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Patrick Kennedy: Press Corps Is 'Despicable' for Not Covering Afghanistan War Resolution
Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D-R.I.) excoriated the national press on Wednesday during a debate over the war in Afghanistan, charging reporters with shirking their duty to cover the issue and instead focusing on the peccadillos of former Rep. Eric Massa (D-N.Y.).
"There's one, two press people in this gallery," he thundered. "We're talking about Eric Massa 24/7 on the TV. We're talking about war and peace; $3 billion; 1,000 lives and no press! No press!"(AP Photo/Nick Wass, File) "There's one, two press people in this gallery," he thundered.
"We're talking about Eric Massa 24/7 on the TV. We're talking about war
and peace; $3 billion; 1,000 lives and no press! No press!"
The House is debating a resolution written by Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio), which would require the military to withdraw from Afghanistan within 30 days or longer if it couldn't be done safely that quickly.
"You want to know why the American public is fit? They're fit because they're not seeing their Congress do the work that they're sent to do," railed Kennedy, who is retiring at the end of this term. "It's because the press, the press of the United States, is not covering the most significant issue of national importance and that's the laying of lives down in the nation for the service of our country. It's despicable, the national press corps right now."
- Posted in
62 Comments so far
Show AllAnd then they complain about people not buying their newspapers...
So true!
I would return to being an avid broadsheet reader as soon as could see some real reporting in them - even just the still-compromised degree of real reporting that, say, the Wash. Post had in the 1970's.
Yet, in response to declining readership, the papers are just dumbing down even further.
It's got to be deliberate.
The dumbing down of the newspapers (and broadcast/cable media) is a response to their audience. Low standards for both reader/viewer and producer.
How much else is deliberate in that the hidden purpose IS to make the public stupid is debatable. Rather its a response to the mis-education system being broken, the bread and circuses tactics of empire, and the sly dogs of the establishment controlling news about themselves. Or NOT covering news in the most common method. This is but another example of shaping the news to be entertainment -- not information. That part is deliberate in that editors choose what to cover that they think would interest their audience. A very dumb and stupid audience. And more than a notch insane in they have trouble distinguishing fact from fiction, truth from lies, and good from evil.
Gary
"Standing ovations have become far too commonplace. What we need are ovations where the audience members all punch and kick one another."
-- George Carlin
During the past 20 years the military industrial complex Eisehower warned us about in 1961 has expanded to become the military industrial media complex (MIMC).
The same corporations that sell arms and everything else to militaries around the globe also own the mainstream media. Occupations and wars provide that media a steady stream of very marketable stories and the media turns MIMC propaganda into facts (a lie repeated three times and unchallenged becomes a fact). Its a match made in heaven.
The MIMC learned something from the Viet Nam occupation, even if nobody else did: when a war or occupation ends, the MIMC's revenue stream dries up.
The MIMC will therefore assure that the Ir-Af-Pak occupation is eternal, thereby assuring an eternal revenue stream, and the media they own is not going to shine a light on Kucinich or anybody else attempting to impact their Ir-Af-Pak occupation revenue stream.
To add insult to injury, Rahm made sure that the media pretended that Kucinich did not exist during the 2008 primaries. Rahm has continued to keep Kucinich sidelined ever since. Rahm's goal is to garner more bribes from the MIMC than the Republicans.
Could not agree more. I would add, though, that the military needs wars/battles, no matter how small or insignificant (Granada), to test and train for real. Career soldiers absolutely do not want to spend their 20-30 year career doing training exercises. Couple that with the profit/control-the-message motive and you have endless wars, death and destruction. Not to mention misspent $trillions.
steve allen
portland or
"The dumbing down of the newspapers (and broadcast/cable media) is a response to their audience"
No I don't think so. There were millions of people who marched against the war in Iraq before it began and it was reported very scantily as to be laughable. Progressive voices have been kept out of the mainstream media for decades. This is a purposeful form of blacklisting and propaganda by omission. In my opinion. Our leaders have been marginalized. The mainstream media is simply a voice of the powerful.
"Propaganda by omission" - that's exactly what it is. That's a main feature of how the MSM works.
No, it's propaganda by both omission AND by emphasis. They tell you what to think about and they tell you what not to think about. And for the truly weak-minded, they tell you what to think about what you are supposed to think about. Those would be the Fox News viewers.
Exactly. The earlier commenter has cause and effect reversed. The audience is going to be exactly as literate and sophisticated in their views as the reading material that is provided them.
By the time the newspapers are all but out of business (except for those that have been absorbed by the big 5 media corporations) everything will be set to deal the death blow to net neutrality.
Our access to information is a huge part of our democratic process, and there most definitely has been a war waged against it. And the war against our democracy is not coming from Al Qaeda or the Taliban.
All the above posts to one degree or another I agree with. Thanks. It's refreshing to know that I am not mad or crazy when I think that what is LEFT OUT of the news is really the big lie. the lies are in the omissions. I mean more bandwith and news time was spent on the Jay Leno and Conon whatever story. I mean that was front page news in the nYTimes! do you believe it??! Freaking talk show hosts who are so dumb anyway. These shows are ABySMAL! and the Times and the others follow it as if it's important..its infuriating to see how low this culture has sunk. Our Fathers and Uncles fought in WW2 against these fascists. One also has to wonder that this war against democracy stated in the above post is not run by the CIA and National security apparatus. they must have some input on the major news media to keep Americans blinded.
I'm an American living in Europe and it is always interesting for me to observe the sorts of stories that I see being promoted back in the states. Not being in the USA, I don't hear about the Jay Leno-Conan story or the Eric Massa story in the same way that you hear about it back there. I sort of catch wind of these stories in a casual way, usually seeing some mention of them in a column or in the user comments of sites like CD. Then I realize, "Ohhh, the media is focusing on this back in the states," and I will do a little research out of curiosity only to figure out that you all are being subjected to this crap 24/7. That's when I think, "Fuck that country, I'm never going back."
It's really intolerable being subjected to that sort of propaganda. It's like having to live in hurricane conditions with no shelter. It's soul-crushing and mind-numbing, and even if you try to avoid it, there's no escape in the USA. It's much different over here in Europe. The news is like news. They have reporters who report the news. Sure, there are biases, and tabloids report on all sorts of celebrity gossip, but it is nothing like what you all have to endure back there.
"The media is like the weather, only it's man-made weather." -- Micky Knox, Natural Born Killers
At least we have DEMOCRACY NOW with Amy Goodman -- but only the already-awakened know to listen. This is only source for true news in this country. I got rid of my TV and I'm glad. It really really is a sick mechanism for keeping the people in a state of trance with celebrities and lies.
Yep, even the pipsqueak scvmbags at DailyKos have blacked it out.
Total. Disgrace.
I've had enough with DailyKos. Today Kos actually said he hates Kucinich and always has. Kos has shown himself to be an establishment Liberal, not a progressive.
It is impossible to understand the behavior of the media, until one understands the media propaganda model that controls public opinion.
1. First, read any primer on Edward Bernays and Walter Lippman's theories on PR and public opinion-control in democratic societies. I myself need to get their books: "Public Opinion" by Lippman (1922) and "Propaganda" by Bernays (1928)
2. "Manufacturing Consent" by Herman and Chomsky - this show numerous examples of their propaganda model in action. "Manufacturing Consent" is a phrase coined by Lippman, that describes the primary application of their theory.
3. The works of Robert McChesney, which examines the specific organizational media mechanics that put the propaganda model to work - most notably the concentration of media ownership, which keeps a tight lid on the possibility of the public hearing any viewpoints outside the specified range of allowable discourse.
The one propagandist that also could be added to your list, of course, is Hitler's Minister of Propaganda Dr. Joseph Goebbels, whose claim to fame is "The Big Lie." As Hitler's progaganda minister he perfected the "Big Lie" method, to wit: if your lie is spectacularly outlandish and repeated often enough, the masses can be convinced that it is the truth.
The US government with its Orwellian logic has taken Goebbels' methods to new heights.
Actually Goebbels does not belong on the list. Hiter's government didn't pretend in the least to be a democracy!
In the case of Bernays and Lippman, they literally call their system a necessary feature of a liberal Capitalist democracy. Without the manufacture of consent, and "necessary illusions" (another Lippmanism) the rabble might actually wake up and realize that they are being taken for fools, and start insisting on real egalitarian democracy.
pjd412, I fully agree with you ---- Goebbels was a rank novice compared to this very sophisticated 'soft' propaganda of illusions today.
Goebbels and his boss merely instituted the transparently phony one-party 'Vichy' faux French government after the overt Nazi Empire's highly visible attack and occupation of a foreign country. The French could see right through this scam, whether they decided to resist or not.
But today, the far more sophisticated and guileful ruling-elite Global corporate/financial/militarist Empire --- which fully controls 'our' former country by hiding behind the facade of its professionally produced 'theater' of a TWO-PARTY modern 'Vichy' sham of domestic democracy ---- is far more subtle, disguised, and effective as a "necessary illusion" for the Global Empire to occupy and control its own domestic homeland without even being identified as an EMPIRE by the distracted and divided local population.
If Goebbels were to see the beauty and sophistication of this 21st century Global Empire hiding in plain site with its guileful control of the veil of a fully believed TWO-PARTY 'Vichy' facade that fully fools the fools in their own country, and coordinated with an equally natural looking corporatist 'Vichy' media that support the entire 'show', he would roll over in his grave and shout, "Mein Fuhrer, I have failed you. Why if we had implemented anything close to the genius of this modern Global Empire's charade in Germany itself and other European countries without ever raising any hint of even being an empire, you would still be ruling a true Thousand Year Reich!"
Alan MacDonald
Sanford, Maine
Great post but I totally believe that the Madmen ad-men were the master propagandists of our country. Starting in the 50's they began testing what stim tripped our collective triggers and how that worked. They perfected advertising until they could sell the public on buying a new gas guzzler every year if there were 4 decorative holes in the grill instead of 3 like last year's model. Greed became the dominate virtue long before "greed is good" was uttered. And now we are so tangled up in contradictory values that South Park is considered satire and Limpbough is considered "talk".
Exactly. Bernay's theories are applicable to advertizing, news and entertainment, it is all one seamless process.
It seems to me that Goebbels' "Big Lie" hypothesis is more pronounced and influencial in US politics than Bernay's sophistication in advertising or Lippman's philospical observations about the rabble. After all, Bush/Cheney used Goebbels' system to successfully promote war in Iraq. Remember the "mushroom cloud" mantra that Cheney, Condoleeza Rice, et al continuously recited to tie Saddam Hussein with al Qaeda? A majority of Americans believed Saddam and al Qaeda were linked. That is classic Goebbels.
Press? Does he mean the propoganda/entertainment/slander that passes for news media in the USA?
The US mainstream media perfected their pro-war propaganda machine in 1991 when they coined the phrase "collateral damage" when referring to Gulf War civilian casualties. This depersonalization of casualties made subsequent invasions, occupations and wars an easy sell to the US electorate.
"Boots on the ground" also pisses me off!
"People who treat other people as less than human must not be surprised when the bread they have cast on the waters comes floating back to them, poisoned." -James Baldwin
My additional conclusion to the accuracy and wisdom expressed by the posters below me,.... is that ...It is absolutely no accident that The United States is the most misinformed, underinformed, and saturationally propagandized industrial nation on the face of this earth!
It's done by design. Aren't most news outlets owned by massive defense contractors? They are protecting their livelihood, aren't they?
To say the press is derelict in their duty to inform, is somewhat obvious. The question to be asked is WHY?
The oligarchy controls the media and the propaganda it delivers to the easily mislead american public. Just follow the money.
Yes, the country is being swallowed up in a bubble of corporate-sponsored infantile unreality. Turn on the TV --heck surf over to HuffingtonPost-- and observe the freak-show that is our contemporary capitalist, celebrity-drenched funhouse of mirrors. That someone like Kucinich is spoken of only in terms of how "crazy" and what a "problem" he is shows how deep down the rabbit hole it's all gone.
This nation has been rendered insane; it's a babbling lunatic asylum of deluded propagandists and propaganda victims. America today is something much worse than a mere nightmare, I'd say it's fast approaching something like Bosch's hell.
The use of fear and/or violence coerce the victim into submission to political, social, economic, or religious agendas is the definition of 'terrorism'. The use of threats, violence, extortion, and deception are also tools of war, not of democratic consensus building. The cold-war was a fifty year multinational psychological operation, and its child is the war on terror. I'm sure the same war has been waged since the dawn of human history under one name or another. Class war.
We've been frightened for sixty or seventy years into building and funding the mightiest tools of population controls ever to exist. We bought every last soundbyte and bullet. You are right to call our society victims. I would call it a combination of traumatic mind control (terror), deception, and ignorance. PTSD on a massive scale.
Dear Fake--Thanks for putting into well chosen words what I've been choking on. I'm 65 y/o and I voted for Obama with tears in my eyes--finally, Dr. King's dream comes true. But of course, one month after Obama was elected he bent over on FISA and he's been bent over ever since. And yet the country goes on in blissful ignorance, still patting itself on the back for that "historic" election. Well, damn and piss. I just want to say tho, that the world looked like this in the iconic '60's when kids in their 20's (me) started marching because Kennedy had been shot and LBJ was escalating the war and rednecks were killing Blacks, and women were dying of backroom abortions and Gays were being beat up and killed by police, as were war protestors,and civil rights activists. We changed alot back then because it was so bad. Then we rested too long and now it's up to you (and us oldies) to do it again. So thanks for descrbing it so clearly--it gives us a good starting point.
They misspelled "corpse".
About 100 years ago Mark Twain said that "people who don't read the newspaper are
uninformed. People who do are misinformed." What's changed? Keeping your job is still
the bottom line.
Even Rush Limbaugh mentioned it, though only to say he had no idea they were voting on the war that day.
Prostitutes don't care whom they shag as long as they get paid.
Yup, the FASCIST media in the US is still at work. Fascists fascists fascists. D*mn fascists.
All that Kennedy passion ... and then he votes against the resolution. Interesting.
Earth to Congressman Patrick Kennedy:
This Democratic administration and the Democratic-controlled Congress continue to fund the Aghan-Iraq War Machine.
Um, and you're a Democratic congressman.
Still, the headline looks promising.
Incredible! Apparently he wanted the press covering the overwhelming vote in favor of keeping the wars he supports.
Yes he did - voted against. @$$#¤£€.
The evening news is a propaganda blast, all slant, no depth and perspective. Kennedy must realize this and his house floor comments made for the benefit of those who watch cspan. Brian Williams did comment on Kennedy's speech though.
So, who is going to give the US citizen a accurate information service? Members of congress all work for the big donors that keep their reelection campaigns financed, they are out if they buck the program, so who then? Most Americans don't even know that they are in the dark.
From another CD article tonight:
"Among the 'no' voters was Rep. Patrick Kennedy, D-R.I., who gave an impassioned speech. The U.S. policy of needlessly sending troops into harm's way was "shameful," Kennedy said."
But a no vote on the resolution means you are AGAINST pulling the troops out immediately. WTF?
It's not 3 billion dollars. The economist Joseph Steiglitz estimated two years ago that the Iraq war ultimately will cost the American taxpayers about 4.2 trillion dollars. Iraq has run through a bit of cash since then, and Afghanistan is certainly going to total in the trillions. For example, we tossed $50 billion in for "reconstruction" with no idea where the money went. Did we simply fund the Taliban with the money? Who knows.
It's not 1000 lives, not if we count dead Afghan citizens, not if we count the Americans killed in Afghanistan as hired gun contractors, not even if we count GIs wounded in battle who died en route to surgery abroad, and not if we count GI suicides and shortened lives back home. These guys unfortunately seem to die like flies! The scuttlebutt from those who know, ministers, is that GIs have funerals up the wazoo, all out of proportion to their age demographics.
Obama could actually go a long way to improve the democratic nature of elections in the US. What we need is an FCC board of directors that understands the value of the airwaves. The FCC board could be changed. Fire all the board members who have right wing leanings.
Then, appoint people to the board who support the following:
1. Ban paid advertising on broadcast media on candidates, elections, initiatives and any other ballot issues.
2. Require the broadcast media, as a function of their license to broadcast, provide, free, time for all parties whose candidates meet ballot requirements, that is, all parties whose candidates appear on the ballot, be allowed free time to state their positions on the issues.
That would make a huge impact on the makeup of our government. And it can be done without any involvement of the bastard Repubicans in the Senate and their corrupt Blue Dog allies.
"What remains of democracy is largely the right to choose among commodities. Business leaders have long explained the need to impose on the population a 'philosophy of futility' and 'lack of purpose in life' to 'concentrate human attention on the more superficial things that comprise much of fashionable consumption'.
Deluged by such propaganda from infancy, people may then accept their meaningless and subordinate lives and forget ridiculous ideas about managing their own affairs. They abandon their fate to corporate managers and the PR industry, and,
in the political realm, to the self described 'intelligent minorities' who administer power."
All that is left of America is banality and self-delusion". - Noam Chomsky
___________________________________________________________________________________
Please take the time to read this article over at 'INFORMATIONCLEARING HOUSE'
Calling All Rebels
By Chris Hedges
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article24941.htm
Hedges "Calling all Rebels" was posted here on CD too. Scroll down a bit.
Very little from Chomsky is, though. And Cindy Sheehan still seems to be blackballed from this site since her criticism of Obama in the runup to the election - her user ID actually got banned, as did several of mine.
I used to be Cavedweller on this site, but one day the user name didn't work. I called CD to find out why. They never returned my call.
Good for Kennedy! It's no wonder he is leaving that group of scoundrels.
I no longer know what exactly to think of the Massa issue anymore -- yeah, things happened, but whatever. But I do know this. The timing was impeccable. It has been great for Obamacare and great for Obama's war. A beautiful, perfect distraction.
A vote against the war is a vote of non-support for the troops? Been hearing that since Bush started this mess. If you don't support Bush you don't support the troops; if you don't support Obama you don't support the troops.
A crawl on MSNBC this morning said that half (50%) of the schools in Kansas City, Mo. will be CLOSING, in order to avoid bankruptcy. (some people blame Teachers and their Unions for these problems..hardly).
It is time to connect the pushing of Charter Schools to the dismantlement of our Public Schooling system, a push started by Bush, and accelerated by Obama and his Secretary of Education, to the militarization of our schools, with the JROTC being installed even at the Junior High School level, and standardized learning and rote testing "No child left behind."
We learned a few days ago that large parts of Detroit are about to be denied Water, Power, Phone and Police and Fire Protection, which means hundreds of thousands of people will have to leave to go...where? A major American city, decimated by the loss of American Manufacturing, with no funds to rebuild. Apparently, there are not even any assets there deemed worthwhile by Morgan Stanley to Privatize.
It is time to connect our 800 Billion OFFENCE Budget to the lack of funds for our people.
It is time to connect the TRILLIONS in the Failout to our crumbling cities, education system, and infrastructure.
It is time to connect the off-shoring of our Manufacturing and Free Trade, as championed by those such as Thomas Friedman (The World is Flat) to the destruction of our Middle Class, and our descent into Third World status, as the two terrible facts enumerated above so clearly illustrate.
A recent study showed that the US is on track to resemble Mexico in wealth inequality by 2040. For a counry to collpase to third world status in just 30 years is going to be catastrophic.