The Role of Fake Media in a Near-Fascist Society [View All]

[im10ashus]

"In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act"...George Orwell

As we all have our eyes fixated in Iraq, Israel, or the potential for another stolen election this year it is important to not forget the role of media in our everyday lives. So many Americans get their information from the tainted mainstream media machine run by the current government that it is a frightening prospect to merely hope the truth somehow gets through. I am sure we all know people who are seemingly good folk, but somehow they keep getting it wrong on such crucial matters such as election fraud, the war, or any number of Bush-GOP scandals. You have to realize the gauntlet of false news that is thrown at them each day, which is the basis for their political opinions.

Case in point is the poster child of fake news, Fox News. Using false slogans such as "fair and balanced" or "we report, you decide", Fox News has made its living on being nothing short of propaganda for the Republican Party. News shows are peppered with pro-administration stories and even when they have to cover a negative story; it is always framed from a positive angle, thus skewing the truth. The amount of time spent on positive stories versus negative GOP stories is staggering and the guests on their various shows are designed to put a loud, confident voice on the republican side and a milquetoast, timid voice on the democratic side. That is never more evident than on their flagship show Hannity and Colmes where the jaw-jutting, boisterous Hannity is opposed by the meek and affable Colmes. Guests are extreme ideologues on the right, such as war criminal Oliver North or venom-witch Anne Coulter and moderate voices on the left; people you or I have probably never heard of. News is not reported on Fox, it is packaged. The pre-set talking points for the GOP are sent to Fox each day, so that the commentators throughout the day can repeat them over and over again, so that eventually the populace begins to think it is true. Just this past week we saw President Bush began to use the ridiculous term islamo-fascism and sure enough, there was all the Fox commentators using the same ridiculous line all night long. Karl Rove says to call all democrats who support a troop withdrawal, cut and runners and that very night there is O'Reilly, Hannity and company calling them cut and runners. Never mind that the majority of the American people support bringing our troops home, it does not matter in the world of fake news. The opinion of the American people does not matter when you are deciding what the news will be.

Not satisfied with this, Fox also employs flat out lies in their coverage. It was recently discovered that Fox used a "conservative strategist" named Karen Czarnecki on their evening "news" shows. What they did not tell us was that she was not really a conservative strategist. No, Ms. Czarnecki actually was the Labor Department deputy assistant secretary. She was a government employee posing as a pundit on a news program, offering her opinion that not surprisingly, agreed with the government line. The damage done here is that people watching think they are getting an honest opinion, when in reality they are only getting the opinion from the government's standpoint. Similarly, when the administration is in a tough spot, they call on Fox to provide them with an "exclusive", meaning an administration official can sit with someone like Sean Hannity to express the government's opinion without the threat of an actual news interview breaking out. Dick Cheney and Karl Rove have both appeared on these "exclusives" where Hannity did not pose one serious question in opposition to the government position. Propaganda at its best.

Propaganda does not end with Fox though, as most realize now that they are not fair, nor balanced. The real damage done by Fox News is that it makes the other news sources seem mainstream, when in fact they mimic Fox and rarely question the GOP controlled government. People like Chris Matthews are presented as moderate when in reality he has as worse a record in supporting the GOP then anyone on Fox. People like Tucker Carlson and Joe Scarborough are presented as average guys representing America. Never mind that Scarborough is a former GOP Congressman and Tucker is as republican as they get. America buys it. About the only beacon in this sea of untruth is Countdown with Keith Olbermann but you have to sift through hours of lies just to get to that one beacon.

cont'd...

http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_anthony__060815_the_role_of_fake_med.htm