Why is the media controlling our thoughts?

I have been a registered Democrat for 34 years, just like my Dad before me, who, in my eyes, knew everything. I have lived in this area for 25 years. This is the first time I have written to the Cape Gazette, or to any newspaper.

I was compelled to do so after reading the letters in the Cape Gazette Viewpoints section. These letters are filled with discrepancies, and I truly believe it is because the media does not inform the public of certain facts or plainly skews the information. I began noticing this about six months ago when the riots began in Portland, Ore. I was skimming through YouTube and was watching all the footage of the violence committed by BLM (or others who claimed to be BLM). 

I then began googling “Portland riots” to get more information and could not find anything in Google. I started doing more research and found if I changed my search engine to DuckDuckGo, I found a plethora of articles on these riots.

Why couldn’t I find this in Google? This is a very important question. I then began looking up other stories that I wanted to verify, and I found some stunning answers.

One of them was the “hoax story” stated repeatedly by the media that President Trump called COVID-19 a hoax. I believed this whole-heartedly, until I found articles about Trump’s hoax speech. The articles stated this: “In this section of his rally speech, Trump began by saying that “the Democrats are politicizing the coronavirus,” ridiculing Democrats for attacking his administration’s performance addressing the virus.

The president then compared this attack to the investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election and calling his impeachment a “hoax.” Yep, that speech was edited by the media to quote Trump as saying the COVID-19 virus was a hoax. Pretty scary, huh?

Other misconceptions I had until I researched specific topics were surprising. I found that the Proud Boys’ leader is a Black Cuban and one of their tenets is “No racism.” They have gay and black members. Actually, they are currently suing CNN for calling them white supremacist. I was shocked.

The quote from Donald Trump’s speech in Charlottesville, Va.: “There are fine people on both sides,” was edited. I ask that you all read the actual transcript of the speech. You will be as shocked as I was of the level of editing to fit a narrative.

Then in another online source there was a story of how the states with mask mandates had fewer COVID cases than those without. I did a search on the CDC site (using a search engine other than Google or Microsoft) and found the opposite to be true. The states I compared were Illinois, Delaware, New Jersey, (all with mandates), and Florida and Texas. The first three states had more cases than the last two. I am a firm believer in masks, but, what the heck, why am I not getting the truth?

YouTube is filled with minorities who have their own “podcasts” who have gone conservative and have been riddled with hate speech. Just look up the Rubin Report or Brandon Straka, (both gay) or ABL, Officer Tatum, Patricia Dickson, the Hodge Twins, The Conservative Guy, Bevelyn Beatty, Candice Owens (all Black), and the list goes on and on. They tell their stories of changing their beliefs and being subjected to hate, threats and ridicule. How did we become the intolerant ones? 

I am still a Democrat, but people, what are we doing? Why can’t people disagree with us? And why are we believing everything mainstream media tells us? Just when I think I am secure with my party, another “misconception” comes out, pushing me further away. They are pitting us against each other. 

The real question and most important: Why is the media controlling our thoughts?