A great example of the kind of news channel we'd love to see:

http://therealnews.com/t/

There are two problems with illegal immigration, both of which stem from the basic premises of the Democratic and Republican parties.

First, illegal immigration is resulting in growth and development beyond our ability, or the planet, to cope. This is the basic failure of the Democratic Party, to grant amnesty to illegal aliens while blaming the Republican Party for destroying the environment. Controlling population would end growth and development.

Second, it is the failure of the Republican Party to increase consumption of natural resources with increased wealth. Wealth should be used to decrease, rather than increase, consumption. How many people who can afford them buy solar energy? Why aren't people who can afford it buying windfarms? Why are we eating too much meat?

We have very few reporters.

All of these questions are important, certainly, but you still have to get deeper into the rabbit hole. If you all want one very important question to consider, it would be this - Where does the money come from? You are never going to be free as long as you do not control your own money supply, and currently you do not. Private banks create virtually all of your money, and you have to pay interest on that money every year. This means that they own the country, and everything else. Turn on the light here - Banketeering - how the banks have been stealing trillions from you, and the tap is still running http://www.rudemacedon.ca/dlp/box/box01-money.html .

hardtruth-

thank you for posting that video of Stephen Colbert's mega lampooning of the biggest goon in office. I saw that a couple days ago... good stuff. BushCo. and Conspirators were really squirming in their seats by the end of those 24 minutes of laughing in your face truth telling torture.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-869183917758574879

The good reporters exist. They just don't get the face time with the people needing to answer the tough questions. Likely they asked tough questions in previous sessions and then were not "invited" back or are now just not called upon during press conferences.

Ultimately its all about the money. The reporters making big money don't want to to risk losing it by asking questions which make the receiver "uncomfortable".

Then there's the money the owners of the MSM companies garner from the government. That cannot be risked either through tough questioning from reporters.

The best reporters can be found these days in local metro markets, not so much any longer on the national scene.

You are always quick to point out that you have nothing against legal immigrants. However, on "the street," this disdain (and the accompanying hate crimes) is focused on brown people. How do you, and the people you have stirred up, distinguish between "legal" and "illegal" immigrants without resorting to racial profiling?

Seems to me to be pretty simple and it has nothing to do with race or color (although there are those who would like to make it so). Legal immigrants are the ones who followed the perscribed laws regarding immigration. Illegal immigrants have shown contempt for the laws and policies of this country.

Here are a few favorite questions I will never see asked or answered. 1) Given that the vast Bush Tax Cuts have so enriched the already-wealthy over these 8 years, and given that the country has lost over 450,000 jobs in just the last year or so, how can you possibly think or claim that cutting taxes on the rich is "good for the economy"? 2) Why isn't Karl Rove in jail? 3) How do you sleep, having done a job of "analyzing 9/11 for the basic facts" that would not pass muster in a high school classroom? 4) If you believe in genuine democracy and your party positions are so strong and thoughtful, why are you doing everything you can to KEEP NADER OUT OF THE DEBATES and off state ballots? 5) How can you possibly argue for continuing the methods of the military's "war on terror" when it has accomplished not one single positive thing in 8 years? God it's such a lonely thing having a brain that still works in Amerika!

"Just War" is just that: just war.

It says it all. Hilarious:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-869183917758574879

questions to all of us:
why does anyone believe anything a politician says, ever?
how does anyone believe that the vast majority of unamericans have the capacity to think at all?
doesn't this vast immoral majority assume primary responsibility for the choice of politicians we vote in and for the garbage that passes for news coming from our beloved free media?
is it at all conceivable that this same lump of questionable humanity would be willing/able to take action, even if the melted polar ice were lapping against their own front doors?
how do you suppose the countless numbers of world citizens feel about being powerless to do anything in the slightest concerning the suicidal tendencies of unamericans and their "first" world counterparts?

Questions for Ralph Nader:
What is your solution to the Iraq mess?
Can you explain in detail what your plan for health care is?
How would you deal with the immigration issue?
What (give details) is your energy policy?
How would you go about getting congressional support for your plans?
Who would be your secretary of State?
Who would you apppoint to the Supreme Court if an opening occurs?
How would you deal with the national debt?
Do you have sex outside marriage? (Just curious)
Have you ever lied to your mother?

http://www.robert-fisk.com/iraqwarvictims_mar2003.htm

http://mindprod.com/politics/iraqwarpix.html#IRAQWARPIX

Our tax dollars at work and something you will NEVER see on MSM

chazbo, if GWB were to answer you honestly he would say: because both the highway slaughter and the War on Terrorism are profitable for the militry-industrial complex (making autos and war machines).

I saw an interesting statistic recently: Number of fatalities caused by Japan's high speed rail system since its inception forty years ago: zero

Question for all the above:

Please address the overpopulation and overconsumption issue.

If you think these two major things are not a problem, provide evidence that unlimited growth and unlimited greed, such as economic growth with no regard to Earth's environment, are possible in the long run without destroying humans as well as all life on our small, finite, fragile blue planet.

Russia has as much right to invade their neigbor as
Bush had to invade Iraq and kill thousands of the
citizens and move out of the country millions of
innocents..It's all about oil, both places

Be like The Little Prince. Once having posed the good question, let it hang, hold out for the answer. NEVER let the person off the hook.

They don't answer? Pose the question again, slightly rephrasing it. They still won't answer? Pose it to their rival. Print the question and better answer next to the non-answer with full attribution everywhere of course.

Confront the evader with the answer of his rival and ask if he has a comment now. He doesn't? Get a comment from somewhere else.

The goal here is to make the idiot look like the idiot that he actually is.

It can be done. Anyone can quote themselves right out of their job. Even their "no comments" can do the trick so long as you ask other people the same question until you get a good answer-- and are willing to print everything-- questions and answers both-- in a new context.

"President Bush said 'No Comment' whereas _________, 52, a homeless person living on a grate at 11th Street, Manhattan, said ________, and Stanley Fish, philosopher for the New York Times said__________, and Nikki Giovanni, poet at VPI Blacksburg said _________."

Since all questions are good, coming up with perceptive ones is not difficult.

Following up, perhaps in the way I have outlined or in hundreds of other ways available (taught in journalism schools, one would think) is where courage comes in.

A good reporter does these things as second nature.

Why don't we see more good reporters?

"When can we expect to see a return to the journalism that is preoccupied with protecting freedoms as opposed to the bottom line?"

The return has already happened on the World Wide Web; Internet muckrakers who go out-seek and report the truth as accurately as possible, and we don't take orders from editors or paychecks from conglomerates. We travel on our own dime hoping to wake up America.

Last week I reported from the 9th Ward, New Orleans.

On August 9th, I published new photos and video from the Whistle Blower of Israel's WMD Program, Mordecahi Vanunu, who speaks from occupied East Jerusalem.

http://www.wearewideawake.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=992&Itemid=203

Why is Ralph Nader ignored despite the fact that
most of us feel that neither McCain nor Obama are
qualified?

I read a blog saying Nader should give up and quit embarrassing himself because he never gets more than .25% of the vote . We should be embarrassed for electing Bush not once but Twice

Great beginning...
Where are the questions for Dick Cheney ?
There are be dozens, like:

What is your time line for attacking Iran?
Will you leave office in January 09 or have your puppet declare MARTIAL LAW after having Israel attack Iran starting another Middle East explosion THAT WE [ make that 18 -30 year old ] AMERICANS will just have to again "SAVE THE WORLD" from itself while you pack in your millions from 'no bid' contracts to your favorite 'contractors'?

In addition:
Why do you [we] buy into the Reflubican agenda by continuing to call our military presence in Iraq a "war"?

IT IS AN ILLEGAL "OCCUPATION" BY ANY SANE DEFINITION,
and as long as we continue to call it a "war", we are promoting the unconscious assumption and acceptance of the conservative position that we dare not criticize our government during time of war or we lose our citizen claim as 'true' patriots.
Read George Lakoff's "Political Mind" for more understanding of how we are controlled by the conservative spin machine.
CHANGE the terms. CHANGE the assumptions. CHANGE the debate !!!

Not only do they not ask the right questions, they do not report news correctly. The Pangloss News Networks (good one Mordechai) when telling the news, practically never answer the most obvious questions that might come to the reader's/listener's mind.

For instance, they tell us that 2,000 people were massacred yesterday in the D R Congo, then go on to describe the villages raided, the state of the weather, the color of the raiding general's socks, his dog's name, pedigree and place of birth etc, etc. but I have never once heard this: "The reason these people are fighting is ..." or "Party A slaughtered party B because ...".

They seem to assume that any fool should know these things, but this one hardly ever does. News of this type seems to me to be geared, in this case, toward Ph.Ds in African Political Science who have long ago mastered the essentials of the situation and are now interested only in trivia of the most insipid kind.

Possibly they direct the news to Ph.Ds interested only in trivia in order to counterbalance the rest of the network fare which is directed toward those with a fourth grade education. Not really, I'm joking. I think they intentionally fail to answer the most obvious questions for political reasons.

A term I saw says it all - presstitutes.

Anybody who expects honest news from for-profit corporations is willing to buy anything.

Question for President Bush:

How do you feel about the suffering and agony inflicted by you upon the million + of dead and injured Iraqis and the thousands of dead and injured Americans?

What's that? You don't feel anything for the victims of your war? I didn't think so.

.
...The Media has SOLD OUT to the NeoCon/Facists who have ruined this nation, broken the U.S. Military, bankrupt the economy, and cancelled the U.S. Constitution.

...Follow the money and you will find that a few hold the reins of Power, and are reaping great profits.

IMPEACH both Bush and Cheney.....NOW !!!!!!!!!!

.

Here are questions I would like to ask: Why haven't our forces destroyed the poppy fields in Afghanistan? Does opium really finance the Taliban?
How much money is Halliburton paid by the US government?
How much does the Carlyle group profit from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars?
Why is Karl Rove employed by Newsweek? Why isn't Karl Rove in jail?
Is Ken Lay really dead?

Rodrieguez says:

"...many journalists and commentators seemingly continue to act as government stenographers at best, and cheerleaders at worst."

Hey, Rodrieguez -- you wrote a honest article and asked honest questions.
So why muck it up with whimpy descriptions like "...seemingly continue to act..." --?

There is nothing SEEEMING about it.
This is EXACTLY what these MSM functionaries are: coruptors of their own profession's ethics. They are privately paid, WILLFUL, consistent propagandists for a corrupt government and the rotten oligarchial power structure underlying it.
They are NOT journalists by any vaugely honest use of that word.

You had enough honesty to write your article. Don't undercut your own critical points with pussyfooting terminology. There is no confusion here about appearance vs reality. In this case, the appearance IS the reality. It needs to be named for what it is.
The MSM bastards who've sold-out their profession's eithics are destroy

A BIG "WHAT HE SAID!!!" FOR POET AUGUST!

Thanks for not watching!

Coyotita, true dat. The television will not be revolutionized.

Intriguing article with an answer that has not ocurred to either the author or any of the posters so far. The reason that journalism has morphed into stenography is because the media depends on (mostly) large multi-national corporations who simply withdraw their advertising when the news doesn't appeal to their agenda-which is to make money.

When the rest of the "little people" (you and me folks!) catch on to this and turn the tables by refusing to listen or view or read those news outlets which do not support our values, we rob both elitist media and its patron advertisers
of the power to control the agenda.

This is how bad it has gotten--the purpose of the typical mass media is not to inform the public--it is to present the largest possible audience to be exposed to their patron advertisers messages. If you don't believe this take a look at USA Today, or watch or listen to any major network, cable, or radio news program or any local news program.

Clark Kent,

The day that "they" allow real journalists to host political debates is the day of reckoning . . . which will never happen.

When a person can't question the policies of the 'democracy' he of she is supposed to be part of without being called un-American, un-patriotic or even a traitor, it means there's something very wrong with society. Democracy is supposed to mean that the appointed 'leaders' have to answer for their actions, and support of the electorate is never unconditional, but in many countries that rule doesn't seem to exist any more.

Mordechai Shiblikov hit it right on the head with good humor as usual.

I can't remember who the wag was who said that journalism is the art of buying paper for 2 cents a quire, and selling it for 10 cents a quire.

Roberto-- would you be willing to host the presidential debate this year? I'd love to see that!

A question for any elected official or mainstream journalist --

Why should the public believe that the spectrum between Democrat & Republican gives the public a range of choices sufficient to meet their needs? How is the concept of "democracy" consistent with a system that in effect outlaws all political choices (& all political thinking) outside of 2 big business parties?

The questions are never asked because the "journalists" are not "journalists". They are pimps; they are prostitutes; they are intellectual kleptomaniacs; they are corporate cheerleaders with whiter than white teeth and hair that looks like it was stolen from some Greek god or goddess. Everything is hunky-dory. The Pangloss News Network is on the air!

Here's another question for President Bush:

With over 40,000 traffic fatalities and 10,000 gun deaths amounting to over 50,000 lives taken in the US each year, why are we sacrificing such blood and treasury and other resources in the so-called War on Terrorism when that "war" is not producing near that toll on us?

since when do we have to be responsible for anything or anyone? Responsible? What does that even mean? Silly question.

NEVER

You hit on something, Mr. Rodriguez.
I have often watched as newsmen and women ask tough questions to those who are themselves questioning this administration, yet they always seem to act so very polite when questioning Bush, Cheney and their cohorts. For example: Just this past weekend, I saw an old newshound discuss this presidential campaign with Karl Rove, who said that the Demos would lose because they are going negative. Bob Shieffer rolled over and let that slide, never pointing to the fact that under Rove's hand, Bush and other Republicans have gone negative to the Nth degree and won.
But of course, to Shieffer and others, that kind of follow-up questioning would then dry up their interviews on the left. NOT! Where else could Rove go to show people how smart and important he is . . . Congressional Court Hearing Room notwithstanding?

ok

here's a question for the american public at large:

when are you going to wake up and smell the cafe

when are you going to take responsibility for the planet wrecking war machine that acts in your name paid for by your dollars?

what's the answer to that question

Whoaa!!Dude!!!

You are trying to ask politicians questions that contain more than one phrase in it? Get Out of here!!!!!

Perhaps I am wrong but I have yet to see Bush answer a single question with substance, and even one that addresses the subject itself. His most common response has been to be evasive and derisive simultaneously.

Here is another question for the Listed

When will manufacturing weapons not for the sole purpose of safety of the United States Alone be made illegal? That in itself will solve half the problems of the world, and the daily bleed leeding in the US MSM.

The internet is the best place for such opinions and dialog. I think, never before in human history has the disemination of news and opinions been so great and far reaching. Just think, 35 years ago three men anchored the news desks at the only three news outlets on TV. Now there are several more - not to mention such sites as this one and others from all poitical stripes. If its a liberal monopoly of media that ye wants - I say no way. Let all the voices be heard.

"Lou Dobbs and other anti-immigrants"

Good article, good questions.

From what I can gather, Dobbs rants on the same hobbyhorse every single show, year in, year out. I see no hope of CNN ever becoming "objective" nor should it. What America needs is a multiplicity of new liberal news/opinion outlets that give the other side(s) of the stories.

For TV news that you will never see on TV, check out Liberation Video TV news at
http://liberationvideo.blogspot.com

Sorry! I have GOT to start using spell checker!!!

jlocke123 August 11th, 2008 2:08 pm

I kept hearing this about Lou Dobbs from various sources, including some here opn CD. So I selected 10 shows randomly over 5 weeks. I did not hear Dobb's mention anything an bourt immigrants. Not one singler word about them except to say (three times) he welcomes them to America.

He certainly said plenty about illegal immigrants and their advocates.

I would think that I would have seen all the ranting he is supposed to be doing with this sampling.

"Questions for CNN's Lou Dobbs and other anti-immigrants"

This writer exposes his bias by his headline...."other anti-immigrants" This sounds like the typical MALDEF and LaRaza type spiel to me.

Rodriguez talks about American 'journalists'. That's a near-extinct species with a relict population of about four or five. Sure, there are thousands who purport to be part of this profession but they are, in truth, corporate whores prepared to do anything for a career perk or the highest bidder.