Throughout history, we as humans have endured violence and war.

You really can’t even trust this column, to be honest.

Not that I don’t want your trust, I just want you to have full disclosure. I believe some people don’t understand the relationship news corporations have between themselves and the subjects of their reporting. There are some relationships that go beyond a mere appreciation; some can in fact be a conflict of interest.

Consider a story about labor practices. An ambitious and idealistic reporter might want to write a piece concerning the questionable employment practices of Wal-Mart, for example. They research the piece and present an article which has a harsh, but well- researched conclusion about these labor practices of some company.

Here is where trouble can happen: so our little writer with his great labor story, call him Fred, hands his documents to his editor. The editor says it’s great and gets ready to print the story. As he is showing the print to all the various heads of departments, the advertising head raises a concern.

“Why sir, Wal-Mart pays for about one-third of our advertising dollars.” “If we publish this story as is, or at all for that matter, we risk losing the ability to produce this paper.”

Screwed: That’s what an editor would be in this situation, so he would either have to shoot his career down or shoot the story down.

What is left is a great story destroyed by the interests of money. I am not going to be so pompous as to believe that this happens all the time. But I will not buy into the idea that there are no Freds out there.

I worry that sometimes this culture is so influenced by money that we cannot trust anything we hear in the news or any other source we consider credible. Call me paranoid and cynical, but I live in the real world. People have chosen money over their better ethics and morals. This is most paramount in the situation of war.

Throughout history, we as humans have endured violence and war. In most instances, I argue, there were some misleading principles as the main reasons for the war. Usually it’s those damn “isms” — nationalism and patriotism — that can be found as the main reasons for war. But the press has played an integral part in some wars of recent memory.

A refresher of the more egregious examples:

Spanish-American War: The mysterious sinking of the battleship USS Maine on Feb. 15, 1898, at 9:30 p.m. in Havana Harbor was attributed to an internal explosion. An American commission mysteriously rejected these findings and instead blamed the explosion on Spanish-Cuban terrorists.

When the Maine blew up, journalists like William R. Hearst leapt to the conclusion that Spanish officials in Cuba were to blame, and they widely publicized the conspiracy. Yellow journalism fueled American anger by publishing astonishing "atrocities" committed by Spain in Cuba.

Hearst, when informed that conditions in Cuba were not bad enough to warrant hostilities, allegedly replied, "You furnish the pictures and I'll furnish the war." Lashed to fury by the yellow press, the American cry of the hour became, “Remember the Maine, to Hell with Spain!”

Vietnam War: The Gulf of Tonkin Incident was an alleged pair of attacks by naval forces of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam against two American destroyers, the USS Maddox and the USS Turner Joy. The attacks were alleged to have occurred on Aug. 2 and Aug. 4, 1964 in the Gulf of Tonkin.

Later research, including a report released in 2005 by the National Security Agency, indicated that the second attack most likely did not occur. These alleged and falsified attacks were the impetus for LBJ’s escalation of the war. This research did not occur at the time of the war, and was never considered by the news media.

Iraq War: Weapons of Mass Destruction; “Remember 9/11”; in these cited examples the press did not fulfill its moral and ethical duty to the people. I hope that maybe others, as well as I, can rectify the sins of the past by not committing them in the future.

Just remember to find out the truth, the whole truth. Then you will really know more knowledge than any piece of paper or television can give you a glimpse of.

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