New Media Changes Everything
I received one of those "chain" emails today. It claimed to reveal some dastardly editing on one of the inscriptions on the World War II Memorial in Washington, DC.
With the effective, emotional tactic of portraying an elderly couple from the greatest generation angered and hurt, the "appalled observer" claims that the engravers of the WWII Memorial deliberately omitted "so help us God" from the text of FDR's speech announcing that Pearl Harbor had been attacked.
Naturally, I was upset! Here's that blasted PC crowd again - liberal scoundrels, all - trying their best to remove all references to the Divine Lord from our nation's history.
There's some considerable truth in that statement. However, before I forward emails like that to all my friends and family, I like to do a little fact checking.
God bless the internet!
I found the inscription information for the memorial at the National WWII Memorial web site under the Inscriptions link.
*****
Eastern Corners PEARL HARBOR DECEMBER 7, 1941, A DATE WHICH WILL LIVE IN INFAMY…NO MATTER HOW LONG IT MAY TAKE US TO OVERCOME THIS PREMEDITATED INVASION, THE AMERICAN PEOPLE, IN THEIR RIGHTEOUS MIGHT, WILL WIN THROUGH TO ABSOLUTE VICTORY.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt
*****
Sure enough, just like the email told me, the quote from FDR is missing "so help us God". There IS a conspiracy!
Still, I thouht it wise to check the actual text of the actual speach itself. What I found was that the phrase "so help us God", while definitely a part of FDR's speach, was actually three paragraphs below the text used for the WWII Memorial inscription.
Hmmm.
Certainly the designers of the memorial could have used the paragraph that included "so help us God" (I bet it was considered.). And perhaps there were those who opposed that paragraph because of its reference to our Lord and Savior. But it's simply not true and definetly unfair to suggest that the designers deliberatly edited the phrase out of the text used on the WWII Memorial.
So what does all this mean?
It means that we now have the tools and information at our fingertips to investigate nearly every claim by anyone who wants to convince us of anything.
That. Is. Powerful.
No longer can the general public be expected to lap up everything the MSM spoon feeds us. The same tactic used in that chain email has been used by old media for decades. Throw some half truths in with some pointed inuendo and wrap it all in credulous emotion and you have the recipe for what has passed for the bulk of main stream journalism for years.
With the effective, emotional tactic of portraying an elderly couple from the greatest generation angered and hurt, the "appalled observer" claims that the engravers of the WWII Memorial deliberately omitted "so help us God" from the text of FDR's speech announcing that Pearl Harbor had been attacked.
Naturally, I was upset! Here's that blasted PC crowd again - liberal scoundrels, all - trying their best to remove all references to the Divine Lord from our nation's history.
There's some considerable truth in that statement. However, before I forward emails like that to all my friends and family, I like to do a little fact checking.
God bless the internet!
I found the inscription information for the memorial at the National WWII Memorial web site under the Inscriptions link.
*****
Eastern Corners PEARL HARBOR DECEMBER 7, 1941, A DATE WHICH WILL LIVE IN INFAMY…NO MATTER HOW LONG IT MAY TAKE US TO OVERCOME THIS PREMEDITATED INVASION, THE AMERICAN PEOPLE, IN THEIR RIGHTEOUS MIGHT, WILL WIN THROUGH TO ABSOLUTE VICTORY.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt
*****
Sure enough, just like the email told me, the quote from FDR is missing "so help us God". There IS a conspiracy!
Still, I thouht it wise to check the actual text of the actual speach itself. What I found was that the phrase "so help us God", while definitely a part of FDR's speach, was actually three paragraphs below the text used for the WWII Memorial inscription.
Hmmm.
Certainly the designers of the memorial could have used the paragraph that included "so help us God" (I bet it was considered.). And perhaps there were those who opposed that paragraph because of its reference to our Lord and Savior. But it's simply not true and definetly unfair to suggest that the designers deliberatly edited the phrase out of the text used on the WWII Memorial.
So what does all this mean?
It means that we now have the tools and information at our fingertips to investigate nearly every claim by anyone who wants to convince us of anything.
That. Is. Powerful.
No longer can the general public be expected to lap up everything the MSM spoon feeds us. The same tactic used in that chain email has been used by old media for decades. Throw some half truths in with some pointed inuendo and wrap it all in credulous emotion and you have the recipe for what has passed for the bulk of main stream journalism for years.
So here's the new deal:
- Someone is trying to convince you of something
- Consider the source of everything you hear or read
- Fact check everything they are telling you
- Spread the word
- The more people involved the better
- They won't be able to ignore us or shrug us off
- They won't be able to pull another Rathergate
- The public will be better informed and better served
I love this stuff!
posted by Greg at 12:02 PM
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