Late night commercials

Have you ever watched those low budget late night television commercials that sell inexpensive products and wondered why they show these cheaply produced advertisements almost every night?

“Yes, you can have the Popeil Pocket Fisherman for only $19.99. But wait! There's more! If you buy it today, you'll also receive this free fishing kit with rubber worms and extra fishing line for free!”

They run those commercials every night because they work.

The companies that produce these products have a very specific formula when it comes to marketing. If a product doesn't sell a certain number of units within a specified time based on a certain number of commercials, the product and advertisement is pulled and the product is put on the back burner.

So, whether anyone wants to admit it or not, there are plenty of people out there that own Chia Pets and Ginsu Knives.

If no one tuned in to watch these commercials they wouldn't be on the air.

Alex Jones, a rather radical talk show host / pundit, whatever you want to call him, has now been banned from most social media sources – the latest being Twitter – for “violating the company's abusive behavior policies.”

I don't follow Jones. I've only seen a few seconds of his videos and they didn't interest me at all.

Jones' show voices radical opinions and apparently some pretty crazy conspiracy theories.

Whether you choose to tune in and listen is up to you. No one forces you watch his broadcasts.

The fact that these media sources, who are all intertwined in some way, are ganging up on one individual and censoring his opinion is a very dangerous precedent.

Social media is rife with radical opinions from all sides and everything between.

From instructional videos on how to build a bomb to social media sites that offer a night with a prostitute, it's all there, and the yet same media sources turn a blind eye to posts that offer advice on how to commit illegal activities or connect with some poor girl who has been sold into sexual slavery.

Jones has also been banned from YouTube – the super-popular video site that now receives more video uploads every five minutes than were produced in the entire 20th century.

YouTube takes exception to Jones' views and has banned him from being on their site.

At the same time, YouTube has no problem at all with allowing hip-hop artists to broadcast ‘music' that routinely uses the “N” word, and routinely uses the word ‘bitch' to refer to women.

Personally, I would be a lot more offended if someone referred to my wife / girlfriend / daughter / mother / grandmother / friend, as a ‘bitch', than I would if some guy offered his political opinion on something.

And yet referring to someone by the ‘N' word doesn't violate YouTube's policy.

I don't know the stats on Jones' viewership, but he is quite well known so he must have a lot of fans. He must also have a lot of enemies who tune into his show on a regular basis – otherwise, how else would they find him offensive?

The danger in having these high-profile media sources acting like censors lies in the fact that they can control what people read and hear.

What's next? Will they ban newspapers, news outlets, or foreign reporters from filing a story because they don't like the news? Will they stop allowing videos that fail to show a particular group in the best light or will they ban a video that promotes an idea contrary to thought of the media moguls?

It doesn't matter whether you think Alex Jones is a visionary prophet or a despicable scoundrel, he can't force ideas on anyone.

If you don't like him, don't watch him. And that goes for a million other internet personalities.

When the practice of censorship starts taking over the media by quashing different opinions the door is blasted wide open to allow the suppression of ideas, thoughts, and views – and next time it might be your opinion that is deemed ‘abusive.'

The best protest if you don't like something is to simply ignore it. If no one pays attention sooner or later it will just fade away.

When was the last time you saw someone on the dock with a Popeil Pocket Fisherman?