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The Pulitzer-Winning Investigation That Dare Not Be Uttered on TV
The New York Times' David Barstow won a richly deserved Pulitzer Prize yesterday for two articles that, despite being featured as major news stories on the front page of The Paper of Record, were completely suppressed by virtually every network and cable news show, which to this day have never informed their viewers about what Bartow uncovered. Here is how the Pulitzer Committee described Barstow's exposés:
Awarded to David Barstow of The New York Times for his tenacious reporting that revealed how some retired generals, working as radio and television analysts, had been co-opted by the Pentagon to make its case for the war in Iraq, and how many of them also had undisclosed ties to companies that benefited from policies they defended.
By whom were these "ties to companies" undisclosed and for whom did these deeply conflicted retired generals pose as "analysts"? ABC, CBS, NBC, MSNBC, CNN and Fox -- the very companies that have simply suppressed the story from their viewers. They kept completely silent about Barstow's story even though it sparked Congressional inquiries, vehement objections from the then-leading Democratic presidential candidates, and allegations that the Pentagon program violated legal prohibitions on domestic propaganda programs. The Pentagon's secret collaboration with these "independent analysts" shaped multiple news stories from each of these outlets on a variety of critical topics. Most amazingly, many of them continue to employ as so-called "independent analysts" the very retired generals at the heart of Barstow's story, yet still refuse to inform their viewers about any part of this story.
And even now that Barstow yesterday won the Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting -- one of the most prestigious awards any news story can win -- these revelations still may not be uttered on television, tragically dashing the hope expressed yesterday (rhetorically, I presume) by Media Matters' Jamison Foser that "maybe now that the story has won a Pulitzer for Barstow, they'll pay attention." Instead, it was Atrios' prediction that was decisively confirmed: "I don't think a Pulitzer will be enough to give the military analyst story more attention." Here is what Brian Williams said last night on his NBC News broadcast in reporting on the prestigious awards:
The Pulitzer Prizes for journalism and the arts were awarded today. The New York Times led the way with five, including awards for breaking news and international reporting. Las Vegas Sun won for the public service category for its reporting on construction worker deaths in that city. Best commentary went to Eugene Robinson of The Washington Post, who of course was an on-air commentator for us on MSNBC all through the election season and continues to be. And the award for best biography went to John Meacham, the editor of Newsweek magazine, for his book "American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House."
No mention that among the five NYT prizes was one for investigative reporting. Williams did manage to promote the fact that one of the award winners was an MSNBC contributor, but sadly did not find the time to inform his viewers that NBC News' war reporting and one of Williams' still-featured premiere "independent analysts," Gen. Barry McCaffrey, was and continues to be at the heart of the scandal for which Barstow won the Pulitzer. Williams' refusal to inform his readers about this now-Pulitzer-winning story is particularly notable given his direct personal involvement in the secret, joint attempts by NBC and McCaffrey to contain P.R. damage to NBC from Barstow's story, compounded by the fact that NBC was on notice of these multiple conflicts as early as April, 2003, when The Nation first reported on them.
Identically, CNN ran an 898-word story on the various Pulitzer winners -- describing virtually every winner -- but was simply unable to find any space even to mention David Barstow's name, let alone inform their readers that he won the Prize for uncovering core corruption at the heart of CNN's coverage of the Iraq War and other military-related matters. No other television news outlet implicated by Barstow's story mentioned his award, at least as far as I can tell.
The outright refusal of any of these "news organizations" even to mention what Barstow uncovered about the Pentagon's propaganda program and the way it infected their coverage is one of the most illuminating events revealing how they operate. So transparently corrupt and journalistically disgraceful is their blackout of this story that even Howard Kurtz and Politico -- that's Howard Kurtz and Politico -- lambasted them for this concealment. Meaningful criticisms of media stars from media critic (and CNN star) Howie Kurtz is about as rare as prosecutions for politically powerful lawbreakers in America, yet this is what he said about the television media's suppression of Barstow's story: "their coverage of this important issue has been pathetic."
Has there ever been another Pulitzer-Prize-winning story for investigative reporting never to be mentioned on major television -- let alone one that was twice featured as the lead story on the front page of The New York Times? To pose the question is to answer it.
UPDATE: Media Matters has more on the glaring omissions in Brian Williams' "reporting" and on the pervasive impact of the Pentagon's program on television news coverage. Williams' behavior has long been disgraceful on this issue, almost certainly due to the fact that some of the "analysts" most directly implicated by Barstow's story are Williams' favored sources and friends.
On a different note, CQ's Jeff Stein responds today to some of the objections to his Jane-Harman/AIPAC/Alberto-Gonazles blockbuster story -- quite convincingly, in my view -- and, as Christy Hardin Smith notes, the New York Times has now independently confirmed much of what Stein reported.
UPDATE II: For some added irony: on his NBS News broadcast last night suppressing any mention of David Barstow's Pulitzer Prize, Brian Williams' lead story concerned Obama's trip to the CIA yesterday. Featured in that story was commentary from Col. Jack Jacobs, identified on-screen this way: "Retired, NBC News Military Analyst." Jacobs was one of the retired officers who was an active member of the Pentagon's "military analyst" program, and indeed, he actively helped plan the Pentagon's media strategy at the very same time he was posing as an "independent analyst" on NBC (h/t reader gc; via NEXIS). So not only did Williams last night conceal from his viewers any mention of the Pentagon program, he featured -- on the very same broadcast -- "independent" commentary from one of the central figures involved in that propaganda program.
On a related note, Howard Kurtz was asked in his Washington Post chat yesterday about Mike Allen's grant of anonymity to a "top Bush official" that I highlighted on Saturday, and Kurtz -- while defending much of Allen's behavior -- said: "I don't believe an ex-official should have been granted anonymity for that kind of harsh attack."
- Posted in
70 Comments so far
Show AllPlease will someone send me the Federal Application Form for legal immunity and billions in grants. Thanks.
glen: if you have to ask for it - you can't have it
While we're all discussing the historical precedent of prosecutions for CIA torturers and those who wrote the legal opinions that enabled torture lets not forget....
At Nuremburg they HUNG a journalist whose propaganda led to the Nazi atrocities.
Yes, a JOURNALIST.
His name was Julius Streicher and he did essentially what NBCs Brian Williams did (and dozens of other media stars you see on cable t.v.).
From Pete Dyer at Consortium News:
Julius Streicher was a journalist. Editor of the vehemently anti-Semitic newspaper Der Stürmer, Streicher was convicted of, in the words of the judgment, "incitement to murder and extermination at the time when Jews in the East were being killed under the most horrible conditions clearly constitut(ing) ... a crime against humanity."
Presenting the case against Streicher, British prosecutor Lieutenant Colonel M.C. Griffith-Jones said: "My Lord, it may be that this defendant is less directly involved in the physical commission of the crimes against Jews. ... The submission of the Prosecution is that his crime is no less the worse ... that he made these things possible - made these crimes possible which could never have happened had it not been for him and for those like him. He led the propaganda and the education of the German people in those ways."
The critical role of propaganda was affirmed at Nuremberg not only by the prosecution and in the judgment but also in the testimony of the most prominent Nazi defendant, Reichsmarshall Hermann Goering: "Modern and total war develops, as I see it, along three lines: the war of weapons on land, at sea and in the air; economic war, which has become an integral part of every modern war; and, third, propaganda war, which is also an essential part of this warfare."
Unedited at:
http://www.consortiumnews.com/2008/101408d.html
** While we're all demanding accountability for Yoo, Bybee and the gang we must be equally loud and demand accountability for Brian Williams and other media who are also responsible for the disaster in Iraq.
The radio station in Kigali was also blamed for similar actions in 1994.
The comparison of the news models and their producers "working" at major networks to Julius Streicher is completely apt. I would further state that the interconnection of these folks with the corporations, industries, & lobbies with with they have common interest is as insidious as the collaboration of Krupp, IG Farben, etc. with the government of Nazi Germany was.
Sioux Rose
Thank you for posting this fact/factor.
If a powerful enough consortium of individuals possessed of integrity ever should gather again, Nuremberg will pose as a compelling judicial precedent. Should such an event not transpire in our lifetimes, it helps to remember that any who so directly profit from war or the impossible suffering of their fellow human beings will incur a karmic debt that will not vanish due to human graft and corruption where justice should prevail.
I wouldn't call him a journalist but a propagandist. He started life as a schoolteacher and founded a "newspaper" solely for the purpose of spreading anti-Semitic propaganda.
Rainborowe
again i am struck by the tone
glen is a good guy and i admire his hard work
but let's quit talking about these events as being an anomoly when they are the soup du jour
the "government" is gone. if it ever was here it is gone
that's it
the bought and paid for politicians represent their constituents in the corporate community in the face of decency, morality and common sense
its the old "ya dance with who brung ya"
the support of the public is moot
the country is gone
overrun by corporate lawyers and shills with a few undocumented workers, mostly mexican, thrown in for spice
it is a failed state in debt up to its eyeballs with no viable ability to pay its debts
of course it does have the military and it functions as a hit squad for the corporations
it has nukes
that's it
no health care, no jobs and no prospects
the treasury has been cleaned out by the nwo shill obama and as predicted by the good folks at global research - and with 40 or so states on the verge of bankruptcy - the looming cutbacks in government services about to be invoked later this year will be breathtaking - due of course to lack of funds - ow - 13 trillion for the cheats and liars on wall street and now nothing left for any government services for the citizens
obama, for his part, has done the job
at the same time he has delivered the booty to the boys of wall street, maintained the imperial death march in the middle east, continued the strangle hold on south america, and has re-committed to the objective of destroying both russia and china
all while remaining both cool and charming
a solid performance by any standard of acting
so glen - while the war was trumpetted by co-opted talking heads i don't think they were the point of this sad tale
that goes to the corporate media without whom none of this could be possible
let me ask you this: when a priest kills someone in cold blood is he a priest or a murderer
"so glen - while the war was trumpetted by co-opted talking heads i don't think they were the point of this sad tale
"that goes to the corporate media without whom none of this could be possible"
Dead on, ma g!
This is all such an illusion of freedom and governance. And the reason I have chosen a path of withdrawing my support from the illusion and giving it instead to building communities of people who want to unplug from the corporate matrix.
P.S. The other point of this sad tale is us. Without a willing audience, the media would have no influence whatsoever. If a tree falls in the woods...
Ego driven dead heads like Williams will find no space in the lifeboat.
One definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.
Why in hell would giving a Pulitzer to Barstow suddenly make the MSM fess up to their biases when their biases have been disclosed thousands of times in the progressive media? The progressive media has every bit as much of a claim on legitimacy given the hundreds of times the progressive media was right while the MSM was wrong.
This is just another case of doing the same thing repeatedly and expecting different results.
I have read/heard that definition of insanity before, but I don't think that it is really true. If you actually think about it there are a number of situations in which we do do the same things over and over and over and amazingly we do end up with different results. In mathematics it is called iteration. In music and sports it is called practice, and in family life it is called childrearing.
I don't get the point of this so-called definition which seems to miss the mark a little too many times for my tastes.
Of course NBC is owned by major arms maker GE. GE is integrated into the, contracted out, Defence Dept. The pentagon propaganda generals appeared on NBC at the same time they were working for arms makers like GE, after having "retired", (but still attending briefings) from the government media strategists. Sounds very cozy doesn't it?
People in America thaty care for their children, better start putting their money into education and an independant free press.
Sioux Rose
JLOCKE: Thanks for mentioning this, and I'm surprised that Mr. Greenwald didn't cite this connection. The military has its paid pundits appearing on prominent shows for sure, but it doesn't hurt to actually have the MIC OWNING entire networks to make sure their content is in line with their keepers, fiscal-wise, that is.
MA G: Your post is possibly more prophetic than you may realize. The end of this year (and I expect the SIGNS to show strongly by November) holds an astrological configuration that also took place during the onset of the Great Depression. My sister, who works for a small corporation is all perky about the way her stocks and bonds are "coming back." I think many small-scale investors may have that illusion thanks to the artificial infusion of newly printed bills into the mainstream currency streams operated like toll-booths by our big banks. This seems to be the lure to get investors back into the pool, but the astrology is never wrong (even if the individual reading the factors misses something important. There's an art to it, somewhat akin to reading an X-ray.) and it sure looks like SHORTAGES and lots of legitimate angst escalating by the end of this year. Furthermore as a likely response (since the emphasis of autumn 2009 holds well into spring 2010) there are several key planets with long orbs that will enter (Aries) Mars' sign by June 2010 that definitely up the ante on some kind of war, aggression, or warfare and it is NOT "the usual fare." Looks like vigilante-style engagements, or something spontaneous and unprecedented (in terms of our lifetimes).
Sioux Rose
YOHO: I guess you have amnesia since I have gone over this with you AMPLE times before. As a professional astrologer my perspective is unique not only in THIS forum but in just about any one can find in the MSM. The typical astrologer in order to make a living at his/her craft predicts for business cycles, and/or the usual questions persons are interested in: When will I marry, when will I sell my home, when will I find work, etc.
I spend a LOT of time reading about current events and listening to a variety of opinions, and I am quite well-read and well-educated. When an INTELLIGENT person studies the "as above, so below" relationship, it is rather disrespectful of you to try to smear it, or denigrate me for these beliefs. They are not RANDOM beliefs, they are those that have been studied and TESTED for more than 30 years, and set upon a foundation (in information) that goes back several THOUSAND years. The prejudice against my field began with the early church which would brook no opposition to its claim to sovereign authority in speaking for "heaven and earth." Most who critique my field know NOTHING about it. Spend a few YEARS doing charts and learning the craft, reading not POP books but those by "the old masters," and then come back and debate me.
I do not challenge mathematicians in this forum, economists, or those who know more history than I do. I also expect some respect for being an EXPERT in a field that most know little about, aside from LEARNED prejudices which are the Rush Limbaugh equivalent of taunting what one has no basis for understanding.
Next time you attack me, I will take off the gloves. I do not suffer fools well, and there are certainly a few from that ilk in this forum. If you don't like the subject, you are FREE to pass my posts by. QUITE A FEW have thanked me for sharing this information. As for yourself, a not so fond adieu.
"QUITE A FEW have thanked me for sharing this information."
I am one of them, and I will continue to do so. Thank you, Sioux. I always enjoy reading your enlightening posts. So zip it YOHO.
This is very interesting that you mention this alignment, Sioux. Just this VERY afternoon, my friend mentioned an interview a couple days ago on Alex Jones' inforwars.com site, with an economist who had predicted many of the recent crashes and downturns. He is now predicting the dollar is going to completely crash . . . at the beginning of the next year. He said we will have about four months of an upturn in the economy and the stock market that will look really good and help us start feeling like things have turned around for good . . . Christmas will be nice and rosy for us . . . and then it's gonna hit within the first couple months of 2010. And it's gonna be big. So your post kinda shocked the bejeezus out of me. I would be very interested in hearing more about this alignment. And YOHO (and a couple others) can just ignore it.
I wish I could remember the guy's name. I will ask my friend again and check Jones's site. If you're interested, you might do a search on his site for "dollar crash" or something like that. www.infowars.com.
This also ties right in with something said by William K. Black (senior regulator who cracked down on the banks during the S&L Crisis of the '80s) on Bill Moyers' Journal program. If you haven't seen it, that interview is a must-see. Black lets no one off the hook and says flat out that Geitner, Summers, and the rest are all involved in a huge cover-up.
http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/04032009/watch.html
Blessings,
John (Seventhson)
Sioux Rose
SEVENTH SON: Detractors don't realize that data has been collected for CENTURIES that explains the likely impact of certain alignments. Saturn (which has a lot to do with fear and in my view would be the planet that "ruled" conservatives) will square Pluto. Saturn's orbit is 29 years and Pluto's is 248, and they have formed 2 other major alignments this century (there may be one I have not noted). When they configure by a hard angle (square, opposition and sometimes the conjunction) there is always lack on a grand scale. In l981 Saturn and Pluto "met" in Libra (that means they are conjunct) and that was considered a recession.
I know people who are hoarding cash as they believe the FDIC insurance will be sufficient to maintain their accounts in banks. I look at all this money just being printed and the analogy that comes to me is one of having soup stock and watering it down to the point there is nothing nutritious about it. My daughter told me tonight that the condo she bought for $250,000 on the border of Boca Raton now has different tenants short-selling their units for $100,000-115,000. She's trying to work with the bank to get the mortgage devalued, and trying to be honorable but why would anyone maintain a mortgage when the market dropped the bottom on its worth?
In any case, since the disease has been strengthened by giving money to those that caused the crisis rather than those who NEED a way to renegotiate a truer market value for all that was artificially inflated, everything related to the dollar is already based on semblances. America has karma coming for choosing wars on false/fixed causes, and continuing to beef up its weaponry, starve children to build bombs. ALL of the outer planets except Neptune are about to form challenging angles to the US chart... that's why I don't see a recovery now. I think this is a phase of a kind of hypnosis where people WANT to believe Obama can fix it, or that by giving the banks $ things are improving. I suppose other nations look on without the stardust and really SEE what's going on, this grand theft marketed to the world with the same players defining the agenda.
From the astrological standpoint, tensions should be in evidence in November 2009, and that infusion into the sign of war in June 2010 may be an indication of elements of the domestic population NOT taking lightly to what's going on by that time. I do not rule out an attack on the homeland, either... however, the US chart will be afflicted for SEVERAL years. There are stabilizing influences that start around 2013-2014... getting from the end of this year to then is what will test us, individually and collectively. The planetary framework is unprecedented for our times, the last such alignments of this severity were in l932. Saturn opposed Pluto that year (added to other factors, some of which are about to repeat). September looks rough, but I am presuming what I see will be a hurricane. Tensest dates include: full moon on the 4th, and rough patches September 16-17 and 22-24. I would be surprised if there isn't a major storm, and Florida may be involved.
Thank you for showing respect to a field that has won my interest and earnest study for decades.
And BE FOR KIDS, thank you, as well. I don't ask for agreement, I share info that most will not find anywhere else... especially when it's relevant to the discussion.
seventhson, Paul Krugman pretty much said the same. that we would see a temporary improvement and then we would be hit hard. Someone referred to the improvement as being in the eye of the storm. I believe Krugman was referring to the infusion of money to zombie banks, which of course cannot go on indefinitely.
Those people in the Obama administration must think we're pretty stupid if they think we're fooled by their "stress tests". Especially a rigorous one for regional banks, and a "look the other way" one for the too big to fail banks. And now I read that they get to keep their books closed and report back on what THEY have discovered. And toxic assets are off-book. No wonder we're headed for a financial storm.
When the people fear their government there is tyranny,
when the government fears the people there is liberty.
~ Thomas Jefferson
Well, I will add another tidbit to the discussion. Even though not directly related to astrology, it no doubt relates to the coming situation, especially if Sioux reads a lot of tension coming in September. A little-noticed fact sheet on FEMA's official website announced they will be conducting National Level Exercise 2009 (NLE 2009) in July of this year, with the goal of using mock emergencies to direct governmental interagency cooperation in "terrorism prevention and protection, as opposed to incident response and recovery." The exact dates are July 27-31.
Expecting a little trouble, are they? Of course, the last time we had "exercises" of this size going on, we got the "terrorist" attacks of 9/11.
Here is the link:
http://www.fema.gov/media/fact_sheets/nle09.shtm
yohocoma, Obviously Sioux Rose does not need defenders, but I will add that she is giving her opinion based on her field of experience and you can take it or leave it. But to challenge her right to express it is not within the format of this forum.
It is closed minded to dismiss as nonsensical a subject about which you clearly know nothing. We do not all have to agree with each other, and it is good we don't. But most of us want to respect each others' views even when we don't agree.
If you want anyone to have any respect for your views, you might try leaving out the insults.
When the people fear their government there is tyranny,
when the government fears the people there is liberty.
~ Thomas Jefferson
Sioux Rose has a right to express her astrological views. And yohocoma has a right to challenge her on them. Yohocoma, or anyone else for that matter, has a right to call her on it. Yohocoma, or anyone else for that matter, doesn't have to "take it or leave it".
Sioux Rose's right to express her views does not trump Yohocoma's right to challenge her views if he wants to, as long as he doesn't advocate having her views censored / banned.
Astrology has at least as much validity as any religion, maybe more. I know little, almost nothing about it, but it seems to me that if configurations of celestial bodies over the centuries have correllated with events in history, then, although cause and effect are not implied by correllation, it may be possible to predict future events with a degree of accuracy based on celestial configurations. In other words, the last hundred times a particular configuration appeared, then certain kinds of events (like wars or economic crashes) have generally occurred, it may be possible to anticipate similar types of events the next time a certain type of celestial configuration occurs. Not cause and effect, but correllation. But then what do I know? As I said I know very little about astrology. But it certainly has at least as much validity as any religion based on a hypothetical supernatural "god". At least astrology is based in observable events. Religion is not. Planets exist. We can see them. God? Well. THAT requires FAITH.
Sioux Rose
EKATON: Very well said. It's the celestial equivalent of conchordance... and smacks against the Western belief in absolutely free will. How free is free trade, how about America, as land of the free? We are not that free... our lives may seem wide open until we turn 30 or so, and by then most of us have debt, or are married, are contracted to specific jobs, responsible for children or a mortgage. There is a certain measure of free will, but there are also fated indications. And there are cycles of congruence that are very easy to note: like that of the full moon and its bearing on tidal bodies including the hormones waxing and waning in fertile females' bodies. Western civilization in cutting the connection to nature also lost the beauty of telling time by the moon and interacting more directly with the seasons. Thank you for your broad mind, Ekaton. Probably the first religions worshipped the sun and planets as great beings... when today's religions seem to create in too many a sense they can kill for God, it begs the question, which belief system serves the Spirit more harmoniously?
So, I take it you disagree with all the posts ridiculing religion whenever it comes up?
"". At least astrology is based in observable events. Religion is not. Planets exist. We can see them. God? Well. THAT requires FAITH."
Yes, planets and stars exist. Which is why there is a field of study called asTRONOMY.
"other words, the last hundred times a particular configuration appeared, then certain kinds of events (like wars or economic crashes) have generally occurred, it may be possible to anticipate similar types of events the next time a certain type of celestial configuration occurs. Not cause and effect, but correllation."
And what happens when the predicted correlation does not happen? What happens when something that is NOT predicted occurs? You notice the correlations when they happen, but do you notice the lack of correlations too?
Note, I am not making any claim that science has all the explanations or any such thing. Or that astrology is complete bunk. I am saying that just because there might be some correlation, does not in any way mean that astrology is a legitimate system of knowledge. It could be that astrology sometimes get the correct results, but through an incorrect process. Or maybe something else.
Sioux Rose
RFLOH: On Yohocoma, he's challenged me before and I made a case. He just seems to want to repeat the whole "performance."
As to astrology sometimes missing the mark, are you perhaps aware of an event where Nasa lost a very expensive space craft (I forget which mission this was) because one team of scientists was using a different measuring system than another?
How many times has science, in the form of medicine, screwed up an operation, misread X-rays? The 4th leading cause of death in the US, I believe, is botched surgeries and/or contra-indications resulting from the interaction of a number of pharmaceutical drugs.
Human error is part of every system. Look at so-called U.S. "Intelligence" and all the money that goes into spying, and ultimately, its conclusions are skewed to serve the political agenda of the ruling elite.
I appreciate your trying to take an even balanced approach to the subject, which is fairly enlightened. Too many on the left pooh-pooh this subject as if science has actually discredited it. It's been more marginalizing its basis for reference for centuries, and then smearing those who practice it. By in large today's scientist is a materialist only convinced of what his senses, and their extensions through fancy machines, can relay. There is little mysticism, imagination or capacity to see outside the established paradigm.
Rudolph Steiner, one of the great mystic sages said of science, "It is little more than the consensus of mediocre minds." Consensus is a problem as persons fear being stigmatized and most tend to go along. All new truths emerge as heresies. Look at where so many scientific minds today are employed? In the Military, producing weapons or the means to break down the minds of human beings through the more covert psychological components of torture.
Astrology seeks relationships among things few notice. It provides a means for connection, for unity, for seeing beyond appearances to higher cause factors, to getting beyond blame games to the profound factors that like behind the scenes stage hands, set the stage. I offer its context in the forum as a service to those who understand there is much more to present events than meets the mundane eye.
Arizona State's journalism school recently gave Brian Williams the Walter Cronkite Award for excellence in journalism....do you think the deciders at Arizona State's journalism school read "The Paper of Record"?
I think that Arizona State must need a new gym, or something comparable, very badly.
· Yr Obd't Servant
MSM is consistent. They can be depended upon to do what they have done for ever. They were never fair, open or unbiased...always had an agenda they served. Expect nothing else in the future, no magic transformation to a real 4th estate. Ordinary people know this. We don't even believe the local media's reporting any more, either. It too has a slant to it. Most folks are indifferent and deaf to the rubbish dished out daily as "NEWS".
Now a person like Susan Boyle comes along and everyone is thrilled by her voice and performance and her performance makes its way from a reality show to the news to you-tube and people notice that all over the world, some 66 million of them. She does have a fine voice. But I wonder if part of the attraction to her is a hopefullness from those who believe they have been overlooked and disfranchised that they might one day be discovered to be of value too.
I'm a firm believer in the power of a creation to turn on its creator. The MSM that serves the 1% that own everything will one day cause their destruction.
Guess which is, I think, the only show that people watch for news that actually aired this?
http://mediamatters.org/items/200804230011
Thank the gods for Jon Stewart. I've said it before, he's the ONLY real journalist on TV - and he's supposed to be a comedian.
'Don't get fooled again' - Pete Townsend
That was awesome! Thank you.
That's scary, the Arizona School of Journalism giving Brian Williams their Excellence award. I guess they're raising up a new generation of obedient little journalism puppies for the propaganda machine.
When the people fear their government there is tyranny,
when the government fears the people there is liberty.
~ Thomas Jefferson
Die MSM!
No wonder the USA ranks so low in press freedom rankings:
http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=24025
At least we are still #1 in Weapons exports, military spending, and imprisonment rates and prison population.
Another home run for GG. Good material for Comedy Central.
Joe
"So not only did Williams last night conceal from his viewers any mention of the Pentagon program, he featured -- on the very same broadcast -- "independent" commentary from one of the central figures involved in that propaganda program."
Yea - that's called flipping GG and the rest of us the bird.
Williams' unspoken rhetorical question: "And what are you going to do about it?... Answer: nothing."
Maddow's show just began recently, and this was in the middle of last year. But apparently Keith Olbermann is the only news show host to have mentioned it:
http://www.fair.org/blog/tag/keith-olbermann/
Nor did they, or do they ever, or does any of the other MSM talking heads or newspapers ever mention The School of the Americas which teaches foreign nationals how to torture people. The U.S. actually owns and runs a school of torture. So this whole torture debate -- who did what and when and is it torture or is it not torture, and should we do it, should we not do it just seems so absurd. The US operates a torture school.
The paragraphs below are excerpted from: http://www.soaw.org/
About the School of the Americas / Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation
The US Army School of Americas (SOA), based in Fort Benning, Georgia, trains Latin American security personnel in combat, counter-insurgency, and counter-narcotics. SOA graduates are responsible for some of the worst human rights abuses in Latin America. In 1996 the Pentagon was forced to release training manuals used at the school that advocated torture, extortion and execution. Among the SOA's nearly 60,000 graduates are notorious dictators Manuel Noriega and Omar Torrijos of Panama, Leopoldo Galtieri and Roberto Viola of Argentina, Juan Velasco Alvarado of Peru, Guillermo Rodriguez of Ecuador, and Hugo Banzer Suarez of Bolivia. Lower-level SOA graduates have participated in human rights abuses that include the assassination of Archbishop Oscar Romero and the El Mozote Massacre of 900 civilians. (See Grads in the News).
In an attempt to deflect public criticism and disassociate the school from its dubious reputation, the SOA was renamed the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHINSEC) in 2001. The name change was a result of a Department of Defense proposal included in the Defense Authorization Bill for Fiscal 2001, at a time when SOA opponents were poised to win a congressional vote on legislation that would have dismantled the school. The name-change measure passed when the House of Representatives defeated a bi-partisan amendment to close the SOA and conduct a congressional investigation by a narrow ten-vote margin. (See Talking Points, Critique of New School, Vote Roll Call.)
In a media interview, Georgia Senator and SOA supporter the late Paul Coverdell characterized the DOD proposal as a "cosmetic" change that would ensure that the SOA could continue its mission and operation. Critics of the SOA concur.
SOA Watch is a nonviolent grassroots movement that works through creative protest and resistance, legislative and media work to stand in solidarity with the people of Latin America, to close the SOA/WHINSEC and to change oppressive U.S. foreign policy that institutions like the SOA represent. We are grateful to our sisters and brothers throughout Latin America and the the Caribbean for their inspiration and the invitation to join them in their struggle for economic and social justice
And the traitor Harman is still being ignored. Meanwhile Cheney is yapping 100 miles per hour. If I agreed to torturing people just for the hell of it, Harman, Cheney and Pelosi would be on the top of my "traitors to be tortured" list.
" ..ties to companies that benefited from policies"
A government controlled by corporations - a definition of Fascism
OH, yes, all the reasons, I don't watch television news. As someone who has a journalism background, I have long said how superficial and useless television news is for providing any meaningful education of the populace in regards to the world's affairs. Anybody who really wants to know what is happening will have to read about it, either in the papers or years late in books. Now, all the newspapers are shutting down their presses.
These media sources should have all issued public apologies when this information came out and yet they suppressed the information!
On the other hand, it is dangerous for us who still have a modicum of faith in the idea of the United States to contribute to the general attitude of cynicism regarding any of its institutions including the media. We already have the conservatives publicly calling for civil war including the Governor of Texas last week and I for one want no part in continuing the downward spiral of our union. We can hold the individual news companies accountable without affirming the general malaise that can be used by the powerful against us.
What is the fuss? Most thinking people realised years ago that most corporate US media is simply fascist propoganda.
"The only means of strengthening one's intellect is to make up one's mind about nothing, to let the mind be a thoroughfare for all thoughts." - John Keats
Too bad there isn't an "award" the journalist, editor and/or news source that is most consistently or most egrigiously wrong. Something like Senator Proximire's "Golden Fleece Awards," but for journalism (or lack thereof).
Signed: Lawlessone [for more irreverence, see resistence-is-possible.blogspot.com]
There's a censorship "award" from the Th Jefferson 1st amendment group in Charlottesville, VA. Sorry I can"t recall more detail.
Sioux Rose wrote:
"The end of this year (and I expect the SIGNS to show strongly by November) holds an astrological configuration that also took place during the onset of the Great Depression."
and she also wrote:
"Furthermore as a likely response (since the emphasis of autumn 2009 holds well into spring 2010) there are several key planets with long orbs that will enter (Aries) Mars' sign by June 2010 that definitely up the ante on some kind "
________________________________________________________________________________
Sioux Rose,
You are back smoking pyote and miscallene again.!!
There might be a depression or a war in the future, but definitely not becasue
of special alignment of the stars and the planets. Wake up Rose and stop hallucinating.!!!
commoner3, it might serve you better to limit your discussion to subjects about which you have some knowledge. And that does not include the spelling of the hallucinogens you mentioned.
Might be a depression in the future? Even without studying star/planet alignment, most of us realize heavy stuff is coming down in the near future. The US Gini index has reached the level where revolutions occur. I realize Americans are spectacularly submissive and uninformed, but even Americans can reach a tolerance limit.
Why is it that some people cannot disagree without getting rude?
When the people fear their government there is tyranny,
when the government fears the people there is liberty.
~ Thomas Jefferson
Is it rude to object on basing social and political opinions and predictions on
astrology. What knowledge do you want me to have to voice such opinion??!!
You also wrote:"Might be a depression in the future? Even without studying star/planet alignment".
Exactly. So, you sort of agree with me. So, what is your problem.??!!
I wrote stop hallucinating and not stop taking hallucinogens. Got it Mr. snotty
with your failed attempt at a cheap shot??!!
It was not your objections I found rude, it was your manner. Accusing Sioux Rose, a thoughtful and insightful person of taking hallucinogens because you don't agree with her beliefs is not respectful disagreement. I never accused you of telling her to stop taking hallucinogens.
What I disagree with is your behavior.
By the way, I'm not a Mr. anything.
When the people fear their government there is tyranny,
when the government fears the people there is liberty.
~ Thomas Jefferson
You do not see the difference between disagreeing with the opinions of someone, and claiming that she her opinions are based on the use of hallucinatory substances?