"...more Americans get their news from ABC News than from any other source.",

says ABC in its ad. This is obviously self-serving and very probably an outright lie - but it still contains a grain of food for thought. It may BE true if you put it as "more Americans get their news from the major TV networks than from any other source". This is a frightening thought - if we are getting more of our knowledge of what`s going on here and in the world from TV than from newspapers and other sources over some kind of broad spectrum - our democracy and our everyday well-being are in big trouble. If this is not crystal clear,

Sit up here for a moment and pay attention. What if someone approached you with a questionnaire; and this question occurred:

How much are you affected by the advertising in the television programs that you watch?

[] I buy all the products and services advertised
[] I am likely to buy the products and services advertised
[] my choices are only slightly affected by the advertising
[] I consider what the ads have told me along with other factors
[] Don`t insult my intelligence - I laugh at the ads and pay no attention. I shop intelligently; and the ����choices I make are made because they are right for my family; and this choice is never affected by ����the ads carried in the tv programs that I watch. ...

...what box do you think most Americans would check?

Okay, now, sit up just a moment longer - if you track the buying habits of those who checked the last choice above, as the tv advertisers constantly DO, what do you think you would find out? If you think that you`d find that those people are by and large correct, then you may well be part of the problem. Because the fact is that it ain`t so at all. The fact is that the tv ad campaigns are so effective that it`s scary - we do indeed waste a huge amount of money spending our money on stuff from the tv network neverneverland, to the terrible detriment of our families` health and well-being.

And what`s much worse and much scarier, we march right off to the polls come election day and make our choices exactly as we march off to the advertised supermarket to buy the advertised products - we elect the advertised Republicans and give them the majority in our U.S. Congress - the body that is meant to represent the PEOPLE of the country while the senators represent states - that`s supposed to be the deal according to the Constitution.

Now, if you`re still paying attention: be honest with yourself for once in your life - YOU would have checked that last box, WOULDN`T YOU? Now, let that sink in while you walk to your pantry or your kitchen cabinets or wherever and look at the brand names you bought.

Now (you`ve come back from the kitchen I assume, and are ready to pay attention just a bit longer) consider the tv programs that you regularly watch, and let the little ad jingles and slogans just play themselves in your memory (and ain`t it frightening how easily they come to mind?). Come on, be honest for a moment - do you see some of the same brands? Do you see a lot of them? Did you go to the polls and just kind of vaguely vote for a Republican for Congess without really focussing on the fact that he was the one who ran a lot of those little (supposedly forgettable) 15-second or 30-second things that are all over network tv in any campaign season?

Come on, now. Being honest isn`t easy; but it IS simple. Straighten up your backbone and do it. Focus on this. If you and your fellow Americans are correct in your own belief that you think for yourself and make your choices and form your opinions and attitudes intelligently and free of influence - then what does it mean, this Republican majority?

Don`t tell me you don`t know that the Republican Party represents ONLY the very richest Americans. So if you really have done this as a matter of intelligent consideration, am I to gather that you have consciously CHOSEN to hand over the peoples` power and authority to govern themselves to a very small elite at the top? And you are consciously, deliberately feeding your kid hypoglycemia and cancer, while deliberately dooming him or her to a miserable future in a dying world?

So now you`re thinking "hey, wait a minute. First of all I really find that description frightening and I may go back into denial about all of this any second now; and second, what do you want from me? I`m busy and hassled and never enough time and I thought I was voting the safest way...and whattaya want from me anyway?"

Here`s what I want. This one simple thing and only this: RECOGNIZE IT! Stop denying it and recognize what has happened and continues to happen every single day; as we are led further and further from any correct picture of the real world we live in and more and more into believing in - and trying to live in - tv`s neverneverland.

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