February 28, 2015

Breaking the Set. Abby Martin says goodbye

It is a sad day in journalism with the demise of Breaking the Set. Abby's show provided a much needed counter balance. A small shovel it was though, faced with the overwhelming mountains of MSM bullshit.

She constantly championed the idea of talking to and listening to spokespeople for alternative points of view that couldn't get a voice on the MSM. This brings me to one of her critiques, that she does not have the he-said she-said counter balance policy of network news but only has one side of the story. No she didn't have on establishment spokespeople, but there are enough stations and networks that ONLY have on that breed as guests. Of course there should be balance, but in this age post Fairness Doctrine, and corporate control over the news services, a small voice to speak up for the actual people is so overwhelmingly needed its ridiculous.

Another sticking point here on DU is that because she would agree to have on folks like Alex Jones and others at the far end of the spectrum she is ridiculed. I've never understood this. She purposely pushed the boundaries and at rare times even given voice to what others called nutjobs. Personally I think Alex Jones is a professional conspiracy theorist. Some of those theories I agree with, and others are way off base. He seems to embrace every and all theories as fact and for that he has zero credibility. But my opinion on Jones, or other guests should not be osmosis be bestowed on Abby. I respect much more a show that allows a variety of guests and alternate points of view as opposed to one that only allows safe guests that cater to their crafted audience. The countless other smart, important, educational guests far far outweigh any crackpots she's had on.

I know there are some on DU that are sucked into dismissing ANYTHING on her show because it is sponsored by Russian Television. Looking past the idea that Fox News is owned largely by Saudi Arabian sources, but even MSNBC is owned by GE, one of the largest MIC contractors,...yet we still listen to Rachel Maddow. Yes..of course the shows' focus is primarily on problems with US behavior, and NOT on Russia's problems. Again so what? My theory?..Putin knew he could not shut up more critical left wing voices outside his country, ones highlighting human rights, gay rights abuses, as well as critical of warmongering from Putin. So one way to counter it is to have his very own leftist voice to be critical of the US for the same crimes as his own. Just to stir up trouble. Because he knew that there were few other good English speaking left of center shows out there. Democracy Now being one of the best. So he allowed strong independent voices from the left like Abby's to rant and rave to their hearts desires on American based wrongdoing. Again...so what? HOW she was given a voice should not be the issue, but what she brings to the table. And what she has brought we have been starving for. At least I have been.

There has been way too much messenger bashing on DU lately and not enough listening to the message. She brought passion, dedication, integrity, and sometimes anger. The demise of Breaking the Set is sad, but maybe if she ever gets another show outside of RT, at least she won't be facing abuse by the purists and messenger bashers.

She starts the show by praising a victory for Net Neutrality, and ends it with her heartfelt goodbye @ 23:13

She is a warrior. I wish her the best and look forward to seeing where she will go to next!