Asheville – This week I’m going to comment on a couple of thoughts, so here goes. First, once again the Town of Weaverville leads by example. The City of Asheville and Buncombe County Government could take a lesson on their action about a non-discrimination ordinance (NDOs) to handle a problem that does not appear to be there.
Both Asheville and Buncombe County have passed heavy-handed ordinances designed to “change people’s behavior” with punitive enforcement. In contrast, Weaverville passed a resolution asking residents to treat others as they would want to be treated (see story page 5). It’s much better than telling residents how they have to act. I compare Asheville and Buncombe County’s actions to that of the Catholic Church in the Dark Ages when it was ‘convert or die’. A conversion that is forced is no conversion at all. The conversion must be from the inside out, not the outside in.
The City of Asheville and Buncombe County stand ready to beat their businesses down with a $100 fine per day club with an enforcement department to swing it at companies and publicize those businesses to ensure compliance like a bunch of jack-booted Nazi thugs.
The Town Council of Weaverville’s approach has no enforcement behind it, but does it need it? When asked about situations in Weaverville that would have necessitated an ordinance like Buncombe County, Weaverville Councilman Patrick Fitzsimmons said no, he could not think of an incident that would call for it.
Next, I must defend citizen journalism against those who would discredit these amateur reporters who grab their cellphone cameras and record history. These citizens make reports to their fellow Americans where the traditional news media fails to cover what is right in front of their faces.
I think it has something to do with 90% of the news media being controlled by only six companies. According to techstartups.com, these six companies are GE, News-Corp, Disney, Viacom, TimeWarner and CBS. In techstartups.com article, they quote Jim Morrison, “a singer, songwriter, and poet, who served as the lead vocalist of the rock band, The Doors, once said: ‘Whoever controls the media, controls the mind.’” Amen.
The article also stated, “Objectivity in journalism is an illusion created by the elite class to give the appearance of balanced news. However, there is no such thing as unbiased news. Journalists who work for these six corporations answer to their owners and ultimately serve their agendas.” So true, look at the recent revelations about CNN exposed by Project Veritas, who is also suing the New York Times (NYT) over defaming his investigative newsgroup. Don’t laugh; Project Veritas got past the motion to dismiss by NYT’s lawyers, not an easy task. The article also lumps in social media giants too.
No, citizens are fed up with local, state and national news coverage from the corporate feeding trough and have taken reporting into their own hands. I did the same thing 25 years ago, and it’s turned out all right for me. Give those people some credit because they’re most likely giving you more truth than the so-called “professional journalist” being paid the big bucks to carry out an agenda. We small-time reporters do it for love, the love of the truth. We report to a bigger boss than they do.