Corporate Media Uses Hyperlinks To Confuse, Not To Clarify

 

If anyone wishes to argue with me that establishment media is NOT beyond abysmal and that many independent journalists are NOT doing vastly superior work, I offer this example, one of many, as exhibit A: https://www.forbes.com/sites/oliviaenos/2022/04/04/ms-bachelet---dont-go-to-xinjiang/?sh=a4e993c14d3e

There is no reason to subject yourself to the painfully obvious propaganda that is the article, I ask you only to focus on the first sentence of the fourth paragraph: “These horrific realities are very well-documented, yet the High Commissioner will see none of it on her visit to Xinjiang.” The words “well-documented” are underlined and in blue, meaning it is a hyperlink. One would think it would be a hyperlink to what it actually suggests, well-documented evidence of HORRIFIC REALITIES! Click on it. Go ahead, click on it.

It takes you to a blog post from the Heritage Foundation website. Look them up if you don’t know who they are. Suffice it for me to say they are not a source you should consider when you want reliable, unbiased information. But forget the source, even that doesn’t matter. The link takes you to a blog post titled “China Transparency Report”.

I thought the issue was a genocide of an ethnic minority. The Forbes article mentions “ongoing crimes against the Uyghurs”, talks about “China’s mounting atrocity crimes against Uyghurs” and “ongoing genocide and crimes against humanity”. “Today, an estimated 1.8 million to 3 million Uyghurs are held in political reeducation camps.” Imagine having that kind of build-up, and clicking on a link promising that “These horrific realities are very well-documented”, only to see the title “China Transparency Report”.

Yeah, I read it. Not many people read the links provided by mainstream media. You should, because even if you trust mainstream corporate media (you shouldn’t), you should trust but verify. But I read the China Transparency Report and it didn’t mention Uyghurs once. Nor the Xinjiang province. Nor crimes against humanity. Nor genocide. It is at this point where a rational person begins to believe that something irrational is unfolding.

There was, however, this hyperlink at the bottom of the blog post:

This is one step further than anyone would expect an honest source to ask of readers in search of truth. Any earnest and experienced searcher of truth would start thinking their chain was being yanked. But someone trying to prove a point, such as myself, would be willing to push that button and waste his time in order to prove exactly how useless establishment journalism is in providing people with useful information.

So I clicked it, confident at this point that I would not find any supporting evidence. I clicked it, knowing that I would have to concentrate very hard on a stream of nonsense in order to prove to others just how vapid the reporting of mainstream media really was.

Click.

You’ll have to concentrate on the upper right hand part of the screen. I tried to use the Snip And Sketch program in order to show you the warning I received, but the warnings disappeared when I tried it. It says “File Not Downloaded, Potential Security Risk”.

You’ll forgive me if I do not investigate further, I believe I’ve made my point to those willing to consider it, whereas no matter how far down I dig I will never make my point to those set in their beliefs. If anyone would care to do the download despite the warning, please let me know if you have found any “well documented” “horrific realities”. I do not hold out any great hope that such evidence is forthcoming. One does not light a lamp only to put it under a blanket.

Keep in mind that this is not my first rodeo and this if not the first time I have followed link after link without finding any substance to what is presented me. Rather, I find only obfuscation and — pardon the term — bullshit. Here is my attempt to dig down and find sources using the provided hyperlinks on the Uyghur Muslim assertions in the Guardian. Here is another article that not only has hyperlinks that do not mention what the headline promises, the article itself does not even mention Russia or Russians. Although it is a lot of work on my part, I promise to bring you more evidence on this subject in the future. I come across it all the time and you will too once you stop making the assumptions that their hyperlinks will always lead you to actual evidence.

This isn’t an accident. This is not an anomaly or a “whoopsie”. This is happening all the time at the most respected journalistic institutions. This is the media showing their contempt for their readers by asserting or promising what it does not deliver. And, might I emphasize, getting away with it. You are letting them get away with it because you trust them even though they are time and again proving themselves untrustworthy. This, my friend, is on you, as it is on me, as it is on all of us. We need to hold the media up to basic standards and we need to hold people accountable when they fail to meet basic journalistic standards. This will not be a small task.

This is journalism in the 21st Century. Don’t ask me to explain it — it is not rational — but please allow me to point out its many failings. This is simply me, a metal fabricator, pointing out what is wrong with establishment media. I welcome any contrary views from those who have a better understanding than myself. I only ask of you not to yank my chain, as establishment media has time and again done. Be honest, be open, be critical, but do not provide me links to evidence that does not reinforce your claims.

 

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