Progressives: Has Corporate Media Succeeded in Silencing You?

[NorthCarolina]

by Alfred McGuire

It was no doubt the greatest deception in modern political history- Barack Obama’s campaign and election I mean. Believe me I know. I voted for him. Should I have voted for Clinton or McCain? No indeed. But I would feel a lot better now if I hadn’t voted at all. In defense of myself, I can say I had some doubts about Obama, particularly as a result of his votes opposing remedies to customers whose privacy had been violated by telecommunications companies and in favor of governmental invasions of the privacy of citizens without court order. But after eight years of Bush and Cheney, I was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. And so were many of us.

Congress just voted to provide Obama with over $100 billion to fund his wars. And that’s just a temporary allotment. There will be more and more to come. According to reports by Progressive Democrats of America, Obama and his delegates worked on legislators unrelentingly to vote in favor of the funding, threatening non-support in their re-election campaigns if they failed to comply. So he got his- I mean the war-industry’s- $100 billion; and he- I mean they- will continue to grab the taxpayers’ money for God knows how many years to come. Obama has insured that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan will keep going throughout his first term. And he has left himself enough leeway to continue the warfare through his second term- if we’re unwise enough to give him a second term. Yes, Obama establishes a state of virtually permanent warfare for the benefit of the corporate war-industry, which has already pulled in over $1.5 trillion in war profits. And what do progressives and others who should know better do? Nothing. And Obama and his non-entity of a servile Attorney General Eric Holder bury and refuse to prosecute Bushian war crimes. And what do progressives do? Hide under the rug and stay silent. The difference between progressives and Neo-Cons and the radical right has really begun to pale, don’t you think?

<snip>

One of the main functions of the Corporate Media has been to neutralize any serious criticism of Obama’s policies by attempting to marginalize it as “far-Left” and offbeat. CNN’s Anderson Cooper seems to specialize in that form of “journalism,” recently classifying as “far-Left” any protestations against Obama’s burying of torture photos. I guess that in the view of the Corporate Media you’re practically a Commie-Pinko if you feel that Americans should know what crimes their government has been perpetrating in their name. And to CNN’s David Gergen Obama’s continuing and unjustified warfare is just good presidential politics- “any president would do it. Who would want to be blamed for any problems that might arise if he ended the occupations?” Sounds like the recipe for endless war, Mr. Gergen. If no president would want to end the wars and risk blame for possible problems that might arise in the region, then what happens- the wars just go on forever? Thousands of American troops being needlessly killed and maimed is apparently not a real problem to our Corporate- Media moral giants. My God, when did we begin to become a nation of conscienceless sociopaths? Never, I would say. Only the Corporate Media and a high percentage of the politicians have. I think the majority of Americans, if they really thought about what is going on, would be outraged and repelled by what their “leadership” has become.

I have argued before and will continue to argue that the Corporate Media are blinding and destroying this nation.

<snip>

Read the entire Journal Posting here: http://www.opednews.com/populum/diarypage.php?did=13537

[Birthmark]

1. That first paragraph sums it up nicely for me.

It is exactly where I was and where I am now.

[natrat]

10. it starts with this shit web site--ie try to post something about the bilderbergs and

some shit mod swoops in to delete it

[balantz]

2. Thanks for posting. Great piece. Here's more:

- clip -

The grave seriousness of media corruption cannot be over-stated. It has no doubt gone too far to be remedied. So we must be keenly aware of the state of affairs. And we must make sure that we do not become influenced or intimidated- even unconsciously- by the media’s self-serving, canned and slanted machinations. As unpleasant as it may be, we have to remember constantly that the American corporate media are just as much the servants and spokesmen of the current ruling plutocracies as are the media of other nations. If we wish to gain access to objective evaluation of our national condition, then we have to step outside the paradigmatic box that American journalism has become.

Currently the media are hell-bent to neutralize opposition to Obama’s prolongation and escalation of warfare and his thus-far successful attempts to defeat justice in the matter of war-criminality by falsely characterizing such opposition as “far-Left,” excessive, irrational, impractical, offbeat, un-American and God-knows-what. It worries me that progressives and other persons of conscience continue to be so silent on these issues. Why aren’t we speaking out? Why aren’t we demonstrating peacefully but assertively and in large numbers? Why aren’t we organizing boycotts of the war-profiteers and their subsidiaries and stockholders? Why do we just engage in a lot of ineffectual talk? Have the media convinced us not to appear “offbeat?” Or are we just embarrassed to admit that Obama is not turning out to be all he was cracked up to be. Better that we know that and deal with it now. A little embarrassment never killed anyone. And truth is indeed freeing.

Whatever the case, the silent passivity has to end. If it continues nothing will change for the better and the status quo, fed by the complicit politicians and corporate media, will continue its stranglehold on our nation. Yes, there may be some window-dressing improvements to appease the public and to weaken the position of reformers- but the stranglehold will continue. The systemic and very serious problems which our nation faces require much more than window-dressing. We have to get past our inhibitions and fight relentlessly for what we believe in. There simply is no other way. Unless we just want to join the ranks of the “respectable.”

[zeemike]

3. It is not just the corporate media

But the very nature of the corporation itself, as we have created it.
And it all hinges on a single principle...that the only duty the corporation has is to make profit.

We have created a beast that has devoured the whole earth and rips and tears at the earth and stomps on it's residue.
And it is alive and lives and has the rights of a living person, yet it does not live, and has no regard for life, only it's own profitability.

[pretzel4gore]

4. but certain, select profit only

there's some suspicion that the 'sin' items ie drugs porno are illegal because their illegality empowers mr pig (jobs, money, power) trying to control the criminal behavior created by the illegal status of drugs/porn simply makes them more profitable to mr pig, who cares not a whit about the cost in social terms, or corruption of law enforcement, or general dishonesty inherent in using criminal law to control certain behavior, etc. But it's probable that a miss grundy morality is considered basic to social order, and in promoting the falsehood (books, movies, music even history itself) are doctored up for public consumption simply by ignoring certain facts- for example the legal porn industry earns MORE $$ the Hollywood earns; a fact quietly buried away... Mike Moore once pointed out that if profit were really the motive, then GM would sell crack, and screw the auto though the auto itself (non electric that is) is really the driver motive of the greedy oil gas industries and their supremacy.
We live in one of history's most corrupt and vicious cultures- a society that INTENDS to destroy the planet, though subconsciously. Amazing, but true...

[Buzz Clik]

5. So many distortions, so little time.

Every day, threads are started at DU lamenting how despondent and helpless they feel -- because they read only this kind of whining and don't balance it with real knowledge.

[NorthCarolina]

8. Seems spot-on to me. I am curious as to what you believe

to be "distortions".

[Paranoid Pessimist]

11. OK, share some "real knowledge" with us. I'm always ready to learn n/t

[RufusTFirefly]

6. K & R ! n/t

[bbgrunt]

7. k n r. exactly right. I fear that we will

have to become a bit more desperate before we are willing to act like dissident Iranians--unfortunately our sense of honor and justice has been decimated and the only thing that seems to motivate us is economic deprivation--if it is severe enough..

[Doctor_J]

9. the Corporate Media sure isn't silencing his far right critics

Gingrinch is on TV more than Billy Mays