[Cross-posted at The Left Coaster.]
If you want to get lied to, watch television news. There are a thousand ways to evade or hide the truth, but by far the most preferred way in our hurried blurry times is simple omission, just leave out critical history, fact or perspective so the little people won’t get uppity with the corporate agenda.
John Cole of Balloon Juice bitterly noted during the uproar about bailing out the crooks on Wall Street not once was there a personality on teevee advocating nationalizing these felonious institutions that wrecked our economy, Jesus if they’re too big to fail and so critical, simply take them over with a public administration and jail the felons who ran them.
Radical! Hardly, a completely rational solution that would have delivered a lot of justice and critical functionality, but corporate teevee masters are never to be upset, markets and capitalism always rule, period.
A small example of critical omission, hell teevee journalism has completely gone berserk on a much greater scale many times before: the absurd Whitewater and scandal-mongering of the Clintons, the terrible persecution of Al Gore as a liar, and of course the awful Iraq War debacle, they were simply sick little sycophants to power as they gleefully passed on lies for war.
This isn’t baseball or backgammon, it’s deadly serious stuff that has drastically effected the quality of life for all of us, but the contempt shown for the little people by teevee journalists is just outrageous and sickening, it’s as if they think our heads are pumpkins, my god. We are in the 11th year of our “blogosphere” and it may seem quaint now, but a huge part of initial blogging was simply a desperate attempt to spread the truth—not teevee truth—and different perspectives being presented by Americans defending the democracy.
One of our internet blogging pioneers, Professor Juan Cole, continues this fine tradition (11 years is a long, long time in the internet) this morning with Top Ten Way US News Are Screwing Us Again on NSA Surveillance Story. It’s a completely damning, totally detailed examination of how US teevee journalism loathes the truth if it upsets their corporate masters or offends the powerful they so earnestly kiss ass to. If you singularly watch television news about Snowden and the NSA you are being lied to, plain’s simple, you are not informed, and very likely manipulated in subtle and not-so-subtle ways by the presentation.
Of course I urge y’all to read the link and story with all the earnestness I can command, but there are two elements present here that are important for me to note.
First is the immediate flip reaction of any media type to Mr. Cole as some chump with a chip on his shoulder publishing his blog in slippers and pajamas, or as some hippie liberal instantly to be ignored for these silly demands of truth. I have personally met Dr. Cole and briefly worked with him, he is a human soul of incalculably vast integrity, honesty, and all that is best in our humanity. The truth and compassion for the little people totally guide him, he is to be trusted.
In these scary times of climate change there was a video clip weeks ago at Daily Kos about an elderly tornado survivor who miraculously found her dog in the wreckage, it should have been a feel-good event but was totally wrecked by the heinous journalists covering it.
Can you comprehend what’s happened to you? The ditz reporter asked this poor dazed and grieving woman who owned the dog, what an obnoxious, detached question of snobbish superiority. Dignified, real, and with a steely mental competence only some twit would ever question she answered that yes, she did comprehend the maelstrom of wreckage around her.
Then a few seconds later the dog appears under some wreckage, terrified and unmoving. The surviving woman staggers and picks her way toward the dog, she can’t do it, and finally has to ask the journalists for help.
I am no saint, but I swear to freaking god no dazed surviving old woman ever has to ask me for help, whatever I’m holding gets instantly dropped so she never even has to think of the question. The journalists stood there, holding equipment.
I seriously ask our teevee journalists, what happened to you? What changed in your minds and souls with the ridiculous classification of journalist that gave you some incredible detachment to the truth and our people? Smashed lives are literally all around you from your terrible abdication to truth, yet somehow it has nothing to do with you or us, the little people are just a story to lie about. How’d you do that?
I do know that Professor Cole is completely right, at any rate, millions of Americans live dazed and smashed lives and you simply don’t give a damn, you’re a terrible security risk to the United States.