Amazed and confused

[Stuckinthebush]

I just finished watching a CSPAN program which had Greg Palast addressing a petroleum group. His information was shocking and important. He detailed the Bushes connections with the oil industry and the payback that this industry gets from this and the previous Bush administration. He detailed the greasy dealing that Bush, Sr. had with Barrick. He detailed the slaughter of African Gold Miners while Mr. Bush was on the Board of Barrick. He talked of the dismal state of our democracy today due to the selling of the government to the highest bidder, and the unwillingness of the press to report these abuses.

I then turned to CNN. They had a breaking news story. Wolf immediately turned to a camera in the field to get an important update on the Scott Peterson trial and the judge's denial of a change of venue. This was live! Thank God, otherwise we would have missed this important announcement.

My confusion stems from my inability to understand why people who are invested in bringing us the news, and who are tasked with the awesome duty of informing the public about abuses in government, would heap so much energy on trivia and so little on the big issues.
Furthermore, why are reporters like Palast given the wild-eyed conspiracy theorist tag and ignored by the US media? Why must we go to the UK and other countries for real news and real investigative reporting instead of relying on our media here in the US? Lastly, my amazement is centered in the complete willingness of the American public to lap this CNN/FOX/MSNBC/et al drivel up as news.

[chillwindblowing]

1. Most people do no want to know the truth

If it changes their lives.... and they have to remove the blinders and face the fact that all is not well. This may seem like a simplistic answer but it is what I see.:donut:

[opihimoimoi]

2. Sadly, I detail my response: to wit

The Pub Masters have found a way to make the Sheep so confused and flummoxed, they have fallen into a state of acceptance.

I call it "CRUTCHISM". We seem to be given to "Crutches"(My apologies to the users), or, Excuses. We use the mental crutches to explain everything going wrong. Very dangerous as it fosters delusion and fantasy.

[Westegg]

3. I quite agree.

The major TV news issues of recent days have been: the cold weather, the primaries, and the trials of Peterson, Martha Stewart and Michael Jackson. But not necessarily in that order, alas. What do these trials have to do with the fate of the nation? Nothing. I'm so sick of celebrity news (and in our warped culture, this jackass Peterson's a celeb too). At the same time, yesterday's network coverage of Iowa was geared towards paper-thin "personality" pieces, and pundits blathering about how various candidates' PR campaigns were going, etc. It's 90% anaylzing the "selling" of the candidates, and the polls and all that crap. No one is looking at the actual ISSUES. It is indeed mind-blowing. But if you only watch TV to know what's going on, well, you won't know much.

[CityZen-X]

4. Another Journalist Bringing The Truth

He is a repug but John Buchanan is letting it out (truth) about this Bu$h*t we are in.

Hack Attack (The GOP journalist gunning for Bush in New Hampshire)
http://www.nypress.com/17/2/news&columns/zen.cfm

[rman]

5. Because they are in on it, with corporations and government;

That is because the mainstream media is property of a few big (non-media) corporations (http://www.takebackthemedia.com/owners.html).
Corporations also run the government for the most part.

In between corporations, governments, secret services, terrorists etc, there's a whole lot they'd rather have covered up - as Greg Palast shows.
What gets on the air is certainly not decided by the reporters.

It's called "Manufacturing Consent", MIT linguist/philosopher Noam Chomsky wrote a book about it.
Chomsky gets even less air-time in the mainstream media then Palast.


Manufacturing Consent
A Propaganda Model
excerpted from the book
by Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky
Pantheon Books, 1988
http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Herman%20/Manufac_Consent_Prop_Model.html

The mass media serve as a system for communicating messages and symbols to the general populace. It is their function to amuse, entertain, and inform, and to inculcate(* individuals with the values, beliefs, and codes of behavior that will integrate them into the institutional structures of the larger society. In a world of concentrated wealth and major conflicts of class interest, to fulfill this role requires systematic propaganda.

(more)

[JanMichael]

6. It's what makes me somewhat discouraged about 2004.

Some 35% of Americans believe that we've found Saddam's no-existant WMD's. Some 48% believe that an al Qaida/Saddam/9-11 link has been proven.

A while back a poll suggested that 19% of the respondants thought that they were in the top 2% in US incomes...

The Media is compromised. Our "leaders" are compromised. Our jobs have been compromised.

[Stuckinthebush]

7. Whaaa!

19% thought they were in the top 2%? Either that 19% had a pile of cash that just didn't make it to the top, or they are seriously deluded. 19% is a load of people!

Wow.

[OneBlueSky]

8. BBC is news . . . CNN is infotainment . . . n/t

.

[PVnRT]

9. Ratings

That's why they go to the sensationalist garbage, to get higher ratings. People love a sideshow, always have, always will.