PRO-GOVERNMENT PROPAGANDA MASQUERADING AS NEWS

Re Half A Million Dollar Marijuana Grow Busted In Didsbury, May
26

Dear Editor;

One need look no further than this item to understand why many people
feel the news is now nothing but a slick, demand-driven product
designed to please - not inform - the populace.

There is no more reason to punish users and sellers of certain drugs
than there was in the past to hang witches, lynch blacks or gas Jews -
so why in blazes did you describe this bust as if it were a normal and
acceptable occurrence and exclude any comment from those like me who
feel that prohibition is NOT the way to go? Since when was
pro-government propaganda masquerading as news a feature of your
publication?

Describing drug busts in this fashion makes you complicit in these
evil pogrom does it not?

There's little chance our drug prohibition law will be deposited in
the dustbin of history as it should until our media stops suppressing
the opinions of those who oppose this law.

Remember the good old days when the media sided with the people
against the enormous power of the state? Well those days are gone for
ever, it seems, because today's media is focused entirely on lining
their owners' pockets while encouraging the government to oppress "the
noisy rabble" that is us. This is not a media that is serving a
democratic society, where a diversity of views is vital to shaping
informed opinions. This is a well-oiled propaganda machine that is
repackaging government and corporate spin and passing it off as journalism.

Alan Randell