by Jacqueline Marcus

It pleases the Bush administration that the majority of Americans will not hit the streets of D.C. to protest their unconstitutional war crimes. They haven't time, but they would still like to do something to end the suffering. Well here's a way to significantly stop the corporate criminals that run this war without so much as stepping outside your home:

The mainstream media networks are not interested in educating the public. They are financially supported by the worst criminal polluters (oil & coal) and war profiteers (weapon contractors).

The corporate media network executives' goal is to dumb down the society. And to some extent, they've succeeded. That's why they're going after the web with a nasty vengeance because the web is the last vestige of democracy where people can learn the facts about the crimes that the Bush administration and their cronies are committing.

Thus the most effective way of diminishing the American Oil Thugs' power is to shut off the corporate media networks and read your favorite website news instead, like CommonDreams.org.

"That's all very well," you may argue, "but unrealistic because people rely on their TVs for entertainment and news. Furthermore, occasionally, an informative program will air from Bill Moyers, Keith Olbermann or HBO films."

True, there are some good moments, but even Olbermann's show is 60% scandal sheet with MSNBC's intent of mingling fact with tabloid. I prefer to read or listen to his commentaries on the web. As for HBO, you can support their films when they appear in DVD.

If a million people here and a million people there began to shut them off, it would immensely weaken the corporate media's influential powers. In fact, millions of people have already made this decision by turning to DVD's, books, newspapers and the web for news and drama.

It seems absurd to complain about Paris Hilton and tabloid trash if you continue to watch the network news. If it makes you angry, then do something about it! Turn off your TV for good. If you use satellite or cable — STOP PAYING FOR IT. Trust me, you won't miss it. Indeed, you'll realize that it's a liberating experience because you'll no longer be contributing to the very forces that you oppose.

Most importantly, you'll be rebelling against the worst corporate thugs that own the White House and our Senate: the oil, coal, weapon and pharmaceutical corporations. The central networks are owned, via sponsorship and advertisement monopolies, by these same corporate thugs who are the policy-makers that now control our government.

There will always be greedy fools who want control over the world's resources and wealth. There will always be tyrants like Bush, Cheney and Gonzales. That's nothing new. But our history reveals that we used to have an honest press, journalists who would expose their crimes by performing their duty as Watch-Dog reporters. With the exception of a few individuals, those days are long gone in the world of TV news reporting.

The worst crime mainstream media has committed is CENSORSHIP. For example, there are people around the country who have stood up to this administration and their unconstitutional war policies, but you'll never hear their voices in the mainstream media. As the editor of Common Dreams wrote:

"The mainstream media doesn't tell you the hundreds of other similar stories from towns all over the USA. We rarely hear the voices of ordinary Americans, the voices of people just like those in Arrowsic.

Instead you hear from the John McCains. The Joe Liebermans. The retired General Talking-Heads who provide 'commentary' while on the payroll of the biggest military contractors." (Arrowsic Votes 71-17 to Halt War Funding; CommonDreams.org; 6-14-07)

The network reporters are far more immoral than the Bush cronies, given the role they've played in letting Bush off the impeachable hook at every critical turn since the Bush administration took office illegally through corrupt election practices such as massive Diebold cheating.

My decision came to shut off the TV once and for all when I saw NBC's White House reporter, David Gregory, dancing with Karl Rove on a stage. They're all working together.

In fact, the reason our politicians are sold out to the same corrupt corporations is because they have to buy expensive TV ad time. If the majority of people refused to pay or watch TV, it would diminish the corruption in politics. That's the central reason why we should turn off the TV for good.

The network sponsors encouraged Americans to support the Bush administration's most unconscionable policies from deliberate lies about connecting 9-11 to Iraq, to the belief that torture is acceptable, to the criminal lie of persuading the public that there is no connection between industrial oil-coal pollution and global warming. When Paris Hilton trumps CIA secret torture camps in the mainstream media, what more proof do we need? Turn it off for good!

Let's recall how the corporate network anchors glorified the mass bombing of innocent Iraqis with their televised cheerleading in the name of "shock & awe".

The best way to protest this unconscionable war and the media's irresponsible lies about global warming is to shut them down for good. Turn off your TV. It's an effective mass protest of powerfully diminishing corporate influence over our own lives and over the members of Congress.

Jacqueline Marcus' (jackiemarcus@justice.com [1]) editorials and letters have appeared in the Washington Post, Salon, Slate, New Times, (San Luis Obispo, CA Cover story: "The Politics of Restraint"). Her poems have appeared in national university journals, The Kenyon Review, The Ohio Review, The Antioch Review and many more periodicals. Her book of poems, Close to the Shore [2], was published by Michigan State University Press. She teaches philosophy at Cuesta College and is the editor of ForPoetry.com [3]