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YouTube can be entertaining, instructional and informative. But like any other form of public media, it should not be automatically trusted. It is just as prone to subjective bias as any other media source.
Take for example this video: Ann Coulter Gets Owned Now, this essay has nothing to do with whether or not I think Ann Coulter is smart, stupid, accurate or ignorant. But as you can plainly see, the snippet of video from the news show leaves the impression that Coulter was wrong beyond all shadow of a doubt. In fact, she was not wrong, she just forgot the complete details of the matter. However, despite the voice-over's smug pronouncement that Coulter "never got back to us," the news program and interviewer were actually presenting wrong information... that is, if historical truth makes any difference at all in matters of dispute. Canada did indeed send troops to Vietnam in 1973, two years before the Vietnam War ended. However, and this is a point that neither Coulter nor the interviewer brought up: the troops were sent for peace-keeping duty, and did not officially fight alongside U.S. troops. Furthermore, this was not the end of Canada's involvement. A great many Canadian businesses were knowingly selling raw materials to the U.S. to manufacture napalm and Agent Orange. While the Canadian government did not officially acknowledge these as contributing to the war effort, they certainly did nothing to prevent activity that helped with Canada's unemployment percentage, especially since their financial benefit ran into the billions. See the following article for more information: http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/articles/vietnam-war Here's a portion of the article, in case the link is down (bold highlights are mine): At home, 500 firms sold $2.5 billion of war materiel (ammunition, napalm, aircraft engines and explosives) to the Pentagon. Another $10 billion in food, beverages, berets and boots for the troops was exported to the US, as well as nickel, copper, lead, brass and oil for shell casings, wiring, plate armour and military transport. In Canada unemployment fell to record low levels of 3.9%, the gross domestic product rose by 6% yearly, and capital expenditure expanded exponentially in manufacturing and mining as US firms invested more than $3 billion in Canada to offset shrinking domestic capacity as a result of the war. The herbicide "Agent Orange" was tested for use in Vietnam at CFB Gagetown, NB. US bomber pilots practised carpet-bombing runs over Suffield, Alta, and North Battleford, Sask, before their tours of duty in Southeast Asia. So, while the person interviewing Ann Coulter was correct in knowing that Canadians did not officially fight alongside us, he was incorrect that their troops were never deployed. Assumptions that Canada did not aid the U.S. war effort, or benefit from it, are also completely false. But of course, no one who views that video will know that particular information without digging for it, because the comments were disabled, and I was unable to share it. I noticed a great deal of people thanked the YouTube user for posting the "Ann Coulter Gets Owned" video, even though, oddly enough, most of his or her uploaded content is actually for the specific purpose of refuting the 'enemies' of Islam. So I left a comment about Canada's deployed troops in the user's channel, but it was subject to approval by the user... and I expect it to never be approved. Thus YouTube, although replete with instructional videos, educational videos, and videos of important live events, should never be referenced for facts about the world without further research. YouTube, first and foremost, is merely entertainment. |