The New York Times gets a really hot, important, explosive news story. The president or the FBI or the Pentagon tells them that programs or lives will be put at risk. So the New York Times sits on the story for a YEAR. (yes, I'm shouting.)
The Washington Post elects to ignore important news, or reframes news to protect the military or politicians or foreign elites.
CNN shows footage of popular criminals as a set-up for characterizing Julian Assange as a popular criminal.
These mainstream media operations or trained poodles dancing on short leashes for hysterical power holders, be the military, Whitehouse, congressional, Vatican. I call the power holders hysterical because, when they claim that lives will be lost because Julian Assange brings the ugly lies, misstatements, perversions, abuses of justice and petty, childish machinations of people of power, they are making it up, exagerating, and throwing hissy fits.
The Washington Post elects to ignore important news, or reframes news to protect the military or politicians or foreign elites.
CNN shows footage of popular criminals as a set-up for characterizing Julian Assange as a popular criminal.
These mainstream media operations or trained poodles dancing on short leashes for hysterical power holders, be the military, Whitehouse, congressional, Vatican. I call the power holders hysterical because, when they claim that lives will be lost because Julian Assange brings the ugly lies, misstatements, perversions, abuses of justice and petty, childish machinations of people of power, they are making it up, exagerating, and throwing hissy fits.
The mainstream media are good at what they do. They are not half breed street mutts. No. They are well groomed and coifed thoroughbred show dogs that know how to look polished and professional. But they are show dogs and they are put through their paces by their owners. Wikipedia tells us , " As of 2010, The Walt Disney Company is the world's largest media conglomerate , with News Corporation , Time Warner and Viacom ranking second, third and fourth respectively .
Well coifed, well trained, the MSM will do tricks for the well placed and powerful.
(image; by Hollywood Poodle/Flickr)
These companies are not interested in peace, not interested in global warming or poverty or hunger or social justice or quality of life of Americans or anyone else, unless there's a profit in it.
We've watched this week as the mainstream, corpsestream media, as I like to call them, help sell the Obama resuscitation of the Bush Tax breaks, even adding cuts to social security funding that threaten the future of social security. The Washington Post does a poll which purports to show that over 70% of Americans approve of the plan. We all know how the design of the questions affects the results of polls. To suggest, as the poll does, that over 40% of liberals support Obama's plan is just way too hard to buy. But... it's a dog show and the dogs, bucks and bitchs, are doing what they've been trained to do-- going through their paces, looking polished and very, VERY well behaved.
We have uber-hysteric Joe Lieberman attacking hero Julian Assange as a terrorist.
We have right wing commentators calling for his execution. WTF, Obama's claimed the right to murder American citizens. Assanges is not even an American. He's from down under. I guess that makes it even more comfy to kill him.
Michael Moore writes, " ...some in the corporate-owned press have dismissed the importance of WikiLeaks ("they've released little that's new!") or have painted them as simple anarchists ("WikiLeaks just releases everything without any editorial control!"). WikiLeaks exists, in part, because the mainstream media has failed to live up to its responsibility. The corporate owners have decimated newsrooms, making it impossible for good journalists to do their job. There's no time or money anymore for investigative journalism. Simply put, investors don't want those stories exposed. They like their secrets kept ... as secrets."
It is the job of the press to bring truth to light. It is a part of the journalists job description to do muckraking, to expose secrets, to take nuggets of true information and publicize them.
The Obama government is perhaps the most secretive, the most punitive of whistleblowers and truth tellers in American history. It would not be surprising to see Obama declare some kind of sedition law or act, which would claim the right to not only silence journalists but to label them as terrorists. I'm not making this up. We already have legislation on the books that is being used to accuse, try, convict and imprison activists who seek to protect the environment. Will Potter, publisher of greenisthenewred has taken as his journalistic "beat" the coverage of the abuse of accusations of terrorism to harrass, charge, try and imprison green activists.
The Obama government is perhaps the most secretive, the most punitive of whistleblowers and truth tellers in American history. It would not be surprising to see Obama declare some kind of sedition law or act, which would claim the right to not only silence journalists but to label them as terrorists. I'm not making this up. We already have legislation on the books that is being used to accuse, try, convict and imprison activists who seek to protect the environment. Will Potter, publisher of greenisthenewred has taken as his journalistic "beat" the coverage of the abuse of accusations of terrorism to harrass, charge, try and imprison green activists.
In his article, Top 5 Myths & Lies from Wikileaks' Opponents Potter responds to the false accusation about Wikileaks, " This is not about freedom of the press. Wikileaks is not journalism," with this statement. "In addition to publishing documents supplied by whistleblowers, the staff of Wikileaks also reviews this information, provides commentary, and facilitates the flow of this information to news organizations. Wikileaks is not a conventional, old-guard media outlet. But that doesn't matter. It is applying the methodology and spirit of journalism to a digital age. Wikileaks is providing checks and balances on government power."
The reality is that the old mainstream media are no longer the real sources of journalism. Oh, occasionally, they'll fund some solid investigative work. But sadly, more often they protect and preserve the status quo and the powers that be rather than doing their job-- exposing them, digging up their dirty, embarrassing secrets.
Fortunately, there are new media organizations doing the work that the old media establishment now fails to do. They are smaller, far less deeply funded, usuall, with some exceptions, like Huffingtonpost, which is doing a much better job of speaking truth to power. And there are even some organizations, like Media Matters, getting funding from foundations. They're far outspent by the likes of Disney, GE and Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation.
The point of this article is to get the meme out there that the mainstream stenographic media ARE like poodles jumping for treats from the hysterical modern day Joe McCarthy's who are attempting to quash real journalism and journalists with accusations of terrorism.
Mark my words. Accusations of terrorism are well on the way to becoming the new communist label. They will be used to silence people, to shut down bold truth-tellers and truth telling operations. The inertia may already be unstoppable, but giving a name to the beast is one way to fight it.
Fortunately, there are new media organizations doing the work that the old media establishment now fails to do. They are smaller, far less deeply funded, usuall, with some exceptions, like Huffingtonpost, which is doing a much better job of speaking truth to power. And there are even some organizations, like Media Matters, getting funding from foundations. They're far outspent by the likes of Disney, GE and Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation.
The point of this article is to get the meme out there that the mainstream stenographic media ARE like poodles jumping for treats from the hysterical modern day Joe McCarthy's who are attempting to quash real journalism and journalists with accusations of terrorism.
Mark my words. Accusations of terrorism are well on the way to becoming the new communist label. They will be used to silence people, to shut down bold truth-tellers and truth telling operations. The inertia may already be unstoppable, but giving a name to the beast is one way to fight it.
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