We're now weeks removed from learning that influential consevative radio talk show host Armstrong Williams was on the Bush administration to push their agenda on an unsuspecting American public. And it's completley off our radar. Americans are more concerned with football players wiping their rears on opponents' goal posts than our thoughts and views being nuanced through our media (yet again).
What concerns me more than anything, though, is that the notion of our media being bought in order to be nuanced by our government evokes memories of my youth, when "1984" and "Animal Farm" were both required reading at varying stages of my educational upbringing.
Did we not find it outrageous to read that citizens' thoughts, views, and ways of life were so easily influenced by a government that 'invaded' their homes through a giant television screen filled with subtle and not-so-subtle messages? Why is this any different?
Where are those that defend our civil liberties? Where is the call for an elimination of any ties between government and the media, aside from policing decency?
We've allowed CBS News' "Rathergate" to grab more headlines for using false documents to punctuate an otherwise truthful background of Bush's national guard (lack of) service. Prior diaries here have outlined all the FACTUAL statements the '60 Minutes' piece brought to light, but got lost in the fog, and yet Armstrong Williams' and his puppet strings connecting him to the Bush administration gets swept under the big media rug?
It's wrong and those of us who defend personal freedoms and an unbiased media need to step up our efforts to end these wrongs. Wake up, America! Your country is being swiped out of your back pocket like a wallet by these politicians while you're distracted by the handshake of their radio co-horts in front of you.