gofar99 Messages: 1950 Registered: May 2010 Location: Southern Arizona
Illuminati (5th Degree)
Hi Everyone. I have started to wonder ..... (bad thing for an older dude) about the shortage of bees to pollinate crops. If that is the case, how come all the weeds in my back yard are doing just fine?
Wayne Parham Messages: 18791 Registered: January 2001
Illuminati (33rd Degree)
LOL! Yeah, we want the uglies to die off! Not the good stuff!
Jokes aside, I can remember about ten years ago when bee populations plummeted. The hyper-mania-media, of course, jumped on that and said it was likely caused by insecticides or some other man-made threat. But it wasn't true. The hives were being killed by a common threat, one that has plagued bees since before man started farming them: The Varroa Destructor mite. They just happened to be really bad that year.
The AGDAILY website has a rational and realistic take on the subject:
It's just one of many things that the hyper-mania-media has exaggerated to a crescendo to give them something exciting to say. Gotta sell papers, ads and other stuff. Extra! Extra! Read all about it!
Journalism as it was practiced 50 years ago no longer exists. There are several reasons.
The Fairness Doctrine was repealed. Up until it was gone any reporting that featured one party had to include the other. After it was repealed it became possible to target information to a particular demographic, hence Fox and MSNBC. As if feeding people only info they want to hear wasn't bad enough, the "news" sources degenerated into broadcasting opinion (and later outright lies) rather than right or left leaning factual reporting.
The decline of newspapers has lead to the decline of quality reporting. Failing newspapers lay off staff and begin to run nothing but wire service stories. Newspaper reporters were generally the ones that dug up important stories, many of these helped keep local government officials in check. No reporters means nobody is watching the hen house. TV news was also fairly dependent on the local newspapers as a source of news and that has gone away so TV has even less substance than it did 40 years ago.
The 24 hour news cycle means that editors no longer have a few hours to fact check stories as they have to air/post stories constantly. They run stories too quickly and over hype them for ratings. It's a deadly combination.
Finally, social media really gets in the way of distributing quality news and information. It's superb for innuendo, snark and opinion but tends to roll over facts. It really bulldozes facts.
There's a lot that lead to the decline of journalism. We're all poorer for it.
Rusty Messages: 1192 Registered: May 2018 Location: Kansas City Missouri
Illuminati (3rd Degree)
So, so true Barryso. Great reporting. And, I'm watching as I reply, CBS Sunday Morning addressing the plight of over 2 million Americans throughout this country that have no municipal running water. Basic utilities. All while the Fed shores up the stock market with what could amount to trillions. I'm glad though the honey bees aren't endangered. Guess it's more news worthy to know what Taylor Swift is up to on an almost daily basis.
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