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Joe Quire
Sociology
Professor Ortega
10 July 2015
Manipulations and Distractions in the Media
When you need information about whats going on in the world most
people turn to the news to fill them in. What if that news station that you
have always turned on has only been giving you part of the story or only
what they want you to know about the information you wanted to know.
Instead of all the information and letting you the viewer decide what side you
were going to take. Throughout this essay I will show how the media is
manipulated and also how there are distractions put in the media to hide big
issues that would cause and alarm to the American citizens.
The definition of media manipulation is when a series of techniques are
taken to create an image or argument that favors their particular interests.
When people watch the news to find out what is happening around the
country they are susceptible to media manipulation because they do not
know the whole story or situation just the one that the media has told them.
This causes the audience member that are watching the show to become
biased with a one sided view of the whole situation because they only have a
small amount of knowledge of the situation. Recently there was a situation
involving NBC a well-respected news company who has manipulated the
media. NBC Los Angeles selectively edited a video interview of a witness to

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a police shooting to better fit the police narrative about the killing of an
unarmed college student last week (Fairbanks). When you see a wellrespected news company that is changing the media they air for a story
seems bazar when you think about it but in reality it happens because they
want a certain image to be upheld in the community by certain people and
when they mess up they try to help cover up the mess ups so they can
maintain their high statured image. This manipulation of the media to
promote a certain view does not just stop at the low levels of just news it
climbs all the way up the government who will regulate and tell companies
what they can show that way only the way they want to be received is
received without having to show the public the whole story. Essentially, the
US mass media has allowed itself to become little more than a propaganda
instrument of American militarism (Walsh). This happened to the media
back when the Iraq war was going on and President Bush was having the
government promote how the war was going to bring great benefits to the
country and the world. Because the United States was supposed to end
terrorism with that war.
Along with the media wanting you to only have a one sided view that
they manipulate to their liking they also put out distractions in the media
that way less people are to look in to situations that spring up that could
create a huge controversy throughout the American people. For recent
example of a distraction in the media would be the whole Catlin Jenner
ordeal which is pointless there are tons of people who change genders all the

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time its not like he was the first one to do it. But while this was publicized
as a huge or deal there was a major law that was passed, the FBI was caught
infringing our Constitutional rights, and the department of homeland security
was able to smuggle guns into airports at a ninety-five percent success
rating which is extremely scary. First lets start off with the passing of the
USA Freedom Act which allows the government to collect mass amounts of
data to gather information about its American citizens. Allowing them to be
able to have a wider out reach of a surveillance system. What they dont
want you to know is the fact that Tuesday's vote on the Freedom Act comes
less than a month after a federal appeals court ruled that the National
Security Agency's practice of collecting bulk data about Americans' phone
calls violates the Constitution (Chappell). IF the Supreme Court rules that
the way they are conducting their surveillance is against our constitution but
our government continues to do so despite the fact that it is wrong should
bring up questions on how much they violate to get what they want. If that
is not bad enough the FBI has devices that have been used by military
personnel to do surveillance in the over sea affairs where the constitution
does not apply so spying is not illegal when they use drones to find their
targets and when they get the information of the innocent people who just
happen to be in the area that the drones fly over searching. Some versions
of the technology also can be used to intercept signals from phones, these
people said. U.S. military and intelligence agencies have used the technology
in Afghanistan, Iraq, and elsewhere to hunt terrorists, and map the use of

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cellphones in such places, according to people familiar with the work
(Barrett). Providing this type of technology to be used on American soil is
unconstitutional because there are laws against surveillance happening
without the knowledge and approval of the American people. Also the
Department of Homeland Security conducted a smuggling test and the TSA
failed to catch ninety-five percent of the explosives and gun being brought
into the airports. A report that airport screeners failed to detect explosives
and weapons in nearly every test that an undercover team conducted at
dozens of airports (Brander etc.). After the whole terrorist attack on
September eleventh you would expect the security to be better at detecting
anything that could possibly be used in another attack. But with over a
ninety percent success rating of smuggling guns and explosives into airports
makes the question of what our government is doing to protect us from
another attack.
The paradigm I am choosing to talk about is conflict because it fits well
with what I have been talking about. The conflict in this paper is that the
media and the government manipulating the media to get the view on
certain subjects in their favor. Also there is conflict because the government
is trying to cover up big issues with small minute things such as the Catlin
Jenner situation which was all over the media while there was government
violations happening. Which should make the American people concerned
about how much they really know about all the things our government is
doing that involves us and our rights.

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All in all I hope that after reading this that you are more aware of what
the mass media can do to the opinions of the viewers that watch their
programs. Also I hope that when the media is over whelmed with something
that seems that is an everyday occurrence and it is just someone with a little
publicity doing it, that you look deeper and see what they mass media is
trying to cover up or put in the shadows of the media.

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Citations
Barrett, Devlin. "CIA Aided Program to Spy on U.S. Cellphones." WSJ. The Wall
Street Journal, 10 Mar. 2015. Web. 8 July 2015.
Bradner, Eric, and Rene Marsh. "TSA Screeners Failed Tests to Detect
Explosives, Weapons - CNNPolitics.com." CNN. Cable News Network, 2
June 2015. Web. 8 July 2015.
Chappell, Bill. "Senate Approves USA Freedom Act, Obama Signs It, After
Amendments Fail." NPR. NPR, 2 June 2015. Web. 9 July 2015.
Fairbanks, Cassandra. "NBC Caught Altering Interview With Witness to Fit
Police Narrative in Long Beach Police Slaying of Student (Updated) PINAC." PINAC. PINAC, 1 June 2015. Web. 10 July 2015.
Walsh, David. "How the Pentagon Manipulated the Media to Promote the Iraq
War." World Socialsit Web Site. Internaational Committe of the Fourth
International, 25 Apr. 2008. Web. 9 July 2015.