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How Greed Will Save America
I've written before about the MSM's failure to communicate the truth to the American people. Often, they do this through omission. The other day, all the "journalists" were reporting on the President's surprise visit to Anbar province... except he wasn't there. He was at the isolated and heavily fortified Al Asad Air Base, known in Iraq military circles as "Camp Cupcake," for its relatively luxurious accommodations... The guy never set foot in the actual streets or anywhere that he may have seen anything not so swell going on, like large scale murder and such...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/03/AR2007090300333.html
Didn't get a mention in any television news coverage I saw. And that made me angry. But then, a sort of frightening calm followed my anger. And I realized that it will be exactly the myopic, corporate-driven, media spin machine that's going to save America.
Because Americans will create another way to communicate, and the MSM will become, in my lifetime, wholly irrelevant. And that ladies and gentlemen, will mark the beginning of the healing of this great wounded nation.
In colonial times, when the British imposed a "glass tax" on the people, they simply started making their own glass. There are still houses standing in upstate NY and Vermont that have this glass in the doors. I saw them. It's thick blue glass that bubbles out and it's called "bullseye glass." You can see through it, but not of course in the same clear way you would with regular glass.
My point here is that people simply went around the problem. And it was of course greed on the part of the British government that demanded taxes for everything, but did not feel it necessary to represent the interests of the taxed population in any way... Greed.
And the same can be said of the corporate owned media. Why do they omit that the President is standing at a heavily fortified air base, and make it sound as though he's touring the streets of Baghdad? Because that's what their owners want them to do. Because there's money involved. Lots of it. Yup, greed.
And frankly, I think what happened to glass in colonial America is what's happening to the MSM... People are just starting to work around it. Just as the British government began to be irrelevant to the colonists, so the MSM is going.
For those of you who are into hard analysis of these things - as opposed to the ongoing public survey that takes place at my neighborhood pub - here are some interesting articles on the decline of television news viewership among key audiences.
http://www.stateofthenewsmedia.org/2005/narrative_networktv_audience.asp?cat=3&media=4
http://people-press.org/reports/display.php3?ReportID=36
The important thing is this: the American people are moving on. Internet news in the form of streaming video and podcasting, internet newspapers, news blogs, are all gathering audience and trust.
I'm working on my own version of a "citizen journalist" news site, and I'm getting some help from people who are not manically political. They're just people like my friend Bill, who, when I explained my idea to him and asked if he could shoot it, he said, "hell yeah. I mean god, it's not like anybody watches TV news anymore."
I smiled.
I'm smiling too, contemplating the future of media with Vic at the helm...Keep on, girlfriend!!
Yes. I haven't watched television news (except intermittently when in an airport, healthclub, grocery store) since the 1991 Gulf War when I was watching air strikes shown basically like video games and said out loud, "This is propaganda!" I was so horrified I never went back. I tried for a week at my mom's house two years ago to watch, having no other news source, and was unable to see anything but the missing Aruba girl.
When the election was stolen by the Republicans in 2004, for the second time, I decided to patronize "blue" companies. I knew that Costco was a huge Dem donor (and is locally owned) but quit the others and most of their corporate products. Yesterday because of car breakdown reasons, I ended up in Safeway and bought a package of British tea. I was horrified at all of the other prices and ended up at a produce market and Russian grocery, about 1/3 of the price and also verified that the owners were not conservatives (which wasn't hard to do).
We do need to go around alot of it. It's pretty nasty (and the ACLU isn't happy) that Seattle is going to join Portland, SF, NYC and London in putting a bunch of videos downtown to monitor people, where foot patrols used to keep order. Big brother. I think I'm going to start wearing a different disguise each time I'm there, especially with the satellite patrols that can resolve down to one inch. Or did Poindexter's gait recognition TIA program continue under another name?
Good luck with the Citizen Journalism site. I did enjoy the Real News piece about "Saddam Without a Mustache" that Rossi posted last night, with Pablo Escobar in Paris (whoever that is). He revealed that American forces now control the path from Bagdhad to the airport, after 4-1/2 years of fighting!
Karen --
Absolutely, I'm on it like a bad smell - except noo to three o'clock today, when I rest, eat, and watch the Vikings' season opener with my friends.
Heh heh.
But later on I'm doorknocking for a friend who's running for city council. There's no rest for the wicked, you know...
K --
P.S. Thanks for fixing the links... obviously someone else will be in charge of the technical aspects of my next great adventure. ;-)
REPOST:
The Dixie Chicks (and Ron Paul) are all over You Tube:
Dixie Chicks You Tube video: 2 million hits, "Not Ready to Make Nice"
(George and Dick, you in trouble big-time)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwc5YSAc-7g
Another video about the Dixie Chicks movie "Shut-up and Sing"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VDHj8NCCSZo
Premiere of "Shut-up and Sing"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7zr39OKxN0
Here is an idea for the muddle headed Dem. leaders: INVITE THE DIXIE CHICKS TO SING AT THE 2008 DEM. CONVENTION!! naw... that's too good of an idea!!! LOL
Caught in another lie:
GAO "Doubts" Pentagon's Claim Iraq Violence Declining
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/090907Y.shtml
Agence France-Presse reports that David Walker, the head of the Government Accountability Office, has called into question the accuracy of a Pentagon report that states "US military statistics ... show a huge dip in sectarian violence in Iraq under the current troop surge strategy."
& I heard NPR excerpts while in the car - from Ted Kennedy & Lindsay Graham going at it on Sunday teevee. Graham continues to use the tired old "Al Quaida is on the run" thing.
Ralpheh
Check out the movie at http://www.silencedmajority.blogs.com on China. Are any candidates addressing the trade imbalance?
Posted by: nmp at September 9, 2007 01:32 PM
NMP, the next big thing from China will be... CARS. We talked about that last year, but it's now reality.
Chery - coming soon to a Dodge dealer near you.
The excuse is that American unionized workers can't profitably build cars at $13K. That's hogwash - overpriced Japanese and Korean workers are pretty darn good at making $12K cars (remember my rental Chevy Aveo?), so it's more of a management/engineering problem for Detroit.
I've posted a diary about a call for impeachment over at Daily Kos. Please rec it if you like it.
Thanks.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/9/9/135035/1264
More interesting videos at You Tube (Fox News must be getting very desperate: they are bringing on contrarian experts and viewpoints... or maybe they just need a ratings boost...LOL)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZNfuIvtLos
(CIA analyst Michael Shuerer being interview by Fox News's Sheppard's Smith)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xocd2Me9jaw
(Ron Paul being interviewed by a Fox News anchor person with clips of Rudy in between.)
We must educate people about the misconducts of our president & vice president. We must teach impeachment. This is what democracy is. We are democracy.
The "IMPEACH!" sign will remain at the Free Speech Corner in Highland Park for one month. It's conveniently by the train tracks so that many commuters will see it every time they pass.
Excellent MD
You're absolutely right Victoria. Whilst the bias of news is controlled by a few, they are making money. For some, buying a daily paper is second nature. Like breathing or eating. We do it on a daily basis. I don't, I weaned myself off them and find my news on the internet, with people who look around for interesting, maybe frightening, and more likely, news.
Those journalists make the money for the news owners and shareholders. The only time they will stop the spin, is when their sales drop into a deep, dark well.
People LOVE a good scandal. How does celebrity information get out to us. Is there anyone on the planet over the age of 1 who didn't know Paris Hilton went to jail for a few days?
I'd like to see more local newsletters, free of course, available on street corners and railway stations. Simple, large, clear headlines for national and world items, with local weather and specific stories. There is a cost - selected advertisers could provide a source for the financing.
First thing that's important though is to hurt the media moguls, like Murdoch, right where it hurts. In their bank accounts. No one needs that much power and money. I'd look at the wealthiest five people in each state to fund Health Care for all in their state. They're all Republicans anyway, so it won't lose votes from decent folks. AND - goodbye Insurance Companies!
Some people can probably get some internet news right over their phones, if they're a fancy type. There may be ways to get messages to people quickly using technology too, like with text messaging etc. Remember flashmobs? I thought that concept had potential. It was even kind of cooly political when not political - just the idea of people appearing out of nowhere, without large external central guidance! Natural, in a sense, like bees or something.
I've also seen alot of stickering & stenciling lately. There is lots of potential there, where art intersects with political and the personal with the political as well. & it's amazing how quickly you can go from even a camera phone or digital phone with short movie capability to YouTube. I've only done it twice, with Daft Punk and with Bush in Bellevue, but it was easier than I anticipated. Have also had a huge increase in "embedded" videos in messages & blogs apparent all of a sudden! & more political stuff on the social networking pages, maybe.
I also have some things to share from our paper today.
Democracy, the press at a critical juncture
American democracy is suffering. The natural strain on our political system after more than two centuries is accelerating with the purposeful weakening of the press.
This erosion has been fueled in recent decades by politically calculated legislation, and regulatory agencies not regulating. Political aggression coupled with bureaucratic acceptance has led to the massive consolidation of American and global media.
The Federal Communications Commission can realign democracy with the Founders' vision by acting in the public's interest on a number of issues, such as network neutrality, cross-ownership and broadband. If the FCC missteps, the United States is in danger of losing its independent news organizations.
The press — newspapers, radio, television and magazines — plays a role in democracy every bit as important as Congress, the executive branch and the judiciary. That watchdog role is in danger now that newspapers, which are the driving force behind most original reporting, are being strained by consolidation.
Why should Americans care who owns the press?
Because a democracy ceases to be a political system that promotes liberty when the press is muzzled.
read the rest at
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/editorialsopinion/2003874214_demoed09.html
Also today, same paper:
Democracy and media
An important government meeting was once called but closed to the media. The assembled leaders produced a 5,000-word document, finalized early enough to be manually typeset by the close of the proceedings.
Within weeks, it was reproduced by newspapers in every state. It came to preoccupy the nation's signed and unsigned editorialists, as well as its political reporters. It prompted conventions across the nation — which we know far more about because they were all open to the media.
The document was ultimately endorsed with some additions, most notably language addressing the role of journalism in a free society.
The document is of course the U.S. Constitution, the string of anonymous op-eds is now known as the Federalist Papers, and the little-debated addition is the First Amendment.
read the rest at
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/opinion/2003874210_coppop09.html
I like statistics, comics, graphics, bumper stickers & quotations because of their elegance & efficiency!!
"America is a powerful and prosperous nation. We certainly should insist upon, and can afford to sustain, a media system of which we can be proud."
Walter Cronkite
“The media's the most powerful entity on earth. They have the power to make the innocent guilty and to make the guilty innocent, and that's power. Because they control the minds of the masses.”
Malcolm X
“Whoever controls the media, controls the mind.”
Jim Morrison
“Whoever controls the media, the images, controls the culture.”
Allen Ginsberg
“The media are only as liberal as the conservative businesses that own them”
(Who said that?!)
“When the media ask him [Bush] a question, he answers, 'Can I use a lifeline?'”
Robin Williams
“The media. It sounds like a convention of spiritualists.”
Tom Stoppard, British Playwright
“The biases the media has are much bigger than conservative or liberal. They're about getting ratings, about making money, about doing stories that are easy to cover.”
Al Franken
First thing that's important though is to hurt the media moguls, like Murdoch, right where it hurts. In their bank accounts. No one needs that much power and money.
Posted by: woz at September 9, 2007 05:04 PM
Amen to that
Apec security leaves bitter taste in Sydney
Source: BBC News
After Sydney hosted the 2000 Olympics, a compelling case could be made for holding the games in the city every four years, such was the panache and energy which pulsated through its staging. After Apec, most Sydneysiders are saying "Never again".
>
>
"Somebody in the security operation got very carried away with their own self-importance, and nobody in the state or federal government counterbalanced them.
"It was totally and utterly disproportionate."
>
From demonstrations of its new high-powered water cannon to night-time exercises involving riot police, the New South Wales police were determined to show they were ready for large-scale protests with the possibility of turning violent.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/6985775.stm
Excellent post Victoria. Thank you.
I agree with your assessment that the MSM will become increasingly irrelevant. However, across the world, the mainstream media actually is a small cog in the grinding wheel of corporate influence. As the internet stands at the cusp of becoming ubiquitous, the major communications corporations (i.e. the major conglomerates who currently control nearly every aspect of our daily lives) are attempting to create a two tiered internet communications system. I suspect they will be successful and the primary means of communications may eventually transition back to printed flyers (wouldn't that be great?).
Posted by: oncall at September 9, 2007 08:36 PM
My neice already works with a group of people who do exactly that type of thing out in 'your area' (so to speak.)
They print up x amount of copies. Save enough money on donations to print a new paper a month or so later and they split the cost of a pizza in celebration of that month's work and go at it again.
Bush-Linked Texas Oil Man Signs Major Iraq Oil Deal
From the AP ...
Texas' Hunt Oil Co. and Kurdistan's regional government said Saturday they've signed a production-sharing contract for petroleum exploration in northern Iraq, the first such deal since the Kurds passed their own oil and gas law in August.
A Hunt subsidiary, Hunt Oil Co. of the Kurdistan Region, will begin geological survey and seismic work by the end of 2007 and hopes to drill an exploration well in 2008, the parties said in a news release. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
From Hunt's bio: "In October 2001 and again in January 2006, Mr. Hunt was appointed by President George W. Bush to the President’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board in Washington, D.C."
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/052614.php
We must educate people about the misconducts of our president & vice president. We must teach impeachment. This is what democracy is. We are democracy.
The "IMPEACH!" sign will remain at the Free Speech Corner in Highland Park for one month. It's conveniently by the train tracks so that many commuters will see it every time they pass.
Excellent MD
@@@@@@@@@
There are still too many apathetic Americans and weak-willed Congressional Democrats for impeachment to happen. I am giving up on impeachment and concentrating on bringing the troops home from Iraq, improving the Congress in November 2008 and selecting a decent Democratic nominee for president.
madame,
read your diary and rec'd it. Excellent points made as always.
Posted by: not my president at September 9, 2007 05:53 PM
Excellent quotes re media nmp.
From demonstrations of its new high-powered water cannon to night-time exercises involving riot police, the New South Wales police were determined to show they were ready for large-scale protests with the possibility of turning violent.
Posted by: rossiann at September 9, 2007 08:11 PM
It must have been a terrible let-down to have noone violent to contend with. And it must be a really awful let-down to have cameras rolling on the cop holding a man laying on the ground, while his mates punched the crap out of him.
And it must have been a hell of a letdown that the camerawoman who was punched to the ground was filmed by another camera operator!! And the NSW commissioner of police said, "No, the police did not use unnecessary force."
Australian protesters and activists usually don't want violence - the only violence that erupts begins with the police plants in the midst of peaceful, rowdy, enthusiastic, policy changers on their Mission - to topple the dictator.
The cameraWoman was punched to the ground by an extremely heroic, on-duty policeMan.
And the man on the ground. Police punched the crap out of him whilst he was held by another officer.
I say, send all the thugs from here and the US and the UK and Iraq and Afghanistan and Zimbabwe et al - to some desolate part of the planet and let them beat the crap out of each other whilst the rest of us live in peace and harmony.
Hey woz did you catch this little bit of information
Truly over it, Beattie says goodbye
PETER Beattie, who has been premier of Queensland for nine years, has announced his resignation from politics saying it was time for renewal and that he was "well and truly over" the job.
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,22392949-2,00.html
Yes, I did. Thanks Rossi. Where in Qld are you? Both of my sons are up there. Younger one at Yeppoon. Older one west of Townsville somewhere.
Beattie, although I do actually like him, copped a lot of flak. I think a job in the front rows of politics, whether it's state or federal, would be the fastest way to burn out. Even faster than teaching, if that's possible. My mother just had 2 spells in hospital at Hervey Bay and Maryborough - she's 86. She can't speak highly enough about the hospitals and the staff. So I guess hospitals have improved since I was a regular patient at Hervey Bay.
He said that his deputy, a woman whose name I forget, should be selected unopposed as premier. That would be good. I've always thought Joan Kirner was great when she was premier of Victoria. Also, I met her and was impressed by her broad range of knowledge.
I wish someone would put a firecracker under Lennon's chair. He's way too mean-spirited to resign.
The Strange Case Of An Imprisoned Alabama Governor »
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2007/09/10/the-strange-case-of-an-im_n_63700.html
New York Times | September 10, 2007 12:05 AM
Alberto Gonzales is out as attorney general, but there is still a lot of questionable Justice Department activity for Congress to sort through. The imprisonment of Don Siegelman, a former Democratic governor of Alabama, should be at the top of the list. Jill Simpson, an Alabama lawyer and Republican operative, is heading to Washington this week to tell Congressional investigators that she heard prominent Republicans plotting to use the United States attorneys' offices to remove Mr. Siegelman as a political...
I am in Brisbane, Ascot if you know where that is, But I have family all the way up to Cairns, Townsville, Ingham, Rockhampton, Mackay, Babinda, Innisvalle, and Cairns They are like rabbits we had a big Reunion last year they came from everywhere even Darwin for it, Had it at my place, Had a fantastic time but.
My mother just had 2 spells in hospital at Hervey Bay and Maryborough - she's 86. She can't speak highly enough about the hospitals and the staff. So I guess hospitals have improved since I was a regular patient at Hervey Bay.
Posted by: woz at September 10, 2007 03:06 AM
She is right to, I can't speak more highly of them either, and I should know. Anyone that wants to bitch about the hospitals in Brisbane, wants to try getting hospitalisation in America, and then pay their bills, they will be shooting back here quick smart, would be able to get back here quick enough.
MoveOn stages actual ‘dog and pony show.’During an appearance on Meet the Press in July with Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Sen. James Webb (D-VA) referred to politicians’ visits to Iraq as “dog-and-pony shows.” In an email to its members today, MoveOn writes, “Congress was fooled before by the White House’s ‘dog and pony show’ — we need to make sure they’re not fooled again. That’s why we’re hosting our own ‘Dog and Pony Show’ outside the Capitol Building right before Petraeus takes the stage for his testimony. We want to show Congress and the cameras that the American people aren’t buying the White House spin.” More on the event:
Who: Iraq Vet, John Bruhns, Americans Against Escalation in Iraq, dogs, ponies and MoveOn members like you
What: Dog and Pony Show rally
Where: West Front Grassy Area of the U.S. Capitol between Constitution Ave. NW and Independence Ave. SW on 1st St. NW (click here for a map)
When: 10:30am-11:30am
RSVP: Click here
http://thinkprogress.org/2007/09/09/moveon-stages-actual-dog-and-pony-show/
There's a lot of us as well, but we're spread all over Australia and the world.
The comedians who showed that the security for APEC was a load of overdone nonsense, have a promo for their show this week. It's got Osama bin Laden speaking on the latest video but the Chasers have done the subtitles so you can imagine what they say - one, that the motorcade was his idea . On the top left it says Al Jazeera Exclusive. Ya gotta laugh.
Rossi, speaking of spreading Australia around...
Guess what my man did with his precious 3 days off?
When I told him I had finally made a decision, and it was niether option I had been considering, he just smiled real big, and went and bought a trailer load of lumber and ripped my newly claimed shop down to the studs and put up new walls to give me virtually a brand new building.
It was completed yesterday!
I hung up three things over where my easel stands.
The sign I painted saying its my studio, the US flag I started sewing by hand Sept 12th 2001, and the Aussie flag.
The flag you gave me.
I would say it is 'perfect' but I know God has a funny sense of humor, so I won't antagonize Him.
One day, you will have to come paint with me. Under both our flags.
One day, you will have to come paint with me. Under both our flags.
Posted by: Christy at September 10, 2007 09:20 AM
Good pussycat, give him a hug for me, I'll get over there still have'nt been to New Orleans yet, but you'll have to fix it for me before I come. Yu do the painting though, I'll sit back and do the drinking and admiring, I'm a lousy artist.
Catching up.
Victoria, I hope you are right in your thinking that the internet(S) will take over educating people instead of the MSM. The only potential problem we have with that is of course, alot of elderly people, and people in rural areas don't own computers and don't know how to use them. I am no wiz at it, but I do teach a few classes at our library, and people come in that are afraid to even turn them on. We sit and help them and get them used to windows and how to pull up emails, etc. I am not a techie by a long shot, but I have managed to find my way around (still working on that). I think the stats are that most people still do not have computers and internet usage. O.K., what could we start with?
A campaign to see that almost every home in America is equipped with a computer? Public classes on how to use one? Grant monies and donations from wealthy people who honestly want to see change could possibly come in.
On the other hand, then I get worried that they will find some way to censor us online, but the text messages on phones and blackberry's work good. I just don't think they will let us continue to grow a coalition of truth tellers without putting laws and restrictins on the freedom we have now on the net(S).
Do let usknow how your site is coming. "Be the change you want to see made."