The American People are being held hostage by Big Media.

[annabanana]

Think about it. The vast majority of the people are ready to get the hell out of Iraq. The vast majority of the people are damned sure not ready to attack Iran.

YET.. "public discourse" consistently pushes the opposite story. Politicians who would attempt to do what the American People are demanding will be attacked by corpomedia in full RW Wurlitzer mode, 24/7 on every cable outlet and on the Network evening news shows. . everyday....

Until people start thinking, "maybe I was wrong. . maybe we SHOULD stay in Iraq...maybe we SHOULD bomb Iran"

[BleedingHeartPatriot]

1. True, that . And the corporate media's complicity in this illegal occupation gives it

the motivation to keep up the bloody cheer leading. MKJ

[Sperk]

2. I know, sometimes I wonder who has the faster ticket to Hell, the evildoers, or the

ones in the media who cover for them. I think anyone (with very, very few exemptions) in the mainstream media have less integrity than your typical heroin dealer.

[illinoisprogressive]

3. The media is lazy more than anything else.

But, they are showing more and more they do not like this war. They are questioning. More and more people are dropping the gop thinking except for the die hards. Those will never change. They are yellow dog repugs. They will live and die worshipping Bush. You cannot make the die hards change. These are the people who still think Nixon was okay.

[annabanana]

17. I don't think "lazy" is the matter.

There is enough information around, for instance, for most informed people to know that the toppling of Saddam's atatue was wholly staged for the cameras, and yet the clip is being shown today with the narrative (Hooray we've freed Iraq and they are joyous) as before.

This isn't lazy, this is informed deception.

[DeeDeeNY]

4. You are exactly right on target

They just keep repeating their lies while bombarding everyone with other "news", like which celebrities are
having kids or breaking up, and soon enough they have created their own reality. Something like three quarters of
people voting Republican in 2004 believed that Saddam was behind 9/11.
There are also way too many politicians falling for all of the nonsense being spouted by the corporate media -- that
John McCain is a "maverick" who is admired on both sides of the aisle, that the people want their representatives "moderate" and
don't like all those wild-eyed liberals, and on and on.

[rman]

5. yes - it's not even "manufactured consent"

What's being manufactured is the illusion of consent, which can only be maintained as long as people don't talk about these issues amongst themselves.

[malaise]

8. Good point

You know it's one thing to attempt to spin new lies, but the way in which they have regurgitated some of the debunked crap is a new low.

I switched off CNN early yesterday but from reports, it is no wonder their ratings are dropping like Bush's poll numbers. I can't wait for Shaon to croak to see how they spin that one.

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

6. k/r

[still_one]

7. Journalism died in this country when reagan got rid of the equal time clause

that is when corporations started to take over the country

Incidently, Bill Clinton did NOTHING to help that situation either

The only thing that has saved us is the internet

[Skidmore]

9. The American people are getting the government and media

they ask for. Complaining about both but not willing to stand up and fight for anything different, mesmerized by the newest shiny, glittery object dangled before them, and too lazy to change the channel or the politician, they have bought circus tickets and are stuck in the nosebleed seats of the arena.

[ariellyn]

10. Absolutely. That's why I didn't even know about the hanging

Because I am totally unplugged. My mother told me about it. I refuse to watch the disinforming media.

[Clark2008]

11. First, let's remember that most media people make a pidley sum

No, I'm not talking about the InSannity's or the Tweety's or the Couric's. I'm talking about the rank and file - the people of the future - who can't afford to stay in the profession and raise their children. I got out because of that reason. The pay, for young reporters, is worse, much, much worse, than that of teachers. Good people get out and go into marketing or PR so they can feed their families.

Second, it's about consoldation of the media. One person (Rupert Murdock) owns entirely too much of it. Then you have the other big dogs - corporations who not only own war machine companies, but also own media to make sure they can market their war machine operations. I'm not sure I would necessarily re-instate the Fairness Doctrine, per se, but what I WOULD do is re-instate the portions of the Communications Act that made it illegal for one person or company to eat up all the little guys. The more voices we have, the better news we get.

Third, it's about "entertaining" the masses now, rather than informing them. When I was a working journalist, I learned that The National Enquirer made more money per year than any top rated news weekly. Why is that? Why do so many "news" organizations now feel they have to entertain us, rather than inform us? Well, because the consumer bears a tad of blame here - if they would BUY hard news, it would sell. Sadly, in this country (and it does seem to be limited to this country and Britian - in most European countires, the discussion at the dinner table is about world events, not pop stars), we'd rather read or hear about Bradgelina than death and destruction in Iraq.

The first thing we need to do is de-consolidate the media, which would require the cooperation of our legislative branch.

Then we need to demand better pay for our local journalists (most local papers aren't big enough to join the Newspaper Guild - a union) so that some of the individual and idealistic writers on the local paper can become the Edward R. Murrows of tomorrow without starving. I'm not quite sure how to do this, other than a general public strike, but maybe someone else could think of some way.

Finally, we need to encourage our friends to stop buying pablum and start demanding hard news. That one is the biggest bill to fill, but it would need to be done.

[nashville_brook]

12. i agree wholeheartedly, but on the point of what "sells 'papers'"

i think it's a twist on what you say -- *people* don't buy news, advertisers do. the cost of a daily paper (50¢, tops) doesn't cover the cost of printing and distribution. the best papers imo, the alt-weeklies, are free. the problem here is that publishers no longer CARE about what The People want to read -- the only consumers who matter are the advertisers because they pay the bills.

i published a weekly paper for a few years in upper east tennessee, and ran all the "hard news" and opinion you could shake a stick at. for this i had a handful of local advertisers with quarter-page ads. the entertainment part of the paper supported the news, with it's music reviews and full-page corporate ads. the entertainment section targeted a much younger demographic than the news section -- but people TALKED about the news section. people picked up the paper to either be angered or made happy that (finally) someone was publishing "real news" as opposed to the clash-or-personality "news" offered in the corporate press (local and otherwise).

maybe it's a matter of faith for me -- i believe that people are much smarter than we give them credit for. i believe that people are alienated from news by its pandering to the imaginary fifth-grade reader. i believe that when people lose faith in their local journos, you have to EARN it back and you can't acheive that with more of the same...

[ljm2002]

13. "people are much smarter than we give them credit for"

I totally agree with you. Our population is held hostage by a consolidated, conglomerated media that routinely misinforms, disinforms and leaves out important stuff entirely. Yet because the media is not directly state controlled, people can -- and do -- still cling to the comforting notion that we have a "free" press. And because no one has the time to dig into everything themselves, most people get their information on issues of the day from TV and the so-called mainstream press, and end up "knowing" things that are simply not true (one egregious example has been the "debate" about global warming, and the canard that these could be just normal historical variations in temperatures).

Our population is susceptible to this because we have been indoctrinated with the belief that ours is the most free society on earth -- most of us sincerely subscribe to the ideals upon which this country was founded; while at the same time, most have no clue how far away from those ideals our political system has gone (and not for just the last 30 years, either -- although that particular time frame has been particularly distressing for us progressives).

The real key to breaking this vicious cycle, IMO, is waking people up to the fact of the sham that the media has become. Keep chipping away, pulling back the curtain, displaying the lack of credibility, until the population recognizes that the media is in fact Pravda-esque in its mendacity. Once that happens, people will be angry, and less susceptible to the rah-rah cheerleading of death and destruction, and will begin to question why the lies are being promoted. And hopefully Americans will once and for all be cured of their desire to believe in the fairy tale nature of our wonderful system, and more likely to apply the "sniff test" to the news and opinion that is fed to us daily.

Oh well, a person can dream can't they.

[annabanana]

16. "the cooperation of our legislative branch"

The majority of the legislative branch already agrees with us. They are (rightly) terrified of the RW Wurlitzer. If they start to make de-consolidation noises, they know they will be hammered and hammered hard by the lie-spinners who like their power.

Every Dem in Congress is already "half-labeled" even before they take the oath.

[Jim Warren]

14. FukinA, it's about framing the discourse.

Get rid of your fukin TV, let that shit go. Try to fill the emptiness and boredom with some thing else, get your news off the web, stop looking for vegging-out entertainment, write a poem, take a walk, talk to the first person you see, maybe look for or cultivate a degree of silence within.

Mason Williams once said "the media wants to keep you stupid so you keep watching it"

I say, they don't tell you what to think, just what to think about.

[Strelnikov_]

15. But What Do You Think Nicole Will Be Wearing?

http://www.sfsite.com/12b/si190.htm