partially revised/corrected 14 April 2011I've just returned from a visit to my mother and father's GP.
I took some pictures and I hope to post them later.
But the visit put me in mind of the following facts:
When I lived in Slovakia, my GP's office was within easy walking distance of my apartment.
There were no vending machines in the lobby of his building--not that I remember.
But on the ground floor, there was a pharmacy. And the pharmacy did not sell
cigarettes, toilet paper, milk, beer, wine, telephones or any of the other numerous
things that Walgreens, e.g., sells..... It was strictly a pharmacy.
And there was no television (let alone a television permanently on, and tuned to one channel, as per orders of Herr Director) in the lobby or waiting area of my GP's building...
Note carefully: THE DIRECTOR DOES NOT PERMIT ANY OTHER CHANNEL.
Oh yeah, is that freedom?
By the way, I don't know what channel Herr Director prefers, but the last time I was there
I think (if my memory serves me correctly) the TV was tuned to Fox News. I myself do not regard "Fox" as a reliable source of information. Does Herr Director think he has the right to choose for other people?
Why? Because they come for his medical services, does he think he also knows about politics?
Actually, if "Fox" is the channel he choose, that is some evidence that he is under-informed.
Consider that one informed commentator refers to the channel as "Faux" News ("Faux" is French for "False"). Even the economist Jeffrey Sachs recently spoke of the propaganda on Fox. And, it has been documented that during the recent (and unfinished) attack on workers' rights in Wisconsin Fox actually presented incorrect polling data, data which was erroneously presented with the result that the polls in question wound up expressing the very opposite opinion to that which people actually held. Herr Director should have to justify his choice of channel in public.
However, he behaves like a dictator when he choose a channel for the patients coming to his office.
No matter how good a doctor someone is, that does not necessarily transfer to other areas.....
And,in any case, what happened to the option of turning the TV OFF?
Herr Director has also pre-empted that option.....wholly incorrectly and without explanation.
The note above gives no reason. It merely says (in effect): This is my will.
Somewhat reminiscent of Hitler in a film I saw recently.....
References
Media Matters on Fox's REversal of Polling Data to give the false impression that most Americans do not favor collective bargaining;
And here's what Jeffrey Sachs said on a recent "Democracy Now" (in an interview headlined "Don't Punish the Poor")
JEFFREY SACHS: Well, first of all, Fox News is pure propaganda. We know that. But it’s just relentless propaganda, and people respond to it. To my mind, the Tea Party is nothing but a Fox News Channel propagandistic creation. This is Roger Ailes at work. So that’s one part of it. But it gets a lot of—lot of press.
Same thing with the Wall Street Journal editorial page. That’s our leading business press, but it’s so relentlessly phony and right wing on the editorial page that you never hear anything about the middle. It’s only about tax cuts. It’s all this drum beat to cut taxes, cut taxes, cut taxes.
http://www.democracynow.org/2011/4/11/dont_punish_the_poor_economist_jeffrey
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