The Media in the US Is Much Better Than in Other Nations - But Still Not Good Enough

If you are a reporter in some countries, you are a marked man and the government is watching you, and one slip up and you are history, you disappear, or are thrown in jail. In the United States we have freedom of the press thankfully, and although we export our products, know-how, and services all over the world, don't expect us to be able to export that as a "new found freedom" to ports afar. In fact, many nations are busy tightening down the reins on the media, and not just newspapers and TV either. Okay so, let's discuss this for a moment shall we?

Not long ago, an acquaintance from Australia said to me; "Modern media today such as news channels do not perform a truly non biased account of the events they broadcast on."

True, but we should expect them too considering how they are paid. If a media company gets money from, oh let's say the Obama Campaign for president, then they are going to run more favorable news content when his name is mentioned, and really this happens at all levels of government, no surprise there, local newspapers cater to those who spend the most on ads too, generally. I find the Murdoch scandal in the UK interesting with the cell-phone spying as well.

It's too bad that people believe everything they view in the media, my acquaintance notes that part of the challenge is the folks are just not educated as to how the media really works, true enough I say; yes, especially kids, and the lower IQ folks just take it all in as gospel, not that gospel is any better or reality based in and of itself. For instance, as my acquaintance correctly notes; "The child grows up looking at the television for both learning and entertainment, the TV becomes effectively a third parent and in doing so we lose the battle for the child's mind."

Right and a child's mind may not recognize the difference between advertising and reality, and to my acquaintance's comments, indeed, he's right; this is an empirically proven fact, he is correct. Do we need to teach our children better about these realities, it seems we do.

As a capitalist, I do not wish to diminish the media, it's a business, and that's fine, still a little education could go a long way. Now then if we'd teach children to think and question authority we'd be there, but we teach them to submit to authority instead, perhaps as a way to ensure they grow up and do not become trouble makers to the system or status quo.

Of course in doing so, eventually some of them will wake up and be VERY Pissed-Off for being lied too, which is probably why we have Hacker Groups, Disruptors, and even some mild-version terrorists. For the "powers that be" it's a challenge of getting the mix right, and it's a trade off.

If we teach kids early on of all the deception in our society, we are indeed, teaching them to deceive, and a lack of integrity also can bring down a society or prevent it from giving future generations a fair deal. We are also teaching them to be distrustful as well. Perhaps, we ought to be teaching the "philosophical" aspect, rather than the tactics.

Lance Winslow has launched a new provocative series of eBooks on Future Concepts. Lance Winslow is a retired Founder of a Nationwide Franchise Chain, and now runs the Online Think Tank; http://www.worldthinktank.net/

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Auction website still offering killers' items

A U.S.-based website that allows people to sell letters and art from murderers still offers items linked to notorious Canadian killers despite the correctional service's promise to investigate the situation.

Among the items being offered on MurderAuction.com are signed notes and photos from jailed B.C. killer Clifford Olson and artwork by cult leader Roch Theriault, who was killed in a New Brunswick prison earlier this year. The macabre website also offers a drawing of convicted killer Karla Homolka by an artist.

This item from Canadian serial killer Clifford Olson is available for purchase on the U.S.-based MurderAuction website.

Items from Robert Pickton, the B.C. pig farmer who was convicted of second-degree murder in the deaths of six women, have also been for sale on the site, confirmed MurderAuction's operator.

The 2008 revelation about the Olson material, reportedly offered for sale on the site by someone who corresponded with the serial killer, prompted the Correctional Service of Canada to investigate how his personal prison items wound up for sale in an online auction.

In a letter, the commissioner of the Correctional Service of Canada, Don Head, told the Canadian Resource Centre for Victims of Crime in 2008 that officials were “investigating the matter fully and will take all necessary actions, within our power to protect the victims' interests and needs.

"If we find we are, somehow, constrained by the law we will identify options for discussion with the minister," said Head.

The victims group, which had written the correctional service about the items, still has not heard back from Head.

Despite the promise of an investigation into the Olson matter, more material from other criminals has shown up on the website, including from Theriault.

In 2009, the Correctional Service of Canada said it was preventing Theriault's work from leaving Dorchester Penitentiary, and Stockwell Day, who was then public safety minister, expressed concern that that killer was benefiting from work done in prison.

But the works are still on the site, along with other items from notorious U.S. killers such as Charles Manson and Ted Bundy.

One of the pieces of artwork reportedly by Theriault is a trace of his hand dated October 2007, when he would have been in prison.

This painting of Karla Holmoka, as seen on MurderAuction, is selling for $179.99 US.

There is no verification that these items are from Olson or from Theriault.

One of the items available regarding Olson has a signature, reportedly his, and shows him sitting on a clothes dryer in the common room of the Saskatchewan Penitentiary in early 1994. There were no bids and the auction on the item, which had a starting bid of $35 US, was set to close on Sept. 13.

The person offering that item is listed as being from Georgia. No other details are available about the seller.

Another item being offered on the site, from Bermuda, is a book written by famous FBI profiler John Douglas and signed by Clifford Robert Olson.

It is described on the website as a one-of-a-kind book —read and signed by Olson in prison.

"There is a section in the book were John Douglas talks about Clifford Olson in the book.....very scarce!"

It's available as a straight buyout for $299.

The Homolka item is a dark painting that shows her glowering. It's being offered for sale for $179.99.

It doesn't appear that there is much the government can do, despite its promises and assurances, to stop prisoners from sending material to people who then sell it on the MurderAuction site.

In an email response to CBC News, a correctional service spokesperson wrote that the department oversees prisoners under the Corrections and Conditional Release Act, which prohibits and restricts material that may include: risk to a person's safety, risk to the security of an institution, interference with an individual correctional plan, display of offensive or discriminatory materials and criminal publications such as hate literature or obscene works.

If the material doesn't violate those rules, prisoners are free to mail letters.

Christa McGregor, a spokesperson for Correctional Service of Canada, said there was no formal board of investigation conducted into the Olson items on the MurderAuction site. She said the warden at the prison where he is housed would have looked into it but there is no formal report.

The service is aware the items exist, McGregor said, and doesn't condone them being posted for sale, but they "don't have jurisdiction when they get on a site."

Sharon Rosenfeldt, the mother of one of the children killed by Olson and president of the Resource Centre for Victims of Crime, said that she was "appalled at this going on."

She wondered how prisoners like Olson could get material out of prison. She has not heard back from the service or the government about the status of the investigation into the release of the materials, despite the promises that were made. Some in her group have talked to MurderAuction about the actual sale of items and were told that the site can legally sell the material.

William Harder, owner of MurderAuction, said prisoners have the right to send out material and his site has the right to be the conduit for sales.

Harder, who has corresponded with Olson in the past, said there are certain things he won’t allow to be sold on the site, including grave dirt and photos of kids, but the material from Pickton and other Canadians has been OK.

"It's not illegal," said Harder, who admitted he gets death threats every couple of months from people upset by the website.

He argued that it wasn't wrong for Canada's killers to make money from items like photos or letters. Some Canadian material has been sold recently, he said.

The Olson material on the site now may be from a few years ago, said Harder, who speculated the killer wants to lay low for a while.

What often happens, Harder said, is collectors will contact the prisoner and correspond with them and then put the material up for sale. Harder has no knowledge of whether money exchanges hands, and said prison guards often play a part in the exchange, knowing it is happening and sometimes helping.

Harder said he has no knowledge of that happening in Canada.

In Canada, a person cannot profit from a book or a film that is based on anything related to their crime.

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Aid ban in starving Somalia still in place, militants say

Terrorists behind Somalia famine?NEW: Al-Shabaab says there's no famine in SomaliaNEW: Spokesman accuses the groups of having a political agenda in declaring a famine Islamist militants say a 2009 ban on various groups remains in placeSomalia is facing a famine that puts half of its population in dire need, U.N. says

(CNN) -- Islamist militants in Somalia have reversed a pledge to allow foreign aid agencies to operate in famine-struck regions in the nation.

''The lift of ban on aid agencies doesn't include the agencies that we banned earlier in areas we control because those agencies don't do relief work, they are spies and work on political agendas'," Al-Shabaab spokesman Ali Mohamud Raage said Thursday on the militants' radio station, Al Furqaan.

His announcement reverses his pledge this month that militants would allow aid groups to operate in areas under their control.

Al-Shabaab originally banned foreign aid organizations from providing aid in southern Somalia in 2009, describing them as Western spies and Christian crusaders.

The ban included the United Nations Development Programme, World Food Programme and CARE International. The World Food Programme has said that a new dialogue -- but not negotiations -- is under way with the group.

Raage accused the groups of having a political agenda in declaring a famine in Somalia.

''The U.N. said that there is famine in Somalia. That is not true. It is a lie and they are politicizing the issue," he said. "We only have drought in Somalia, not famine."

Aid groups issued an urgent appeal this week for international help, saying Somalia faces a famine that has left half of the population in dire need.

Somalia is battling its worst drought in 60 years, sending tens of thousands walking for days into both Kenya and Ethiopia in search of food and water.

"Nearly 3.7 million people are now in crisis," U.N Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said.

Aid agencies estimate that 10 million people in Kenya, Ethiopia, Djibouti, Uganda and Somalia are at risk of famine.

Conflict in Somalia is adding to the problem as government forces battle militants in the capital of Mogadishu. The Horn of Africa nation has not had an effective government for two decades.

Journalist Mohamed Amiin Adow contributed to this report.

Quoting : CNN.com