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‘Media’ is not hiding the ‘truth’

Social media posts’ favorite tagline is some variation of “The mainstream media won’t tell you this …” followed by text or images of something that may or may not have been covered by traditional print or cable media. And if it is something that hasn’t been covered by the media, there’s probably a good reason for it. This is true of a variety of topics ranging from disease (think, COVID-19), to protests, to wars like the ones in Ukraine and Gaza. These posts purport to show “true” things that you won’t see on the 11 o’clock news or in the New York Times, then ...

The Good, the Bad and the Stupid 7

Good: SB 740 and SB 471 — both of which deal with digital technology and child pornography. SB 740 would make it illegal to use digital manipulation to alter any sexually explicit media (image, video, etc.) to include the image of an actual minor to make it look like the minor is engaging in sexually explicit conduct. This includes any image of a minor, even if that person is no longer a child or is deceased but was a minor when the picture was taken. SB 741 deals with generative artificial intelligence (AI), which can be used to create an image or video or sound recording of a ...

An Oklahoma teenager died earlier this month after being beaten up during a fight with some older girls in a school bathroom. The school failed to call an ambulance or police despite the fact the 16-year-old had been struck in the head, leaving them with bruises and scratches on their head and face, and had lost consciousness. Their parents took them to the hospital, where the teen was checked over and sent home. But the next morning, this child — who should have had dozens of life’s most precious milestones ahead — collapsed at home, then died shortly after. One Oklahoma state ...

W.Va. Senate right to advance campus food insecurity bill

House of Delegates must follow suit “My first year in college, I lost 20 pounds,” said Sen. Mike Azinger as he voted against a “hunger-free” campus bill. “I didn’t eat. I didn’t have food all the time. I went to Bible college. … You go to college, sometimes you don’t have food, sometimes you get hungry. That’s life. It builds character.” How sad for Mr. Azinger that he suffered the pangs of hunger so severely in his college years that instead of gaining the “freshman 15,” he lost 20 pounds. How much sadder that he lost his empathy, too. Most people, after ...

Politicians’ unkept promises

The news can leave you depressed and politics can send your blood pressure through the roof — which is why most people tune out both. (If you’re reading this, you’re probably an exception.) We can rarely avoid the endless campaign ads on TV and radio, so every election season, we get inundated with politics whether we like it or not. But for the rest of the year, many of us ignore what goes on in the statehouse or Congress or just about any elected office. It’s how many of us protect our peace. However, ignoring what’s going on in politics and what politicians are doing ...

How legislators can protect children

One of the good bills moving through the West Virginia Legislature is SB 474, to create a “critical incident review team” to examine when a child known to Child Protective Services or in Department of Human Services’ custody dies or nearly dies. This bill was likely inspired by the Sissonville incident last year, in which police found two teenagers locked inside a sweltering shed that “had no running water, no bathroom, no food other than a loaf of bread and one sleeping bag rolled up on the concrete floor,” according to MetroNews. A third, younger child was found locked ...