April 14, 2004

That's what most people in the 911 Truth Movement are solely focused on. Working hard to get a mere mention, a mere sound byte, of what we're doing into the mass media. Everyone takes it as a given, that this is a worthwhile endeavor.

Sound bytes will never do it though. They're not an effective technique. If you have to drill a hole 4 inches deep, but the bit is only 2 inches long, you'll never get down as far as you need to be. (I'm not quite handy and don't know if that's the right terminology, but you get the picture.) Sound bytes will never offer the kind of depth that needs to be shared if we are to have any hope of change.

But sound bytes, you cry, will get people to do their own investigation. It will peak their curiosity. They'll want to find out more and so they will. Bullshit. For many reasons.

First, and most obviously, sound bytes are insubstantial. That's why it's all they feed to the American people. They don't want us to learn things, that's why they use them. But we do want people to learn things, so that's why we shouldn't bother with them. They are a useless tool.

Second, since the media is a mere microphone for the powers that be, your sound byte will rarely, if ever, be presented thoughtfully or undisparagingly, nor will it contain the nugget of a sufficiently important truth to inspire action. They guard against that, you know. I feel like I should repeat that sentence a million times to drive it into you.
They guard against that, you know. That's why the continued use of traditional methods of trying to get your message heard, as if the system were fair and set up to allow alternative voices, would be funny, if it wasn't so sad.

They will only let near the mike those who choose to cover the nugget in thick tissue paper. If anybody slips through, they and their ideas will quickly and easily be tarred and feathered. The mass media has already been stacked against you. It's time for people to wake up and realize that most simple of facts. It's surprising to have to point out the obvious.

But to some, I'll be a heretic, I know. What a shock - a tried and true method that everyone is in favor of, getting criticized. But just because it's the method most popular, most attempted, doesn't mean it has a sound basis. Every once in awhile you need to re-think your assumptions. Do they have a solid foundation? That's what we're asking people to do, by the way, in the 911 truth movement - to challenge their assumptions, see if they are grounded in reality.

The mass media is a waste of time, but more than that, it is our enemy. Instead of spending time trying to get on it, we should try and kill it. We should spend our time handing out videotapes, telling people it's better than what they're ever going to see on t.v. that night, and while we're at it, how t.v. is keeping us down in so many ways, hiding the real truths, most having nothing to do with 911, and while we're at that, figuring out a way that people can get together regularly and do the t.v. substitute thing.

We must learn how to communicate with each other in new ways, or old ways, but not through the mass media way. It wasn't set up for us. It was set up for them. We need our own tools.

You know too, people are tired when they get home from work. They don't have time to become independent investigators even if they heard something worth investigating. (If I had any kids, I wouldn't be here.) We've gotta make it easier for them, and we've got to give more than just a sound byte, better yet, forget the sound bytes altogether and let's just work on what's real.

What examples got me on this train of heretical thought? Spending tons of money on the printing of signs and massive efforts to distribute them, rather than literature or something else more substantial, all in the hopes of a mainstream news photo byte of them one day. For a gimmick. Don't spend that money, time and effort to convince new people of what it's all about. No, instead spend it putting signs in the hands of the already or near-converted to put on a show for the clueless others, a sound byte show. Games. I know I've done that sign stuff myself, and am simply sharing with you the questions I'm asking myself about the usefulness of that tactic. When organizing a group presentation, seeing some go to extreme lengths, and make poor choices which also effect the very persuasivness and focus of the program just to get or keep a "star"; to appear in the hopes of garnering mass media sound bytes that 'could be heard in the midwest', and then devoting lots of energy seeking out those mass media sound bytes, instead of perhaps focusing on making the most persuasive case of the evidence and how its full video recording can be most widely and quickly disseminated afterwards, is another example. It's a misplaced focus of energies. All this, for the hopes of a 30 second sound byte. After it's aired, if it's aired, it's over. That's it. The 30 seconds has passed. The person has flipped over the page and turned to the next. Lots of work for not lots of results, and even when it's so clear that sound bytes just can't go deep enough.

Oh, the memes, you say, the memes. Well, I don't buy it. Well, at least I certainly can't buy it when the meme sound bytes are so wrong. It's not a coverup. It's not gross negligence. Lies about arab terrorist forewarnings are not the issue (because they're not the culprits), and the Commission, for god's sake, is not investigating the crime! It's not investigating the attacks! Our sound bytes shouldn't be, 'dear commissioners, please ask some questions'. The sound byte should be THE OMMISSION'S A FRAUD. THEY ARE NOT INVESTIGATING THE ATTACKS! WHO CARES ABOUT THE MONTHS OR YEARS BEFORE THE ATTACK? WE WANT THE ACTUAL ATTACKS INVESTIGATED! THERE'S NO PROOF OSAMA DID IT. etc., etc., etc.

(By the way, none of the above speaks to any efforts to pre-empt the mass media. This only concerns the use of legal methods.)

And I am also too harsh to say everyone or most everyone is focused on this. There are people who give presentations or show films, not just at big conferences, but over and over again to smaller audiences and for free; people handing out books, and copying cd's. Reaching people, at full depth, who then may turn around and reach others. And there is, right now, I expect, exciting work and planning being done by those video people to turn all that raw conference material into an exciting package to get to as many people as possible. So there is good news. My only point is there could be more - if we can manage to get over this fascination with the sound byte, on the media that is not ours.

Angie