Lowery got 23-sec ovation on WMD remarks - and CNN splices it out

StefanX

(801 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore

Wed Feb-08-06 10:39 PM
Original message

Lowery got 23-sec ovation on WMD remarks - and CNN splices it out

Edited on Wed Feb-08-06 11:09 PM by StefanX

CNN just took one of the most important speeches in the last 6 years and grossly distorted it by seamlessly splicing out the 23-second standing ovation that interrupted it:

http://mediamatters.org/items/200602080008

For many of us the high point of the funeral was the standing ovation Lowery got when he said:

"We know now there were no weapons of mass destruction over there {standing ovation}... but Coretta kew and we know that there are weapons of misdirection right down here. Millions without health insurance. Poverty aounds. For war billions more but no more for the poor."

You can view the clip and the (complete) standing ovation here:
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2006/02/07.html#a7056
http://www.canofun.com/cof/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=16326

Why was this part of the eulogy so important? Not just what Lowery was saying about WMDs -- many people have said that before. And not just because he was the first person who managed to say it to Bush's face -- although that was pretty satisfying too.

The reason this part of Lowery's speech was so moving was because the audience reaction showed us that we are not alone. This is the kind of proof we hardly ever get to see -- it shows that people who are pissed off about Bush's WMD lies are a strong, brave and powerful majority.

Which is exactly why CNN had to edit out that standing ovation. The neocons are weak and they're a tiny minority of this country -- but with their Mighty Wurlitzer they've been managing to keep a lid on the fact that the rest of us are strong. We are the overwhelming majority. The people who support Bush are a tiny, whiny minority.

The CSK funeral is the first time in 6 years anyone has stood up to Bush and told him the truth to his face. That's why the right wing is going crazy over this funeral, and that's why CNN is censoring it, and trying to get us to go along with their attempts to dictate what is appropriate "funeral etiquette" for a deceased political figure.

Right after the censored clip, Blitzer asks whether the viewers think that Lowery's remarks were "appropriate". Well, for the majority of the people in the room, and the majority of the viewers out here in TV land, it damn well was one of the most "appropriate" things they've heard in a long time. When you see a standing ovation erupt while you're getting all tingly from the 'rush' you yourself are feeling -- that would be a major turning point in the history of this country. Watch the full clip at one of the links above -- you might get chills down your spine or tears in your eyes, right when everyone starts jumping out of their seats. It's one of the most powerful public events in recent memory and anyone who watches that clip is a part of it.

And CNN had to edit it out. The first time anyone spoke the truth to Bush, when thousands of people on-camera and millions of people watching on TV felt a surge of hope and solidarity... and CNN edits it out, seamlessly splicing the whole thing away so you'd never even know it happened. "Gee, I felt kinda excited when Lowery said that -- but nobody in the audience got all excited like I did, I guess I'm just one of those 'whackjobs' Chris Matthews talk about who don't support Bush." (MSNBC's Tweety conveniently ignores the fact that the country is about 60-40 against Bush right now. That's a lot of "whackjobs".)

This is like how the media distorted the "Dean scream" using a directional mic to exaggerate how loud it was in that crowded room.

It's like the laugh tracks we've sat through for years on tired sitcoms, where the actors deliver some stale joke and then you hear a non-existent studio audience erupting in uncontrollable laughter -- again making you feel isolated and alone at some primal level, because you're out-of-synch with the group, with the tribe.

It's in the same tradition as Leni Riefenstahl's "Triumph of the Will" -- a propaganda piece where camera tricks were used to make it look like Hitler was surrounded by adoring crowds at the Nuremberg rally.

All lies, all smoke and mirrors, all psyops -- all designed to divide us and make each of us feel alone and freakish and out-of-touch with "normal" people.

The reality is, we are strong and we are normal and we are in the majority -- and the neocons are a tiny conspiracy of misfits and freaks who spend most of their waking hours trying to figure out ways to cheat the media (and, by the looks of it, the voting system as well).

In my opinion, what CNN did was an act of treason. They're not a news station -- they're a psyops front for the tiny conspiracy of people who earn their living by destroying our military and our Constitution and our CIA and our Congress and our judiciary and our schools and our healthcare system.

This is of the most important issues in the history of this country: the destruction of our military and our national security via the lies over WMDs -- and the spontaneous audience reaction when Lowery "spoke truth to power" is one of the most important events in the last six years. (Kind of like all those people who threw eggs at Bush's limo at the 2001 inauguration -- another great moment in television which we never get to see, along with crying Iraq widow(er)s and maimed soldiers who would put a human face on this monumental clusterfuck of a misbegotten war.)

CNN took the biggest moment of spontaneous solidarity from the last 6 years and doctored the reality in order to make each of us feel isolated and weak -- when in reality we are united and strong.

CNN hates America. Which is why I will never watch CNN or support any person or corporation who supports CNN. CNN is an enemy of The People.