The Tipping Point

You won't be surprised by this statement: I distrust news from "old media". I reached my tipping point last November. But the process began many years before.

It started with a whispered accusation in Dublin in 1997. If it was dark and late, I believe I could enhance this story to a point where I'd hope to raise the hair on the back of your neck. Ask me to tell you about it one day!

"You know f***ing nothing".

I interpreted this to mean I knew nothing about Michael Collins and Irish history of the early twentieth century. I took it to heart and read a few books which just made me hungry to know more. One of the earliest findings from my research was that the recent terrorist activities reported as "IRA" atrocities by the media had nothing to link them to those far off days just after the First World War.

Michael Collins and all the figures from that time wanted and partially achieved fiscal and legislative autonomy from Britain, a desire any American can appreciate. What the so called present day IRA wanted to achieve appeared to me to be a way to cover up and romantise their criminal activity. Smart criminals with a great smokescreen, it's an old old story. And the British media was in collusion with them because hey! the aggrandisement of this group of criminals filled newspaper pages and gave newscasters something to talk about on slow news days.

This realisation grew and grew in me and was confirmed by the Omagh bombing in August 1998. Those Northern Irish Terrorists (Nits? ok?) were chop shop criminals who set up that bombing in order to divert police attention away from their criminal activities. The information is available but the media has no interest in making that information clear because it's so - boring and prosaic? Fine. Whatever.

Then September 11th 2001 came and just after lunch I answered my phone and my sister said "turn on the tv". I turned on the BBC and watched aghast as the commentators savoured the horror and tragedy and attributed it to American political thinking. I turned it off and I haven't watched the BBC news in my own home from that day to this.

But what stopped me watching any news or buying any paper on a regular basis was my discovery of internet blogs.

You have to understand, for more than ten years I believed the news when they reported on the IRA. Yet I discovered, without much effort, that it had all been a con. Then I watched and read as the BBC (we're taxed here to pay for this!) and British press got September 11th wrong, and always erred on the side of making Assima Bin Liner some kind of super hero.

In the lead up to the November 2004 US elections, my mental health was saved by American blogs. I revelled in Dan Rather's bigotry being exposed and the higher profile gained by the Swift Boat Veterans and their debunking of the 'Christmas in Cambodia' ("seared I tell you seared") story disseminated from Kerry's campaigners. I recently enjoyed reading the story about the election day exit polls being knocked by the internet in real time in Hugh Hewitt's book 'Blog'. Yup, they turned out to be wrong, but old media was reporting a Kerry landslide based on them anyway.

There's a lot of talk about "tipping points" in consumer research these days. What starts the process? Can the final element that changes everything be predicted? It's a really good way of describing the stepping stones towards change. All of us are capable of changing the way we think. My new attitude towards the media took seven years to develop, some pop tunes drive me crazy after one week.

All of us are living through times which are inspiring us to think more deeply about the world around us. The timescale will be different for everyone but we are all capable of changing our minds and affecting the attitudes of others.