Distorted Truth

     A journalist's objective is to report facts on the ground so that it reaches the people. Any ethical journalist would never think of trying to distort whatever is going on on the ground. However, it seems that editors have seen that it is necessary to push their agenda's by taking part of a story and taking it out of context. It is a disgusting and cowardly act that can only be done by cons, pure and simple. The following photos are three representations, two lies and one truth, despite the fact that they are all the same photo.

     As you can see, the one on the left sows a US soldier pointing a gun at an unarmed Iraqi civilian, pushing the idea that the US soldiers are terrorizing innocent civilians. On the right, we have an American soldier giving water to an enemy soldier, giving the impression that the US soldiers are kind hearted and wish no harm upon anyone. But in the middle lies the real, full picture displaying the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

     This isn't a persuasive article to try to get you to like or dislike the US soldiers; the whole point is to illustrate that journalists and editors can be dishonest, even when presenting facts. Because half of a fact could be complete fiction; it is always better to show the compete truth, no matter how much you feel the urge to push your agenda. News isn't a political campaign, news is a compilation of full facts and nothing else.

Corporate GOAL!

     

     The beautiful game used to be about football, plain and simple; now there is nothing simple about it. The main goal of a club nowadays is not to win the league or have the best 11, now it is about maximizing profits and selling merchandise and corporations making contracts with players as models. Yes it seems all so modern nowadays that fans get an exact replica of their favorite team's kit right down to the last detail. Corporate sponsors make sure to make the most of these fans' money and slab their company logo on only the most popular football teams in the world. Companies sometimes pay hundreds of millions of Euros to make sure their logo is seen on the winning team's shirt.

     It doesn't stop at that, because companies also make individual deals with popular players to sell their products. So rather than a player focusing on his technique, he is focusing on cutting sweet deals to make the most out of his fame and glory. It seems like everybody wins, doesn't it? Well, many times it causes no harm, but there have been incidents in a few countries where players eventually were benched due to their lack of interest in the team's well-being.

Keep Your Road on the Eyes

     Having an advertisement like this on a freeway is a bad idea for many reasons. In general ads can be very problematic when they are placed on roads; they distract drivers and can lead to serious and fatal accidents. Many different special interest groups have argued against placing ads on the roads, but the corporations seem to win these cases and place their advertisements in these unsafe locations. What do you think would happen if you were driving down the road and saw an add like this?

Obvious Product Placement

Product placement has become more and more obvious in movies and television; so obvious that it seems impossible for a single band can appear all over a movie, like Audi in Iron Man. But even more so than that, TV shows like MTV's Cribs make the hosts of the various houses show the inside of their fridge and sometimes even talk about their "favorite product." A producer who agrees to place advertisements in his scrips, but makes it as a spoof is Seth McFarlene, creator of Family Gy, American Dad, and The Cleveland Show. He tends to display the brand he's supposed to display and makes it so obvious that everyone would know he is forced to show them.
On one of the episodes of American Dad, he makes Stan Smith go to Burger King with his son steve, even though it has nothing to do with the rest of the story. Steve asks his father, "But why did we have to go to a Burger King?" and Stan replies, "Because the economics of television have changed, Steve... Have it YOUR way!"