Many wordsmiths have been credited with the saying, “never argue with a man that buys ink by the gallon,” but I heard it first from our smalltown newspaper’s owner and journalist. But thinking back — and having read The Crothersville Times forever — I don’t remember him taking sides on issues even though I’m 100% positive he had opinions on a whole lot of things he reported on.
It’s not that way anymore — not the ink nor the reporting. You now have social media influencers with great outreach and they don’t adhere to ethics or fair reporting. Once reputable media outlets now cross lines of fairness and unbiased reporting is lost. I was happy to see the arrest of Don Lemon. No matter which side of the political arena you stand on, that was wrong. It was a church and he obviously had an agenda.
And the score is… Jesus – 1 : Don Lemon – 0
Fact checking is a thing of the past and AI is boss.
Take for example, MS NOW (formerly MSNBC). They used an AI-enhanced version of Alex Pretti’s portrait sourced from the internet in their reporting. If the dude looks more wholesome, ICE agents look more sinister, I guess?
AI was also on full display to garner support on the Senate floor. Democratic U.S. Senator Dick Durbin used an AI-generated image during a speech relating to the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti that he sourced from the Internet. Durbin thought it was real… even though one of the ICE agents had no head. (Does his assistant hate him? Durbin wasn’t the one at Kinko’s getting a big ole’ print made.) Claiming “the photo tells the story,” he didn’t realize how right he was on that.
Not facts — manipulation. And I’m not even going to go there with Vogue’s manipulated photo of Ariana Grande — they think people are so stupid they wouldn’t notice she had 6 fingers on one hand? Good grief!
Website hacked and I’m even ok with that.
As a person that’s worked creating websites for years, I detest hacking. But doxxing is wrong. It’s never ok to publicly share another person’s private information (like their home address, phone number, or workplace) online to harass, threaten, or endanger them. That’s why when the website whose claim to fame is the biggest compilation of ICE agent data was hacked, I wasn’t sorry to hear of it.
The hackers even left a message for its visitors. (Currently, it’s showing a 404 error — yes, I looked.)
Right about now you may be thinking that my opinions above are merely political. But I promise you, they’re not. It’s common sense really…
- I want to formulate my own opinions based upon facts.
- Doxxing people doing their job — no matter if you agree with what they’re doing or not — endangers them and others. Stop that shit.
- Churches are off limits. Protest outside if you want, but don’t disrupt worship.
And finally, on a personal level…
I can’t imagine living anyplace near where protesters are playing band instruments and blowing rape whistles 24/7. Instead of peacefully chilling, all 3 of my dogs would be flipping their ever lovin’ shit.
Now you know: In the U.S., protesting inside a church service is not protected by the First Amendment. Churches are private property and there are laws that prohibit intentionally disrupting religious worship.