Disney+ Is the #3 SVOD Service in the UK, According to Omdia Survey
Disney+'s catalog including Pixar, Marvel, and Star Wars propelled the service to a 16.8% market share in its first month, just behind Netflix and Amazon Prime Video.
Disney+ didn't launch in the UK until March 24, but within a month it became the third most-popular SVOD service in the region, according to research from Omdia. The service—which boasts Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars, and other blockbuster properties—had achieved a 16.8% market share by the end of April, with 4.3 million subscribers.
It's still well behind the top two SVOD services. Netflix leads the way with 58.4% market share, and Amazon Prime Video holds 46.9% market share. Still, Disney+ leapt ahead of NOW TV, Apple TV+, and others.
“Disney+ arrived in the U.K. just as COVID-19 social distancing and quarantine measures commenced,” says Maria Rua Aguete, senior research director, video, TV and advertising for Omdia. “Streaming services like Disney+ and Netflix have become the biggest winners during the lockdown as consumers have sought new entertainment experiences to keep themselves entertained. The content and user experience offered by these services have proven to be their key differentiators. In particular, the current catalogs offered by these services have become increasingly alluring to viewers, given than the pandemic has halted production of new video content.”
Disney+ has also quickly moved into the top tier of SVOD services elsewhere. It's the #4 service in the United States, with a 25% market share. Netflix remains on top with 60%, followed by Amazon Prime Video at 47% and Hulu at 29%.
Europol bust illegal digital currency media streaming ring
Law enforcement authorities in Europe have uncovered a multi-million dollar illegal media streaming ring operating out of Spain, in the latest crackdown on digital currency scams and criminality.
Dealing principally in digital currency and other digital payments, it is thought the scheme made as much as $17 million over a period of five years, streaming media online illegally, Bloomberg reported.
As part of the investigation, officers from Europol made 11 arrests following 15 property searches, in which various proceeds were recovered, including jewelry, luxury cars, cryptocurrency and cash totaling $5.4 million.
Police also seized properties, as well as freezing bank accounts related to the fraud with $1.25 million in balance.
According to investigators, the streaming ring provided access to some 40,000 TV channels, movies and documentaries, with payments received through PayPal, bank transfers and digital currencies.
The sophisticated fraud also had a customer support team in place, serving an estimated 2,000,000 users worldwide.
Illegal streaming and piracy remains a growing problem for content creators, with an estimated 17% of all content streamed online being streamed illegally.
The Europol bust is only the latest example of authorities uncovering streaming scams dealing in digital currencies and other digital payments. According to Bloomberg research, the premium cost of content from platforms such as Netflix and Disney is driving demand for illegal streaming sites.
The threat from piracy may even be set to grow in future, according to the Bloomberg report, with streaming firms expected to increase their prices to leverage their large subscriber bases in the years to come.
Tim Mulligan, an analyst at Midia Research, said piracy would remain a factor for legitimate on-demand services to contend with: “The background threat of piracy means that the subscription video-on-demand services will have the ongoing threat of piracy as a pricing factor.”
Roku rolls out a programming guide for its free streaming TV channels
Roku is making it easier to channel surf, with the streaming service unveiling a new programming grid for its just-expanded lineup of more than 100 free streaming TV channels.
The new Live TV Channel Guide for The Roku Channel will be a familiar sight for anyone who’s ever browsed the programming grid on a DVR, complete with informational overlays for each show and the ability to quickly switch between channels.
Roku also announced that it’s adding about 30 new streaming TV channels to The Roku Channel’s selection today, bringing the grand total of live/linear channels to more than 100.
The free “linear” streaming TV channels on The Roku Channel are ad-supported, with about eight minutes of ads an hour across four commercial breaks.
Among the top free TV offerings on the Roku Channel include:
News: ABC News Live, Black News Channel, Cheddar, Newsmax TV, NowThis, Reuters, Top Stories by Newsy, USA Today, WeatherNation, and Yahoo Finance
Sports: Adventure Sports Network powered by XUMO, ACC Digital Network, beIN Sports Xtra, EDGEsport, ESTV, fubo Sports Network, MAVTV Select, Outside TV, and Stadium
Movies and TV: Crime360, FilmRise Action, FilmRise Classic TV, FilmRise Family, FilmRise Free Movies, Gravitas Movies, Redbox Free Movies, and Voyager Documentaries
Kids & Family: Ameba powered by Xumo, Battery Pop powered by Xumo, Kid Gamer TV from Studio71, Kid Genius powered by Xumo, Kidz Bop TV, pocket.watch, Teletubbies, Toon Googles, TG Junior, Rainbow Ruby, and Zoomoo
Lifestyle: A+E Lively Place, The Bob Ross Channel, Bon Appétit, Condé Nast Traveler, The Design Network, DIY Daily, Food52, Glamour, GQ, Love Nature, Revry, This Old House, Vanity Fair, and Vogue
Spanish language: AFV Español, América TeVé, Latido Music, Love Nature Español, MoovieMex by Pongalo, and Pongalo NovelaClub
You’ll be able to access the on-screen guide, which will display up to 12 hours of upcoming programming, by clicking the new “Live TV” tile on The Roku Channel, or you can bring up the grid at any time while watching linear TV by pressing the “left” button on the Roku remote.
roku channel programming guide tile
You can access the programming grid for The Roku Channel by clicking the new “Live TV” tile in the Roku interface, or by clicking left on the remote while watching a linear TV channel.
The guide will let you quickly switch between an “All Channels” and “Recent Channels” view, and you’ll also be able to flip between channels by clicking the navigation buttons on the remote.
The channel guide should begin rolling out this week to Roku’s streaming players, such as the Roku Ultra, Roku Premiere+ and the Roku Express, while Roku TVs and other Roku-enabled devices will get the grid in the coming weeks.
Google's TV platform may be the best hope for a future in which pay TV and OTT exist side by side.
There's the traditional operator set-top box (STB), and then there are streaming devices for OTT, and the two are usually seen in competition. Google's Android TV platform bridges the two by aggregating broadcast content with streaming services, giving pay-TV operators a fighting chance to take back control of the remote.
Google has signed up more than 160 operators worldwide, including AT&T, Bouygues Telecom, J:COM, and LG U+, to deliver on the Android TV platform to fight consumer flight from pay-TV services, which, last year, were in use in 65.3% of U.S. households, down from a high of 87.8% 10 years earlier. Similar trends have played out in other countries.
"Android TV provides operators with a full-stack operating system to help them build a complete TV experience for subscribers, bringing linear TV and streaming services to one place, accessible by voice," says Shobana Radhakrishnan, director of engineering for Android TV at Google. "Operators get first billing on their own systems." Plus, their consumers get search, voice, content discovery, personalization, interface customization, Android app store connectivity, and even smart home control as standard features. "This helps operators bring a full entertainment package to subscribers that goes beyond traditional paid services," Radhakrishnan says.
"Classically, a streaming provider would be used to having their whole user experience contained in an app, like a Netflix or YouTube. It's an app icon somewhere or button on the remote control, and once the user enters that, the user experience starts. The pay-TV operators are much more used to the whole device experience [being] branded and [a] focus on their service," says Sascha Prüter, chief product officer at Vewd. Some operators completely design the user experience and have it branded the exact way they prefer, like AT&T with its TV Now service.
Hey, Google, how does this impact consumers? The first step was to make this as plug and play as possible. New pay-TV customers can often get up and running without human interaction if the STB can automatically connect online to the home router. Viewers enter credential information and, depending on the service, can personalize the experience if the provider asks for additional details.
"We believe operators know their subscribers best and are therefore best-suited to build the right TV service for them. The key element was giving operators the flexibility to build a custom launcher and replace the Google standard launcher, thus owning the user experience while still offering all the capabilities of the platform," says Radhakrishnan.
Making STBs Smart
Older cable devices simply couldn't handle all the functionality that today's multitasking modern customer seeks, such as app use; DVR, live, and catch-up viewing; higher-resolution delivery; and smarter personalized programming. "A lot of [operators] tried to do that with a legacy STB, but the system was not really application-oriented by design," says Hervé Creff, business development director at Broadpeak.
One big plus is that development for the Android TV platform is done via web technologies instead of platform-specific development languages. "They're utilizing a technology that's already well-known by developers," says Thomas Christensen, CEO of Nordija. "Our user interface [UI] does not exist on the set-top box until it's turned on and pointed towards our portal, on the operator's own network or in the cloud. Then the whole user experience is downloaded and delivered in classic web HTML format.
Because Android TV uses HTML, you don’t need to load a full user interface onto the device, meaning it can work within the memory available on a wide range of devices, according to Thomas Christensen of Nordija, whose Android TV implementation is shown here.
"The point of using HTML is it's dynamic, so you don't need to load the full UI onto the device—only what's needed. For something like an EPG (electronic programming guide), you don't have to download the full seven days' worth of data for 600 channels," says Christensen. This means that Android TV can work on the memory available on a wide range of devices.
"It's a software layer, so that gives it a lot of advantages in terms of being able to be deployed in many additional areas, even like things like soundbars," says Tom Schaeffer, president and CEO of Float Left Interactive. "It has access to Google's services, so when you're part of Android TV, you're tapping into that wide range of various services."
Search is one service that's crucial to getting viewers to watch more, responding to user input by text or voice and featuring the ability to set preferential business rules. For instance, the integrated Google Assistant voice control could return search results that were tailored to WarnerMedia's content. A provider like AT&T could highlight its own featured content and streaming apps within the programming guide, as well as other third-party apps that either came with the offering or were installed by viewers.
All living organisms are continuously exposed to substances that are capable of causing them harm. Most organisms protect themselves against such substances in more than one way — with physical barriers, for example, or with chemicals that repel or kill invaders. Animals with backbones, called vertebrates, have these types of general protective mechanisms, but they also have a more advanced protective system called the immune system. The immune system is a complex network of organs containing cells that recognize foreign substances in the body and destroy them. It protects vertebrates against pathogens, or infectious agents, such as viruses, bacteria, fungi, and other parasites. The human immune system is the most complex.
Although there are many potentially harmful pathogens, no pathogen can invade or attack all organisms because a pathogen's ability to cause harm requires a susceptible victim, and not all organisms are susceptible to the same pathogens. For instance, the virus that causes AIDS in humans does not infect animals such as dogs, cats, and mice. Similarly, humans are not susceptible to the viruses that cause canine distemper, feline leukemia, and mouse pox.
Two Kinds of Immunity
All animals possess a primitive system of defense against the pathogens to which they are susceptible. This defense is called innate, or natural, immunity and includes two parts. One part, called humoral innate immunity, involves a variety of substances found in the humors, or body fluids. These substances interfere with the growth of pathogens or clump them together so that they can be eliminated from the body. The other part, called cellular innate immunity, is carried out by cells called phagocytes that ingest and degrade, or “eat'' pathogens and by so-called natural killer cells that destroy certain cancerous cells. Innate immunity is nonspecific — that is, it is not directed against specific invaders but against any pathogens that enter the body.
Only vertebrates have an additional and more sophisticated system of defense mechanisms, called adaptive immunity, that can recognize and destroy specific substances. The defensive reaction of the adaptive immune system is called the immune response. Any substance capable of generating such a response is called an antigen, or immunogen. Antigens are not the foreign microorganisms and tissues themselves; they are substances — such as toxins or enzymes — in the microorganisms or tissues that the immune system considers foreign. Immune responses are normally directed against the antigen that provoked them and are said to be antigen-specific. Specificity is one of the two properties that distinguish adaptive immunity from innate immunity. The other is called immunologic memory. Immunologic memory is the ability of the adaptive immune system to mount a stronger and more effective immune response against an antigen after its first encounter with that antigen, leaving the organism better able to resist it in the future.
Adaptive immunity works with innate immunity to provide vertebrates with a heightened resistance to microorganisms, parasites, and other intruders that could harm them. However, adaptive immunity is also responsible for allergic reactions and for the rejection of transplanted tissue, which it may mistake for a harmful foreign invader.
Lymphocytes — Heart of the Immune System
Lymphocytes — a class of white blood cells — are the principal active components of the adaptive immune system. The other components are antigen-presenting cells, which trap antigens and bring them to the attention of lymphocytes so that thev can mount their attack.
How lymphocytes recognize antigens
A lymphocyte is different from all other cells in the body because it has about 100,000 identical receptors on its cellular membrane that enable it to recognize one specific antigen. The receptors are proteins containing grooves that fit into patterns forrned by the atoms of the antigen molecule — somewhat like a key fitting into a lock — so that the lymphocyte can bind to the antigen. There are more than 10 million different types of grooves in the lymphocytes of the human immune system.
When an antigen invades the body, normally only those lymphocytes with receptors that fit the contours of that particular antigen take part in the immune response. When they do, so-called daughter cells are generated that have receptors identical to those found on the original lymphocytes. The result is a family of lymphocytes, called a lymphocyte clone. with identical antigen-specific receptors.
A clone continues to grow after lymphocytes first encounter an antigen so that, if the same type of antigen invades the body a second time, there will be many more lymphocytes specific for that antigen ready to meet the invader This is a crucial component of immunologic memory.
How lymphocytes are made
Like all blood cells, lymphocytes are made from stem cells in the bone marrow (see Blood, "Composition"). (In fetuses, or unborn offspring, lymphocytes are made in the liver.) Lymphocytes then undergo a second stage of development, or processing, in which they acquire their antigen-specific receptors. By chance, some lymphocytes are created with receptors that happen to be specific to normal, healthy components of the body. Fortunately, a healthy immune system purges itself of these lymphocytes, leaving only lymphocytes that ignore normal body components but react to foreign intruders. If this purging process is not completely successful, the result is an autoimmune (literally "self-immune") disease in which the immune system attacks normal components of the body as though they were foreign antigens, destroying healthy molecules, cells, or tissues.
Some lymphocytes are processed in the bone marrow and then migrate to other areas of the body — specifically the lymphoid organs (see Lymphatic System). These lymphocytes are called B lymphocytes, or B cells (for bone-marrow-derived cells). Other lymphocytes move from the bone marrow and are processed in the thymus, a pyramid-shaped lymphoid organ located immediately beneath the breastbone at the level of the heart. These lymphocytes are called T lymphocytes, or T cells (for thymus-derived cells).
These two types of lymphocytes — cells and T cells — play different roles in the immune response, though they may act together and influence one another's functions. The part of the immune response that involves B cells is often called humoral immunity because it takes place in the body fluids. The part involving T cells is called cellular immunity because it takes place directly between the T cells and the antigens. This distinction is misleading, however, because, strictly speaking, all adaptive immune responses are cellular — that is, they are all initiated by cells (the lymphocytes) reacting to antigens. B cells may initiate an immune response, but the triggering antigens are actually eliminated by soluble products that the B cells release into the blood and other body fluids. These products are called antibodies and belong to a special group of blood proteins called immunoglobulins When a B cell is stimulated by an antigen that it encounters in the body fluids, it transforms, with the aid of a type of T cell called a helper T cell (see "T cells"), into a larger cell called a blast cell. The blast cell begins to divide rapidly, forming a clone of identical cells.
Some of these transform further into plasma cells — in essence, antibody-producing factones. These plasma cells produce a single type of antigen-specific antibody at a rate of about 2,000 antibodies per second. The antibodies then circulate through the body fluids, attacking the triggering antigen.
Antibodies attack antigens by binding to them. Some antibodies attach themselves to invading microorganisms and render them immobile or prevent them from penetrating body cells. In other cases, the antibodies act together with a group of blood proteins, collectively called the complement system, that consists of at least 30 different components. In such cases, antibodies coat the antigen and make it subject to a chemical chain reaction with the complement proteins. The complement reaction either can cause the invader to burst or can attract scavenger cells that "eat" the invader.
Not all of the cells from the clone formed from the original B cell transform into antibody-producing plasma cells; some serve as so-called memory cells. These closely resemble the original B cell, but they can respond more quickly to a second invasion by the same antigen than can the original cell. T cells. There are two major classes of T cells produced in the thymus: helper T cells and cytotoxic, or killer, T cells. Helper T cells secrete molecules called interleukins (abbreviated IL) that promote the growth of both B and T cells. The interleukins that are secreted by lymphocytes are also called lymphokines. The interleukins that are secreted by other kinds of blood cells called monocytes and macrophages are called monokines. Some ten different interleukins are known: IL-1, IL-2, IL-3, IL-4, IL-5, IL-6, IL-7, interferon, lymphotoxin, and tumor necrosis factor. Each interleukin has complex biological effects.
Cytotoxic T cells destroy cells infected with viruses and other pathogens and may also destroy cancerous cells. Cytotoxic T cells are also called suppressor lymphocytes because they regulate immune responses by suppressing the function of helper cells so that the immune svstem is active onlv when necessary.
The receptors of T cells are different from those of B cells because they are "trained" to recognize fragments of antigens that have been combined with a set of molecules found on the surfaces of all the body's cells. These molecules are called MHC molecules (for major histocompatibility complex). As T cells circulate through the body, they scan the surfaces of body cells for the presence of foreign antigens that have been picked up by the MHC molecules. This function is sometimes called immune surveillance.
Immune Response
When an antigen enters the body, it may be partly neutralized by components of the innate immune system. It may be attacked by phagocytes or by preformed antibodies that act together with the complement system. Often, however, the lymphocytes of the adaptive immune system are brought into play.
The human immune system contains approximately l trillion T cells and l trillion B cells, located in the lymphoid organs and in the blood, plus approximately 10 billion antigen-presenting cells located in the lymphoid organs. To maximize the chances of encountering antigens wherever they may invade the body, lymphocytes continually circulate between the blood and certain lymphoid tissues. A given lymphocyte spends an average of 30 minutes per day in the blood and recirculates about 50 times per day between the blood and lymphoid tissues.
If lymphocytes encounter an antigen trapped by the antigen-presenting cells of the lymphoid organs, lymphocytes with receptors specific to that antigen stop their migration and settle to mount an immune response locally. As these lymphocytes accumulate in the affected lymphoid tissue, the tissue often becomes enlarged — for example, the lymph nodes in the groin become enlarged if there is an infection in the thigh area.
Antigen-presenting cells degrade antigens and often eliminate them without the help of lymphocytes. If there are too many antigens for them to handle alone, however, the antigen-presenting cells secrete IL- 1 and display fragments of the antigens (combined with MHC molecules) to alert the helper T cells. The IL-1 facilitates the responsiveness of T and B cells to antigens and, if released in large amounts (as it is in the course of infections), can also cause fever and drowsiness. Helper T cells that encounter IL- 1 and fragments of antigens transform into cells called lymphoblasts, which then secrete a variety of interleukins that are essential to the success of the immune response. The IL-2 produced by helper T cells promotes the growth of cytotoxic T cells, which may be necessary to destroy tumorous cells or cells infected with viruses. The IL-3 increases the production of blood cells in the bone marrow and thus helps to maintain an adequate supply of the lymphocytes and lymphocyte products necessary to fight infections. Helper T cells also secrete interleukins that act on B cells, stimulating them to divide and to transform into antibody-secreting plasma cells. The antibodies then perform their part of the immune function.
The process of inducing an immune response is called immunization. It may be either natural — through infection by a pathogen — or artificial — through the use of serums or vaccines. The heightened resistance acquired when the body responds to infection is called active immunity. Passive immunity results when the antibodies from an actively immunized individual are transferred to a second, nonimmune subject. Active immunization, whether natural or artificial, is longer-lasting than is passive immunization because it takes advantage of immunologic memory.
Monoclonal Antibodies
Scientists can now produce antibody-secreting cells in the laboratorv by a method known as the hybridoma technique. Hybridomas are hybrid cells made by fusing a cancerous, or rapidly reproducing, plasma cell and a normal antibody-producing plasma cell obtained from an animal immunized with a particular antigen. The hybridoma cell can produce large amounts of identical antibodies — called monoclonal, or hybridoma, antibodies — which have widespread applications in medicine and biology.
Why do Americans stand for the U.S. flag and the national anthem? In the midst of the NFL controversy over players who take a knee instead of standing for the national anthem, let us remember the many reasons why many of us stand for the flag and how it all began.
Americans have stood for the U.S. flag since June 14, 1777, the day the Continental Congress declared “that the flag of the (thirteen) United States be thirteen stripes, alternate red and white: that the union be thirteen stars, white in a blue field, representing a new constellation.”
Thirty-seven years later in Aug. 1814, the White House and U.S. Capitol lay in ashes after the British military burned the public buildings in Washington D.C. In the immediate aftermath, many Americans understandably feared that the Union Jack, the British flag, would soon fly over all of America again.
Hence, three weeks after the sacking of Washington, Francis Scott Key, a Maryland attorney who politically oppose the current president, was so moved at seeing the U.S. flag flying victoriously at the end of the battle for Baltimore’s Fort McHenry, that he wrote lyrics for The Star-Spangled Banner, the song we now call the national anthem.
1. We stand for the flag today, not to please ourselves but to honor those who paid the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom.
The more than 1.2 million Americans who have died because of war. We stand for soldiers who initially inspired our national anthem, such as William Williams, a runaway slave who later died after having his leg blown off as part of the 38th U.S. Infantry at the Battle of Fort McHenry. We also stand for more recent heroes, such as Robert Kelly, the son of White House Chief of Staff John Kelly, a marine lieutenant who died in a roadside bomb blast in Afghanistan in 2010.
“I believe every American, when the national anthem is played, should cover their hearts and think about all the men and women who have been maimed and killed. Every American should stand and think for three lousy minutes," John Kelly declared in response to the NFL controversy.
2. We stand for the flag not to focus on what divides us but on what unites us, which is being an American.
“The name of American, which belongs to you, in your national capacity, must always exalt the just pride of patriotism, more than any appellation derived from local discriminations. With slight shades of difference, you have the same religion, manners, habits, and political principles,” George Washington, our first president, declared in his farewell address in 1796.
The same is true today. More than being a New Yorker or a Texan or being a Steelers fan or Rams fan, the name “American” deserves our highest respect and pride. Standing for the flag and anthem at a sports game or other public gatherings, symbolically shows that we are all Americans, no matter our race or religion, no matter our preferred sports team, and no matter our political differences. Standing is the ultimate salute to sportsmanship.
3. We stand for the flag not to pledge allegiance to a president, but to honor the reality that we have an elected president and not a lifetime king.
By standing, we honor the fact that our country has had 45 presidents. Our flag reflects our system of government, divided by 50 states, the stars on the flag, but united under a federal government. The national anthem controversy in the NFL started during the term of our previous president and continues during our current president’s term.
4. We stand not because of past or present pain caused by injustice, but to salute the principle of justice.
This is one of the three definitions for the color blue that Congress gave us in 1782. “The colors of . . . those used in the flag of the United States of America. White signifies purity and innocence. Red (signifies) hardiness and valor and blue . . . signifies vigilance, perseverance and justice.”
Patriotism is not pride in the pain of our nation’s past. Rather, patriotism is pride in the principles that paved the way for change, whether that change was trading royalty for representation in 1776 or exchanging enslavement for emancipation in 1863.
From John Adams and Thomas Jefferson to Martin Luther King, Jr., many Americans have stood for justice for a more perfect union. “When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men—yes, black men as well as white men—would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” King declared in his 1968 “I Have a Dream” speech. King tapped the principles created by our founders and applied them to make “justice a reality for all of God’s children.”
5. We stand for the flag not for our generation but to set an example for the next generation.
“If we do not advocate a love of country to our children and the generations to come, then why would our children grow up to fight for their countries, the founding principles and moral truths?” Melania Trump asked in a recent speech to the United Nations. Passing along patriotism is crucial to the future survival of America. The color of white in the flag symbolizes the purity and innocence of our children.
When we stand for the flag and anthem, we are standing for our hopes for our children’s future, that they will embrace the principles of patriotism and live out its moral truths of justice, perseverance and courage. We stand for the flag and anthem so they can stand for the flag and anthem.
BY JANE HAMPTON COOK, OPINION CONTRIBUTOR — 09/29/17 01:00 PM EDT Jane Hampton Cook is the author of “America’s Star-Spangled Story” and “The Burning of the White House: James and Dolley Madison and the War of 1812.” She is a former White House webmaster for President George W. Bush.
Some today believe that there are good lies and bad lies. Here is the truth about lying.
Ours is not a truthful society. Leaders in government, business, education and religion knowingly lie numerous times each day. They are not alone in the practice. Most people admit that they lie often. Straying from the truth is an accepted way of living. Many think there are good—meaning little white—and bad lies. Some would never consider lying in a court of law but feel no remorse at giving false information on a job application. Some people believe that lying is necessary to keep things running smoothly—international relations, businesses, marriages and friendships.
What is the truth about lying? Is there good and bad lying? Do “little white lies” help or hurt people? Can stretching the truth and distorting the facts cause considerable damage to individuals and whole nations? The plain truth is revealing.
Recently, Americans suffered through a bitter election. A slim majority of Americans who participated in the election voted for Mr. Bush. These consider the result a positive thing. They are happy. However, a large number of Americans are disappointed by the results and think that the president’s second term will mean assured disaster. After the campaign, it is clear that the United States is bitterly divided. What is the reason? Of course, the full answer to the question is a complex one. Yet, a part of the answer squarely involves abuse of the Ninth Commandment.
During the campaign, respected news sources reported that both political parties strayed far from the truth about issues in print ads and in commercials on radio, tv and the Internet. In addition, both candidates are known to have distorted, twisted and warped facts about each other in speeches in front of millions of Americans.
The Washington Post reported on May 31, 2004, “This campaign is persistent and methodical, and it often revs up on Monday mornings with the strategically timed release of ads [about Senator Kerry] …. Sometimes the charges ring true. … But often they distort Kerry’s record and words to undermine the candidate ….” The same was true on the other side: “Kerry, too, has made his own misleading statements and exaggerations” (ibid.).
On Election Day, the members of the news media who had pointed fingers at the candidates significantly contributed to the problem by broadcasting distorted voter exit polls. Media watchers believe that there was a real attempt to throw the election. Let’s be honest. The American public was subjected to outright lying by the highest officials in government and the media.
What are the fruits of the election? A fog of distrust blankets the nation. This is a very dangerous situation. Yet the problem with lying is much bigger than just within America.
Our world is constantly being flooded with all kinds of untruths. Self-deception, spiritual hypocrisy and false religious instruction are reaching pandemic proportions. Bible prophecy shows that this world is quickly heading into its worst crisis ever. It is an event so terrifying that Jesus Christ warned His disciples about the soon-coming Great Tribulation nearly 2,000 years ago. He said that religious deception would be the leading cause of the crisis at the close of man’s rule on Earth (Matthew 24:4-5). As individuals, we must be sure that we fully understand the critical importance of the Ninth Commandment.
Ninth Commandment Stated
With incredible power, God spoke from Mount Sinai, “Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour” (Exodus 20:16). This is the fifth of the commandments related to preserving loving relationships among mankind. Remember, the first four commandments show us how to love God; the last six explain how to love other humans. Besides preserving the family structure, marriage, human life and other human beings’ possessions, with the Ninth Commandment, God seeks to guard what is next most important to any human: his reputation. This commandment forbids all lying, which includes the sins of slander and gossip. A thief takes physical things that are easily replaced; however, a man’s reputation taken by lies, slander or gossip is often never restored.
God gave mankind the Ninth Commandment to show us that all men, women and children must control their tongues.
The human tongue is a tiny organ, yet it wields incredible power. The Apostle James wrote, “Behold also the ships, which though they be so great, and are driven of fierce winds, yet are they turned about with a very small helm, whithersoever the governor listeth. Even so the tongue is a little member …” (James 3:4-5). Here the tongue is compared to the rudderof a large ship. Though it is the smallest part of the vessel, it has the power to direct its course. All too often, the power unleashed by the human tongue is a destructive one. James continued, “Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth! And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of hell” (verses 5-6).
When we deeply meditate on these verses, we realize that there has been untold human suffering and damage caused by people who carelessly lie, slander or gossip about another human being. Yet all parties are damaged by such actions. Who can ever trust a liar, slanderer or gossip? The Proverbs state, “He that hideth hatred with lying lips, and he that uttereth a slander, is a fool” (Proverbs 10:18). Why? “Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof” (Proverbs 18:21). Lying causes great harm to all involved.
What human being today is in full control of his or her tongue? Notice James’s answer: “For every kind of beasts, and of birds, and of serpents, and of things in the sea, is tamed, and hath been tamed of mankind: But the tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison” (James 3:7-8). All humans sin with the tongue. The point is that unless God, through His Word and His Holy Spirit, is leading and guiding us, we simply cannot control our tongues properly. God expects us to build the righteous spiritual character that will enable us to use our tongues for the good of others.
The Damage of False Testimony
The simple application of this commandment is to not give false testimony in a legal setting. To lie in a court of law is called perjury. Serious penalties, including substantial fines and jail time, are imposed in many countries for committing such an act. It is right to do so. Why? All justice is based on truth. The sad fact is, many commit the crime of perjury every day. Some government leaders, educators, business people, men and women think nothing of lying on a witness stand. What makes their sin even more shocking is the fact that they attempt to deceive the judge and jury by swearing to tell the truth—putting their right hand on the Bible and invoking the name of God. Such poor conduct is a monstrous lie in itself. It says much about the lack of real morals in our society.
Surely we can understand what an outrage this is to the great God, whose word is truth(John 17:17).
The crime of perjury runs rampant through all levels of our society—from the very top to the bottom. We should not forget that a recent president lied openly to Senate and congressional committees. Yet, he was not removed from office. Think about the message this sad fact sent to the rest of the world. Are we a nation that okays lies, deception and hypocrisy?
The damage caused by false testimony is enormous. No one trusts a known enemy. Our criminal lying shows us that we cannot even trust our elected officials, friends, spouses, business partners and work associates. Anyone who is familiar with our legal system knows that there is no such thing as a simple, inexpensive trial. Countless hours and millions of dollars are wasted checking out the truthfulness of witnesses. Why? People cannot be trusted to tell the truth.
Consider also the personal damage to people that regularly takes place because of false testimony. Bitter divorce and custody disputes can leave husband, wife and children scarred for life. Some will manufacture the worst false accusations to get custody, money and possessions. Because of lying, innocent people have been wrongly executed. The one striking example here is Jesus Christ. He was executed because of false witnesses (Mark 14:56-63).
Let’s admit it. Breaking God’s Ninth Commandment has cultivated attitudes of suspicion, hopelessness and uselessness in society. We are paying a high price for our casual and continual lying.
Stop Living a Lie
To stop lying, we must understand why human beings lie. Study little children. Why do they lie? Generally, little children lie to avoid punishment or to appear better than their peers. With adults it is not any different. The root cause of this horrible sin is vanity.
King Solomon recognized this simple fact. He wrote, “Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity” (Ecclesiastes 1:2). Every sin has its root in vanity.
Men and women lie because they are more concerned with the self than anything else. What is best for another human being is rarely considered. Many fear to speak the truth because they are obsessed with what others think about them. Yet, few people are concerned by what Almighty God thinks. This is especially true in the spheres of higher education and religion. The Apostle John said this about the religious leaders of his day: “For they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God” (John 12:43).
The two most difficult things for a human being to do are to admit error, and to face failure. Men will stubbornly believe and teach lies when they cannot agree with the truth. The best example here is the theory of evolution. Those steeped in higher education and science cannot accept the reality and authority of a Creator God, so they have invented a lie to explain a fantastically designed creation without a Creator. The supposed facts of evolution do not add up—and will never add up—yet the theory is taught as fact on a daily basis. Our world is suffering greatly because of this widely promulgated lie. It is the underlying foundation of our modern education system, therefore it has adversely affected our views on political science, international relations, economics, medicine, psychology, sociology, marriage, family and child rearing. We must recognize that any system of beliefs built upon a false premise will ultimately lead to failure.
There are those in higher education and science who recognize the theory of evolution for what it is, but they will not speak out against it because they do not want to be made to look foolish in front of their peers. They fear being made fun of. How tragic! Why should any well-educated person be ashamed to admit a faith in God? Isn’t it far more ridiculous to profess a faith in a mindless, chancy, mathematically impossible alternate theory of creation? Doesn’t believing something one knows is false just because others do expose the ultimate hypocrisy? Isn’t it time we replace vanity with some courageous leadership? Jesus Christ said, “Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake” (Matthew 5:11).
Lying may appear to be the best route to take in the short run. However, real lasting benefits can only come by recognizing and telling the truth.
The Father of Lies
Why do human beings so easily succumb to such a disgraceful habit?
It is not intellectually fashionable to believe that Satan the devil exists. He does. Our lying society is a major proof of this fact. Satan the devil is the author of all lying and deception.
John the apostle records Jesus Christ’s own words revealing the truth about Satan. Upbraiding the religious leaders of His day, Christ said, “Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it” (John 8:44). Here Christ shows that it was Satan who lied to our first parents, who told them they had an immortal soul—essentially murdering them. God had told them that if they rebelled against Him and walked the opposite way of His government, they surely would die (Genesis 2:16-17). Satan appealed to Eve’s vanity, and she disobeyed God. Adam willingly followed his wife. They believed and followed a liar. They and the rest of mankind have suffered since.
Satan is a powerful angelic being that broadcasts—all over the Earth—a spirit of disobedience, which includes lying and deception (Ephesians 2:2). It is Satan who tempts all humans to lie.
In addition, through the agency of human instruments, he deceives the whole world (Revelation 12:9). With full control of certain men’s minds, he has successfully suppressed the truth of God (Romans 1:18). God promises to unleash His righteous wrath on all men who suppress the truth. There are men and women in religious circles today who knowingly do just that. Our world is full of religious deception. Just like Adam and Eve, millions embrace false doctrines—teachings not found in the Bible—and still call themselves religious.
To be a Christian, an individual must believe what Christ says and strive to live as He lived. Jesus Christ and the original apostles including Paul, preached the gospel, or good news, of the coming Kingdom of God (Mark 1:15; Acts 28:31). Few churches preach that gospel. Jesus Christ and the original 120 disciples, including the apostles, kept a Saturday Sabbath and God’s holy days—discussed in detail in our July 2004 issue. Which churches keep these days?
Concerning religious deception, Jesus Christ warned, “For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect. Behold, I have told you before” (Matthew 24:24-25). The point is, you could be living a religious lie—the most dangerous kind of lying. You must prove what your Bible says and then follow the Church that teaches those doctrines. Doing anything less will lead you and your family into assured spiritual disaster.
Living the Truth
The positive spiritual application of the Ninth Commandment requires that we live and speak the truth in all areas of our lives. God and Jesus Christ are the truth! Describing the Father, Jesus Christ said, “[T]hy word is truth.” He also said this about Himself: “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me” (John 14:6). God’s goal for human life is to reproduce Himself into potentially billions of other God beings who are the truth and speak the truth. We are to become just like God. The Ninth Commandment demands then that we come to acknowledge the truth of the Bible first of all. Do you know and believe your Bible?
To do so, you must come to the place where you recognize that there is an Almighty God who rules the universe. His ways are the only right and true ways to live. Then you must acknowledge and obey the truth when it is revealed to you. This means you become converted to the true God and His ways. To live any other way is to live a lie. It is the worst kind of slavery. Jesus Christ promised: “And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:32). It is vitally important that we base our whole life on the truth.
In our personal lives, we must make sure that our words are always true. If we remain in the habit of lying to others and to ourselves, we will destroy our character and pervert and twist our own minds. Keeping our minds free of lies opens up an incredible clarity of thinking—the kind of thinking that cultivates deeper understanding of all truth.
Paul taught, “Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbour: for we are members one of another” (Ephesians 4:25). When we speak, let it always be the truth. However, this does not mean that we always have to reveal all that we know. In speaking the truth, we must always use wisdom, tact and especially love. God’s ministers are required to always speak the truth in love (verse 15). Sometimes the truth does hurt temporarily, but in the long run it is the best healing agent we could desire.
All men are only as good as their word. If we are habitual liars, none can trust us. What is worse, we cannot be helped spiritually. Who can help a liar? The clearest example of what we mean here is Satan the devil. Not even God can help him—his mind is permanently twisted.
Satan’s character is diametrically opposite that of God. If we choose to live as Satan lives, we will suffer a fearful fate. John records in Revelation: “But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death” (Revelation 21:8). All humans who embrace the way of lying are in danger of being thrown into the lake of fire, which represents the ultimate punishment—eternal death.
Remember, there are no good lies in God’s sight. Half-truths, distortions and deceptions are condemned throughout the Bible. Let’s all learn to live and speak the truth and thereby inherit the glorious Kingdom of God. This is the wonderful and uplifting message of the Ninth Commandment, you shall not bear false witness.
I want you to stop for just a minute and look at this picture.
This is NOT a political post. This is simply a post that I hope you can find in your heart to think about. Put your hatred and pettiness aside.
I was moved to tears today just thinking about the weight that he must be carrying. I have a child and a wife, a wonderful business partner and great personel and Markethive a social platform of 1000s of people all depending on me to lead and carry us all through.. Even so, my anxiety level at times is out the roof and I feel like the weight of the world is on me. I know when he signed up for this role, he was willing to take on whatever, but the magnitude of what we’re experiencing has got to be paralyzing. Maybe it is, maybe it isn’t but can you imagine? I sat and wondered how he must be dealing with it all. When it’s quiet and his head finally hits a pillow after he’s been on his feet all day, press conference after press conference…
does he cry?
Is he even able to sleep?
Is he scared?
Can he shut his mind off?
When I look at our President, I want to see him the way God sees him and I want the Lord to use him for His glory!
Whether he’s making you proud or not, I’m urging you to look at this photo and ask the Lord to soften your heart to him, lift him up in prayer. He needs them. He’s carrying the weight of the world!
I love this man with great respect and passion. I pray for him always. I wish I had had a Dad like him.
12 hour shift on their feet. And yes, she knows you want another cup of ice chips but, the man they brought in last night has just crapped on himself, for the 3rd time today, and his daughter is visiting him from out of town so……
Meanwhile a patient….
*Needs to pee.
*2 families are calling for status updates.
*One patient is LOUDLY demanding pain meds.
*A doctor is making his rounds.
*3 heart monitors just got detached.
*The pizza just arrived and she's short $1.50. And yes it’s cold.
*She is underpaid
*Overworked
*The cafeteria is closed early today (hence the Pizza).
*She has washed her hands for the 197th time today.
*She just got called dumb by a person who didn't pass the 10th grade and even though she has a BSN or Masters degree in nursing.
*She literally CAN'T get the IV pump to stop beeping.
*She just saved her 7 millionth patient, from being prescribed the wrong medicine.
* She just ran down the hall for a Code Blue to perform CPR to resuscitate a patient for the third time this week with blood and bodily fluids spurting up on her fresh pair of scrubs.
*And all 3 of them just lost their favorite patient.
Meanwhile, you're ringing the buzzer non-stop, for a cup of ice chips
To all of the Male and Female Nurses ,…we truly appreciate you, we Love u so much and we support you more than you will ever know.
