My friends, these are sad times we live in.  We are brought up to respect the media.  We trust the media as a source of unbiased and impartial news.  We pick up the papers to find out all that has been happening in the world around us.  We run to the TV to get the latest updates on the latest breaking story.

Unfortunately we get this all through someone else's rose-tinted glasses.

The days of the news presenting both sides of a story are gone.  Perhaps they always have been and I've been to naieve to notice.  Everyone has an angle and an agenda--and most of the time it's hidden.  This has never been more blaringly true as it is today.  And we only need to look one place: Global Warming.

Look at everyone who is jumping on the global warming bandwagon.  Then look at all the actual evidence that suggests this is something more than a natural cycle.  You'll find a whole lot more of the former, than the latter.  And that's for one very good reason.  The media loves a good doom-and-gloom story. 

After all, what better story is there than the end of the world as we know it?  And why not?  There's a tremendous amount of money in it.  Who cares about the body of evidence that flatly contradicts the claims.  Or the lack of any substantial evidence to support it.   That doesn't matter.   Tell everone it's a "concensus."   Report the theory as fact.   Any other view is simply that of a denier and doesn't deserve the time or the ink.

And it's popping up in places that I never would have expected it, such as The Weather Channel.  Heidi Cullen, host of The Climate Code series, has even called for the decertification of those meteorologists who do not believe that global warming is a man-made problem.  It is truly a sad day when we can't even trust a weather channel to be unbiased in it's reports.

So where has the integrity gone?  Or was it ever there to begin with?  It calls into question so many stories that I have read throughout the years and taken at face value.  One example would be the dangers of second-hand smoke.  The EPA reported it (with shoddy research, at best -- just do the research) and the media took it and ran with it.  Like most of the public, I had bought into the media reporting.  But after doing the research myself and looking at the results of actual independent scientific studies, I can see now that it's just another example of one-sided journalism.  Laws have been passed, bans have been enacted, all over the media running wild with a story without having any basis in reality.

They say that abolute power corrupts, absolutely.  And if you have the power to control the media, you have the power to shape the minds of America.

Here's my advice: Use the media to know what the top stories are, but do your own research.  You'll get a far more accurate picture.