U.S. Dictatorship? Propaganda and Hope

The past is never dead. It's not even past"

- William Faulkner, Requiem for a Nun

What you will not see advertised or discussed on State (Corporate) Media is Canadian Scott Noble's documentary Lifting the Veil. You may not see it advertised or discussed at alternative news outlets where its subject is critical of the liberal class's cover up of its own complicity with the government's marginalization of voices critical of capitalism and U.S. Empire. I will return to this documentary in a moment.

But first, there is what Glenn Beck characterizes as an example of "insanity."

Corporations discovered that the media's potential for educating the public was both valuable and profitable. Millions of Americans turn with admiration to see Oprah sitting side by side with celebrities. Thousands believe they can become the next Oprah. Millions know the latest fashion in designer clothes and home decoration or the latest popular model car or iPod. Millions believe they are informed citizens whether they view Fox News or PBS. The U.S. is still a free and fair nation at Fox or PBS; it still offers the best of all possible worlds.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, a key cabinet member of the do-it-better- Obama-regime, believes the State news media can do better than it did under the Bush II regime. Despite the State Media's attempt to block (censor?) Al Jazeera-English in the U.S., apparently, Clinton, along with thousands of Americans, tunes in to Al Jazeera's website during the Egyptian uprising and discovers someone else is beating the U.S. at their game!

U.S. scores in math and science skills lag behind that of other nations, including the so-called "developing" nations; the U.S. also falls short in providing affordable or universal health care for its citizen; and despite "deficits" at the federal and state level, the U.S. manages to out spend every other nation combined on its military force, according to the Stockholm International Research Institute. The majority of U.S. citizens are concerned about the quality of education their children are receiving, and they have demanded health care they can afford.  They have demanded an end to torture and wars. But the Obama regime knows best, and the regime's concerns trump the concerns of the American people.

Before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Clinton argued that the U.S. is "losing the "information war' in the world" (Huffington Post, "Hillary Clinton Calls Al Jazeera "Real News,' Criticizes U.S. Media," March 3, 2011). Global news outlets elsewhere "were making inroads into places like the Middle East more effectively than the United States." Al Jazeera, for example, she said, "was "changing peoples' minds and attitudes. And like it or hate it, it is really effective.'"

Earlier this year, Clinton declared that the foreign news outlets misrepresented U.S. foreign policy. After viewing those uprisings in Arab and in North African nations, today, she has some bright ideas!

The U.S. regime had to ask itself: Is Al Jezeera doing a better job at educating the public and doing so more effectively without, as Clinton noted, "a million commercials" and without "arguments between talking heads and the kind of stuff that we do on our news"? After all, "Viewership of Al Jazeera is going up in the United States because it's real news".  U.S. news is "not particularly informative to us, let alone foreigners." What is particularly useful in watching Charlie Sheen disintegrate? U.S. news is "not keeping up" with the changing attitudes out there in the world Al Jezeera covers.

The regime itself has already responded: at the U.S. State Department, Clinton has instructed her young computer wizards to educate the American and particularly the foreign public with friendlier and informative programming. This is the Obama not the Bush II regime! We are the Democrats, not the Republicans and the people of the world need to know "our values"! Yes, Clinton said, "our," American, "values"!

So why is Glenn Beck calling Clinton's idea--"insanity"?

Leading alternative news outlets critical of Clinton's comments suspect her motivates are disingenuous. Some note that her comments come at a time when the Obama regime is cutting funding to public broadcasting. 

But what is "public" about public broadcasting? Its operation is based on a hierarchical structuring of people and news - as is the leading alternative news outlets.  At both the "public" and alternative news outlets, the what, who, where, why, and how is still determined by a handful of whites and liberal facilitators who, despite the recently developments at NPR, posses the same aversion to those who "misrepresent" reality as interpreted by the State news media. Both "public," alternative and State news outlets agree on the usefulness of Juan Williams, Colin Powell (who could fail to remember how educational and informative Powell's presentation of Saddam's hidden weapons sites was?), Jesse Jackson Sr., and other moderate whiners in expensive suits. Their appearance is intended to promote the idea of a democratic America, much like the current regime, sprinkled with an Eric Holder, a Susan Rice, and Obama at the helm of State power. But few are fooled! 

I think the secretary of State is proposing less ranting and raving about Blacks, Latino/as, Muslims, immigrants, and "insanity" from the likes of a Rush Limbaugh, a Bill O'Reilly, and a Glenn Beck and more of this appearance of democracy, more of the Obama-brand-democracy. Out educate Al Jezeera! Put American ingenuity to work again with Obama-like experts waiting in the Green room!

What is "at stake here," to quote Professor Henry Giroux, "is a notion of democracy that refuses to be reduced to the dictates of a market society" ("From "'Morning in America' to Nightmare on Main Street," Truth-Out). This one-size-fits-all State news media Hillary Clinton seems to be proposing unlike Fox News, PBS or Democracy Now! will dependent more on the useful, friendlier Obama clones to sell (inform?) the world about the values of U.S. Empire and its corporate capitalism mission to the world.

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