be driven by fear into an age of unreason, if we dig deep in our history and our doctrine; and remember that we are not descended from fearful men. Not from men who feared to write, to speak, to associate, and to defend causes that were for the moment unpopular.” Murrow not only said this statement with context of motivation, but also with truth. This quote is ironic in a way because in today’s society people don’t hesitate to speak at all. And that’s for several reasons, one of which is because today’s world is more complex whether it’s with politics or the economy, there is always something to say. This quote is also referring to the people of the 1950’s and how they were hesitant to speaking in the public because of the whole Soviet situation/Cold War. Murrow is trying to put a lot of emphasis on speaking the truth in public situations, including TV, newspaper, or speech. Don’t get me wrong, not everyone has the ability to speak at their please. For example: protesting in another country that doesn’t have an established democracy.
“Every act that denies or limits the freedom of the individual in this country costs us the . . . confidence of men and women who aspire to that freedom and independence of which we speak and for which our ancestors fought.” This statement is a very significant to both the 1950’s and today’s world. It’s pretty self-explanatory when Murrow says that we should not limit the freedoms of men and women because it’s costing our nation. In today’s world our freedom as an individual citizen is limited for security purposes. Just think of all of the chaos there would be if we could truly express our thoughts to other countries; there would be a war upon us in no time. Murrow emphasizes that any act/law that limits someone’s freedom is truly putting our country in debt. Although in today’s world we can’t express our thoughts as we wish, we still have ways of doing it whether it’s a Facebook, Twitter, or the news.
“This instrument can teach, it can illuminate; yes, and it can even inspire. But it can do so only to the extent that humans are determined to use it to those ends. Otherwise it is merely wires and lights in a box. There is a great and perhaps decisive battle to be fought against ignorance, intolerance and indifference. This weapon of television could be useful.” Clearly Murrow is talking about television and its importance to society. But he is also saying that TV is much more than just wires with a box, it can be used to persuade people (commercials) influence an idea that needs to be heard. TV is very much a weapon, and all weapons can do both positive and negative things. As said in today’s world the TV has accomplished a lot of Murrow’s expectations and has even gone beyond. In today’s society TV does have its ignorant side: stupid commercials that don’t have positive influence.
Quote: “We must remember always that accusation is not proof and that conviction depends upon evidence and due process of law.”
This quote can definitely be applied to our world today with political and social situations. In political situations today many people are accused of doing many things. An example would be with this upcoming presidential election. The candidates this year are constantly making accusations that are not true. In the quote it says that just an accusation isn’t proof and that the conviction only depends on the evidence. So with the many false accusations that the candidates are making today none of them are true until there is proof with evidence and the process of the law.
Quote: “Every act that denies or limits the freedom of the individual in this country costs us the…confidence of men and women who aspire to that freedom and independence of which we speak and for which our ancestors fought.”
There were many acts passed that denied and limited the freedom of individuals in this country. Some acts like the Espionage and the Sedition Acts. With the Espionage Act it imposed penalties on anti-war activities, basically stopping people from acting. With the Sedition Act it prohibited any words that would encourage resistance to the American war effect, basically stopping people from saying things. Those acts affected us a lot with our confidence. Many men and women came to America aspired by the freedom and independence that we speak for and which our ancestors fought. If our ancestors fought for freedom and independence I think acts like those are just denying people of what their ancestors basically spent their time fighting for.
Quote: “I am entirely persuaded that American public is more reasonable, restrained and more mature than most of our industry’s program planners believe. Their fear of controversy is not warranted by the evidence.”
I think when he said that their fear of controversy is not warranted by the evidence it could apply to our world today. I agree with him when he says that when evidence on a controversial subject is presented the public recognizes it for what it is in effort to lighten the situation rather than agitate it. Today in our world in political and social situations people always recognize the evidence and try to lighten the situation but no one really tries to disturb the situation. Especially on a controversial topic many people today try and put a positive spin with the evidence rather than messing up things with their different opinions. I think even with Murrow saying these things 50 years ago that some things are still true especially with the many situations that we face today.
The quote, “We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty,” to me means that we as a people have the divine right to question and have our own opinions. This does not mean that we are cynical or, in the cold war mentality, disloyal. We are entitled by our freedom of religion, press, and speech to have our opinions and state them with keeping in mind the respects for others, as they should give us, and we deserve, as well. Just because someone doesn’t think the same way as you about something does not mean they are wrong. Just because someone doesn’t mean they are wrong. And just because you are afraid, unwilling, or uninformed does not mean that they are wrong. Everyone is entitled to his or her opinion and belief. Hopefully it is right. But who are we to decide that?
The quote, “Every act that denies or limits the freedom of the individual in this country costs us the . . . confidence of men and women who aspire to that freedom and independence of which we speak and for which our ancestors fought,” means to me in our modern world with the ability to look back on our history that we as a new nation fought to gain our rights as free people. So, if we build this country on freedom, then why are we becoming the persecutors? When an act of injustice is knowingly done to limit the freedom of any other person, then we are becoming hypocrites.
The quote, “This instrument can teach, it can illuminate; yes, and it can even inspire. But it can do so only to the extent that humans are determined to use it to those ends. Otherwise it is merely wires and lights in a box,” means that with the technology to get opinions and views out to the homes of millions, we should be putting that tool to good use by using it positively, efficiently, and effectively. Tools like the television have the power to spread word, but it is those who made that tool who have the power to influence, it is up to them on how they use it.
“We can deny our heritage and our history, but we cannot escape responsibility for the result.
Today many people around the world refuse their heritage. In the society we live in parents force their kids to go to religious activities up to a point in their early teens. Once all of the children from a family get to this age the children forget their roots and stop practicing their heritage. By not practicing their religion and keep the traditions going that their family had practiced for so many years they are forgetting the history that the people in their religion endured. I know personally that in my family after my Bar Mitzvah I stopped going to temple weekly and stopped reading Hebrew. This will catch up with everybody one day though. If so many people stop practicing their religions then we will have forgotten what our forefathers fought for. They fought for their right to be able to follow what they believe in. It will catch up with my generation one day in which very few of us still practice religion, and remember the sacrifice that people went through just so that I could practice to be a Jew. Politically unless you are of only a couple of different religions it is almost impossible to be successful because of what you believe in.
“Every act that denies or limits the freedom of the individual in this country costs us the . . . confidence of men and women who aspire to that freedom and independence of which we speak and for which our ancestors fought.” In the world that we live in today people are scared still to speak their mind. People do not want to say what their political views are because they do not want to be judged by their friends. People are scared to use the rights given to them by being an American citizen. If we have racial profiling in a country that is supposed to be free then we will scare people from coming to America. If we are not friendly like after 9-11 people profiled Arab people as all are terrorists. How are they supposed to come to a country and feel accepted if everything the founding fathers fought for would not apply to them because of how they looked?
“I am entirely persuaded that the American public is more reasonable, restrained and more mature than most of our industry’s program planners believe. Their fear of controversy is not warranted by the evidence. I have reason to know, as do many of you, that when the evidence on a controversial subject is fairly and calmly presented, the public recognizes it for what it is–an effort to illuminate rather than to agitate.” People do not like to hear the truth unless it was good. In the time we live in people do not want to be the ones to cause the problems or fix them. They just want someone else to do it for them. The American people do not want to be agitated by a subject they want the government to worry about all of the problems and fix them all; however, the American people can handle things when problems arise. Obstacles such as 9-11, and Hurricane Katrina was fixed and helped by the American people. The American people are reasonable, but they do not enjoy being agitated by a problem.
“We must remember always that accusation is not proof and that conviction depends upon evidence and due process of law.” This quote is important because it is saying that we have to be careful not to get to carried away with any craze, McCarthy or otherwise. If we do and we convict innocent people we are violating the constitution and everything that we, as Americans believe in. The broadcaster was reminding people that just because McCarthy said that someone was communist did not mean it was true, we should not follow him out of fear and that we have to stick to the constitution. This will always be true, just because one person claims something does not make it fact, and it won’t be fact until it is proven.
“If we deny the right of the individual to be wrong, unpopular, eccentric or unorthodox… for which our ancestors fought.” He is saying that the McCarthy craze is preventing individuals from expressing themselves, their opinions and their beliefs. The whole nation is built on personal freedoms. Even though people may not be arrested for expressing themselves today we have to remember not to judge people. This topic is timeless and universal. In this country every individual person has the right to be themselves. In McCarthy’s time that could get him black-listed, and Americans need to learn never to let something like that, no matter how extreme happen again.
“Responsibility is not something that can be assigned or delegated. And it promises its own reward: good business and good television.” This is absolutely true today. In American government it is the people who control it. The people vote, elect members of office, and serve on juries. It is the American people’s responsibility to be informed about issues both inside and outside their country. But we are lazy and would rather be entertained than educated. The speaker of this quote believes that Americans could harness the power, popularity and convenience of television to educate ourselves more. That it is not only a good idea but our responsibility. And America as a whole would be better for it.
“We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty.” this quote holds a lot of truth to this day. For example when McCarthy was senator he accused all people that did not believe in his views to be communists and unpatriotic. A present day parallel of the McCarthy situation is, the statements made by fox News anchors who stated that people who didn’t agree with Obamas decisions in Iraq, were unpatriotic, and therefor against America. In both situations dissent is confused with disloyalty. Just because people did not agree with his decisions did not make them unpatriotic and in both cases, did not call for a witch hunt of opposing ideas.
“Every act that denies or limits the freedom of the individual in this country costs us the . . . confidence of men and women who aspire to that freedom and independence of which we speak and for which our ancestors fought.” McCarthy lost the trust of Americans because he unlawfully took away peoples freedoms. America has always been known for being the wonderful country where dreams come true. But many people got their dreams crushed when they were accused of being communists. It is sad how something that took so much effort to achieve could be taken away so easily. When people feel that their freedom is threatened they will always react with anger. For example, when SOPA wanted to black out websites to eliminate internet piracy, people became enraged because they felt that their freedom of the internet was being taken from them. The same thing happened during the McCarthy era. People were angered and scared that they would lose their freedom so they were willing to do anything to keep their freedom and the sense of security that came with it.
“We are currently wealthy, fat, comfortable and complacent. We have currently a built-in allergy to unpleasant or disturbing information. Our mass media reflect this. But unless we get up off our fat surpluses and recognize that television in the main is being used to distract, delude, amuse and insulate us, then television and those who finance it, those who look at it and those who work at it, may see a totally different picture too late.” After the invention of the television Americans changed a lot. We have become reliant on the media to inform us of international affairs and we have become so willing to believe what the media tells us that we often learn the truth after it is too late. During the red scare the media had a large roll on keeping the fear alive by using shows to manipulate and falsely inform the public. The same thing happens today, as long as a situation is glorified by the media it stays popular, but once the story becomes boring and the news moves on to more recent stories, the old reports just disappear out of our minds. The truth is that even tho we have forgotten about an epidemic, it doesn’t mean that it still doesn’t exist in the world. Take the BP oil spill for example. In 2010 BP spilled thousands and thousands of gallons of oil in the Gulf of Mexico, and for a while it was the only thing that TV, radio, and paper would talk about. Two years later it is the last thing on peoples minds, even though the situation is far from being fixed. I think what Edward was trying to say was that as long as people rely only on the media to keep them informed they wont really know the whole truth, not until they make an effort to find the real facts themselves.
“We can deny our heritage and our history, but we cannot escape responsibility for the result”
What he is saying here, is that yes we have the choice to ignore what our ancestors stood for, and what they accomplished, but whatever happens after we do that, will be on us. We cannot shift the blame to anyone else, because it was us who denied what we knew and what we have learned. He is saying that we are denying what we already know, being history, we know the consequences, but if we ignore then it will be our fault and our fault only. This applies to our world today, because at times, we ignore what our ancestors did in times of conflict and depression, we can choice to deny them, ignore them, and choose our own way to follow successes, but whatever that way is, and whatever the result, will be our responsibility, and our doing.
“Every act that denies or limits the freedom of the individual of this country costs us the…confidence of men and women who aspire to that freedom and independence that we speak of and for which our ancestors fought.”
This is basically saying that any act or action that tries to limit the freedom of any kind or person, will cost us the confidence of the people who thought they could at one point be free, and for what every person in this country has fought for. This relates to our time now, because it is explaining what will happen if such act is passed, or any action that is done by any single human being. He is saying that if you do anything to limit a person freedom, it will discourage anyone who was trying to reach it, because they know that someone can stop them. Today, we have many different ethnicities in this country; if you perform an act that discourages, let’s just say Indians, than all Indians who have fought for freedom in this country (even though we came here mostly free with no revolt) would get discouraged. They would not have confidence because everything they have fought for has gone down the drain, all of their ancestors that fought so hard to keep them free, gone because someone committed an action to limit their freedom.
“Our history will be what we make it”
This is a very short, but deep quote. It is basically saying that whatever we try and work hard to happen, will be what we are remembered for. This relates very heavily on today’s world, and the politics involved with it, it is an example that whatever today’s politicians install in our country, good or bad, will be in the history books in the future, just like we are learning them today. For example, President Barak Obama, whatever he accomplishes in his presidency, will be his history. Whatever he works hard and tries to do, will be what he is remembered for. He can make his own history by shaping the U.S to be a better country than it was before he was president, and whatever he does will be what he is remembered for. You can make your own history, its just the matter of if you work hard enough to go out there and make it.
“We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty.”
Often now if you do not agree with the common government, history, culture, ideology, acceptable norms, or medical field you can be accused of being uneducated, disloyal, or unethical. Do not confuse those who do not agree with you as being disloyal. You can still love and trust your parents and not agree with them on every front. Therefore not agreeing with the government or other main thoughts should not be considered disloyalty and a punishable crime. People and systems have flaws. Take for example the alphasaurus. Until just a few years ago people would have thought you dicked-in-the-nob if you didn’t believe in a brontosaurus. Well guess what, now the tides are reversed. There are no longer such creatures as the brontosaurus. Now we only have the alphasaurus. Not saying that all of the commonly accepted facts and beliefs are wrong. Just saying, do not persecute and accuse people just because they believe different from you.
“Every act that denies or limits the freedom of the individual in this country costs us the . . . confidence of men and women who aspire to that freedom and independence of which we speak and for which our ancestors fought.”
The Cold War is an example of how this plays out. In Russia there were anti America campaigns showing how we treated African Americans, our own citizens! In Russia there was very little racism and it was considered quite a horrible thing to do, so you can imagine why they might not exactly respect Americans. Yet ironically in the American view point Russians were all but pure evil! This cost us during the cold war because the Russians could use our limits on African American freedom to their advantage to turn people against us. The Russian’s in their own way wanted freedom and independence, but not in the same way as us. They wanted the freedom of a perfect government with no extreme hardships in their life.
“For surely we shall pay for using this most powerful instrument of communication to insulate the citizenry from the hard and demanding realities which must be faced if we are to survive.”
If we insulate our society to the extent were they do not know how to take of themselves or keep themselves going without constant entertainment and modern conveniences, when hard times do come we will not be able to recover quickly.
“We proclaim ourselves, as indeed we are, the defenders of freedom, wherever it continues to exist in the world, but we cannot defend freedom abroad by deserting it at home.”
Today, as in the 1950s, this quote exemplifies the hypocrisy in the actions of our community and our government. Those who accused American citizens of being communists and proceeded to uproot their lives claimed to be the protectors of democracy, yet they disregarded the document that defines the United States (in its democratic form). People were accused, jailed, punished, deported, and even sentenced to death without due process of law or proper evidence. How could we claim to be working for the greater good when we failed to uphold the Constitution for some? The greater good works for everybody, but instead we let fear and emotion overtake what logic and reasoning could have solved. This applies today, but in slightly different circumstances. We send soldiers and fight wars on terrorism and hate, yet we ignore the hate in our communities. We fly food and supplies to failing third world countries, yet we ignore neighbors starving at home. Have we become too high and mighty to realize that there are people near us who need help too? Who are in situations that aren’t “fat and wealthy”? It’s wrong that we work so hard to defend abroad by deserting it at home.
“If we confuse dissent with disloyalty — if we deny the right of the individual to be wrong, unpopular, eccentric or unorthodox — if we deny the essence of racial equality then hundreds of millions in Asia and Africa who are shopping about for a new allegiance will conclude that we are concerned to defend a myth and our present privileged status.”
Wars have evolved from fighting against people to attacking ideas, but each war the United States have fought have been in America’s best interest. During the Red Scare of the 1950s, if anybody even alluded to his or her agreement with communism, or even liberal, ideas, they were deemed a Soviet sympathizer and ostracized from society. There was no room for right or wrong, or any mistakes, even though the human race is built from mistakes. In Senator McCarthy’s trials, if you made a mistake in your past or went against the grain, you were punished for it: it was ridiculous. We attacked ideas, as we still do today. This attacking of ideas doesn’t really get us anywhere; it merely spikes our economy and allows us to feel as if we are doing something. The War on Terror now is questionable—what are we still doing in the Middle East?
“We are currently wealthy, fat, comfortable, and complacent. We have currently a built-in allergy to unpleasant or disturbing information. Our mass media reflects this.”
The 1950s were a time of prosperity and (give or take a recession or two) Americans have prospered since. After WW2 and during the Cold War, Americans aimed to achieve the American Dream: middle class, house in the suburbs, peace, a job, and a family. A homogenous community divided equally into portions pleased us, and Levitt’s suburbia prospered. Levittowns kept out blacks and avoided dissent, and Americans had no issues, considering their avoidance of anything unpleasant. We disliked dissent and that lead to fear and overreaction. However, we didn’t completely block out everything we found disturbing, but the things that were shared were trivial, shallow, or toned down. Much like today, news, and media are often one sided, displaying information that people want to see. Popular tabloid and programs exhibit the “difficult” lives of movie stars instead of real-world issues. As Americans, we like to believe that everything is okay, and keep put-putting along at out leisurely pace. When something drastic occurs—a drop in the stock market, for instance—our lives are thrown into chaos. Because we are “wealthy, fat, comfortable, and complacent” we listen to what we are told and are left helpless in situations we never bothered to prepare for.
“We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty.” This quote from a See It Now applies so much to all areas of our life. Politically you can learn from this quote and realize that just because someone doesn’t support all the decisions the government makes doesn’t mean they aren’t a loyal citizen. In some countrys people with different views are exiled or put in prision. Not everyone can always share the same views, and if someones views are different that doesn’t mean they are evil or disloyal. In high school you often get made fun of or talked about if you don’t agree with everything your friends think. If you don’t agree or condemn the decisions they are making it doesn’t mean you are a bad friend. Teenagers often fail to see that and I think that this quote could teach us a valuable lesson.
“Every act that denies or limits the freedom of the individual in this country costs us the . . . confidence of men and women who aspire to that freedom and independence of which we speak and for which our ancestors fought.” I think this quote is so powerful for many reasons. First of all our country’s ancestors, the founding fathers and the residents of Jamestown all came over and fought for freedom. They were persecuted in England and loathed the power of the King so they physically fought for our freedom. They built this nation on freedom and justice for all, so to limit peoples rights seems like a slap in the face to everyone who died fighting for it. Our government needs to realize that in the midst of taking away rights like our freedom on the internet for example.
“Our history will be what we make it.” This quote really affects me because I never have really thought about how my generation is writing history. One day kids will be studying about the year 2012 and then decisions and events they will be reading about I will have been apart of. I want people to looks back at these times and be proud of the decisions we made and how we handled things.
“We must remember always that accusation is not proof and that conviction depends upon evidence and due process of law.”
Now days, if we’re accused of something, it is not enough for conviction. Sufficient evidence must be gathered and analyzed; also, the evidence can be obtained only if authorities, not based on some assumptions, raise strong suspicions. At our time convictions occur strictly by the process of law.
“Every act that denies or limits the freedom of the individual in this country costs us the . . . confidence of men and women who aspire to that freedom and independence of which we speak and for which our ancestors fought.”
Our past ancestors fought for their constitutional freedom through blood, tears and sweat. By taking that away, we would be throwing away everything that they had worked for.
“We are currently wealthy, fat, comfortable and complacent. We have currently a built-in allergy to unpleasant or disturbing information. Our mass media reflect this. But unless we get up off our fat surpluses and recognize that television in the main is being used to distract, delude, amuse and insulate us, then television and those who finance it, those who look at it and those who work at it, may see a totally different picture too late.”
At our time the role of TV and media is even more significant than decades ago. Advertising industry is very focused on consumers, and well financed by all interested companies. Sometimes general population is overwhelmed with amount and frequency of commercials, that can be very annoying and distracting, especially during people’s free time, not to mention accuracy of the information provided. But along with that, TV and media became greater and greater source of educational materials, and keep people up to date with news and different aspects of lives of citizens of other countries, and helps for nations to learn about different cultures and traditions, politics and economics.
“We proclaim ourselves, as indeed we are, the defenders of freedom, wherever it continues to exist in the world, but we cannot defend freedom abroad by deserting it at home.” This quote is explaining that our country was founded upon the base of freedom and if we cannot get that solid foundation in our own country then we cannot defend it and fight for it all over the world. This quote is based upon the motto or sayings “do as I say and not as I do”. The quote points out that this motto is not effective and that no one would follow in our footsteps if we cannot even follow what we set out to do. It also is saying that The United States of America has a large load to handle because we are the self-proclaimed defenders of freedom because we see it as the best and most basic right through our experiences and struggles in the past. “Every act that denies or limits the freedom of the individual in this country costs us the . . . confidence of men and women who aspire to that freedom and independence of which we speak and for which our ancestors fought.” This quote is stating that we should not be hypocritical of our freedom policy and initiatives. If we set out to be a country of freedom we must not limit it to some citizens such as minorities because it discourages and confuses the countries that follow us and aspire to achieve the prestige our country has acclaimed. “This weapon of television could be useful.” This is a very confusing quote because television is not a literal weapon that we could drop on a city or fire at airplanes. It is a cultural tool that can has a much wider range of uses than a weapon. The negative uses are that it creates a complacent and lazy society in which people would be insulated by this entertainment that never ceases and does not provide much knowledge. The positive uses are that it can be used to provide widespread education through documentaries and educational programs.
The statement, “We will not walk in fear, one of another. We will not be driven by fear into an age of unreason, if we dig deep in our history and our doctrine; and remember that we are not descended from fearful men,” relates directly to some of America’s immigration laws which are currently under questioning by certain states. An example of a current immigration law that stirs indignation such as in this statement is the Arizona Act. As found in Wikipedia, this act makes it a state misdemeanor crime for an alien to be in Arizona without carrying the required documents, requires that state law enforcement officers attempt to determine an individual’s immigration status during a “lawful stop, detention or arrest” when there is reasonable suspicion that the individual is an illegal immigrant, bars state or local officials or agencies from restricting enforcement of federal immigration laws, and cracks down on those sheltering, hiring and transporting illegal aliens. In other words, this act enables policemen to pull over anyone who carries suspicions of illegal immigrant activity. Why? Because the federal government requires all aliens over the age of fourteen to both register with the American government-which is more than reasonable- and to have registration documents in their possession at all times. Now I can definitely see why this would stimulate anger and irritation. As a result of this aspect of the Arizona Act, immigrants must live in the fear that a cop may deport them or arrest them for simply forgetting their papers at home. There is also the issue of racial profiling. People rightly think that this act encourages stereotyping and prejudice against foreigners.
The uproar at Ron Paul caused by his offensive campaign could be criticized by the statement, “If we confuse dissent with disloyalty — if we deny the right of the individual to be wrong, unpopular, eccentric or unorthodox,” because as narrow-minded and naïve as it was, Paul had only good intentions. This statement highlights the fact that many well-known politicians and celebrities are condemned because of their opinions, even though their intentions are of nothing but integrity and loyalty. Paul’s campaign consisted of commercials, which drew attention to America’s spending, debt, and economic issues. However, they were considered very offensive considering a lot of them declared China’s superiority over America, made hard-working Americans seem ignorant and stupid, and stereotyped the Chinese. In reaction, Paul was verbally abused by the majority. However, maybe he’s not all that bad. Maybe he had good ideas, but simply went around advertizing them the wrong way. After all, he obviously truly believed that these issues would bring U.S. to its downfall. Perhaps, he really did have a reliable solution and good intentions.
“We are currently wealthy, fat, comfortable and complacent. We have currently a built-in allergy to unpleasant or disturbing information. Our mass media reflect this. But unless we get up off our fat surpluses and recognize that television in the main is being used to distract, delude, amuse and insulate us, then television and those who finance it, those who look at it and those who work at it, may see a totally different picture too late.” This statement is only too true. There are endless issues in this world around us: global warming, Israeli-Palestinian conflicts, child slavery, etc… Working towards any of these causes would serve as an excellent and productive substitute for simply sitting on our “fat surpluses”. Another example is Kony. Kony is known for his offenses in Uganda, so brutal that very few Americans could take the time or imagination to fathom his egregious deeds. His name is found on the Most Wanted List for kidnapping around thirty-thousand Ugandan children between the ages of six and eighteen in order to supply soldiers for his army and for the purpose of slavery. The girls are used as sexual slaves, while the boys are mutilated and abused as they are kept away from home and forced to fight other unauthorized armies in Uganda. Just for the fun in it he will force them to commit murders on their own friends and families. This is blatantly a horrifying issue, however very few are educated about it. As a result, Kony’s dirty work continues on as Americans remain ignorant and self-consumed.
“We must remember always that accusation is not proof and that conviction depends upon evidence and due process of law.” This statement still stands true in our nation today and is taken a lot more seriously than it was in 1954, when this speech was broadcasted. Now, everybody is given a completely fair trial and accusations don’t matter in the long run, no matter how big the accusations are. Just look at the Casey Anthony trial that took place over the summer. Nearly the whole nation was against Casey, who pleaded innocent to the murder of her own daughter. There were all kinds of protests against her freedom, however in the end, she was found innocent because there was no evidence that proved her guilty. The accusations may have been a factor against Casey as a person, but they did not affect her case, which would probably have made the person who wrote that speech quite proud of where America is today.
“If we confuse dissent with disloyalty”, this statement can be related to what’s going on today in the presidential race. President Obama has argued that Republican candidate, Mitt Romney was against spending the money to track down Osama Bin Laden. Although, Romney’s opinion is quite different from the majority of the people of the U.S, this doesn’t mean people can call him un-American and disloyal, which is what is happening. His opposing opinion on the subject doesn’t make him a traitor to those who disagree with him. It just means that he has a different view point on the matter with
reasoning for those views.
“This instrument can teach, it can illuminate; yes, and it can even inspire.” I think that in recent times, the television has been proved to be very useful and informing to Americans, depending on what channel is being watched, of course. A personal example for me is the show American Idol. Millions of people watch American Idol and almost every season, American Idol does a fundraiser called, “Idol Gives Back”. Throughout the years of “Idol Gives Back”, I’ve been introduced to many places in Africa, whose people have to live in terrible conditions, fighting terrible diseases and hunger. I’ve even learned about places in the U.S. that are going through rough times and needed help. I’ve learned what these people have had to go through which has inspired me to think of others before myself and I even donated money to “Idol Gives Back”. Television can definitely teach the American population a great deal, and not leave out the unpleasant information and I think as time goes on, television will improve on this even more.
When Murrow says “…accusation is not proof and that conviction depends upon evidence and due process of law” he makes an excellent point. People criticize the court system or the law today and even back during the Red Scare in America when someone widely believed or accused of committing a crime is set free with no convictions or punishment. Sometimes no matter how many people think someone has done something like committing a murder or being a communist if there are no facts that support those beliefs that person cannot be punished. During the Red Scare and the Cold War when people where being accused of being communists left and right a lot of those people had nothing to do with communism and people were just making wild accusations about it.
In no way do I promote communism but with so many people being punished for being or being accused of being a communist you are in a way taking away one of the major things that America was founded on. People are intitled to their opinion and when you take away their right to their own opinion with laws or codes you take away that right. When Murrow says “every act that denies or limits the freedom of the individual in this country costs us the . . . confidence of men and women who aspire to that freedom and independence of which we speak and for which our ancestors fought” he makes a good point. I understand communism is bad but people still have a right to believe in what they want or do what they want as long as they abide by certain laws and when that right is taken away it defeats the purpose of immigrants coming to America to have a shot at a new life and to be free.
In the last Excerpt from Morrow he talks about how a channel like CBS or NBC shows you only what they want you to hear. Those broadcasting companies only broadcast the views of that network not the entire truth because they know they have a lot of impact on people. This was true during the Cold War and is still true today. Shows like “The Daily Show” or “The Colbert Report” make fun of stations like Fox News for being bias to one side of a story.
“We can deny our heritage and our history, but we cannot escape responsibility for the result.”
I think that at this time, everything was changing and people didn’t really know what to believe anymore. People were changing their views of the world and some were being punished for it. But things changing in the future does not mean that we can change what has happened in the past. We may want to completely forget everything we were grounded to just years ago and forget all of it because some new idea came around, but we must remember that those beliefs were what got us to that point and we cannot just set them aside. We must keep the past in mind when we move into the future.
“Every act that denies or limits the freedom of the individual in this country costs us the . . . confidence of men and women who aspire to that freedom and independence of which we speak and for which our ancestors fought.”
I think that this quote speaks true to all periods in time. Back then, McCarthy was limiting the freedom that America promised to anyone who was a ‘communist’ or people who were just suspected or knew a suspected ‘communist’. This was completely contradicting the freedoms people thought America would give them. People are supposed to feel comfortable with their belief and trust that they won’t be punished for them, like suspected communists were in the 1950s by McCarthy. This will never change though; there will always be a group of people with beliefs that others don’t agree with. This problem is happening all the time, all over the world, and it doesn’t seem to be disappearing.
“This instrument can teach, it can illuminate; yes, and it can even inspire. But it can do so only to the extent that humans are determined to use it to those ends. Otherwise it is merely wires and lights in a box.”
Murrow’s speech at the Radio-Television News Directors Association in 1953 gave me the impression that American’s have a lot of opportunities to be ‘in the know’ but don’t have the motivation to. He makes a point that we have this great invention, the television, that can inspire us and could be used as a weapon, as Murrow says. In the 50s, Americans were living in what seemed to be a perfect little bubble. Everyone was living the ‘American- dream’ and didn’t realize what else was going on in the world. Murrow is trying to tell us that with the television in our hands, we have the ability to know what is going on in the world, not just in our little bubble. If we use it for the right reasons, we will be better for it.
The quote, “We must not confuse dissent with Disloyalty” from the See it Now broadcast of 1954, specifically applies to the McCarthy era; not everyone agreed with McCarthy, but that didn’t mean they were Communists. People rarely spoke against McCarthy because they were afraid of being accused of communism. This can also be applied to today’s society in both political and social situations. A prime example includes the occupy movements around the country. Their main goal is to have the common expenses of our country distributed more evenly. For example, major corporations use and worsen our country’s infrastructure much more than the average American. Yet, the middle class is always expected to pay for repairs. The occupy movements are trying to draw attention to the flaws of our government. This doesn’t mean that they don’t love their country; they are just looking for changes that will benefit the majority of Americans.
Quote: “Every act that denies or limits the freedom of the individual in this country costs us the… confidence of men and women who aspire to that freedom and independence of which we speak and for which our ancestors fought”
It seems as though freedom of speech and opinion was disregarded during the McCarthy era. Americans were afraid to speak their minds and express their views in fear of being “outed” as a Communist. This relates to one of today’s most controversial issues: gay marriage. America is supposed to be the land of the free and the home of the brave. By denying two people the right to get married -no matter what genders- we are denying our civil liberties and freedoms granted in our constitution that so many brave men and women fought for.
Quote: “There are, it is true, occasional informative programs presented in that intellectual ghetto on Sunday afternoons. But during the daily peak viewing periods, television in the main insulates us from the realities of the world in which we live.”
The television and radio were used as powerful instruments of communication during the McCarthy era. However, during the daily peak viewing periods, these tools were used to shield the Americans from the harsh realities of their society. Even today, people would rather watch entertaining programs, such as Jersey Shore, The Real Housewives of New Jersey, and Keeping up with the Kardashians instead of the C-SPAN, CNN, and other news broadcast because they don’t want to accept the “occasionally hard, unyielding realities of the world in which we live”.
1. “We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty.” Here, Murrow references the attitude toward communism during the time period of the broadcast. 60 years ago, if one disagreed with the actions of a popular public figure, one was a communist. Despite a complete overhaul of civil rights, technology, innovation, etc., our moral and social principles are very much the same now as they were then. Political parties and differences in opinion within the legislative branch are an example of this. ‘If one doesn’t agree with republican actions, one must be against all viewpoints of the Republican party.’ This type of selectivity, while not necessarily driving the nation apart, definitely places a wedge between those of conflicting opinion. In the legislature, if a congressman/woman poses a liberal or radical opinion, he or she could be ousted as crazy—i.e., liberal view of Sarah Palin (she’s radical, she’s Republican, therefore, she’s insane). In short, Murrow hit this right on—there are serious problems with politics.
2. “Every act that denies or limits the freedom of the individual in this country costs us the . . . confidence of men and women who aspire to that freedom and independence of which we speak and for which our ancestors fought.” Although this has less potency today than it did at the time it was spoken, the idea still holds. We call America a ‘free country,’ and like Murrow said, any act that denies or limits this freedom completely disregards the freedom our fathers built for us. To me, this falls under the category of history repeating itself—each time an unconstitutional act goes unprosecuted or the government/an organization restricts first amendment rights, the freedoms we’ve built for ourselves are weakened.
3. “We are currently wealthy, fat, comfortable and complacent. We have currently a built-in allergy to unpleasant or disturbing information. Our mass media reflect this.” This is ironic, because much like the previous quotes, Murrow’s analysis of American nature 60 years ago is much the same as it is today. Americans are perceived as wealthy, fat, and comfortable—even though many aren’t. For some of those in a stable (wealthy/fat/comfortable) situation, the application of the ‘out of sight, out of mind’ policy, aided by the media, continues to shorten the spectrum of public awareness. In the 1960s, unpleasant things were communist. Now, unpleasant things are swept under the rug.
Quote: “It is necessary to investigate before legislating, but the line between investigating and persecuting is a very fine one and the junior Senator from Wisconsin has stepped over it repeatedly. His primary achievement has been in confusing the public mind, as between the internal and the external threats of Communism. We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty. We must remember always that accusation is not proof and that conviction depends upon evidence and due process of law.
In this quote Edward R Murrow is talking about how the line between investigating and persecuting communists is practically nonexistent during this time; because of Joseph McCarthy constantly accusing others of communism without any proof. This can be related to today’s events because, we are searching and persecuting ‘terrorists’ before any act of terror are even committed. We are persecuting them when they are ‘planning the attack’. Since when did using the freedom of speech become a crime? That is exactly the point that Edward Murrow is trying to show the public. For example in an episode of NCIS, local cops just assumed that the killer (who was using bombs) was a terrorist just because he was an Iraqi man. If TV shows can pick up on this why can’t the rest of the public do the same? That’s what Edward Murrow is bringing to his viewers also.
Quote: “If we deny the essence of racial equality then hundreds of millions in Asia and Africa who are shopping about for a new allegiance will conclude that we are concerned to defend a myth and our present privileged status.”
In this quote Edward R Murrow is talking about how McCarthy (and others) would accuse foreigners of being communists just because they we not born in the US. Today we are accusing foreigners of being terrorists. But instead of them being from Africa and Asia, today they are from the Middle East. Today we are accusing people from the Middle East of being terrorists just by the way they look.
Quote: “This instrument can teach, it can illuminate; yes, and it can even inspire. But it can do so only to the extent that humans are determined to use it to those ends. Otherwise it is merely wires and lights in a box. There is a great and perhaps decisive battle to be fought against ignorance, intolerance and indifference. This weapon of television could be useful.”
In this quote Edward R Murrow is telling us that television can be more than just lights and wires in a box but it can be used as a weapon. He is referring to how news about communists on the television can help to keep people in line. It can also be used to shape and change people’s opinions. Today you will see commercials for Mitt Romney, Governor Snyder, and other political figures trying to win you votes by trashing the vote that opposes theirs. They use television as a weapon against their opponent by trying to mold your mind into thinking them: good opponent: bad.
“Not from men who feared to write, to speak, to associate, and to defend causes that were for the moment unpopular”. In reference to the men who founded this country, those men did not fear doing anything they wanted. However, if we look at society nowadays, we see people who are afraid to speak on a personal level. Our society is continually reaching towards a more electronic-based means of communication enough so that even families will not be able to face each other without a screen in between them. Furthermore, people are afraid to face those who disagree with themselves if they disagree on a certain level. The fanatics that are constantly speaking out against things they don’t like are obviously not afraid, but those who want to retaliate are. The controversial debates over abortion, marijuana, and gay marriage re fought only by the loudest and those willing to be loud, not by the majority who are quiet.
“Every act that denies or limits the freedom of the individual in this country costs us the…confidence of men and women who aspire to that freedom and independence of which we speak and for which our ancestors fought”. Just how true this statement is at the moment is truly mind blowing. From SOPA and PIPA for the Internet to the Patriot Act for detentions, the U.S. government wants to censor the people more and more. Make us docile and restrict us to certain “government-approved” activities; essentially, George Orwell’s 1984 where Big Brother is always watching, and you believe what you hear from the “benevolent” government. Every act that the government passes that makes it harder for citizens to do anything greatly undermines the want for new, brilliant, creative minds to come into the country.
“And we must at all costs shield the sensitive citizens from anything that is unpleasant”. A satirical method to describe just how censured media really is; it’s funny since most people haven’t seen too much blood or alcohol in American cartoons nowadays. In Animal Farm, blood, death, and alcohol are common thanks to little censorship. In commercials where we see starving kids, we don’t see the ones that are covered in flies, the ones fighting over a bowl of rice. Some our news which is broadcasted is just crap, i.e. most of Fox News (to which few listen anyways). We are being censured more and more as life progresses.
Alex Saenz
5-1-12
2nd
Blog #34
Quote: “We will not be driven by fear into an age of unreason, if we dig deep in our history and our doctrine; and remember that we are not descended from fearful men. Not from men who feared to write, to speak, to associate, and to defend causes that were for the moment unpopular.”
To me, this quote represents how we live now. Now, we have the freedom of speech and we can say and do whatever we want, for the most part. If someone has something they want to say, they won’t get in trouble for saying it. Back then, if people said something that the government didn’t like, then they would be accused and probably thrown in jail. Currently, people don’t get in trouble for imposing their beliefs on the community. When people would say things that made them sound like communists or input the idea that they supported communism, they would get into big trouble with the government. In the quote, it says that we will not be driven by fear and not be afraid to speak, write, associate, and defend what we believe in. Our society sets good examples of this, because we hear different voices everyday from around the world.
Quote: “if we deny the essence of racial equality then hundreds of millions in Asia and Africa who are shopping about for a new allegiance will conclude that we are concerned to defend a myth and our present privileged status.”
Back then, we used to not treat everybody as equals. People around the globe saw America as hypocritical, unconcerned, and as liars. In Europe, they used to say, “Why go to America when they don’t even treat the citizens they have fairly?” If this started happening again, other nations would stop helping us, stop asking for help, and probably ignore us altogether. Countries would not believe in us anymore. Many nations would be certain that America is only worried about looking good, or trying to be better, quicker, more advanced than other nations. They would think that we are not concerned about anyone else in the world except ourselves. Today, we are a little cocky, but not as much as back then.
Quote: “We are currently wealthy, fat, comfortable and complacent.”
America is very well off compared to many other countries around the globe. America is fat, literally, because many Americans are extremely overweight. America is also fat because we have more money than many other countries. Most people in America are better off, eat every day, have many objects/possessions. We do not have to worry about small things, like, getting food, getting water, school, showers, etc. We are more advanced than many other nations and more of everything. America is also “comfortable” because again, we don’t have to worry about small things. We can go about our day to day business and just get it done. After, we come home where we have everything we need and more. Americans also use an excessive amount of things; sometimes we use so much things get wasted. We should consider ourselves extremely lucky compared to most other people around the world.
“We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty.”
This could go either way, especially in the 1950’s because this is when the United States and the Soviet Union were in the beginning/middle of the Cold War. There are people in the American Government (The Majority) who believe that we should keep producing these weapons and always stay ahead of the Soviets. These people want more Weapons of mass destruction to be made and to have bigger and more powerful weapons than the Soviets. On the other hand there are officials who don’t think that making these weapons is not necessary. Right away Government personal and the American public will say that these officials are disloyal and they are supporting Communism. This how insecure the American people were of another “Red Scare.” People did not want butt kicking ‘Merica to become a communist state like the Soviet Union.
“We have currently a built-in allergy to unpleasant or distributing information.”
Yes, America loves to give out information to people and that information is usually not very good. In this time Americans wanted to live a life after five years of war. All Americans dreamed of a suburban house that had two stories, a safe and fun neighborhood to raise the kids and a nice job in the city that was a half hour away. However America was not like that because we always say stuff about countries that those countries will not like to hear. For example the cold war, here we have Americans and Soviets competing to make bigger, smarter, and more lethal weapons. The Unites States makes a hydrogen bomb, then we say we make one and then the Soviets say they make one and then they test it for the world to see. American people thought they had it great going into the late fifties but in all the American Government was not doing that good of a job on foreign affairs.
“I do not advocate that we turn into a 27-inch wailing wall, where longhairs constantly moan the state of our culture and our defense.”
Media is so misleading. When I watch shows like Workaholics, this does not help me at all. While Workaholics is hilarious and makes me want to live in a party atmosphere for the rest of my life, I don’t accomplish anything from watching that show. This does not tell me about all of the starvation that is happening in Somalia, or killings in Central Africa, or working conditions in China. There should be a lot less shows like Workaholics or Tosh.O and be a lot more History channel types of shows or a show that talk about all of the new current events in the world. Ohh wait we have something like that called World News with Diane Sawyer. People should watch more shows like this to put them back into the real world.
“We proclaim ourselves, as indeed we are, the defenders of freedom, wherever it continues to exist in the world, but we cannot defend freedom abroad by deserting it at home.” This is basically saying that we can’t tell other countries how to be free when America isn’t completely free. America is freer than most countries, people have the freedom of speech, and press, and many other civil liberties. There are also many restrictions on how people live their lives. For example, gay marriage is illegal in a majority of states. The freedom of same sex marriage should be defended.
“Every act that denies or limits the freedom of the individual in this country costs us… confidence of men and women who aspire to that freedom and independence of which we speak and for which our ancestors fought.” Many Americans have become corrupt and selfish. The cheat others and judge them for their views. People are jailed or fined for doing what they believe in. So many Americans died for this country. The pilgrims came here for a fresh start so they could be free. American’s fought for their independence from Britain and again for the end of slavery in the civil war. Our ancestors were at constant battle trying to make this country free for everyone, but people still have to live with their beliefs hidden. In the ‘50s people could be jailed for saying or doing things that made them seem like communists. Now today people are questioned and investigated if they talk about, or even just look like terrorists. People should be able to say what they feel without the fear of being questioned on their views.
“We have currently built-in allergy to unpleasant or disturbing information.” When we hear something we don’t want to hear we just block it out. If we pretend like it isn’t happening, then it isn’t. People look toward the media and television to help support that. They want to be told what they want to hear. That way they can live their lives in happy obliviousness. What should be done though is that people should be told the truth. Things about war and government shouldn’t be glossed over to hide what is really going on. Maybe if people were forced to see the truth they would be more likely to do something about it. That was the intentions of Murrow on CBS. He felt that if he could show the people how unjust the attacks on the so called “communist like people” then finally the craziness would end.
“We will not walk in fear, one of another. We will not be driven by fear into an age of unreason… and remember that we are not descended from fearful men. Not from men who feared to write, to speak, to associate, and to defend causes that were for the moment unpopular.” I think this quote is extremely powerful, as it is a direct blow in the gut of McCarthyism. McCarthy’s rapid accusations put America into a state of Communistic fear, even though McCarthy never presented evidence to support his claims. This quote signifies that America was founded by men and women who put aside fear to build a new nation, and a new life for themselves that hosted the freedoms that were unachievable in Britain. If the colonists can defeat all odds to prosper in the New World, then they cannot have produced future generations that would live in habitual fear produced by one man. This quote shows that America was ready to quit fearing one another and begin to push McCarthy’s Commie tornado and the Red scare out of their minds. McCarthy’s downfall soon after showed that America followed through with this belief that they no longer needed to doubt the loyalty of their neighbours, family, and friends.
“Every act that denies or limits the freedom of the individual in this country costs us the . . . confidence of men and women who aspire to that freedom and independence of which we speak and for which our ancestors fought.” This quote, similar to the quote chosen from the first speech, shows that not only did Communist accusations cost America its trust and made its loyalty questionable, it took away from the reputation of freedom and liberty that our country proudly holds. Every time people were accused and blacklisted, it displayed yet another act of limitation of freedom, which was hard-fought for by the first peoples of the Thirteen Colonies.
“Our history will be what we make it.” Although many may not have found this as significant as I, the power I found in this quote lies in the truth value of this quote during this specific time period. The Communist scare could have shaped our country into a place much different of today, and had these accusations continued to be believed, America could have fell into a dystopia state where people were constantly deported and blacklisted all because of one man’s unproved accusation. Luckily, we did not cave into the pressure of the blacklist, and instead we rose up and brought down McCarthy.
“We will not walk in fear, one of another. We will not be driven by fear into an age of unreason, if we dig deep in our history and our doctrine; and remember that we are not descended from fearful men.”
It is interesting that only 50 years prior to today, people were talking about how we are not a nation driven by fear. Interesting why? Because today, we are growing up and living in a nation driven by fear. Fear of competition, fear of economic downfall, fear of terrorism. We are constantly fighting for our competitive edge now; everyday other nations threaten our national safety and security.
“Every act that denies or limits the freedom of the individual in this country costs us the . . . confidence of men and women who aspire to that freedom and independence of which we speak and for which our ancestors fought.”
It seems like this quote is saying that with every act the government makes limiting our freedom we lose the individuality and confidence of the American people. In a world of social media and networking, it has become as easy for an individual to become confident in his words, as it is to be lost in his independence. Murrow was right in saying that the American people should be able to speak freely and openly about their views.
“We are currently wealthy, fat, comfortable and complacent. We have currently a built-in allergy to unpleasant or disturbing information. Our mass media reflect this. But unless we get up off our fat surpluses and recognize that television in the main is being used to distract, delude, amuse and insulate us, then television and those who finance it, those who look at it and those who work at it, may see a totally different picture too late.”
This quote is so relevant to our world today. There are many parallels from the 50’s to the twenty first century. It points out how we only see what we want to see. We allow ourselves to be brainwashed and convinced to look the other way by the media. It’s sad how still, today, in a world where freedom of speech is everywhere and people are encouraged more than ever to stand up for their rights do they completely ignore them. The American people are still ignorant of the world around them and complacent with whatever happens as long as they are not affected.
Quote: “We proclaim ourselves, as indeed we are, the defenders of freedom, wherever it continues to exist in the world, but we cannot defend freedom abroad by deserting it at home.”
I think this quote means that we can’t make other countries impose freedom while we can’t even impose it in our own country. This can be compared to our time with the wars in other countries in the Middle East. Like in Iraq, we tried to help their people have freedom so they could have better lives. We can’t even do this in our own country because there is still racism. It doesn’t matter what color a person is but we can’t control another countries people if we can’t even give our own people equal rights. Like in the Trayvon Martin case, someone was killed for the color of their skin and the person who murdered Trayvon almost got away with it.
Quote: “Every act that denies or limits the freedom of the individual in this country costs us the . . . confidence of men and women who aspire to that freedom and independence of which we speak and for which our ancestors fought.”
This quote shows that denying somebody’s freedom in our country makes people lose their own confidence and makes their yearning for freedom and independence lesser than our ancestors’. For example, the Trayvon case had someone looked at suspiciously for the color of their skin and they were murdered for that reason. This caused uproar with every race because Trayvon was killed for no rightful reason. This made people lose their confidence in celebrating freedom and independence because there are still people getting denied their freedom even though we as Americans should be yearning for freedom as our ancestors’ did. It makes no sense that we have tried to set our differences aside for the longest but that still isn’t working because events like this case still happen.
Quote: “There is a great and perhaps decisive battle to be fought against ignorance, intolerance and indifference. This weapon of television could be useful.”
This quote shows that even if people try to fight how they present things to the public, the truth will still eventually show through the ignorance of some shows. This is shown in today’s kid shows that come on T.V. like Barney, Sesame Street, and Power Rangers. These shows are all fake to reality and mislead kids into thinking that you will always have a happy ending to an event in your life time. I mean, I’m not saying make the kids watch the news channels all the time but make those types of shows more realistic so the kids can understand things that may happen to them in their lifetimes. Networkers want to make money and they want these kids to keep watching their shows so they can get their pay so that probably won’t happen. Then when you turn on the news, people want to get all mad because they don’t want to see the harsh realities of life and that shows the ignorance of some people.
Taken from the broadcast on March 9, 1954, it states, “We must remember always that accusation is not proof and that conviction depends upon evidence and due process of law.” I, personally, believe this is one of the most powerful statements on the entire paper. Thirty years ago, our society had inadequate DNA testing in solving violent crimes; thus, many wrongfully accused were convicted. Now that technology and science has developed enough for us to strive ahead, we are able to verify the validity in each case. Thirty years ago and even before that (like the Salem witch trials), the court relied on hear-say evidence, making it possible for anyone to accuse another of an indecent action. Today, we are able to right the wrongs made; we can look back and realize our mistakes, by trusting solely on verbal and unreliable evidence. The Ford Fiftieth Anniversary Show, CBS and NBC, on June of 1953, states, “…if we deny the right of the individual to be wrong, unpopular, eccentric, or unorthodox…” This quote is very easy to justify in today’s society. To start, the United States is filled to the brim with unpopular and wrong celebrities and politicians (if you consider “wrong” includes changing opinions during certain presidential campaigns…). Celebrities – the individuals we place on a high pedestal to admire and strive to be like – are extremely eccentric. Lastly, unorthodox decisions are made on a daily basis in our society, which causes controversial outbursts (such as the discussion of abortion – assuming it is religious unorthodox). Finally, the speech at Radio-Television News Directors Association in Chicago on October 15, 1958, states in the final line, “This weapon of television could be useful.” This very powerful statement made can be not only looked at from the viewpoint of television alone, but also technology in general. Over half a century has passed since that speech was made, and I don’t think anyone could have imagined the types of televisions we have today, or the computers, medical and scientific advancements, or handheld devices. The weapon of television has allowed us to have not only biased spokespeople filling our screens but also intellectuals at the click of the remote. It’s been said that the revolution in Egypt was started through Facebook, a major social network and what I would consider an extremely important advancement on our society. Each statement can be applied in someway or another to our world’s political or social situations.
Quote: “We cannot defend freedom abroad by deserting it at home”.
This quote from the See it Now broadcast, given on March 9, 1954, is about how if we are giving up our freedoms here in America, the land of the free, then how can we possibly fight for freedom abroad. I find similarities of this saying to some of our freedoms that are being challenged today. For example there were many uprisings and protesting of the SOPA and PIPA acts that Congress was trying to pass. These acts would limit our freedom of speech, one of our most important freedoms. Then aren’t we being hypocritical when we put soldiers out to war for them to help other countries earn freedom?
Quote: “Every act that denies or limits the freedom of the individual in this country costs us the . . . confidence of men and women who aspire to that freedom and independence of which we speak and for which our ancestors fought.”
This quote, from the Ford Fiftieth Anniversary Show on June 1953, shows how one misstep can set everything this country has worked for, crashing down. Many countries and people admire and strive for the democracy that America thrives under. If we do something that would cost us our freedom, then the country and people would lose faith in democracy and no longer make every effort for it. This is very relevant to our current situation because with the scares and threats of terrorists, people end up making rash decisions. You sometimes here stories of army officers torturing suspected terrorists without even a trial. When stories like these come out, it reminds everyone that America isn’t perfect. It’s unfortunate that America has worked so hard on becoming a nation where people can live without the fear of being killed for what they say or think and then sometimes people get ostracized for their opinions.
Quote: “We have currently a built-in allergy to unpleasant or disturbing information.”
This quote, from the speech at Radio-Television News Directors Association given on October 1958, says a lot about Americans. This quote reigns true even today. Americans shut themselves out from anything unpleasant or disturbing. It is amazing to me that someone may know more about Kim Kardashian’s love life or what songs were sung on Glee, than about the current state of our economy. People use distractions to cover up bad information that we do not want to think about. Many people function around the idea that if a situation isn’t directly related to you, then you don’t have to worry about fixing it. People need to be aware about the situation of the world around you. You can’t ignore Global Warming or poverty, you must learn what you can about it because you may be the one with the ideas to fix it.