The Media Has Failed the American People!

[babylonsister]

http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_timothy__071009_the_media_has_failed.htm

The Media Has Failed the American People!
by Timothy V. Gatto

What is a representative republic? The United States claims to be one. We also claim to be a democracy according to George Bush who, by his own admission, wants to “export” democracy to other nations of the world. I would ask Mr. Bush this question, how can we export something to other nations that we don’t possess? If democracy were a commodity that we had a surplus of, we could export it. Unhappily that is not the case in this country. The sad truth is that the United States is woefully lacking that commodity. The underpinnings of a true democracy is the free flow of information and the transparency of government. We have no free flow of information and the government shrouds itself in secrecy.

Witness the media of this nation that refuses to tell the American people the truth about anything. The majority of news in this country is centered not on the world situation in which our government is waging wars of aggression against other nations, but on celebrity stories of failed marriages, drunken escapades, and bad parenting. The media refuses to cover anything of real importance.

There are so many examples of the media deliberately refusing to cover issues of the utmost importance to the American people. They refuse to cover the North American Union is which our government has fostered an agreement between Mexico, Canada and the United States that basically incorporates these three nations into one and effectively erases from the Earth the United States of America as a sovereign nation under The Constitution. Why has the media not covered this? Do they believe that it is of no importance to the American people that our nation and form of government is being negotiated away by an administration that hasn’t even reported what they are doing to our own Congress? How can this happen without coverage by the press and the rest of the media?

Our government is supposed to be “by the people and for the people”. The only access we have to our government’s decisions and policies is through the media. When it becomes clear that the media no longer reports on the truth of what our government is doing in the people’s name, we have no representative form of government. Unless the people have access to information on what is happening, the government has no limits on its power. This isn’t the only instance of the media failing to do its job in this country.

snip//

Our news media has not done its job for years. Most people that want real news must either turn to the internet or get news from foreign media or from progressive news sites. The majority of people in this country don’t bother and what they learn from the major news networks is criminally short on content, especially when it comes to the truth about what their government does. There was no reporting on the demonstrations in Washington in September against the war. Unless people had been there the majority of people would never know that there were a hundred thousand people demonstrating. The media doesn’t report on the “First Amendment Zones” that keep protestors away from events so that their protests go unnoticed.

How long will the American People continue to let the media trample on their right to know what is really happening in their country? When will the media finally report on the things that matter? Without a free and uncensored media, we have no democracy. Maybe it is time for the networks to stop their senseless babble and do what they are paid to do. Unless the situation changes, we will have no recourse but to behave in a way that they can’t help but cover. There are still enough Americans that value their freedom that they will fight to keep it. One of those freedoms is our right to know the truth.

[ixion]

1. big, huge kick for this one

outstanding! :applause:

[lyonn]

2. The talking heads and journalist know where their paycheck is coming from

The corporations throw the goods reporters away the minute they vary from their game plan.

And there is no sign of a change coming. Nothing has changed since Clinton's impeachment hearings. They must have made billions. Course there was the OJ episode. Since then they have fed on The War and our Leader Dearest which is to keep people fearful. My gawd what cowards many Americans are.

[pretzel4gore]

3. oj simpson case was when the media went bad....

if you read todd Gitlin's "Twilight of common dreams' which was published acouple years before 911, Gitlin theorises that the white male demographic was feeling put upon from all the liberalism and so on since reagan era...and the repukes realized there were certain buttons available which when pushed would drive white males as a block over to them, the rightwing. During the Simpson case, there was an episode of the 'Larry Sanders show' in which one of the writers, a youngish with-it ultra hip, long haired but nerdy type guy talking about the Simpson case and suddenly he said 'Hey, you're not one of those fools who think simpson wasn't guilty are you- i won't listen to talk like that' (paraphrasing) The Simpson case clearly defined what was no longer acceptable among the Saturday Night Live type crowd; any doubts about simpsons's guilt made one a fool, or a 'liberal' or a commie, or a hippie, or an asshole- that is to the white males (Gitlin marvelled that after Simpsom case had been literally years on tv, even minimum wage paid working white guys felt more united to powerful corporate ceo's etc then to felliow workers if they weren't also white.... Gitlin himself was disgusted that anyone could not see simpson's guilt, it was so plainly obvious)
(Btw Number 32 (Sir OJ) wouldn't hurt a fly, just like Norman Bate's Mama in "psycho' that is imho...)
The turning of the most powerful single demographic in USA against their own country is one story that will never ever be told, cuz it's easier to just ignore it....the white guys who felt a commonality with mega wealthy like bush etc probably have since realized, they were had

[ladjf]

4. They have done a hell of a lot more than that.

They have committed treason, plain and simple.

[superkia]

5. A vote for a candidate that speaks out for the people, would be...

a good start but I don't think Americans are willing to vote for a new kind of candidate. We are getting what we ask for, its just too bad some of us want real change while the others still play the political games that the system wants us to. America is fucked because most of us walk around with our eyes closed and our mouths open bitching about the people we elect.

[grasswire]

6. the next step...

...is delineated in the October issue of Harper's Magazine. A general strike.

Quotes:

"As long as we're willing to go on with our business, Bush and Cheney will feel free to go on with their coup. As long as we're willing to continue fucking ourselves, why should they have any scruples about telling us to smile during the act?"

"I wrote this appeal during the days leading up to the Fourth of July. I wrote it because for the past six and a half years I have heard the people I love best-- family members, friends, former students and parishoners--saying, 'I'm sick over what's happening to our country, but I just don't know what to do.' Might I be pardoned if, fearing civil disorder less than I fear civil despair, I said 'Well, we could do this (strike).' It has been done before and we could do this. And I do believe we could. If anyone has a better idea, I'm keen to hear it. Only don't tell me what some presidential hopeful ought to do someday. Tell me what the people who have nearly lost their hope can do right now.

http://www.harpers.org/archive/2007/10/0081720