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Elsa P Rant: The Press Is Crap… Publishing To Manipulate, James Frey, Beanie Babies and What Do You See On The Horizon?
My eye on the sky
There have been a lot of interesting, thoughtful, passionate comments on the Robert Hanssen piece and I am glad of it. I feel very strongly about things like this and I feel so out of sync. I think what Pluto though Sagittarius has shown (among other things) is the press is crap.
“Truth” (Sagittarius) is manipulated (Pluto). People publish (Sagittarius) to gain power (Pluto). People’s beliefs (Sagittarius) are manipulated (Pluto) by what is published (Sagittarius) and if you don’t know this by now - Well you should. Oprah tricked by James Frey who wrote a book that would sell and who here is clean, hmm?
There a million articles on the ‘net telling people how to create content that will “sell”. How do you get an audience for your blog, hmm? Incorporate “google keywords”? ::laughs:: What’s that got to do with quality?
This is so ingrained it’s laughable if you’re watching it and I am watching it the same way I watched BEANIE BABIES
I saw the smartest people fall prey to that. For example I knew one gal who owned more than one business and she literally told me she expected the beanie babies she’d bought to pay for her daughter’s college education. Guess what I told her? SELLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL! But she didn’t sell. And because she didn’t sell I’m the dirty bitch but anyway, on this creating content to manipulate (anything), I got news for you. It’s over.
It’s over like Beanie Babies were over even though people will keep at it for awhile. But pretty soon people are going to want real information. They are simply not going to have time for crap so if you are in the crap business, look out.
What do you see on the horizon?
21 Responses to “Elsa P Rant: The Press Is Crap… Publishing To Manipulate, James Frey, Beanie Babies and What Do You See On The Horizon?”
Plus: people stop caring and simply occupying houses that are empty.
This has been on my mind constantly of late. I’m trying to feel how it will be next, what is on the horizon, and I can’t get my mind around it yet, despite thinking about this daily. How are we going to differentiate crap from true? I need a Good Housekeeping Seal of Authenticity, please. 
I think one element in a new order of things would have to be seperation of publishing entities from reliance on advertisers. The need to generate revenue - can easily corrupt. It’s like the financial industry - don’t go to a financial advisor who also sells products. Don’t get your facts from a source that has to generate money from ratings to get advertisers, etc. But who’s gonna do it for free? And the last thing we want is government run news. Okay, I’m rambling here and conversing with myself. But like I said, I’ve been obsessin’ about this.
I see people getting excited about growing their own food. Community gardens are already very popular in this city.
Sadly I also see clean water becoming so precious people will be paying to sip 2 ounces of it at a bar.
It drives me crazy how much water we waste in Canada. We seem to think we never have to worry about it. I feel so strongly about this I would advocate paying for it…a tariff that is because Canada is seriously so effen wasteful when it comes to water. It makes me ashamed.
I also see a lot more people bartering for goods and services as their access to “real money” declines. A trading sector, in the truest sense of word. But, I am a city gal…
One reason that the press is crap is that they’ve done away with the army of copy editors who fact-check, keep sentences readable and painstakingly proofread (so you don’t get “pubic service” instead of “public service”). Once a paper starts losing money, copy editors are the first to go. And if you’ve noticed, most of the online news services aren’t being edited well, if at all, either. /end Saturn-Virgo rant.
Del - agree! And just editing in general is unheard of which is why I edit the Astro Dispatch! I delete things off topic etc and have every intention of continuing.
On the fact checking, lemme tell you this: I have absolute inside information on one the biggest stories to break this year and to my shock a main fact was misreported in a major news source.
This mistake was copied by everyone AROUND THE WORLD. The whole world was reading misinformation and I don’t know what to say outside of what I already have.
Just because you read it does not mean it’s accurate AT ALL.
I first started noticing (in earnest) this after Saddam Hussein was arrested. As a messenger I spent a lot of time in the office world, reception areas, etc. One paper would write something like “And he was wearing a suit” and another “He was wearing a robe and needing a shave.”
Which might sound like no big deal, but I felt really upset by it…and still do.
The other thing is that misinformation is INSIDIOUS and before you know it masses of people are stoned-dumb. 
And I’m still upset by the dream I had last month that the USA attacked Pakistan and no one realized it but me. Part of an ongoing anxiety that people don’t care enough to move past the entertainment pages.
I think a pervasive feeling of powerlessness keeps people from caring about things.
I agree with bew about this - I was just having a conversation with my best friend about this topic. He said people were apathetic, but I disagreed, because that I believe that people are simply afraid that they can’t do anything to change facts even if they were to become properly aware of them. Maybe if the disinformation stops, people will begin to trust again and be able to act on what they hear.
We now live in a universe where we can tailor the “news” to fit our own idealogies. Newspaper subscriptions are way down, news websites are way up, as are opinion websites that masquarade as objective, fact-based news sites. You can go online and pick and choose from so many different sources. The upside is a world that is so much smaller. The downside? A world that is more fractured than ever. Bloggers don’t have to double check sources before they publish, don’t have to subject their content to editorial checks, and don’t have to follow ethical guidelines. The result? TRUTHINESS. Just because someone says it’s so, doesn’t make it so. **Whew**.
Amen, Maureen!
I agree with Jessica that if the disinformation stops that would be a route toward people feeling they have some ability to discern truth and act, but I don’t even see how we’ll know it has stopped!
I consider myself discerning and it’s difficult to know who to trust. I have my opinions on what are trustworthy sources and what aren’t, but they’re just opinions. A friend of mine has different opinions on that matter and so we believe different things. And we have comparable educational levels. Hmmm.
James Frey, what a schmuck. And Maragret B Jones. And Misha Defonseca. And the rest of the fake memoirists.
Maybe they’ll go away now.
about those beanie babies. My best girlfriend sold them on Ebay. She kept quit a bit of her own collection (favorites and all) but her sales paid for about 1/2 of her law school during law school. She made out like a bandit. I thought she was crazy at first and then saw that she knew she was riding a fad and was doing it to pay for school.
As for what comes next. I have a question that I have yet to hear an answer for. What happens when a society has enough “stuff” meaning houses, cars, clothes things… what comes next for that society? What happens in that society when the population drops significantly? Does that change our sense of ownership and property? Do we become more giving and collaborative? We aren’t in need of shelter - only food and water and clean air. Those are difficult to buy in a crashing biosystem.
So I have hope for collaboration, sharing, playing together, inventing new and better ways of doing business and living with lots of room left for enjoyment of the flowers and animals. (if there are any left)
“What happens when a society has enough “stuff” meaning houses, cars, clothes things… what comes next for that society? ”
mudlike - I have written about this before. The collecting craze peaked with a stellium in TAURUS.. the sign that is a born collector.
I also sold on ebay (and made out like a bandit)… just like blogging i was early on the scene - selling before they even charged fees…
Elsa - do you use astrology in any way to be “early on the scene” or is it just something in your personality that helps you spot trends and take advantage of them.
bew - I think I am and always have been a few clicks out front and chock this up to Jupiter in my chart.
I think that’s a cool quality to have! May I ask about Jupiter in your chart?
Jupiter rising, in aspect to my Sun and Moon. Er… basically I am a horse always focused on the (future) carrot. Very hard for someone like me to be “in the moment” as they say. For someone like me the moment is already gone, eye on the next moment.
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