Several years ago, during the 2006 Lebanon War, a photo appeared on the front page in many national newspapers both in Canada and the U.S. and presumably around the world, depicting a child’s doll lying on a heap of rubble that was all that remained of a bombed apartment building.

The image spoke for itself; “Oh the humanity! What happened to the poor child who was holding that doll?”

A little while later, another photo appeared with another child’s toy or teddy bear in the smoldering ruins after a bombing.

Then a few weeks later there was yet another miracle! After a missile strike, the only object that remained unscathed was a child’s toy that landed on top of a pile of debris after an explosion that had incinerated everything else in the building.

This prompted a media critic in the United States to write: “Reuters (the international news agency) might want to check its freelancers’ expenses for unexplained Toys R Us purchases.”

In other words, the photos were all faked.

You would think that news editors would catch on, after the first two pictures, that the photos being submitted were staged and used in an attempt to turn the tide of public opinion against one side in the conflict, and were nothing more than a propaganda tool.

While the bombings that occurred on one side of the conflict made the nightly news, the attacks on the other side of the line didn’t rate a mention, despite the fact that civilian casualties there were also on the rise.

International media has become a one-sided propaganda machine controlled by a select few decision makers who want to control what you see and influence your opinion on world affairs.

There is an old quote attributed to Benjamin Franklin that goes, “Believe none of what you hear and half of what you read.” It means you cannot believe something simply because someone has told you so.

In the U.S., the media capital of the world, over 90 per cent of media is controlled by only six corporations, and that includes news, movies and television.

This small group is responsible for almost all the news programming, Hollywood films, and television programming that go out over the airways.

Television is the most widespread and influential propaganda tool ever devised.

Adolf Hitler knew the power of the moving picture and used it extensively and with great results. The propaganda film, Triumph of the Will, is still considered one of the greatest propaganda films of all time. But it was still a film that people had to go see. Can you imagine if Hitler had access to television?

TV broadcasting is a fantastic information media that is broadcast into millions of homes 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and for some reason we watch it and eat it up, believing everything on the tube must be true.

Large companies don’t spend millions of dollars on a single 15-second Super Bowl commercial because they like football. They spend the money to advertise their products because they know the public thinks that if it’s on television it must be true.

For at least the past 20 years, maybe longer, the television industry has worked to influence and dumb down the population. And it’s working.

Over the past couple of decades there have big several big national news stories that claim public attitude is changing towards different policies or existing standards. And yet when independent polls are conducted the results show the exact opposite is true.

However, the news sources never backtrack and admit their research or statistics are wrong. How can we trust a national news source that routinely creates stories with a political slant when obviously the information presented is skewed toward promoting an agenda rather than telling the truth?

The advent of the inexpensive video camera is proving to be one of the most powerful sources of information ever created. Together with the Internet, which allows instant uploading around the world, privately shot videos of world events are proving to be the great equalizer.

There are now thousands of videos surfacing with unedited footage of events shot by ordinary people that contradict news reports or show events that mainstream media has ignored because it doesn’t suit their agenda.

With so few people determining what national and internationals news you should be made aware of, it’s time to start looking beyond the usual sources.

The truth is out there, but you have to search for it.