Great talk by the former PBS journalist Bill Moyers. Here are some excerts,
but you can watch or read the whole thing at:
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/05/16/1329245
------------------------------------------------------------------
We're seeing unfold a contemporary example of the age old ambition of power
and ideology to squelch -- to punish the journalist who tell the stories
that make princes and priests uncomfortable.
One reason I'm in hot water is because my colleagues and I at "NOW" didn't
play by the conventional rules of Beltway journalism. Those rules divide the
world into democrats and republicans, liberals and conservatives and allow
journalists to pretend they have done their job if, instead of reporting the
truth behind the news, they merely give each side an opportunity to spin the
news.
Without a trace of irony, the powers that be have appropriated the Newspeak
vernacular of George Orwell's 1984. They give us a program vowing no child
will be left behind, while cutting funds for educating disadvantaged
children; they give us legislation cheerily calling for clear skies and
healthy forests that give us neither, while turning over our public lands to
the energy industry. In Orwell's 1984 the character Syme, one of the writers
of that totalitarian society's dictionary, explains to the protagonist,
Winston, "Don't you see? Don't you see that the whole aim of Newspeak is to
narrow the range of thought? Has it ever occurred to you, Winston, that by
the year 2050 at the very latest, not a single human being will be alive who
could understand such a conversation as we're having right now. The whole
climate of thought," he said, "will be different. In fact, there will be no
thought as we understand it now. Orthodoxy means not thinking, not needing
to think. Orthodoxy is unconsciousness."
Hear me: an unconscious people, an indoctrinated people, a people fed only
partisan information and opinion that confirm their own bias, a people made
morbidly obese in mind and spirit by the junk food of propaganda is less
inclined to put up a fight, ask questions and be skeptical. And just as a
democracy can die of too many lies, that kind of orthodoxy can kill us, too.
We knew that the success of NOW's journalism was creating a backlash in
Washington. The more compelling our journalism, the angrier became the
radical right of the Republican Party. That's because the one thing they
loathe more than liberals is the truth. And the quickest way to be damned by
them as liberal is to tell the truth.
Ideologues don't want you to go beyond the typical labels of left and right
because people may start believing you. They embrace a world view that
cannot be proven wrong because they will admit no evidence to the contrary.
They want your reporting to validate their belief system and when it doesn't,
God forbid.
I've always thought the American eagle needed a left wing and a right wing.
The right wing would see to it that economic interests had their legitimate
concerns addressed. The left wing would see to it that ordinary people were
included in the bargain. And both would keep the great bird on course. But
with two right wings or two left wings, it's no longer an eagle, and it's
going to crash.
The flag's been hijacked and turned into a logo, the trademark - the
trademark of a monopoly on patriotism. On most Sunday morning talk shows,
official chests appear adorned with the flag as if it's the Good
Housekeeping seal of approval. During the State of the Union, did you notice
Bush and Cheney wearing the flag? How come? No administration's patriotism
is ever in doubt, only its policies. And the flag bestows no immunity from
error. When I see flags sprouting on official labels, I think of the time in
China when I saw Mao's Little Red Book of orthodoxy on every official's
desk, omnipresent and unread.
The flag belongs to the country, not to the government, and it reminds me
that it's not un-American to think that war, except in self defense, is a
failure of moral imagination, political nerve and diplomacy. Come to think
of it, standing up to your government can mean standing up for your country.
As we learned this week, that's not the only news Mr. Tomlinson tried to
keep to himself. As Dr. Wilson indicated, and as reported by Jeff Chester's
Center for Digital Democracy, which the Human Center for Media and Democracy
also support, there were two public opinion surveys commissioned by CPB, but
not released to the media, not even to PBS and NPR. According to a source
who talked to Salon.com, the first results were too good and Tomlinson didn't
believe them. After the Iraq war, the board commissioned another round of
polling, and they thought they'd get worse results, but they didn't.
This is the man, by the way, who was running the Voice of America back in
1984 when a fanatic named Charlie Wick was politicizing the United States
Information Agency of which Voice of America was a part. It turned out there
was a blacklist of people who had been removed from the list of prominent
Americans sent abroad to lecture on behalf of America and the USIA. What's
more, it was discovered that evidence as to how those people were chosen to
be on the blacklist, more than seven hundred documents, had been shredded.
Among those on the blacklist of journalists, writers, scholars and
politicians were dangerous left wing subversives like Walter Cronkite, James
Baldwin, Gary Hart, Ralph Nader, Ben Bradley, Coretta Scott King and David
Brinkley.
Money talks and buys the influence it wants. But I'd like to ask him to
listen to a different voice. This letter came to me last year, five pages of
handwriting. It said, in essence, and I'm going to do some direct quoting:
"After the worst sneak attack in our history, there has not been a moment to
reflect, a moment to let the horror resonate, to feel the pain and regroup
as humans. No, since I lost my husband on 9/11, not only our family's world
but the whole world seems to have gotten even worse than that tragic day. On
9/11, my husband was not on duty. He was home with me having coffee. Our own
family story on that day is long and complicated. My daughter and grandson,
living only five blocks from the tower, had to be evacuated with marks,
terror all around. My other daughter, near the Brooklyn Bridge, my son in
high school. But my Charlie took off like a lightning bolt to be with his
men from the special operations command. 'Bring my gear to the plaza,' he
told his aid immediately after the first plane struck the north tower. In
comparison to using semantic technicalities, passing the responsibility or
not having all the facts, he took action based on the responsibility he felt
for his job and his men and for those towers he loved. In the Fire
Department of New York chain of command, rules extend to every captain of
every firehouse in the city. If anything happens in the firehouse at any
time, even if the captain isn't on duty and is on vacation, that captain is
responsible for everything that goes on there twenty-four/seven. Why then,"
she asks, "are the people in Washington responsible for nothing? Why do they
pass the blame for what happened that day, for the failure of the system,
for the torture at Abu Ghraib, for sending young soldiers into an immoral
war, under-equipped, under-trained and under-protected? Why is there no
leadership? We need more programs like 'NOW' to wake us up," she said. "More
programs like 'NOW' and your series with Joseph Campbell, which my husband
and I so enjoyed watching together. Such programs must continue amidst the
sea of false images and name calling that divide America now. Such programs
give us hope that search will continue to get this imperfect human condition
on to a higher plain. So thank you and all of those who work with you at
Channel 13, my flagship station, and PBS. Without public broadcasting, all
we would call news would be very carefully controlled propaganda."
.
|
|
| User: "=?iso-8859-1?q?Itchy_Bum_HOOROO_Kawasaki_San_of_the_Intergalactic_Holographic_Multiverse=99?=" |
|
| Title: Re: We Were Getting it Right, But Not Right Wing |
16 May 2005 11:08:24 PM |
|
|
Just curious, Stat
U live in Canada, right ?!?
R U close enuff to the US border
to receive the US broadcast TV channels or R they available via
satellite or cable TV systems in
Canada ?!?!?
I know that in Toronto they can get some 20 or more broadcast
(free-to-air)
TV channels, many of which are US TV channels from just over the
border....
HOOROO ;-0
UNCLE WALLY ;-)
.
|
|
|
| User: "MonsieurStat" |
|
| Title: Re: We Were Getting it Right, But Not Right Wing |
16 May 2005 11:52:29 PM |
|
|
"Itchy Bum HOOROO Kawasaki San of the Intergalactic Holographic MultiverseT"
<wallylorne@yahoo.ca> wrote in message
news:1116302904.611237.164520@g14g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
Just curious, Stat
That's good thing to be ;-)
U live in Canada, right ?!?
Right.
R U close enuff to the US border
to receive the US broadcast TV channels or R they available via
satellite or cable TV systems in
Canada ?!?!?
I am not close enough to get a lot of stuff by the good old antenna, but we
get them ALL via cable and satellite. Hey, I can even get channels from Iran
with Satellite, but not a big TV watcher, so we don't.
I know that in Toronto they can get some 20 or more broadcast
(free-to-air)
TV channels, many of which are US TV channels from just over the
border....
20 is a good number. Until fairly recently we were using just an antenna and
were getting only two American channels, with the usual symphony of ants in
the background. We were also getting (on clear nights) another 4-5 local
channels.
Now we have upgraded to a super duper satellite system with some 60
channels. Strangely enough, most of the time we end up watching the same 5-6
channels we were getting through air.
HOOROO ;-0
HOOROO
Stat.
UNCLE WALLY ;-)
.
|
|
|
|
|
| User: " John F Lemke" |
|
| Title: Re: We Were Getting it Right, But Not Right Wing |
17 May 2005 06:39:04 AM |
|
|
Just wanted to let you know that there are people reading and appreciating
what you post. It's definitely not in vain.
Since Mr. Moyers has left "Now" it's been scaled back to a half hour. The
show continues on with David Brancaccio who had been with NPR prior to
joining "Now".
The best way to stave off the inevitable triumph of fascism in this country
is to stay abreast of what the "subversives" are saying. Doing this,
however, will also inevitably make a lot of people dizzy and give them
headaches.
"MonsieurStat" <monsieurstat@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:oIdie.1726$dS3.436497@news20.bellglobal.com...
Great talk by the former PBS journalist Bill Moyers. Here are some
excerts,
but you can watch or read the whole thing at:
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/05/16/1329245
------------------------------------------------------------------
We're seeing unfold a contemporary example of the age old ambition of
power
and ideology to squelch -- to punish the journalist who tell the stories
that make princes and priests uncomfortable.
One reason I'm in hot water is because my colleagues and I at "NOW" didn't
play by the conventional rules of Beltway journalism. Those rules divide
the
world into democrats and republicans, liberals and conservatives and allow
journalists to pretend they have done their job if, instead of reporting
the
truth behind the news, they merely give each side an opportunity to spin
the
news.
Without a trace of irony, the powers that be have appropriated the
Newspeak
vernacular of George Orwell's 1984. They give us a program vowing no child
will be left behind, while cutting funds for educating disadvantaged
children; they give us legislation cheerily calling for clear skies and
healthy forests that give us neither, while turning over our public lands
to
the energy industry. In Orwell's 1984 the character Syme, one of the
writers
of that totalitarian society's dictionary, explains to the protagonist,
Winston, "Don't you see? Don't you see that the whole aim of Newspeak is
to
narrow the range of thought? Has it ever occurred to you, Winston, that by
the year 2050 at the very latest, not a single human being will be alive
who
could understand such a conversation as we're having right now. The whole
climate of thought," he said, "will be different. In fact, there will be
no
thought as we understand it now. Orthodoxy means not thinking, not needing
to think. Orthodoxy is unconsciousness."
Hear me: an unconscious people, an indoctrinated people, a people fed only
partisan information and opinion that confirm their own bias, a people
made
morbidly obese in mind and spirit by the junk food of propaganda is less
inclined to put up a fight, ask questions and be skeptical. And just as a
democracy can die of too many lies, that kind of orthodoxy can kill us,
too.
We knew that the success of NOW's journalism was creating a backlash in
Washington. The more compelling our journalism, the angrier became the
radical right of the Republican Party. That's because the one thing they
loathe more than liberals is the truth. And the quickest way to be damned
by
them as liberal is to tell the truth.
Ideologues don't want you to go beyond the typical labels of left and
right
because people may start believing you. They embrace a world view that
cannot be proven wrong because they will admit no evidence to the
contrary.
They want your reporting to validate their belief system and when it
doesn't,
God forbid.
I've always thought the American eagle needed a left wing and a right
wing.
The right wing would see to it that economic interests had their
legitimate
concerns addressed. The left wing would see to it that ordinary people
were
included in the bargain. And both would keep the great bird on course. But
with two right wings or two left wings, it's no longer an eagle, and it's
going to crash.
The flag's been hijacked and turned into a logo, the trademark - the
trademark of a monopoly on patriotism. On most Sunday morning talk shows,
official chests appear adorned with the flag as if it's the Good
Housekeeping seal of approval. During the State of the Union, did you
notice
Bush and Cheney wearing the flag? How come? No administration's patriotism
is ever in doubt, only its policies. And the flag bestows no immunity from
error. When I see flags sprouting on official labels, I think of the time
in
China when I saw Mao's Little Red Book of orthodoxy on every official's
desk, omnipresent and unread.
The flag belongs to the country, not to the government, and it reminds me
that it's not un-American to think that war, except in self defense, is a
failure of moral imagination, political nerve and diplomacy. Come to think
of it, standing up to your government can mean standing up for your
country.
As we learned this week, that's not the only news Mr. Tomlinson tried to
keep to himself. As Dr. Wilson indicated, and as reported by Jeff
Chester's
Center for Digital Democracy, which the Human Center for Media and
Democracy
also support, there were two public opinion surveys commissioned by CPB,
but
not released to the media, not even to PBS and NPR. According to a source
who talked to Salon.com, the first results were too good and Tomlinson
didn't
believe them. After the Iraq war, the board commissioned another round of
polling, and they thought they'd get worse results, but they didn't.
This is the man, by the way, who was running the Voice of America back in
1984 when a fanatic named Charlie Wick was politicizing the United States
Information Agency of which Voice of America was a part. It turned out
there
was a blacklist of people who had been removed from the list of prominent
Americans sent abroad to lecture on behalf of America and the USIA. What's
more, it was discovered that evidence as to how those people were chosen
to
be on the blacklist, more than seven hundred documents, had been shredded.
Among those on the blacklist of journalists, writers, scholars and
politicians were dangerous left wing subversives like Walter Cronkite,
James
Baldwin, Gary Hart, Ralph Nader, Ben Bradley, Coretta Scott King and David
Brinkley.
Money talks and buys the influence it wants. But I'd like to ask him to
listen to a different voice. This letter came to me last year, five pages
of
handwriting. It said, in essence, and I'm going to do some direct quoting:
"After the worst sneak attack in our history, there has not been a moment
to
reflect, a moment to let the horror resonate, to feel the pain and regroup
as humans. No, since I lost my husband on 9/11, not only our family's
world
but the whole world seems to have gotten even worse than that tragic day.
On
9/11, my husband was not on duty. He was home with me having coffee. Our
own
family story on that day is long and complicated. My daughter and
grandson,
living only five blocks from the tower, had to be evacuated with marks,
terror all around. My other daughter, near the Brooklyn Bridge, my son in
high school. But my Charlie took off like a lightning bolt to be with his
men from the special operations command. 'Bring my gear to the plaza,' he
told his aid immediately after the first plane struck the north tower. In
comparison to using semantic technicalities, passing the responsibility or
not having all the facts, he took action based on the responsibility he
felt
for his job and his men and for those towers he loved. In the Fire
Department of New York chain of command, rules extend to every captain of
every firehouse in the city. If anything happens in the firehouse at any
time, even if the captain isn't on duty and is on vacation, that captain
is
responsible for everything that goes on there twenty-four/seven. Why
then,"
she asks, "are the people in Washington responsible for nothing? Why do
they
pass the blame for what happened that day, for the failure of the system,
for the torture at Abu Ghraib, for sending young soldiers into an immoral
war, under-equipped, under-trained and under-protected? Why is there no
leadership? We need more programs like 'NOW' to wake us up," she said.
"More
programs like 'NOW' and your series with Joseph Campbell, which my husband
and I so enjoyed watching together. Such programs must continue amidst the
sea of false images and name calling that divide America now. Such
programs
give us hope that search will continue to get this imperfect human
condition
on to a higher plain. So thank you and all of those who work with you at
Channel 13, my flagship station, and PBS. Without public broadcasting, all
we would call news would be very carefully controlled propaganda."
.
|
|
|
| User: "MonsieurStat" |
|
| Title: Re: We Were Getting it Right, But Not Right Wing |
17 May 2005 06:07:51 PM |
|
|
" John F Lemke" <jflemke@LocalLink.net> wrote in message
news:KuadnaRSvPqeRRTfRVn-hg@locallink.net...
Just wanted to let you know that there are people reading and appreciating
what you post. It's definitely not in vain.
Thank you John. Coming from you this is quite a compliment.
Since Mr. Moyers has left "Now" it's been scaled back to a half hour. The
show continues on with David Brancaccio who had been with NPR prior to
joining "Now".
The best way to stave off the inevitable triumph of fascism in this
country
is to stay abreast of what the "subversives" are saying. Doing this,
however, will also inevitably make a lot of people dizzy and give them
headaches.
I think the battle for a free press in the US is by far the most important
battle for democracy and a free society. Much more important than any
election, bill, legislation, and so on.
I remember after the revolution in Iran the press got all of a sudden quite
free. The number of publications increased 10 folds over night. All kinds of
opinions and points of view were being expressed. It was a truly golden era
for the free press.
Then as the regime started to make plans to put back the chains on the loose
dogs of freedom, they started questioning the "morality" of some of what was
being published. Great debates followed, but as the war with Iraq started,
the rules changed quickly. Journalists themselves felt uneasy criticizing
the regime at the time of war. Little by little, new standards were set by
the press itself. Auto-censorship was quickly followed by legislated
censorship and, as the regime gained more strength, they just started
suppressing the free press quite openly.
The situation in the US is much more subtle. There is no government
censorship, but since most of the media is owned and controlled by the big
businesses whose primary goal is to make money, journalism has taken a back
seat to business interests. ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN and co. are all privately
owned and exist for one reason: Make money. At the same time, they have the
mandate to promote ideas and behaviors in society that will be favorable to
their owners. Objective journalism has become a joke, a naive view of how to
run a media outlet.
Despite this, there are still many dedicated journalists out there who we
can still count on. My all time favorite news show has become Democracynow
with Amy Goodman. What a great reporter and anchor woman she is. God bless
her soul! May she live to be a 1000 years old.
Stat.
"MonsieurStat" <monsieurstat@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:oIdie.1726$dS3.436497@news20.bellglobal.com...
Great talk by the former PBS journalist Bill Moyers. Here are some
excerts,
but you can watch or read the whole thing at:
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/05/16/1329245
------------------------------------------------------------------
We're seeing unfold a contemporary example of the age old ambition of
power
and ideology to squelch -- to punish the journalist who tell the stories
that make princes and priests uncomfortable.
One reason I'm in hot water is because my colleagues and I at "NOW"
didn't
play by the conventional rules of Beltway journalism. Those rules divide
the
world into democrats and republicans, liberals and conservatives and
allow
journalists to pretend they have done their job if, instead of reporting
the
truth behind the news, they merely give each side an opportunity to spin
the
news.
Without a trace of irony, the powers that be have appropriated the
Newspeak
vernacular of George Orwell's 1984. They give us a program vowing no
child
will be left behind, while cutting funds for educating disadvantaged
children; they give us legislation cheerily calling for clear skies and
healthy forests that give us neither, while turning over our public lands
to
the energy industry. In Orwell's 1984 the character Syme, one of the
writers
of that totalitarian society's dictionary, explains to the protagonist,
Winston, "Don't you see? Don't you see that the whole aim of Newspeak is
to
narrow the range of thought? Has it ever occurred to you, Winston, that
by
the year 2050 at the very latest, not a single human being will be alive
who
could understand such a conversation as we're having right now. The whole
climate of thought," he said, "will be different. In fact, there will be
no
thought as we understand it now. Orthodoxy means not thinking, not
needing
to think. Orthodoxy is unconsciousness."
Hear me: an unconscious people, an indoctrinated people, a people fed
only
partisan information and opinion that confirm their own bias, a people
made
morbidly obese in mind and spirit by the junk food of propaganda is less
inclined to put up a fight, ask questions and be skeptical. And just as a
democracy can die of too many lies, that kind of orthodoxy can kill us,
too.
We knew that the success of NOW's journalism was creating a backlash in
Washington. The more compelling our journalism, the angrier became the
radical right of the Republican Party. That's because the one thing they
loathe more than liberals is the truth. And the quickest way to be damned
by
them as liberal is to tell the truth.
Ideologues don't want you to go beyond the typical labels of left and
right
because people may start believing you. They embrace a world view that
cannot be proven wrong because they will admit no evidence to the
contrary.
They want your reporting to validate their belief system and when it
doesn't,
God forbid.
I've always thought the American eagle needed a left wing and a right
wing.
The right wing would see to it that economic interests had their
legitimate
concerns addressed. The left wing would see to it that ordinary people
were
included in the bargain. And both would keep the great bird on course.
But
with two right wings or two left wings, it's no longer an eagle, and it's
going to crash.
The flag's been hijacked and turned into a logo, the trademark - the
trademark of a monopoly on patriotism. On most Sunday morning talk shows,
official chests appear adorned with the flag as if it's the Good
Housekeeping seal of approval. During the State of the Union, did you
notice
Bush and Cheney wearing the flag? How come? No administration's
patriotism
is ever in doubt, only its policies. And the flag bestows no immunity
from
error. When I see flags sprouting on official labels, I think of the time
in
China when I saw Mao's Little Red Book of orthodoxy on every official's
desk, omnipresent and unread.
The flag belongs to the country, not to the government, and it reminds me
that it's not un-American to think that war, except in self defense, is a
failure of moral imagination, political nerve and diplomacy. Come to
think
of it, standing up to your government can mean standing up for your
country.
As we learned this week, that's not the only news Mr. Tomlinson tried to
keep to himself. As Dr. Wilson indicated, and as reported by Jeff
Chester's
Center for Digital Democracy, which the Human Center for Media and
Democracy
also support, there were two public opinion surveys commissioned by CPB,
but
not released to the media, not even to PBS and NPR. According to a source
who talked to Salon.com, the first results were too good and Tomlinson
didn't
believe them. After the Iraq war, the board commissioned another round of
polling, and they thought they'd get worse results, but they didn't.
This is the man, by the way, who was running the Voice of America back in
1984 when a fanatic named Charlie Wick was politicizing the United States
Information Agency of which Voice of America was a part. It turned out
there
was a blacklist of people who had been removed from the list of prominent
Americans sent abroad to lecture on behalf of America and the USIA.
What's
more, it was discovered that evidence as to how those people were chosen
to
be on the blacklist, more than seven hundred documents, had been
shredded.
Among those on the blacklist of journalists, writers, scholars and
politicians were dangerous left wing subversives like Walter Cronkite,
James
Baldwin, Gary Hart, Ralph Nader, Ben Bradley, Coretta Scott King and
David
Brinkley.
Money talks and buys the influence it wants. But I'd like to ask him to
listen to a different voice. This letter came to me last year, five pages
of
handwriting. It said, in essence, and I'm going to do some direct
quoting:
"After the worst sneak attack in our history, there has not been a moment
to
reflect, a moment to let the horror resonate, to feel the pain and
regroup
as humans. No, since I lost my husband on 9/11, not only our family's
world
but the whole world seems to have gotten even worse than that tragic day.
On
9/11, my husband was not on duty. He was home with me having coffee. Our
own
family story on that day is long and complicated. My daughter and
grandson,
living only five blocks from the tower, had to be evacuated with marks,
terror all around. My other daughter, near the Brooklyn Bridge, my son in
high school. But my Charlie took off like a lightning bolt to be with his
men from the special operations command. 'Bring my gear to the plaza,' he
told his aid immediately after the first plane struck the north tower. In
comparison to using semantic technicalities, passing the responsibility
or
not having all the facts, he took action based on the responsibility he
felt
for his job and his men and for those towers he loved. In the Fire
Department of New York chain of command, rules extend to every captain of
every firehouse in the city. If anything happens in the firehouse at any
time, even if the captain isn't on duty and is on vacation, that captain
is
responsible for everything that goes on there twenty-four/seven. Why
then,"
she asks, "are the people in Washington responsible for nothing? Why do
they
pass the blame for what happened that day, for the failure of the system,
for the torture at Abu Ghraib, for sending young soldiers into an immoral
war, under-equipped, under-trained and under-protected? Why is there no
leadership? We need more programs like 'NOW' to wake us up," she said.
"More
programs like 'NOW' and your series with Joseph Campbell, which my
husband
and I so enjoyed watching together. Such programs must continue amidst
the
sea of false images and name calling that divide America now. Such
programs
give us hope that search will continue to get this imperfect human
condition
on to a higher plain. So thank you and all of those who work with you at
Channel 13, my flagship station, and PBS. Without public broadcasting,
all
we would call news would be very carefully controlled propaganda."
.
|
|
|
| User: " John F Lemke" |
|
| Title: Re: We Were Getting it Right, But Not Right Wing |
18 May 2005 07:50:17 AM |
|
|
"MonsieurStat" <monsieurstat@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:8Quie.2455$dS3.561851@news20.bellglobal.com...
" John F Lemke" <jflemke@LocalLink.net> wrote in message
news:KuadnaRSvPqeRRTfRVn-hg@locallink.net...
Just wanted to let you know that there are people reading and
appreciating
what you post. It's definitely not in vain.
Thank you John. Coming from you this is quite a compliment.
No, no, no. I am of little importance.
snip<
I think the battle for a free press in the US is by far the most important
battle for democracy and a free society. Much more important than any
election, bill, legislation, and so on.
I remember after the revolution in Iran the press got all of a sudden
quite
free. The number of publications increased 10 folds over night. All kinds
of
opinions and points of view were being expressed. It was a truly golden
era
for the free press.
Then as the regime started to make plans to put back the chains on the
loose
dogs of freedom, they started questioning the "morality" of some of what
was
being published. Great debates followed, but as the war with Iraq started,
the rules changed quickly. Journalists themselves felt uneasy criticizing
the regime at the time of war. Little by little, new standards were set by
the press itself. Auto-censorship was quickly followed by legislated
censorship and, as the regime gained more strength, they just started
suppressing the free press quite openly.
The situation in the US is much more subtle. There is no government
censorship, but since most of the media is owned and controlled by the big
businesses whose primary goal is to make money, journalism has taken a
back
seat to business interests. ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN and co. are all privately
owned and exist for one reason: Make money. At the same time, they have
the
mandate to promote ideas and behaviors in society that will be favorable
to
their owners. Objective journalism has become a joke, a naive view of how
to
run a media outlet.
Freedom of the press is only for those that OWN the press.
Despite this, there are still many dedicated journalists out there who we
can still count on. My all time favorite news show has become Democracynow
with Amy Goodman. What a great reporter and anchor woman she is. God bless
her soul! May she live to be a 1000 years old.
Stat.
Thanks for the tip. Never encountered Democracynow before but I'll add this
site to my internet sources. Most excellent.
Little rays of light everywhere shedding light for poorly informed
Americans. Keep spewing, Stat, it's important. :-)
.
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| User: "Perseid" |
|
| Title: Re: We Were Getting it Right, But Not Right Wing |
18 May 2005 08:11:24 PM |
|
|
" John F Lemke" <jflemke@LocalLink.net> Spat the Words
"MonsieurStat" <monsieurstat@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:8Quie.2455$dS3.561851@news20.bellglobal.com...
" John F Lemke" <jflemke@LocalLink.net> wrote in message
news:KuadnaRSvPqeRRTfRVn-hg@locallink.net...
Just wanted to let you know that there are people reading and
appreciating
what you post. It's definitely not in vain.
Thank you John. Coming from you this is quite a compliment.
No, no, no. I am of little importance.
snip<
I think the battle for a free press in the US is by far the most
important battle for democracy and a free society. Much more important
than any election, bill, legislation, and so on.
I remember after the revolution in Iran the press got all of a sudden
quite
free. The number of publications increased 10 folds over night. All
kinds
of
opinions and points of view were being expressed. It was a truly golden
era
for the free press.
Then as the regime started to make plans to put back the chains on the
loose
dogs of freedom, they started questioning the "morality" of some of
what
was
being published. Great debates followed, but as the war with Iraq
started, the rules changed quickly. Journalists themselves felt uneasy
criticizing the regime at the time of war. Little by little, new
standards were set by the press itself. Auto-censorship was quickly
followed by legislated censorship and, as the regime gained more
strength, they just started suppressing the free press quite openly.
The situation in the US is much more subtle. There is no government
censorship, but since most of the media is owned and controlled by the
big businesses whose primary goal is to make money, journalism has
taken a
back
seat to business interests. ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN and co. are all
privately owned and exist for one reason: Make money. At the same time,
they have
the
mandate to promote ideas and behaviors in society that will be
favorable
to
their owners. Objective journalism has become a joke, a naive view of
how
to
run a media outlet.
Freedom of the press is only for those that OWN the press.
Freedom without economic freedom isn't really freedom at all?
This is an alluring argument which I've heard before, but these
news outlets still have to remain credible to a largely very
well educated populace.
Despite this, there are still many dedicated journalists out there who
we can still count on. My all time favorite news show has become
Democracynow with Amy Goodman. What a great reporter and anchor woman
she is. God bless her soul! May she live to be a 1000 years old.
Stat.
Thanks for the tip. Never encountered Democracynow before but I'll add
this site to my internet sources. Most excellent.
Little rays of light everywhere shedding light for poorly informed
Americans. Keep spewing, Stat, it's important. :-)
It is important, but there's the inclination to believe
everything one reads on these sites, written by who knows
who, and this is bad. These anonymous websites and unknown
'publishers' usually don't have the oversight and editorial
input (nor the requisite educational credentials) the larger
outfits do.
.
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| User: "MonsieurStat" |
|
| Title: Re: We Were Getting it Right, But Not Right Wing |
19 May 2005 12:34:32 AM |
|
|
" John F Lemke" <jflemke@LocalLink.net> wrote in message
news:UvGdnQXa3IarpxbfRVn-3Q@locallink.net...
"MonsieurStat" <monsieurstat@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:8Quie.2455$dS3.561851@news20.bellglobal.com...
" John F Lemke" <jflemke@LocalLink.net> wrote in message
news:KuadnaRSvPqeRRTfRVn-hg@locallink.net...
Just wanted to let you know that there are people reading and
appreciating
what you post. It's definitely not in vain.
Thank you John. Coming from you this is quite a compliment.
No, no, no. I am of little importance.
No, no, no. You're of great importance. It is people like you who give a
little hope to people like me.
snip<
I think the battle for a free press in the US is by far the most
important
battle for democracy and a free society. Much more important than any
election, bill, legislation, and so on.
I remember after the revolution in Iran the press got all of a sudden
quite
free. The number of publications increased 10 folds over night. All kinds
of
opinions and points of view were being expressed. It was a truly golden
era
for the free press.
Then as the regime started to make plans to put back the chains on the
loose
dogs of freedom, they started questioning the "morality" of some of what
was
being published. Great debates followed, but as the war with Iraq
started,
the rules changed quickly. Journalists themselves felt uneasy criticizing
the regime at the time of war. Little by little, new standards were set
by
the press itself. Auto-censorship was quickly followed by legislated
censorship and, as the regime gained more strength, they just started
suppressing the free press quite openly.
The situation in the US is much more subtle. There is no government
censorship, but since most of the media is owned and controlled by the
big
businesses whose primary goal is to make money, journalism has taken a
back
seat to business interests. ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN and co. are all privately
owned and exist for one reason: Make money. At the same time, they have
the
mandate to promote ideas and behaviors in society that will be favorable
to
their owners. Objective journalism has become a joke, a naive view of how
to
run a media outlet.
Freedom of the press is only for those that OWN the press.
Despite this, there are still many dedicated journalists out there who we
can still count on. My all time favorite news show has become
Democracynow
with Amy Goodman. What a great reporter and anchor woman she is. God
bless
her soul! May she live to be a 1000 years old.
Stat.
Thanks for the tip. Never encountered Democracynow before but I'll add
this
site to my internet sources. Most excellent.
You can get it on TV and radio as well if you live in one of the 300 or so
communities that carry their programming. It is broadcast on Pacifica, NPR,
public access cable television stations, and Free Speech TV. They are the
largest public media collaboration in the U.S. and growing fast, thanks to
excellent journalism that they offer.
I personally watch the show almost religously everyday through Internet.
It's a one hour program with about 15 minutes of headline news, and 45
minutes of in-depth coverage of a couple of subjects. People from all kinds
of backgrounds and affiliations been to their program (even Clinton called
in once - on 2000 election day... got really ***** when Amy Goodman
asked him a couple of unwelcome questions...) They get extraordinary guests
on their show regularly. They also invite guests with opposing views for
real debates, etc. It is the closest thing to objective journalism in the US
that I know of and have access to. But I know there are many others.
Little rays of light everywhere shedding light for poorly informed
Americans. Keep spewing, Stat, it's important. :-)
I'll keep spewing when I can... it forces me to get informed myself which is
not all that easy in this day and age, despite our great communications
infrastructures. Your words of encouragement are most appreciated ;-)
Stat.
.
|
|
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|
| User: "" |
|
| Title: Re: We Were Getting it Right, But Not Right Wing |
22 May 2005 09:05:03 AM |
|
|
Lemke The Limpwristed Gay Dad wrote:
Little rays of light everywhere shedding light for poorly informed
Americans. Keep spewing, Stat, it's important. :-)
You're a self loathing moron who should move to Iran so that you can
be where your allies and friends are.
Tony
.
|
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| User: "Grantland" |
|
| Title: Re: We Were Getting it Right, But Not Right Wing |
17 May 2005 11:44:27 PM |
|
|
"MonsieurStat" <monsieurstat@gmail.com> wrote:
" John F Lemke" <jflemke@LocalLink.net> wrote in message
news:KuadnaRSvPqeRRTfRVn-hg@locallink.net...
Just wanted to let you know that there are people reading and appreciating
what you post. It's definitely not in vain.
Thank you John. Coming from you this is quite a compliment.
Since Mr. Moyers has left "Now" it's been scaled back to a half hour. The
show continues on with David Brancaccio who had been with NPR prior to
joining "Now".
The best way to stave off the inevitable triumph of fascism in this
country
is to stay abreast of what the "subversives" are saying. Doing this,
however, will also inevitably make a lot of people dizzy and give them
headaches.
I think the battle for a free press in the US is by far the most important
battle for democracy and a free society. Much more important than any
election, bill, legislation, and so on.
I remember after the revolution in Iran the press got all of a sudden quite
free. The number of publications increased 10 folds over night. All kinds of
opinions and points of view were being expressed. It was a truly golden era
for the free press.
Then as the regime started to make plans to put back the chains on the loose
dogs of freedom, they started questioning the "morality" of some of what was
being published. Great debates followed, but as the war with Iraq started,
the rules changed quickly. Journalists themselves felt uneasy criticizing
the regime at the time of war. Little by little, new standards were set by
the press itself. Auto-censorship was quickly followed by legislated
censorship and, as the regime gained more strength, they just started
suppressing the free press quite openly.
The situation in the US is much more subtle. There is no government
censorship, but since most of the media is owned and controlled by the big
businesses whose primary goal is to make money, journalism has taken a back
seat to business interests. ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN and co. are all privately
owned and exist for one reason: Make money. At the same time, they have the
mandate to promote ideas and behaviors in society that will be favorable to
their owners. Objective journalism has become a joke, a naive view of how to
run a media outlet.
Despite this, there are still many dedicated journalists out there who we
can still count on. My all time favorite news show has become Democracynow
with Amy Goodman. What a great reporter and anchor woman she is. God bless
her soul! May she live to be a 1000 years old.
Stat.
dirty jew
.
|
|
|
| User: "MonsieurStat" |
|
| Title: Re: We Were Getting it Right, But Not Right Wing |
17 May 2005 11:48:45 PM |
|
|
"Grantland" <mithril@iafrica.com> wrote in message
news:428ac802.1445949946@ct-news.iafrica.com...
"MonsieurStat" <monsieurstat@gmail.com> wrote:
" John F Lemke" <jflemke@LocalLink.net> wrote in message
news:KuadnaRSvPqeRRTfRVn-hg@locallink.net...
Just wanted to let you know that there are people reading and
appreciating
what you post. It's definitely not in vain.
Thank you John. Coming from you this is quite a compliment.
Since Mr. Moyers has left "Now" it's been scaled back to a half hour.
The
show continues on with David Brancaccio who had been with NPR prior to
joining "Now".
The best way to stave off the inevitable triumph of fascism in this
country
is to stay abreast of what the "subversives" are saying. Doing this,
however, will also inevitably make a lot of people dizzy and give them
headaches.
I think the battle for a free press in the US is by far the most important
battle for democracy and a free society. Much more important than any
election, bill, legislation, and so on.
I remember after the revolution in Iran the press got all of a sudden
quite
free. The number of publications increased 10 folds over night. All kinds
of
opinions and points of view were being expressed. It was a truly golden
era
for the free press.
Then as the regime started to make plans to put back the chains on the
loose
dogs of freedom, they started questioning the "morality" of some of what
was
being published. Great debates followed, but as the war with Iraq started,
the rules changed quickly. Journalists themselves felt uneasy criticizing
the regime at the time of war. Little by little, new standards were set by
the press itself. Auto-censorship was quickly followed by legislated
censorship and, as the regime gained more strength, they just started
suppressing the free press quite openly.
The situation in the US is much more subtle. There is no government
censorship, but since most of the media is owned and controlled by the big
businesses whose primary goal is to make money, journalism has taken a
back
seat to business interests. ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN and co. are all privately
owned and exist for one reason: Make money. At the same time, they have
the
mandate to promote ideas and behaviors in society that will be favorable
to
their owners. Objective journalism has become a joke, a naive view of how
to
run a media outlet.
Despite this, there are still many dedicated journalists out there who we
can still count on. My all time favorite news show has become Democracynow
with Amy Goodman. What a great reporter and anchor woman she is. God bless
her soul! May she live to be a 1000 years old.
Stat.
dirty jew
I beg your pardon?
.
|
|
|
|
| User: "Dani" |
|
| Title: Re: We Were Getting it Right, But Not Right Wing |
18 May 2005 10:00:29 PM |
|
|
On Wed, 18 May 2005 04:44:27 GMT, (Grantland)
wrote:
"MonsieurStat" <monsieurstat@gmail.com> wrote:
" John F Lemke" <jflemke@LocalLink.net> wrote in message
news:KuadnaRSvPqeRRTfRVn-hg@locallink.net...
Just wanted to let you know that there are people reading and appreciating
what you post. It's definitely not in vain.
Thank you John. Coming from you this is quite a compliment.
Since Mr. Moyers has left "Now" it's been scaled back to a half hour. The
show continues on with David Brancaccio who had been with NPR prior to
joining "Now".
The best way to stave off the inevitable triumph of fascism in this
country
is to stay abreast of what the "subversives" are saying. Doing this,
however, will also inevitably make a lot of people dizzy and give them
headaches.
I think the battle for a free press in the US is by far the most important
battle for democracy and a free society. Much more important than any
election, bill, legislation, and so on.
I remember after the revolution in Iran the press got all of a sudden quite
free. The number of publications increased 10 folds over night. All kinds of
opinions and points of view were being expressed. It was a truly golden era
for the free press.
Then as the regime started to make plans to put back the chains on the loose
dogs of freedom, they started questioning the "morality" of some of what was
being published. Great debates followed, but as the war with Iraq started,
the rules changed quickly. Journalists themselves felt uneasy criticizing
the regime at the time of war. Little by little, new standards were set by
the press itself. Auto-censorship was quickly followed by legislated
censorship and, as the regime gained more strength, they just started
suppressing the free press quite openly.
The situation in the US is much more subtle. There is no government
censorship, but since most of the media is owned and controlled by the big
businesses whose primary goal is to make money, journalism has taken a back
seat to business interests. ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN and co. are all privately
owned and exist for one reason: Make money. At the same time, they have the
mandate to promote ideas and behaviors in society that will be favorable to
their owners. Objective journalism has become a joke, a naive view of how to
run a media outlet.
Despite this, there are still many dedicated journalists out there who we
can still count on. My all time favorite news show has become Democracynow
with Amy Goodman. What a great reporter and anchor woman she is. God bless
her soul! May she live to be a 1000 years old.
Stat.
dirty jew
Grantland! He's Iranian, silly.
Remember when you said *Lou Dobbs* is Jewish? LOLOLOLOL!
I still to this day laugh sometimes when I see him on the news 'cause
of that.
Dani
.
|
|
|
| User: "MonsieurStat" |
|
| Title: Re: We Were Getting it Right, But Not Right Wing |
18 May 2005 11:46:07 PM |
|
|
"Dani" <dani7200@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:e30o81dern1e0h7bm4l18sugdjoaejd6ck@4ax.com...
On Wed, 18 May 2005 04:44:27 GMT, (Grantland)
wrote:
"MonsieurStat" <monsieurstat@gmail.com> wrote:
" John F Lemke" <jflemke@LocalLink.net> wrote in message
news:KuadnaRSvPqeRRTfRVn-hg@locallink.net...
Just wanted to let you know that there are people reading and
appreciating
what you post. It's definitely not in vain.
Thank you John. Coming from you this is quite a compliment.
Since Mr. Moyers has left "Now" it's been scaled back to a half hour.
The
show continues on with David Brancaccio who had been with NPR prior to
joining "Now".
The best way to stave off the inevitable triumph of fascism in this
country
is to stay abreast of what the "subversives" are saying. Doing this,
however, will also inevitably make a lot of people dizzy and give them
headaches.
I think the battle for a free press in the US is by far the most
important
battle for democracy and a free society. Much more important than any
election, bill, legislation, and so on.
I remember after the revolution in Iran the press got all of a sudden
quite
free. The number of publications increased 10 folds over night. All kinds
of
opinions and points of view were being expressed. It was a truly golden
era
for the free press.
Then as the regime started to make plans to put back the chains on the
loose
dogs of freedom, they started questioning the "morality" of some of what
was
being published. Great debates followed, but as the war with Iraq
started,
the rules changed quickly. Journalists themselves felt uneasy criticizing
the regime at the time of war. Little by little, new standards were set
by
the press itself. Auto-censorship was quickly followed by legislated
censorship and, as the regime gained more strength, they just started
suppressing the free press quite openly.
The situation in the US is much more subtle. There is no government
censorship, but since most of the media is owned and controlled by the
big
businesses whose primary goal is to make money, journalism has taken a
back
seat to business interests. ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN and co. are all privately
owned and exist for one reason: Make money. At the same time, they have
the
mandate to promote ideas and behaviors in society that will be favorable
to
their owners. Objective journalism has become a joke, a naive view of how
to
run a media outlet.
Despite this, there are still many dedicated journalists out there who we
can still count on. My all time favorite news show has become
Democracynow
with Amy Goodman. What a great reporter and anchor woman she is. God
bless
her soul! May she live to be a 1000 years old.
Stat.
dirty jew
He was referring to Amy Goodman. Shame on him! Honestly, I would have
preferred being called a dirty Jew myself than seeing this silly insult on
this great woman who has dedicated her life to defending the truth. Gartland
can sometimes (in fact mostly) be a fool and a gutter mouth. I pray for the
day that his doctor William Pierce is dead and buried, so that I can gather
all the dogs of Jerusalem (be them Jews or Muslims), for a long pissing and
shitting session on that dishonest racist pig's grave who has corrupted the
likes of Gartland to a point of insulting a woman like Amy Goodman.
Amen,
Stat.
Grantland! He's Iranian, silly.
Remember when you said *Lou Dobbs* is Jewish? LOLOLOLOL!
I still to this day laugh sometimes when I see him on the news 'cause
of that.
Dani
.
|
|
|
| User: "Grantland" |
|
| Title: Re: We Were Getting it Right, But Not Right Wing |
19 May 2005 12:42:39 AM |
|
|
"MonsieurStat" <monsieurstat@gmail.com> wrote:
"Dani" <dani7200@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:e30o81dern1e0h7bm4l18sugdjoaejd6ck@4ax.com...
On Wed, 18 May 2005 04:44:27 GMT, (Grantland)
wrote:
"MonsieurStat" <monsieurstat@gmail.com> wrote:
" John F Lemke" <jflemke@LocalLink.net> wrote in message
news:KuadnaRSvPqeRRTfRVn-hg@locallink.net...
Just wanted to let you know that there are people reading and
appreciating
what you post. It's definitely not in vain.
Thank you John. Coming from you this is quite a compliment.
Since Mr. Moyers has left "Now" it's been scaled back to a half hour.
The
show continues on with David Brancaccio who had been with NPR prior to
joining "Now".
The best way to stave off the inevitable triumph of fascism in this
country
is to stay abreast of what the "subversives" are saying. Doing this,
however, will also inevitably make a lot of people dizzy and give them
headaches.
I think the battle for a free press in the US is by far the most
important
battle for democracy and a free society. Much more important than any
election, bill, legislation, and so on.
I remember after the revolution in Iran the press got all of a sudden
quite
free. The number of publications increased 10 folds over night. All kinds
of
opinions and points of view were being expressed. It was a truly golden
era
for the free press.
Then as the regime started to make plans to put back the chains on the
loose
dogs of freedom, they started questioning the "morality" of some of what
was
being published. Great debates followed, but as the war with Iraq
started,
the rules changed quickly. Journalists themselves felt uneasy criticizing
the regime at the time of war. Little by little, new standards were set
by
the press itself. Auto-censorship was quickly followed by legislated
censorship and, as the regime gained more strength, they just started
suppressing the free press quite openly.
The situation in the US is much more subtle. There is no government
censorship, but since most of the media is owned and controlled by the
big
businesses whose primary goal is to make money, journalism has taken a
back
seat to business interests. ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN and co. are all privately
owned and exist for one reason: Make money. At the same time, they have
the
mandate to promote ideas and behaviors in society that will be favorable
to
their owners. Objective journalism has become a joke, a naive view of how
to
run a media outlet.
Despite this, there are still many dedicated journalists out there who we
can still count on. My all time favorite news show has become
Democracynow
with Amy Goodman. What a great reporter and anchor woman she is. God
bless
her soul! May she live to be a 1000 years old.
Stat.
dirty jew
He was referring to Amy Goodman. Shame on him! Honestly, I would have
preferred being called a dirty Jew myself than seeing this silly insult on
this great woman who has dedicated her life to defending the truth. Gartland
can sometimes (in fact mostly) be a fool and a gutter mouth. I pray for the
day that his doctor William Pierce is dead and buried, so that I can gather
all the dogs of Jerusalem (be them Jews or Muslims), for a long pissing and
shitting session on that dishonest racist pig's grave who has corrupted the
likes of Gartland to a point of insulting a woman like Amy Goodman.
Amen,
Stat.
dirty jew
.
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