So? - Democratic Underground

NanceGreggs

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Fri Mar-21-08 08:17 PM
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So?

Edited on Fri Mar-21-08 08:19 PM by NanceGreggs

SO?

In response to a question posed in an interview this week about the reality that the majority of Americans are now strongly opposed to the continuing war in Iraq, VP Dick Cheney’s answer was, “So?”

What is remarkable about the answer is the fact that it is so unremarkable, by virtue of the fact that this administration has been saying “So?” to the citizenry for years.

They have said it in response to topics covering as wide a spectrum as illegal wiretaps, to missing emails, to missing billions, to blatant war-profiteering, to the politicalization of our system of justice – and yes, even torture, and the deaths of thousands of our troops and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis.

And through all of these years of “So?” being proferred as an answer, the mainstream media has accepted that response with little comment and even less criticism – as though journalistic curiosity, let alone responsibility, should never be pursued in the face of such a trivial dismissal.

Needless to say, it is understandable, given the don’t ask, don’t ask attitude of what passes for “TV news” programming these days, that the media would instead turn its eyes and ears this week to a speech given by Barack Obama – not to discuss its importance, praise its eloquence, or comment on its content, but rather to parse its every word in an effort to find something controversial to spin into a week-long diatribe – complete with graphics, pie-charts and the nonsensical spewing of so-called “political analysts” – in an effort to fill the void created by an inability, or lack of desire, to actually report the news.

As has increasingly become the case, the mainstream media is yet again not only completely ignorant of what is going on in this nation, it’s self-imposed blindness and deafness when it comes to the changing attitudes – and yes, the intelligence of the average citizen – is truly astounding in its breadth and depth.

Obama’s observations about the existence of racism in our society, and our need as a country to discuss it frankly and openly, was a brave and honorable invitation for all Americans to join the dialogue in hopes of moving us all forward to a day when judging another man’s worth on the basis of his color, the culture in which he was raised, or his choice of how to worship, would be part of the past and not an inevitable part of our future.

It is a conversation that many Americans are willing, even anxious, to have – including “typical whites”, “typical blacks”, and every other “typical” category one can name. And the fact that the MSM seems to be totally unaware of this speaks for itself.

But in a week that Dick Cheney emphasized, yet again, that his administration is not accountable to the will of the American people, and is free to wage war, plunder the treasury with abandon, and plunge us further into debt with every passing day, the media, as has been its wont, takes no notice. It chooses instead to focus the public’s attention on a word, a phrase, even a single syllable of Obama’s moving speech in order to dissect its meaning and marginalize its true value.

Over the years, I have watched TV newscasters go from being shining examples of journalism to being well-coiffed, well-dressed teleprompter readers with, at best, little to contribute – and, at worst, propagandists whose only mandate is to ignore the true state of affairs and simply babble-on like circus barkers intent on drawing the crowd-to-be-fleeced to the concession stands operated by their corporate sponsors.

For a long time I have felt that the current crop of TV “journalists” have simply been too afraid to speak up, speak out, speak the truth to their waning audience members for fear of reprisal, or negative consequences to their careers.

But I have now come to what seems to be the more sound and obvious conclusion: when it comes to discourse that requires knowledge, a grasp of the realities of the world around us, and basic intelligence, those who currently comprise the mainstream media are simply in over their talking heads.

This is why I, like millions of Americans and world citizens alike, no longer give any credence to the MSM and instead rely on alternate sources to educate and inform myself.

And judging by the number of people no longer reliant on the mainstream media for an accurate assessment of the news of the day, I guess that makes me “typical”.