How Are We Being Victimized?

The American consumer is being victimized in multiple ways. From all angles of media outlets (whether its radio, television, film, or beyond) the messages we receive are being skewed depending on the views of the parent corporation. In lying about their motives to censor media messages, these companies are committing a series of fallacies.

Appeal to Popularity 

- It's obvious that America has an overwhelmingly large Christian population (76% of Americans are Christians); by claiming that censored messages are to protect the moral well-being of America's youth, they are succeeding in getting America's majority population to ignore possible ulterior motives. Corporations, by definition, exist solely to gain as much money as possible. Why America's masses would believe that this group would put it's stock in morality over wealth is beyond me. Additionally, by presenting scenarios of false danger being presented to our nation's youth, corporations are committing forms of both either/or and glittering generality fallacies.

What can we do about this? To start, we can help ensure the internet's freedom by holding companies accountable. The entire purpose of companies going on the internet is to expand their social network; the last thing they would want is to gain a negative reputation for censoring their messages.

When AT&T was caught censoring anti-war sentiments from Pearl Jam lead singer Eddie Vedder, they received an overwhelmingly negative response; to the extent that a representative had to come forward with a public apology: "It's not our intent to edit political comments in webcasts on the AttBlueRoom.com," AT&T spokeswoman Tiffany Nels said in a released statement. "Unfortunately, it has happened in the past in a handful of cases. We have taken steps to ensure that it won't happen again."

Events like these provide hope for the future. No matter how large they grow, corporations need average Americans to sustain their operations. As long as we let them know that we won't tolerate anything less than free access from our media outlets, we can maintain an important voice in society.