Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Pundits, Manipulators, and Liars--American News Media

I have a degree in Communication that included a course in journalism.  The course was in investigative reporting.  I found it interesting but knew it was not something I would enjoy doing.  I have over the years learned to question “investigative reporting”.  Maybe it is from the definition of journalism- the art of ignoring all the facts that don’t support the article you’ve already written—or was told to write.

What passes for investigative reporting today is no more than “entertainment news commentary”.  There is a major difference between news entertainment and journalism.  Yes, I watch FOX News but with the disclaimer I understand that Bill O’Reilly, Shawn Hannity and Greta Van Susteren and others on FOX News are no more than news pundits who have sacrificed journalism for ratings and book deals and report what they are told to report.  The news media today-- both right and left are bought and sold by the rich manipulators of information.  The corruption within the news media is not new nor the manipulation of information.

Looking back in the history of the news media not much has changed.  Accusations against the press are common but when it comes from an insider it carries a little more validity to the accusations.  John Swinton, of the New York Sun and Tribune at a banquet of the New York Press Association in 1895, in responding to a toast on The Independent Press said: “There is no such thing in America as an independent press unless it is in the country towns.  You know it and I know it.  There is not one of you who dare express an honest opinion.  If you express it, you know before-hand that it would never appear in print.  I am paid $150 per week for keeping my honest opinions out of the paper I am connected with.  Others of you are paid similar salaries for doing similar things.  If I should permit honest opinions to be printed in one issue of my paper, like Othello, before twenty-four hours my occupation would be gone.  The man would be so foolish as to write honest opinions, he would be out on the street hunting for another job.  The business of the New York journalist is to distort the truth, to lie outright, to pervert, to vilify, to fawn at the feet of Mammon, and to sell his country and race for his daily bread; or for what is about the same thing, his salary.  You know this, and I know it; and what foolery to be toasting an “independent press”.  We are tools, and the vassals of rich men behind the scenes.  We are jumping jacks.  They pull the string and we dance.  Our time, our talents, our lives, our possibilities, all are the property of other men.  We are intellectual prostitutes.”

Around the same time Professor Lester Ward wrote, “The newspaper is simply an organ of deception.  Every prominent newspaper is the defender of some interest and everything it says is directly or indirectly (and most effective when indirect) in support of that interest.  There is no such thing at the present time as a newspaper that defends a principle.”

That was in the late 1800’s not much has changed in 115 years.  Rich men still manipulate the news media.  Case in point—Rupert Murdock.  According to the 2011 list of Forbes richest American, Murdoch is the 38th richest person in the US and 117th-richest person in the world, with a net worth of $7.6 billion.  He is also listed in the Time 100 most influential people in the world.  He is ranked as the 13th most powerful person in the world.  He revels his contempt for most of humanity in this statement,  “I'm a catalyst for change … You can't be an outsider and be successful over 30 years without leaving a certain amount of scar tissue around the place.”  He has left a lot of scar tissue, shattering lives, destroying reputations, and deceiving many by the manipulation of the vast news media he controls. 

The media is manipulated in all manners, for example through professional public relations (PR), and covert and overt government propaganda which disseminates propaganda as news. What are often deemed as credible news sources can often knowingly or unknowingly be pushing political agendas and propaganda.

Here is the point of this blog.  So called journalists are far too reliant on sources sympathetic to their bias and their salary.   On the other hand there are politicians and public relation firms who manipulate the news media.  They perceive themselves as information warriors and perception managers.  Their job is to verify or deny selected information to influence the emotions, motives, and objective reasoning.  They sell truth projection, operation security, cover and deception all under the guise of truth.

We are fast approaching the time we will select a new leader for this country.  We must understand that all we are being told about certain candidates is part of the manipulation of the press—both left and right.  Listen to the message.  The message of every politician is to promise to resolve all of our problems.  Over the course of history we have come to doubt the veracity of their promises.  Today they are using a new promise, to save us from the unseen.  The powerful and sinister threat against the American people is the potential of terrorist sleeper cells in our country, terrorist on every plane and mode of transportation system in our country.  How do we fight this new enemy?  Declare war on terror!  What I have come to realize is that this is no more than the manipulation of the American people to give up their rights and freedom to the distorted exaggerations of the fantasy of politicians, security companies, and the international news media the Wanna be World Rulers. If they support the idea of fear from "terrorist" ask them how another war will resolve the problems?  A terrorist is not a country it is a person.  How many innocent lives will we take before we stop the manipulation?

During the 1950’s we were taught to fear and hate the Russians. Why?  The only Russians I knew were good people and were friends to our family.  For a young person it was confusing how these nice friendly people were to be feared.  That fear was removed on Nov. 9, 1989, jubilant East and West Berliners began tearing down the Berlin Wall, which had symbolized the Iron Curtain for years.  We no longer had to fear Russia it was falling apart.  So who was to be our next enemy to fear?

As Russia was losing its power status in the eyes of the American leadership, we were being primed for the next manipulation.  The “all-powerful” manipulators had been predicting the network of Muslims terrorist all through the 1990’s.  Just remember some of the movies about the threat of terrorist in this country.  One was with Chuck Norris who was "dumbfounded" at how closely the terrorist attacks on America mirror his CBS television movie The President's Man: Ground Zero, filmed four months before the attack, has an Islamic extremist threatening to detonate an atomic bomb unless three terrorists who bombed the World Trade Center are released. And the show's title even includes the name given to the devastated impact area in Manhattan where the towers crumbled. Norris says, "I am dumbfounded. When I saw the World Trade Center being destroyed on TV, I couldn't believe what I was seeing. It was horrible, freakish. When we did this movie, it was the furthest thing from our minds that something catastrophic would happen. But today, it certainly seems prophetic." In the movie, Norris' character urges students to remember that radical fundamentalist’s amount to just 1/100th of one percent of the world's 1 billion Muslims. Norris says those are his personal sentiments as well, and adds, "This tragedy has pulled our country together. Now, we've got to retaliate. It's time for terrorists to learn that they have awakened a sleeping giant, and they will pay the price." 

We now had our new enemy “terrorist” the manipulators were correct and America was at risk from this new Empire of Evil.  Just as the Cold War had the face of a Russian Communist we have the new face for our fears the face of a Muslim terrorist.

When will we stop allowing the rich and powerful to manipulate us into doing their evil?  I trust that I will not be viewed as "anti-American" but as genuinely concerned with, and scared to death by, the effects of US foreign policy as implemented by those who manipulate our news.  I fear for the survival of our republic which was conceived in liberty. We can change the direction of this country in the 2012 election and remove from power those who have been manipulating us into destruction.

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