Cookie Jar

Remember this quote?

"The media's the most powerful entity on earth. They have the power to make the innocent guilty and to make the guilty innocent, and that's power. Because they control the minds of the masses." - Malcom X

Here's another:

"Any dictator would admire the uniformity and obedience of the U.S. media." -Moan Chomsky 

So which is it? Does the media control us? Or do we control the media?

Jack Johnson has some awesome lyrics in all of his songs, but I think his song "Cookie Jar" is especially resonant because it questions the media content blame game. Read the lyrics while you listen, they're very interesting:

I would turn on the TV 

But it's so embarrassing

To see all the other people 

I don't know what they mean

And it was magic at first 

When they spoke without sound

But now this world is gonna hurt 

You better turn that thing down

Turn it around

"It wasn't me," says the boy with the gun

"Sure I puled the trigger but it needed to be done

Cause life's been killing me ever since it begun

You can't blame me cause I'm too young."

"You can't blame me sure the killer was my son

But I didn't teach him to pull the trigger of the gun

It's the killing on this TV screen

You can't blame me it's those images he's seen."

Well, "You can't blame me," says the media man

Well, "I wasn't the one who came up with the plan

I just point my camera at what the people want to see

Man it's a two way mirror and you can't blame me."

"You can't blame me," says the singer of the song

Or the maker of the movie which he based his life on

"It's only entertainment and as anyone can see

The smoke machines and makeup and you can't fool me."

I was you it was me it was every man

We've all got the blood on our hands

We only receive what we demand

And if we want hell then hell is what we'll have.

And I would turn on the TV

But it's so embarrassing

To see all the other people

Don't even know what they mean

And it was magic at first

But let everyone down

And now this world is gonna hurt

You better turn it around

Turn it around.

Are producers innocently creating what we want to see, or are we mere casualties in their rampage for wealth? Does the media mirror society, or is society shaped by the media? Everybody is trying to put the blame somewhere...where do you put it?