From The Ramparts

Media Prostitutes

Media Prostitutes

“ 12/26/05 Washington Post -- -- President Bush has been summoning newspaper editors lately in an effort to prevent publication of stories he considers damaging to national security. The efforts have failed, but the rare White House sessions with the executive editors of The Washington Post and New York Times are an indication of how seriously the president takes the recent reporting that has raised questions about the administration's anti-terror tactics.” http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11381.htm

“During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act.” George Orwell

Revelations George W Bu$h met with newspaper editors of the papers of record for the ruling elites: The New York Times and Washington Post in an attempt to persuade them not to print stories critical or revelatory of the administration policies is not surprising at all. The fascists have set out to commandeer the media and make it a reflection of their warped megalomaniacal jingoist agenda. This tactic is not new. The ruling elites determined and plotted following WWII to infiltrate and influence media content under the auspices of a CIA program called Operation Mockingbird. The program started out targeting the major media outlets of the day, CBS, the Times and Washington Post and initiated a program of domestic and foreign propaganda and information manipulation. The CIA used the major media wire services and foreign corespondents as covert covers for their foreign agents in the field and paid newscasters and journalists to be shills for US policy and disinformation. The Bu$h administration’s pimping syndicated columnists like Armstrong Williams and creating fake news is nothing new. It is the norm. Perhaps this is why increasing numbers of AmeriKKKans seek their information from non “mainstream” sources. Folks know they are being lied to and they choose not to allow the media to urinate on them and accept their report it is raining. Many are making the switch to sources such as short wave radio, the Internet or satellite television that has access to foreign news reports. In the US today there is almost no such thing as a free press. The media is big business and as such has a vested interest in partnering with the policy makers, deal executors and shot callers in the government. Unfortunately the roles have now been reversed. Under US corporatist fascism the telecommunications industry, the military industrial complex banking and pharmaceutical industries rule the roost through their lobbyists and direct graft and corruption as the ongoing Abramoff investigations are revealing. The ever widening net of that investigation threatens to expose just how widespread corruption is in Washington.
What does all this mean for us? It means we can not trust the media. It means we should be ever vigilant, critical and skeptical of everything we see, hear and read even in media whose worldview and philosophy we might share. Check and double check everything. Don’t take anything for granted. The medium may be neutral but the message is not. For example we can readily see the fascism of Fox News but media like PBS and C-Span are being manipulated by the NeoConmen and brought into their ideological orbit. Originally the C-Span cable channel was designed to show the world how the AmeriKKKan legislative process worked and carry public interest events, town meetings and lectures etc. Now, with the exception of Congressional and Senate business, most of the content and coverage is right wing drivel by the usual right leaning Think Tanks, newspapers, organizations and individuals. Rarely if ever do you see anything left of center or genuinely African centered like an anti-war discussion or an alternative analysis of world events covered on C-Span. I discovered their bias first hand in June of 2002 when I attended a 9-11 conference held at the Press Club in Washington D.C., a place C-Span worked out of on a routine basis. I was told by the conference organizers C-Span would cover the event which would have been a monumental service to the country and world if they had done so. But due to the controversial nature of the conference, it was asking probing and critical questions about the government’s version of 9-11 (this was before the Kean Cover Up Commission was empaneled) no major media was there except for Vanity Fair Magazine. C-Span was nowhere to be found and at that time except for Capital Hill telecasts, numerous C-Span broadcasts originated from the Press Club!
Even the black press should be suspect. The black press has long abandoned its role as an advocate for the masses. There are very few newspapers in existence today whose editorial philosophy matches the hard hitting pioneering black papers like Freedom’s Journal, The North Star or the old Chicago Defender. For the most part the black newspapers are mere beggars pleading at the gate for corporate alms in the form of advertising and validation. As such, many are reluctant to print anything that might be construed as anti-corporatist or critical of the government as foul as it is. What the publishers don’t realize is, the major corporations don’t respect African people nor do they believe they need to advertise in the black media to get blacks to buy their products. So the Negro publishers continue begging and pleading and obediently toeing the party line in the vein hope they will get some crumbs from Massa’s table. Except for papers like New York Daily Challenge, The San Francisco Bay View or Palm Beach Gazette most so called black papers miss the mark as far as advocacy journalism so badly it’s a shame. Black radio? Faget aboutit! The politics of advertising make black radio even more impotent than the print media. At least there are numerous radical papers, publications and Websites that tell our story, speak TRUTH to power and keep us informed about what is happening in our community, Africa and around the world; there are very few black owned radio stations standing up for truth on a daily basis. The owners feel they can’t afford to because they have to compete with media conglomerates like Clear Channel and Infinity for ad dollars. They are in a life and death struggle to survive even if they have a successful and popular format! As George Orwell succinctly stated “During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act.” Alas it is becoming more and more evident the revolution will not be televised.

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posted by Junious Ricardo Stanton @ 8:14 AM