'Free-press'? It's about as free as are the huge ads within
Posted: Thu Oct 31, 2013 9:25 pm
It’s very difficult to not only acquire but experience for oneself actual evidence of corruption on the part of mainstream news-print media, and even more difficult to nail a major metro-daily newspaper.
The Vancouver Sun is the largest newspaper in B.C. (Canada), and it used to permit the average writer to post essays on its “Community of Interest” section of its website. Used to permit—but no more, as of about three years ago. Maybe there were too many independent and/or unconventional and/or nonconformist perspectives being voiced via this truly free-press, though so temporary, concept opportunity by non-carte-blanch-nobody writers such as me. Either way, apparently it had to be corrected—or perhaps the site utilizers needed some implausible re-education—and thus it was corrected by way of complete deletion … except, of course, for the almost entirely conventional, conformist carte-blanch-somebody writers.
Out of 11 essays that I had posted on that site, all of which questioned societal norms to a relatively reasonable extent, only one was conveniently deleted, and in perpetuity re-deleted when I tried to re-post it. It was one critiquing British Columbia Lottery Corporation’s ethical standards or lack thereof (note the sample content below), but I wrote nothing more nor less controversial or ‘offensive’ than any of my other 10 ‘acceptable’ or so essay postings.
It took a few minutes, but it dawned upon me the countless full-page BCLC ads frequenting The Vancouver Sun, and other provinces’ metro-dailies, sometimes twice per week and fully paid for by, what a coincidence, BCLC—by far the largest advertiser in The Vancouver Sun. But like I said, it’s all purely coincidental.
Big lottery corporations, publicly and privately owned, shamefully exploit the countless people predisposed to lotto gambling with the former’s provocative ads. And tiny, page-bottom disclaimers such as, “Know your limit, play within it,” simply does not ethically or morally suffice … There is post-secondary psychology-course literature that states that gamblers purposely, though unconsciously, play and lose money on games of chance and then kick themselves around the proverbial block afterwards to mentally punish themselves; sadly, it’s a form of psychological masochism … One of the most insidious aspects of such gambling entities’ tactics can be found here in B.C., Canada. The government-owned British Columbia Lottery Corporation (BCLC) offers the Extra! option whenever one buys any of their countless computer-issued lottery ticket ‘games.’ Even if you, the player, do not wish to play Extra!, BCLC regardless gives you the random four numbers printed on the ticket, ranging anywhere from 1-99, with the word “NO” adjacent to them. BCLC very likely does this to allow fear to fester in the minds of all of the players who do not purchase Extra! numbers: i.e., when checking their regular-ticket numbers, many players cannot help but to check if their Extra! numbers had been drawn (maybe just to confirm that they had saved a dollar by saying no to Extra!). Thus, the “I’m sor-ry … so sor-ry … that I waaaas such a fool” commercial jingo undoubtedly alluding to all of those regular-ticket buyers who would have won half a million bucks had they just parted with the $1 and said “YES” to Extra!.
Therefore, what I, a non-Extra! player, do is simply not check the drawn Extra! numbers non-solicitously forced upon me. (Ignorance is bliss, is it not?)
Regardless of these astronomical odds, people continue to play (including me, though not of the Extra! sort)—a disproportionately large segment of which are those in society that are the least able to afford it. Although it all makes sense—i.e., those who need the money the most, put the most money (per capita) into the lottery system—the irony nevertheless remains quite bitter.
The Vancouver Sun is the largest newspaper in B.C. (Canada), and it used to permit the average writer to post essays on its “Community of Interest” section of its website. Used to permit—but no more, as of about three years ago. Maybe there were too many independent and/or unconventional and/or nonconformist perspectives being voiced via this truly free-press, though so temporary, concept opportunity by non-carte-blanch-nobody writers such as me. Either way, apparently it had to be corrected—or perhaps the site utilizers needed some implausible re-education—and thus it was corrected by way of complete deletion … except, of course, for the almost entirely conventional, conformist carte-blanch-somebody writers.
Out of 11 essays that I had posted on that site, all of which questioned societal norms to a relatively reasonable extent, only one was conveniently deleted, and in perpetuity re-deleted when I tried to re-post it. It was one critiquing British Columbia Lottery Corporation’s ethical standards or lack thereof (note the sample content below), but I wrote nothing more nor less controversial or ‘offensive’ than any of my other 10 ‘acceptable’ or so essay postings.
It took a few minutes, but it dawned upon me the countless full-page BCLC ads frequenting The Vancouver Sun, and other provinces’ metro-dailies, sometimes twice per week and fully paid for by, what a coincidence, BCLC—by far the largest advertiser in The Vancouver Sun. But like I said, it’s all purely coincidental.
Big lottery corporations, publicly and privately owned, shamefully exploit the countless people predisposed to lotto gambling with the former’s provocative ads. And tiny, page-bottom disclaimers such as, “Know your limit, play within it,” simply does not ethically or morally suffice … There is post-secondary psychology-course literature that states that gamblers purposely, though unconsciously, play and lose money on games of chance and then kick themselves around the proverbial block afterwards to mentally punish themselves; sadly, it’s a form of psychological masochism … One of the most insidious aspects of such gambling entities’ tactics can be found here in B.C., Canada. The government-owned British Columbia Lottery Corporation (BCLC) offers the Extra! option whenever one buys any of their countless computer-issued lottery ticket ‘games.’ Even if you, the player, do not wish to play Extra!, BCLC regardless gives you the random four numbers printed on the ticket, ranging anywhere from 1-99, with the word “NO” adjacent to them. BCLC very likely does this to allow fear to fester in the minds of all of the players who do not purchase Extra! numbers: i.e., when checking their regular-ticket numbers, many players cannot help but to check if their Extra! numbers had been drawn (maybe just to confirm that they had saved a dollar by saying no to Extra!). Thus, the “I’m sor-ry … so sor-ry … that I waaaas such a fool” commercial jingo undoubtedly alluding to all of those regular-ticket buyers who would have won half a million bucks had they just parted with the $1 and said “YES” to Extra!.
Therefore, what I, a non-Extra! player, do is simply not check the drawn Extra! numbers non-solicitously forced upon me. (Ignorance is bliss, is it not?)
Regardless of these astronomical odds, people continue to play (including me, though not of the Extra! sort)—a disproportionately large segment of which are those in society that are the least able to afford it. Although it all makes sense—i.e., those who need the money the most, put the most money (per capita) into the lottery system—the irony nevertheless remains quite bitter.