Censored 2009 Fini

Chapter 11 (First I have to say that the political cartoon is extremely powerful, very straight forward about our oil obsession.)
1. The survey on the most trusted news sources says something about the US people. BBC was one of the most trusted news sources but Al Jazeera was extremely low on the list, I believe this has something to do with the way our society is fixated on the Middle East being a terrible place and most people think of foreign news when they hear Al Jazeera.
Out of all the survey questions, one of the most indecisive for the voters was revealing the truth about 9/11. It still seems that most Americans feel that it is too early to question any of the details about that earthshaking day. All of these questions have more than 65 percent strongly agreeing when question number 7 has only half of the voters strongly agreeing and the largest percent of voters showing neutrality on the issue.
My question is...what are the options for creating knowledge about foreign opinions on important world topics that the US has a driving force in?
Chapter 12
1. Its weird that I’ve only seen the acronym IVAW a couple times before. It seems that the Iraq Veterans Against the War would make more headline news with protests but the mainstream news media turns their back on them i guess.
The term Stop Loss is new to me as well. Keeping these soldiers until they feel their time has been fulfilled seems a bit unethical. I’ve heard the term thrown around before, but the example they use in this chapter is terrible. A soldier that went through that much trauma, to return home and have mental issues seems rough. But attempting to bring him back into duty and the attempted suicide shows how some of the combatants are dealing with the war.
My question is...what kind of mental training programs do the soldiers go through before they are deployed, I’ve heard horror stories about post war problems but how well does the army prepare their troops mentally before hand?
Chapter 13
1. The parental approval for military service is down to 25 percent this year from 42 percent in 2003. I feel like a large reason for the hesitance is because of the way the US military is marketing and pushing themselves onto the public and the school system. If people wish to serve their country they will come forth and do so, all the advertising dollars spent seems to be wasteful and over the top when it comes to the US military.
Only 1 in 20 qualify for the higher learning bill through the armed forces. But advertisements say, “Join the Army and earn up to 70,000 dollars for college.” Its easy to look at the Army as the evil but American citizens need to be smarter too. When you see a vague add like that (up to 70,000) people need to research the facts and have deeper knowledge before they join if going to school is their intent.
My question is...if the armed forces spent less money on advertising themselves and pushed those dollars elsewhere, what should those funds be going to?
Chapter 14
1. Its absurd to silence the critics of politicians and government. This is why mainstream news doesn’t really inform us at all. With Dan Rather regretting his “blind nationalism” and Bill Mahr stating that the US are “cowards” we as citizens are only receiving more opinions that help us see two sides of a story. Bringing back the term “McCarthyism” is hilarious, but this is truly how the large conglomerates look at the naysayers.
I never realized that news media had such an affect on the Spanish American War. Hearst news led the charge creating the saying, “Remember the Maine and to Hell with Spain!” This shows just how important media can being during times of war.
My question is...news media has such a strong effect on the US people when we are at war, do you believe that with the mainstream US media pushing for withdrawal that it actually could happen?
Chapter 15
1. 46 percent of the US disapprove free trade agreements on the ground that they are making foreign multinationals richer and taking jobs from our citizens. I didn’t realize the free trade agreements had such a negative impact on the Latin American countries. In theory free trade sounds great but it seems that the Project Censored authors believe that the US is taking advantage of the agreement with the Americas.
In 1996 President Bill Clinton passed a little known federal law paving the way for a national identification card. When created in 1996 it was on page 650 of the bill and the legislation was moved through with very little fanfare or publicity.
My question is...After reading this book on censored stories in the US and seeing mainstream media shun these stories on a daily basis, how can we as Americans truly decide if the Censored Stories are propaganda or if the news we receive everyday is just a haze of lies and manipulation?