Flattering the popinjays

[Briar]

Flattering the popinjays

Journalists are letting our leaders get away with murder

AL Kennedy

...back in the 70s it seemed that things were set to change. Woodward and Bernstein, Bill Moyers, Seymour Hersh, Sidney Schanberg - all were emerging as top-notch investigative reporters. Plus the thought of those sexy informants: mysterious Deep Throat and dashing Daniel Ellsberg. It seemed that steadfast reporting and public protest could change the world, unseat corrupt leaders, even end an unjust war. The popinjays were getting no respect.

Today, of course, we have Vietnam II, the BBC is in tatters, Deep Throat turns out to be a mad-eyed geezer with a book deal and Ellsberg is still appealing for whistleblowers when no one will print their revelations unless they involve pierced labia, or Castro having sex with a dog. While all other public figures cannot appear in any format without being at least partially naked, sexually reassigned and/or masturbating a farm animal, our politicians are cocooned by embedded sycophancy. Not that I'd want to see Blair stripped with his parts in a jar and laying hands on a helpless donkey, but equally I am very tired of bombshells such as the Downing Street memo bringing us no nearer a transatlantic war crimes tribunal.

Around the globe popinjays both roundly condemn and unflinchingly support terrorism, torture, ethnic cleansing, the deployment of WMDs, the possession of WMDs and the imposition of chaos upon areas to be announced. This mental effort would be immensely tiring without the kind support of the mainstream media. Mugging Galloway on Newsnight or hounding Clinton were much safer options than rocking the boat over the massive fraud in the last two presidential elections, or the much-discussed possibilities of fraud in our last election, which seemed to evaporate as soon as the polls closed.

Not that I blame journalists for being cautious - 28 were killed this year already, 53 in 2004. During our occupation of Iraq, where journalists may or may not be specifically targeted by US troops, 63 journalists have been killed so far.

...

More at:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,1505821,00.html

[Vladimir]

1. Yes, an excellent article

Kennedy is on top form again...