Don't bother getting informed until you know who's informing you.

(Note: Many of you are used to my writing specifically about Mahwah and the current headlines with which we are dealing. I assure you, I am working on a very detailed article but it requires a lot of research and time that I, unfortunately, do not have that much of these days. I hope you will find value in the following, however, as I feel it is still highly applicable to us all.)

After massacre at Sandy Hook a few years back, I felt a fundamental shift inside of myself. That event was so horrific that even today, I don't have the words to describe how it made me feel and the last impact it has had on how I view the world. It was at that time when I realized I needed to somehow get more involved. I wasn't sure exactly how but one thing was for certain, to get involved, I first needed to get informed.

I looked to the media and read countless articles, one after the other, many of which were nothing more than opinion pieces masquerading as legitimate news. Almost just as often, I would read reports that only shared one perspective...one side of a story. I thought it was me...maybe I was missing something. I asked myself, how is this news? I decided to take a timeout from attempting to become informed, focusing instead on first understanding who it was, exactly, that was doing the informing.

And no matter on which side of the aisle a person sat, no matter their view of the world, it was clear that if they looked hard enough, they'd find some publication or reporter/blogger to validate their opinions and perspectives.

Fast-forward to today and there are a few, indisputable facts that we must address-

1. I've mentioned this quote from Daniel Kahneman before- "people no longer believe facts, they believe experts." When a person either says what someone else wants to hear or simply by their sitting in front of a camera, they become an authority and reputable source. It is ridiculous and if I wanted this article to double in length, I'd share examples.
2. Journalism is dead...true journalism. There are a few stragglers out there but overall, investigative reporting is gone. Why? Well, let's consider our local community alone. USA Today Local owns 27 OF THE 27 main news publications and/or websites in our area. News Corp, owned by Rupert Murdoch owns over 150 publications, worldwide. There are then those assets which are owned by Comcast and Time Warner. "While independent media outlets still exist (and there are a lot of them), the major outlets are almost all owned by these six conglomerates. To be clear, "media" in this context does not refer just to news outlets — it refers to any medium that controls the distribution of information. So here, "media" includes 24-hour news stations, newspapers, publishing houses, Internet utilities, and even video game developers(1)." I implore you to view this infographic. Seeing a graphical representation of the impact of so few, controlling so much, is completely shocking.
3. People don't appreciate the role media has played or what its original intention was, historically. When I think about the role media has played in our country, Edward R. Murrow always comes to mind. If you have never seen it, I highly suggest watching the biography of his life and career. It is amazing. His program, See It Now, is a shining example of what should constitute, true journalism. His achievements in stopping the anticommunist persecutions led by Senator Joseph McCarthy is a prime example of this. The original purpose of journalism was to keep us informed which, in turn, would allow us to keep elected officials, as well as others, liable for their decisions.

In today's world, the six conglomerates (referenced above) are owned by individuals and/or majority shareholders who are also major campaign contributors to politicians. At the same time, these companies are also recipients of major amounts of money for airing/publishing political campaign advertising. As slaves to their corporate owners and biggest advertisers, they will either mislead viewers/readers by sharing only half of a story (the half that doesn't make their advertisers or political friends look bad) or by ignoring topics, completely.

At this point, I could go in a few directions here. I can share examples of everything I've written above but in doing so, I would have to name politicians or political parties and despite my criticisms having nothing to do with policy, people are too protective of what they want to hear, from those they deem to be experts- even if they have never proved themselves as being such.

Instead, I'm going to remain completely objective and pose a few challenges to whoever reads this. You don't have to let me know if you attempt any of these but I'd sure appreciate hearing from you-

• Learn the reality. Ask your kids, spouse, students, neighbors- anyone you can find...and pose one of these questions to them. Please take note of how long it takes them to arrive at an answer-
• Name three of the NJ or NY Housewives
• Name three of the Yankees/Mets or players on whichever team you like most
  
  Take whichever answer you received and now ask that same person to tell you who the Vice President of the US is and then who their local state legislators are. Maybe you can ask them the difference between the Senate and the House in DC. Which answer did they arrive at the fastest? Did they even know these answers?
  
  If you have never looked up Jimmy Kimmel's Liewitness News on YouTube, check it out. Here's one of my favorites. These are not staged and frankly, if you believe these folks represent the exception and not the rule...I've got some ice to sell to you in the Arctic.

• Educate your kids. I think we need to bring more kids to our council meetings or at the very least, get them to become familiar with elected officials, if only by name and purpose. Let's shift the dynamic and try to get the next generation of adults in our communities to make involvement in their local government a priority. Do they know who is running for Governor? Do they even know what the Governor does? No assumptions here. If they do, that's awesome. I applaud and appreciate you for your efforts.

• Send a message to USA Today Local
  • Add an ad blocker to your browser. These are available for most browsers (mobile and desktop). If you don't know how to add one, please send me a private message or ask your favorite computer guru for some help. Ad blocking will prevent sites such as nj.com from profiting off of you.
  • If you have a paid subscription, please consider cancelling it until such time as the company begins to report in a fair and balanced way in both print and online. Please consider, "Opinion" sections do not always appear in print editions and are not treated or perceived as being at the same level of importance as those labeled as articles/columns.
• Send a message to advertisers. If only I had the time, I'd do it myself. We need someone to stand up, who can spare the time, to gather a list of advertisers who support USA Today Local and start a very vocal boycott. Between our communities, others in different parts of New Jersey, New York, throughout Rockland, Westchester, and beyond, the only way media companies will change their behaviors is when they realize they are losing money. That is all they care about- they have no morals or integrity.
• Print articles and share them. Whether they are my articles or others you have found...there are over 20,000 residents in Mahwah and several others in the towns around us, who are not online and are either in the dark, completely, or are misinformed as their only source for news is the printed paper.
• Have conversations. Go to senior communities, stop a neighbor on the street, host an event at your house or business and invite speakers. There are plenty of people in our community who are willing and eager to speak.
• Offer your proficiencies. Everyone is busy but our communities are filled with truly brilliant people. From lawyers and marketers, to business professionals and more, there is no good reason why we can't ensure our voices are heard without needing to raise funds.
• Call people out and be ready with facts. I am not surprised by some of the false information being spread about our communities. What makes me the most sad, however, is when I see how many people will so willingly accept comments on face value from specific people and then thank them for sharing...bad information! OPRA requests, for example, are a great resource as a step towards the truth. They do not (necessarily) represent actual events or the truth, however. Because an email shows a Police Chief making a statement about someone else's behavior does not, on its own, confirm anything. That's called circumstantial evidence. But when people find an email or person who validates what they want to validate, they accept it as fact.
  
  If you don't have the facts you need or are not certain yourself, contact me or someone else whom you trust to help you in sourcing definitive and conclusive information.

These six conglomerates get away with all that they do, as do politicians for two primary reasons-

• As the media is no longer providing us with the information we need to hold our government officials accountable, they do whatever they want and we never notice.
• Lobbying is a serious problem in this country but in the case of Sandy Hook, a major reason there were no changes to gun legislation was that the only group lobbying Congress (at least, lobbying them in a loud and organized way) at the time, was the NRA. 63%(2) of Americans are in favor of revisions to gun laws but how many of these folks were coming together to lobby Congress? I am not making a political statement here. Whether you are for or against the Second Amendment is not the point. The point is, if so many Americans wanted something done about a law, where were they? Actually, where are they? Candlelight vigils are nice and important but they do not substitute for or send any convincing message to those who control our laws. Elected officials, on average, spend 6-8 hours per day making calls or attending meetings to ask for donations(3). They care about exactly one thing...money. I'm happy to share more examples of this should it be of interest. Feel free to write to me if you would like more info.

As noted above, what we need to do more than anything is take a timeout from partisanship, come together as Americans and realize that while it is OK to disagree on policy, it is quite another for decisions to be made by elected officials based on whoever it was that gave them the largest donation. And again, often times, these contributions come from one of the Big Six (Look up Net Neutrality if you would like a prime example of why they make these donations).

We cannot change people or their minds. It is an exercise in futility to try and rationalize with an irrational person. The energy being placed by some to defend themselves and their towns against others is arguably better placed by helping the majority of our community become better informed. I don't mean that we should all go out and share our opinions and stances. What I believe is most important is to remain objective and share factual information with which people can make up their own minds. Good people will choose to be on the right side of history. Let them discover it for themselves. It is the only way to ensure an emotional connection is established between these folks and the matters at hand.

I look forward to hearing from you and thank you for reading.

-Brian

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Sidebar- These concerns transcend news media. One of my biggest passions in life is to try and educate others as to the damage pop culture is doing to our kids and society as a whole. Pop music may be fun and what I am not trying to imply is that you shouldn't enjoy it. But music, art, and history are important to our American culture, as well as in the cognitive development of our kids. Even if you hate it, consider bringing your kids to the Philharmonic in the city, a museum, show them the culture that MTV is depriving them of today. This video does a fantastic job at explaining, at least, some of the impact pop music alone is having on our kids.

(1) https://www.webpagefx.com/data...

(2) http://www.businessinsider.com...

(3) https://www.termlimits.com/con...