Bill Moyers says it much more gently. He was on 'The Daily Show' on June 1st, 2011 discussing his book, 'Bill Moyers Journal: The Conversation Continues' and talking about the media in the US. He claims that facts are hidden and networks don't do much reporting. The media is narrating the news instead of reporting the news. It's easier to have opinion, talk and entertainment rather than actual reporting which costs real money. The media is declarative and not comparative. You can see the interview here:
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| Bill Moyers Pt. 1 | ||||
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| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| Bill Moyers Pt. 2 | ||||
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Most people see the news as either 'the liberal mainstream media' or the 'corporate media'. The right calls it the 'liberal mainstream media'. The left calls it the 'corporate media'. So who's right?
I see the media as either Republican or Democrat. Take Fox News. The mouthpiece of the Republican. And the polar opposite of Fox News is MSNBC the mouthpiece of the Democratic Party. If you watch Fox News, it criticizes Obama and the Democrats every move while praising the Republicans. MSNBC does the exact opposite: it defends and excuses Obama and shifts the blame on the Republicans. Other stations and newspapers are divided along the same lines - just not so obvious.
It's clear to me that both the Republicans and the Democrats are conservative parties since the Clinton era. The Democrats have continued the so called war on terror and continue to step up the police state. The Democrats bailed out the banks but didn't help the homeowners. The tax breaks continue for the corporation. When Obama says that when big corporations do better then we all do better - he lies. I could go on and on but if you don't believe me, do your own research. Try reading, 'Bad Money: Reckless Finance, Failed Politics, and the Global Crisis of American Capitalism' by Kevin Phillips.
So where's the real, free media? Where's the media that says it's all a sham? Where's the media that says, 'The Emperor Has No Clothes'? Where's the media that it's a faux-democracy, a mockracy, a shamocracy? Where's the media that says the Democrats are not supporting the poor and middle-class Americans. Why does Keith Olbermann say, "Mr. Boehner, where are the jobs?' Why does Michael Moore praise Obama and gently give suggestions to Obama and the Democrats. There's very little actual criticizing the system, criticizing the Democrat-Republican duopoly, criticizing the erosion of civil liberties, criticizing the influence of corporations on politicians, criticizing the aggression of the US military and CIA, criticizing the US covert foreign policy, criticizing the lack of taxes paid by corporations, criticizing the lack of jobs in the US, criticizing the widening income and wealth gap and so on.
As I've argued before, Republican and Democrat candidates are heavily supported by corporate interests. And the TV stations and newspapers are owned by huge companies and even if they weren't, they would still have to cater to the large corporations for advertising. See the following site for proof of influence on our media:
Media Map of Major Media Ownership and Governance
Well, the media that criticizes the corporatism authoritarian government is on the internet. And the government wants to control and restrict it with the PROTECT IP Act which of course is anything but protecting the internet. So here's where you can read real news (while you still can):
- http://www.truthout.org/
- http://www.truthdig.com/
- http://www.alternet.org/
- http://english.aljazeera.net/
Media Myths
My favorite myths perpetrated on the American people in recent history:
- The CIA knowingly provoked the Soviet Union to invade Afghanistan.
- The US bombed Yugoslavia back to the stone age because it saw an opportunity to destroy a socialist state. We called it humanitarian aid. See Yugoslav Truth.
- Perhaps the strangest aspect of the whole conflict is the collective amnesia that appears to have afflicted countless intelligent, well-meaning people, who are convinced that the US/NATO bombing took place after the mass forced deportation of ethnic Albanians from Kosovo was well under; which is to say that the bombing was launched to stop this "ethnic cleansing".
--William Blum, Rogue State
- The bombing of PanAm 103 in 1988 was clearly initiated by Iran as an act of retaliation for the shooting down of its own passenger plane by the United States a few months earlier, and American officials well know this.
--William Blum, Rogue State
- We invaded Iraq because Iraq had WMDs. And to install democracy in Iraq. Well, we invaded Iraq to secure their oil. Not only does the US run Iraq from inside a walled 'Green Zone' but the US de-nationalized Iraqi oil and gave it to US and British oil companies.
- Osama bin Laden assassination.
- We were told that the air was safe to breathe in New York City after 9/11. It was a lie.
- Publishing biased studies, sponsored university researchers. Read Chapters 13-16 in, 'The China Study' by T. Colin Campbell for an excellent inside picture of the food and nutrition industry. The chapters are aptly named, 'Science-The Dark Side, Scientific Reductionism, The "Science" of Industry, and Government: Is It for the People?'
- NPR is a liberal radio station:
The president of National Public Radio (NPR), Kevin Klose, is the former head of all the major, worldwide US government broadcast propaganda outlets, including Voice of America, Radio Free Europe, Radio Liberty, and the anti-Castro Radio Marti, which broadcasts into Cuba from Florida. NPR, it can be said, has never met an American war it didn't like. It was inspired to describe the war against Yugoslavia as Clinton's "most significant foreign policy success."Media propaganda consists of lies, distortions, omissions, biases, misinformation, disinformation and censorship. Not to mention infiltration of liberal media outlets (among others) and every aspect of education.
--William Blum in Rogue State
Propaganda
Propaganda is advertising and subtle is more effective. Its breadth is from cradle to grave and education is fair game. This really is a must read:
Propaganda: Nobody Does It Better Than AmericaMichael Parenti writes about the propaganda techniques by the media which include omission, attacking, labeling, preemptive assumption, face-value transmission, slighting of content, false balancing, follow-up avoidance and framing. Everything you wanted to know about propaganda:
Monopoly Media ManipulationNewsflash:
Public Opinion is based on what the Mainstream Media feeds the PublicAdditional reading:
Propaganda, American-style by Maj Tisdag (short and sweet)
Propaganda, American-style by Noam Chomsky (a wee bit longer :)Dr. Joseph M. Goebbels (Nazi Minister of Propaganda):
The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension,the truth becomes the greatest enemy of the State.Censorship
US Corporate Media Deliberately Censors the NewsLies
The Lies of America's Corporate Media
Corporatism: Media and Government
U.S. media deceitfully disseminates government propaganda
Corporate Media Attacks Alex Jones, Defends TSA PervertsLiberal Media Bias?
Liberal Media Bias - Dismantling the Myth
Most People are Mostly Stupid
Corporate Media Bias?
Corporate Bias in the Media
Media Map of Major Media Ownership and Governance (again)
Disinformation
General Websites about the Lies and Deceptions of the Media
War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength.
