RECENT developments in the United States show the extent to which people are influenced by the mass media. Obama’s Democratic Party lost control of the House and barely held onto the Senate in what is being described as a very close mid-term election.
Looking at the daily reports from CNN, one wonders how movements such as the Tea Party, which largely comprise people who believe Obama is a non-American Nazi trying to impose Sharia Law, made such an impact. This just goes to show that people still believe what the media tell them. Common sense is thrown to the wind in favour of outlandish and colourful ideas.
Enter our local media fraternity. The picture the media in Guyana paint of the government and the development that has taken place over the years is a very bleak and misleading one. But as the saying goes, repeat a lie long enough and it begins to sound like, and be accepted as the truth.
Guyanese go to the polls next year. One hopes that unlike the tea party cabal in the US, we as Guyanese can see past the rhetoric from the media and recognise that significant progress has been made to elevate our standard of living and quality of life.
Let’s not be like the US voters and give the reigns of government to those supported by the local lunatic fringe, many of whom masquerade as columnists and serious journalists.