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Black-Out in DC: Pay No Attention to Those Veterans Chained to the White House Fence
There was a black-out and a white-out Thursday and Friday as over a hundred US veterans opposed to US wars in Afghanistan and elsewhere around the world, and their civilian supporters, chained and tied themselves to the White House fence during an early snowstorm to say enough is enough.
Washington Police arrested 135 of the protesters, in what is being called the largest mass detention in recent years. Among those arrested were Ray McGovern, a former CIA analyst who used to provide the president's daily briefings, Daniel Ellsberg, who released the government's Pentagon Papers during the Nixon administration, and Chris Hedges, former war correspondent for the New York Times.
No major US news media reported on the demonstration or the arrests. It was blacked out of the New York Times, blacked out of the Philadelphia Inquirer, blacked out in the Los Angeles Times, blacked out of the Wall Street Journal, and even blacked out of the capital's local daily, the Washington Post.
Making the media cover-up of the protest all the more outrageous was the fact that most news media did report on Friday, the day after the protest, the results of the latest poll of American attitudes towards the Afghanistan War, an ABC/Washington Post Poll which found that 60% of Americans now feel that war has "not been worth it." That's a big increase from the 53% who said they opposed the war in July.
Clearly, any honest journalist and editor would see a news link between such a poll result and an anti-war protest at the White House led, for the first time in recent memory, by a veterans organization, the group Veterans for Peace, in which veterans of the nation's wars actually put themselves on the line to be arrested to protest a current war.
Friday was also the day that most news organizations were reporting on the much touted, but also much over-rated Pentagon report on the "progress" of the American war in Afghanistan--a report that claimed there was progress, but which was immediately contradicted by a CIA report that said the opposite. Again, any honest journalist and editor would see the publication of such a report as an appropriate place to mention the unusual opposition to the war by a group of veterans right outside the president's office.
And yet, the protest event was completely blacked out by the corporate news media, even as the capital was whited-out by a fast-moving snowstorm that brought traffic almost to a standstill.
If you wanted to know about this protest, you had to go to the internet and read the Huffington Post or to theSocialist Worker, or to this publication (okay, we're a day late, but I was stuck in traffic yesterday), or to Democracy Now! on the alternative airways.
My old employer, the Sydney Morning Herald in Australia, showed how it's supposed to be done. In an article published Friday about the latest ABC/Washington Post Poll, reporter Simon Mann, after explaining that opposition to the war in the US was rising, then wrote:
"The publication of the review coincided with anti-war protests held across the US, including one in Washington in which people chained themselves to the White House fence, leading to about 100 arrests."
That's the way journalism is supposed to work.
Relevant information that puts the days news in some kind of useful context is supposed to be provided to the reader.
Clearly, in the US the corporate media perform a different function. It's called propaganda. And the handling of this dramatic protest by American veterans against the nation's current war provides a dramatic illustration of how far the news industry and the journalism profession has fallen.
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Show AllMore hard proof that the "Corporate Media" (Please stop giving it honor by calling it "mainstream) has been bought, paid for, and wrapped up in a bow by the corporate, runaway capitalist oligarchy.
I call it the “Corpstream” Media because it is both corporate and it relies on sexualized bodies and bloody corpses – “If it bleeds, it leads.” – to profit.
Good article...I also found it sickening our corporate 'media' which has provided massive coverage to the corporate funded tea party couldn't be bothered to cover one the largest mass civil disobedience protests in years...very telling.
The corporate media comes up with endless excuses why circulation of their newspapers continues to decline. One primary reason that they don't admit to is that each time they refuse to report on events such as this one they lose more circulation.
Al Jazeera English, which I check everyday, also fell down on the job and failed to report on this. Guess I will have to lump them in with the other 'corporate media' from now on.
I find Al Jazeera English to be very parallel to u.s. cable news. But usually one step up.
Al Jazeera is more objective than any of the MSM including PBS. They are similar to BBC, but more detail when reporting the Middle East and Israel conflict. Before PBS stopped Worldfocus, much of their video clips was from Al Jazeera. I don't have TV and depend mostly on AJ, BBC and DN for my daily doses of news.
Actually, coverage of this by Common Dreams was only incidental in a Thursday artical about Daniel Ellsberg. The article mentioned in passing that Ellsberg chained himself to the White House fence in protest and was then arrested. But...the article didn't mention any of the other 135 protesters. Cover-up?
RT covered it. http://rt.com/news/afghan-protests-white-house-obama/
Who is surprised that the corpora-fascists did not report anything about this peaceful protest of the atrocities being perpetrated against innocents in foreign lands.?!
Some mornings, when I wake up, I feel like I'm an actor in the movie "Ground Hog Day".........
This illustrates how the US government, with M$M's help, can invisibly quell opposition. This would make more M$M news in the US if it happened in Cuba or Iran, as the protestors would be labeled political prisoners. As it is, we have a two tier information society in the US where small proportion gets news from both M$M and alternative sources (and digests the info) and a larger proportion just gets it from M$M.
The New York Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Los Angeles Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, and the other corporate-owned advertising forums have as much in common with "journalism" as does a glossy General Motors brochure intoducing a new line of cars.
The transnational megacorporations that own these rags probably did not mention this protest as it may have an adverse effect on their military armaments manufacturing holdings.
You cant expect a corporation to act agianst the best financial interests of their shareholders...that would actually be against the law.
Exactly. It's not so hard to state or understand.
And the identical argumentg can be applied to the reasons Sweden will extradite Assange to the US black hole prisons.
The corporate media exists in order to support the interests of the dominant class - to construct a narrative of social life that deliberately omits certain options. To expect otherwise is naive - the sixties were over a long time ago.
Perhaps one of those arrested, Chris Hedges, provides the best commentary on the impact such actions can have, "We, like those who opposed the long night of communism, no longer have any mechanisms within the formal structures of power that will protect or advance our rights. We too have undergone a coup d’état carried out not by the stone-faced leaders of a monolithic Communist Party, but by the corporate state." Chris Hedges, "No Act of Rebellion is Wasted" (http://www.truthdig.com/report/page2/no_act_of_rebellion_is_wasted_20101213/)
We need to take a moment and absorb the consequences of that first insight: we "no longer have any mechanisms which the formal structure of power that will protect or advance our rights." Not the churches, the universities, and certainly not the Democratic Party. And we need to ask if press coverage is really that valuable in the current political situation. In my opinion, we have entered a new political stage in which our efforts must focus primarily on building organizations, not on sixties-style media coverage.
Again, Hedges: "We may feel, in the face of the ruthless corporate destruction of our nation, our culture, and our ecosystem, powerless and weak. But we are not. We have a power that terrifies the corporate state. Any act of rebellion, no matter how few people show up or how heavily it is censored by a media that caters to the needs and profits of corporations, chips away at corporate power. Any act of rebellion keeps alive the embers for larger movements that follow us. It passes on another narrative. It will, as the rot of the state consumes itself, attract wider and wider numbers. Perhaps this will not happen in our lifetimes. But if we persist, we will keep this possibility alive. If we do not, it will die."
Effective resistance is based on keeping rebellion alive. The fact that we are ignored by the corporate media is to be celebrated because it means that something took place that doesn't fit their narrative and that they were afraid to report it. It indicates that a force is building up below the surface that they are ignoring - and that will break out in ways they don't expect.
Boyd Collins, Thanks for your excellent post. The writing of Chris Hedges goes to the root understanding of this national amnesia. He is the Thomas Payne of our times.
I do not know if this was the first time Chris Hedges has participated in such a demonstration, but if it was, he will never be the same again.
Participating in such events is a totally transformational experience that more Americans need to experience. As a Catholic peace and justice activist, I have been there many times before, but this time I was recovering from a full knee replacement. I would have loved to be there in solidarity of such great people.
I have not talked to a single person who thinks the latest Tax Cuts for
Millionaires and Billionaires is a good idea OR supports the Wars.
My neighbor, a lifelong Republican descendant of lifelong Republicans, a
small businessman who owns our local (transit accessible!) grocery store,
said he is fed up with the corruption.
He is putting solar panels on the little mall he owns because it is the
right thing to do. But he is no delusion that the electric car, Wars, or
the supposed "help" for small business, actually helps with his small business or
his small business tenants struggling to survive the Great Recession.
While the neo-conservative/liberal elites buy their $329,000 luxury Porches
from their finance/rentier untaxed incomes, major trouble is brewing underneath.
I watched diligently for coverage on this event, but was just as disappointed as David Lindorff. At the same time, I feared it would be so.
Every day it becomes more apparent, millions of people in the streets are needed to wake this country up. But when our colleges, universities and so called "Christian" churches do not give a shit, such demonstrations are hard to expect.
Yes Stephen, i have been to many demonstrations that haven't been covered. This isn't new.
That is why we need to get creative and (as assange did), come up with 21st century responses to this global empire. We are in a brave new world here, and the old model just isn't going to cut it. Of this i have no doubt.
One of my own personal actions is to help people to 'see' - to use their inner sensing when listening and seeing someone who is purportedly telling them the truth. There are many ways to know who is acting and who is for real. That is how i wasn't fooled by obama. Plus, i realized that going to a voting booth wasn't exactly the remedy for what americans allowed to happen in our name for at least the previous eight years.
That is like the mafia don going into the confessional on sunday and expecting that he is exonerated. Life simply doesn't work that way. Yet deep down, this is what the majority of americans actually expected. It is so very immature that it was hard to take, believe me. One big vacation bible school is what america is. And i am not referring to the tea party here. I am talking about those who voted for obama because they really believed that the voting booth was the confessional, and all the 'sins' would be taken care of by the new 'saviour and chief'.
And....it is good to see you again, Stephen V.!
peace,
rita
readytotransform, I think you hit it with the phrase "21st century responses to this global empire." What dismays me about so many of the responses is the lack of recognition of the real political situation we are in in 2010 which is very different from 1968. The protest tactics of those years, the "old model" you mention, is just not effective anymore. Like Chris Hedges, I was not particularly dismayed by lack of corporate coverage nor did I expect it. The corporate media creates a narrative that supports the interests of the dominant class. That has been its mission for many decades now. The veteran's protests could not be fitted into the Afghanistan war narrative so it was ignored. But deliberate ignorance can create blowback that can work to our advantage.
I agree with you, Boyd. And i have said, over the past ten years, or at least the past eight years, civil disobedience doesn't really work, when you don't actually have a civil society to disobey. It isn't 1968. Heck, it isn't even 1988.
If Ghandi were in today's world, he would be sitting in Gitmo. Or. He would have figured out something else to do, that would have made more sense for 2010. Chaining oneself to a fence just isn't much of a disobedient act. One of the exceptional times in the past ten years was the 2004 republican convention in nyc. That felt real to me, to take action there. And before the invasion of iraq. That had a feeling of substance, although i knew it wouldn't matter.
Civil disobedience.....Assange did some meaningful CD. So did Manning, if indeed he did what was said. And that is what got attention of the powers that be. Because it levels the playing field. If everyone would stop paying taxes, sure. Or a general strike. Maybe. But it would have to be everyone in the us on the same page, which isn't about to happen at this time. Why live in the fantasy that it will? This is a time that calls for creativity and getting outside the box, because i don't think we have a lot of time left. I am speaking about planet earth itself as well.
Look at all the people who fell for obama, who are dealing with ancient mythologies about hero/saviour men coming to rescue us. They projected it all onto this man, who 'looked' different. It was so simple to trick people who are engrained to think in such childish ways. And as long as this is the case, nothing will change because people need to wake up and think for themselves. This is the time. Period.
End of rave!
peace,
rita
Good rave, rita! I believe in the power of civil disobedience. I believe Gandhi would be pioneering new and creative methods if he were here today. However, I honor those who were arrested Thursday because they took a risk and stood up for the truth, an act which is never wasted. Whether the corporate media covers it or not, it keeps the spirit of disobedience alive. In the long run, that may be more significant than the "effectiveness" of this or that protest or action. As Chris said, "Acts of resistance are moral acts. They take place because people of conscience understand the moral, rather than the practical, imperative of rebellion. They should be carried out not because they are effective, but because they are right. Those who begin these acts are always few. They are dismissed by those in the liberal class, who hide their cowardice behind their cynicism. Resistance, however, marginal, affirms the sanctity of individual life in a world awash in death. It is the supreme act of faith, the highest form of spirituality. Those who have carried out great acts of resistance in the past sacrificed their security and comfort, often spent time in jail, and in some cases were killed. They understood that to live in the fullest sense of the word, to exist as free and independent human beings, even under the darkest night of state repression, means to defy injustice. Any act of resistance is its own justification. It cannot be measured by its utilitarian effect. And the acts of resistance that sustain us morally are those that disrupt systems of power but do not violate the sanctity of human life - even, finally, the lives of those who enslave us." Chris Hedges, "The Death of the Liberal Class", p. 205-6.
In the end, I think it just doesn't matter whether the corporate media covered the event or not. If they did, their job would be to portray the protesters as marginal lunatics who could safely be ignored or violent fools who need to be caged. Such coverage would be worse than no coverage at all. But the main point is that we protest because not to do so makes us less human and thereby less worthy of a society organized around real human development instead of profit.
Interesting posts, evocative points, Rita & Boyd. I think it's important to go back to the point made by "progressive 101" in his comment about the two-tiered media.
The lack of coverage of these types of events allows the vast majority to PRESUME there is no body interested in an alternative. They thus feel there is NO CHOICE but to adapt to what is presented to them by the purveyors of a very dangerous status quo. Its orthodoxy, I need not remind you, is turning thousands of citizens into felons, marching the young who can't get jobs off to wars, while inventing cause for conflicts of the most ruthless sort. In parallel fashion it has diluted the worth of our dollars and turned health care access into a Lotto.
Another problem that results from the "two tiered media" is that those of us who really understand the deadly dynamics driving the nation are so marginalized from friends, family, and those who count on "the news" for their opinions, as to suggest two quite "Separate Realities."
Since the right wing media is acting like the directors of The Roman Arena in calling for blood and whipping up much of the public's appetite for it, what's to say that those of us who KNOW and SPEAK the truth won't be described as dangerous to the nation? Julian Assange's fate speaks to all of us. When so many do not know the truth, nor are they perhaps now even capable of discerning it from the web of deceit that's enveloped the land (a good part of that deception taught in fundamentalist churches), how can they identify with the causes that would "set them free?" They are being taught to be suspicious of those who might lead them towards solutions resonant with "The greater good."
The manipulation of message has always been a favorite in war, and therefore prized by the make-war state. Ownership of media has opened the doors to such massive dis-information campaigns that the tools for waking up our fellow citizens elude us.
The problem of access, whether we act creatively or conventionally in our forms of protest, is a VERY real one.
And Rita, how many people will follow in Julian's footsteps given the awful fact that bounty hunters salivate at the thought there might be a price placed on this courageous man's head?
Thanks for a very poingnant post Sioux! I totally agree, of course.
We do live in a separate reality, there is no doubt. I can say it to you, that we are all living in very different 'universes', quite literally, actually. Yet here we are, sharing the same planet.
I believe that vast numbers of people, at least in this particular area of the planet (i hesitate to call it the u.s., because that is not a reality at this point), are not going to evolve. They think torture is alright. How are you gonna change that? Well, i have done this recently with a client who is a recent vet. He gets it now and is going to leave his job which is working as a prison guard - a job that is filled by vets. So, it can be done. However, this guy had heart that i could feel and connect with from the start. Not all do. He likes to kid me about being a tree hugging leftist, but he is truly 'getting it'. And it has only been a couple of months, at that.
My personal feeling is that anyone who isn't outraged by now, probably isn't going to go there. They are not willing to 'see'. Those who are willingly blind....i think Jesus was supposed to have said something along those lines. And more. They will suffer and blame and say that is the way it is. And so it goes. And they will still believe that they have the best 'government' in the world. No matter what. I have talked to people who have guns and say that if martial law comes, they are going to go down shooting. They don't get it either.
I see no real way out, except to help people who can evolve, to do so as fast as possible so we can do as the Einstein quote you know so well, that i just posted to Boyd. There are those who are wondering and looking for ways. They need to know that using their own inner senses and minds and hearts is the way. Because we need to discern what is real out there and what isn't. And to get as creative, meaning original, as possible. So we can exist outside the box.
The people who are running the Empire do not control infinity. There is much more to reality than is dreamed of in their insular, closed systems. I liken it to organized religion - a very limited view of reality. And quite immature. We know these people are immature, because look at what they are doing to the planet. That is the behavior of primitve humans with lots of technology. It is going to self destruct if nothing changes. That IS predictable by anyone with any awareness.
O.K....I am tired.
peace,
rita
Excellent response, Boyd! I agree with you on prinicple. And i also affirm the action from thursday. I was there in October for what turned out to be a democratic party rally. Except for the socialists and anti war vets. I have been going between nyc and phila and DC regularly since we first invaded Afghanistan.
I agree about Ghandi, as you could glean from my last post. To be honest, though, the event on thursday wasn't a big risk. We know that you get arrested and pay a fine and go home. That is the way it has worked in these events. They are prearranged. Cindy Sheehan does it practically every month. And i support her. However, i like what kathy kelley and others did in texas a few months ago. Drone wise.
I wouldn't say we should stop doing these actions - i just know that if we want to actually create some sort of difference, we need to become different. We need to create alternative models, and at the risk of being prosaic, because it has been quoted to death....."No problem can be solved by the consciousness that created it". Einstein. This is the singularly most important statement i can think of at this time. And that is the work i do with people.
By the way, i don't know if i have seen your posts here before? It is good to have your 'voice' here...
rita
"It was so simple to trick people who are ingrained to think in such childish ways. "
It's even simpler to let the people trick themselves by pandering to their naive hopes.
vdb, your point is well taken.....
I too was checking in vain for mention of this event in the Corporate Media. (See I took your advice Kucinich2012.) Due to recent surgery I was unable to attend but was there in spirit and disappointed and disgusted but not surprised that the event wasn't covered by the corporate media. I have learned the hard way to have low expectations of the CM.
There is an excellent short video which can be viewed at
http://www.veteransforpeace.org/
Peace
hackerkat
Proud member of Veterans for Peace
Hackerkat: Thank you so much for your service to peace. When one goes in the military you take an oath to protect America from all enemies both foreign and domestic and it is now time for our military vets like you to keep that oath and protect us from domestic enemies that are killing thousands of innocents in other countries. I am not a pacifist; I am not anti-military, and certainly do appreciate the brave men and women that put their lives on the line for altruistic reasons; for the protection of American citizens, but what I object to! Is our Government using the bravery and real patriotism of our soldiers for their own faithless,deceitful and greedy ends that have nothing to do with protecting the average American citizen. Thanks to Veterans For Peace. We are proud of you. Our country needs you. Paul
I think we can stop speaking of "journalism" in regard Corporate Media. Why would they adhere to any standards of true journalism when their profits, as corporations, come from arms sales, military technology, nuclear power, etc? (Even when they are not directly involved in such enterprises, they are part of the self-referential corporate mutual benefit club.)
The overseers of almost every major "news" organization are corporate members of the Council on Foreign Relations. Why would they believe coverage of an anti-war protest would be in their "interests"? (Interests, of course, are the sine qua non of their existence and of their views on foreign relations.)
For a little perspective, here is John Swinton, a socialist and labor journalist about 1880 at a function at which another reporter had proposed a toast to the "independent press":
"There is no such thing, at this stage of the world’s history in America, as an independent press. You know it and I know it. There is not one of you who dare write your honest opinions, and if you did, you know beforehand that it would never appear in print. I am paid weekly for keeping my honest opinions out of the paper I am connected with. Others of you are paid similar salaries for similar things, and any of you who would be foolish as to write honest opinions would be out on the streets looking for another job. If I allowed my honest opinions to appear in one issue of my papers, before twenty-four hours my occupation would be gone. The business of the journalist is to destroy the truth, to lie outright, to pervert, to vilify, to fawn at the feet of Mammon, and to sell his country and his race for his daily bread. You know it and I know it, and what folly is this toasting an independent press? We are the jumping jacks, they pull the strings and we dance. Our talents, our possibilities and our lives are all the property of other men. We are intellectual prostitutes."
He was at the "New York Sun", I think, at the time. It's a little bitter and over-the-top. There were good independent journals. (Swinton himself started "John Swinton's Paper", a labor journal, in 1883.) But we get the point, I think.
Amy, thanks for the wonderfukll quote. It's a saver.
There are all kinds of weird attributions attached to it. He said in in 1953 (52 years after he died.) He was an editor of the New York Times (certainly not the case.)
But I have researched it a bit and corresponded at one time with Page Smith in whose book I originally saw the quote and am certain Swinton actually said it.
Arry: Great quote that tells the truth! " WE ARE INTELLUCTUAL PROSTITUTES". That is why I have called the MSM for at least the last ten years, ever since I was in Seattle in 99, the MSM whore news network; as the MSM news played over and over ad nauseum the very,very few people that broke a few windows at Starbucks ( they very well could have been provocateurs ). Never, ever any substance reporting about the egregious WTO all they focused on was how horrible it was that the WTO was shut down, they used the headline BATTLE IN SEATTLE to demonize the protests and it worked perfectly because it let them report on the so called violence of the patriotic protestors and not the violence of the WTO.
"...fawning at the feet of Mammon..."
You got it!
"He was at the "New York Sun", I think, at the time. It's a little bitter and over-the-top. There were good independent journals. (Swinton himself started "John Swinton's Paper", a labor journal, in 1883.) But we get the point, I think."
I think we do get the point, at least, those reading this do.
I wouldn't call his speech bitter or over-the-top any more than I would call Maj. Gen. Smedley Butler's assessment of his job bitter or over-the-top:
“War is just a racket. A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of people. Only a small inside group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few at the expense of the masses...
"It may seem odd for me, a military man to adopt such a comparison. Truthfulness compels me to. I spent thirty- three years and four months in active military service as a member of this country's most agile military force, the Marine Corps. I served in all commissioned ranks from Second Lieutenant to Major-General. And during that period, I spent most of my time being a high class muscle- man for Big Business, for Wall Street and for the Bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism."
Truth is often more bitter and over-the-top than we would like to grant it. Knowing this doesn't make it any easier to sleep at night.
Yes. You are right. I was just thinking of some of the good independent papers. (Swinton's paper was influential in the labor movement.) Probably, he was hardly was able to make ends meet, however.
Putting Swinton and Butler side-by-side makes sense.
In addition to the cogent points raised by Lindorff and previous commenters, I speculate that corporate media executives, producers, and editors also decided that the repeal of DADT* was the "go-to" military story of the weekend.
After all, DADT is fine grist for weekend yak-show infotainwhore bloviating-- there's so much opportunity for High Blathering and tales of sound & fury!
So why bother covering a few disgruntled Debbie Downers from the Loony Left? That's not where the action is! After all, as far as I can tell, Lady Gaga or the equivalent didn't show up to give the story corporate media "legs".
*(IMO, it's commendable when any anachronistic institutional bigotry is overcome-- but the freedom to serve the military beast proudly and openly is anticlimactic, even Pyrrhic, at best.)
I don't even think NPR, the "liberal" news source, even covered it. Maybe their sponsors--like Chase--wouldn't allow it.
When I was a kid during WW-II, we had "blackouts." Every home had blackout curtains to be put in place. The Air Raid Wardens would prowl the streets looking for any stray beam of light from a house, etc. The idea of a blackout was to prevent the enemy from finding your city.
Now we have blackouts of the press, to prevent the people from finding out what is happening to them.
Does that equate We the People with the enemy, in govspeak?
"Even a very small candle has the power to illuminate an entire room,
as even a very small act of dissent has the power to reveal our society's darkness."
Nice.
I agree. Very nice and well said quote, Justice Arcs. It is up to each one of us to do our part to help shed some light into the darkness. Thanks, Paul
Firedoglake didn't feature it, either. Chris Hedges' name is mentioned by a few posters, but civil disobedience or any form of action is not a topic the powers-that-be at Firedoglake wish to pursue.
FDL stars all want jobs at WaPo, or NPR, or the Atlantic, in the style of a Ben Smith, or Sullivan, et al.
Lips firmly attached to the buttocks of inside the beltway political power.
Always searching for that "frame" that will make it into the political "gallery".
Absolutely true! Much like Rachel Maddow used Air America as a stepping stone and a presstitute for MSNBC.
Agreed.
Her on camera sucking up to Harry Reid, was the last time I stomached her show.
Nary a challenge by her to Harry Reid's practice of granting the Republican leadership the convenience of the procedural filibuster, that effectively created the voting block of Republicans, and right-wing Democrats. And that is EXACTLY, what Obama, and the current corporate serving leadership of the Democratic Party wants.
The corporate media deserve to go under as some of them already have. They have proved themselves to be irrelevant.
Terran
Unfortunately, public thought is largely influenced by corporate propaganda. The only way I can see to overcome this is more frequent, more widespread, and bigger anti-corporate actions.
Maybe so, but what do we do when the corporate propaganda machine disregards even those actions?
Perhaps some well-aimed actions against said corporate propaganda machine...? Could they ignore that?
Good idea