Media abandons America

reply to post by jokerdazey2


I'm not quite sure what The Doors have to do with this thread especially the song "touch me" that you quoted..
But thanks for sharing.

Of course media is a business, and one that is out more and more for entertainment and profit rather than anything else.

However, can we really blame them?

I say no because any group or company will get away with what we allow them to. Coupled with the sad educational system and American's disdain for reading or critical thinking, I think there is a huge problem.

US media the most biased and most indoctrinating of all media. Western-European media follows shortly after although their bias is different. For example, they have a slighly more critical approach of the Israel-Palestine conflict and they are far more liberal.

And yes, Asia and North-Africa largely lack this sort of indoctrination, give or take a few more totalitarian countries.

Originally posted by schrodingers dog
reply to post by OutoftheBoxthinker

 

Without wishing to make too much of the US vs World media, I have to point out the following:
Anyone who has travelled to Asia, Europe, and even to some moderate Middle Eastern countries, can testify that they immediately get shocked on arrival at when they watch the news and find out all the things going on in the world that they never heard about coming from the US. Even US news is sometimes better covered abroad than it is here.
Case in point, the recent BBC documentary about where billions of Iraq reconstruction dollars went, which did not air in the US.

reply to post by OutoftheBoxthinker

And yes, Asia and North-Africa largely lack this sort of indoctrination, give or take a few more totalitarian countries.

If only this were true. Sadly, it is not.

Following the recent coup in Mauritania, there are no democracies in North Africa, though Morocco may be said to be partly free. The media are not free in any North African country, not even Morocco.

In Asia, the situation is a little better, but only a handful of countries have media that are truly free. Its remaining billions must make do with whatever facts and lies their governments dish out.

This map from Freedom House shows which of the world's countries have free media and which do not. You may find it eye-opening. Remember that the definition of freedom here is 'not owned, controlled or restricted by the state'. By that definition the American and Western European media are free; thralldom to non-state interests (whether commercial or conspiratorial ones) is not indicated.

There are very few free and trustworthy media sources in the world. In the final analysis there are none that are wholly so; the media of the Europe and North America enjoy great freedom, but most have agendas of their own, so unbiased reporting and comment is rare.

If I had to choose, I would say the BBC World Service media are the most trustworthy, followed by CNN International and Al-Jazeera in English.

Originally posted by Astyanax
Following the recent coup in Mauritania, there are no democracies in North Africa, though Morocco may be said to be partly free. The media are not free in any North African country, not even Morocco.

In Asia, the situation is a little better, but only a handful of countries have media that are truly free. Its remaining billions must make do with whatever facts and lies their governments dish out.

One does not need a "democracy" to have an accurate media. In fact, "democracies" often have the least accurate media.

Originally posted by Astyanax
Remember that the definition of freedom here is 'not owned, controlled or restricted by the state'. By that definition the American and Western European media are free; thralldom to non-state interests (whether commercial or conspiratorial ones) is not indicated.

That's why those ratings are pointless. Besides, a state-owned media doesn't imply inaccurate media.

Originally posted by Astyanax
If I had to choose, I would say the BBC World Service media are the most trustworthy, followed by CNN International and Al-Jazeera in English.

Somehow I doubt that. Neither BBC or CNN are close to objective.

Dying for Information

I will not attempt to argue with my friend who thinks outside the box; to him, I recommend a knapsack, a passport and a stout pair of boots.

For those who may think inside the box but do not live inside one, it will suffice to point out that, of some 700 journalists killed in the line of duty since 1992, fewer than twenty died in wealthy, developed countries. Among these, four lost their lives at the hands of the Israeli military; the deaths of the remainder were not in any way linked to official interests or legitimate commercial ones.

The other 680-odd martyrs to the public's right to know died, as you might expect, in despotisms both great (Russia) and small (Tajikistan), occupied countries (Iraq and the Palestinian Territories) and failed or failing states (Rwanda, Sri Lanka). The appalling statistics can be viewed in detail here.

You still miss the fact that :
*) a state-owned press doesn't imply less accuracy. You don't need a free press to have an accurate press.
*) just because you don't kill or lock up journalists, that doesn't mean your press is freeer. Defamation, threats and economic boycots are often just as effective in shutting up a journalist.

By the way, I may not have yet had the pleasure to visit nations outside of Europe, but I have met several people who have and I do tend to read a lot about non-European countries. With regards to Europe, I've visited Holland, Luxembourg, France, Germany, Austria, Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic, Italy and England. In Poland I even stayed three full months, because I did my internship out there. Hence, I think I can say I know the continent quite well.

In case you wonder, I live in Belgium myself....

Continental European media historically has had a different kind of balance.
Specifically the print media. In most European countries you have several newspapers in play. They're all recognized for their bias. Meaning you have a socialist newspaper, a right wing newspaper, communist, fascist, centrist and so on. In most cases you can tell a person's political ideology by what news paper they read. Combined with television and interned citizens get the factual news and their angle on it through the newspapers.

www.unknownnews.net... ???
www.axisoflogic.com... ???
www.democracynow.org... ???
globalresearch.ca... ???
www.guerrillanews.com... ???
www.ips.org... ???
www.opensecrets.org... ???
www.drudgereport.com/
english.aljazeera.net...
www.iran-daily.com...
www.rense.com/
www.freespeech.org...
www.ink.uk.com...
www.motherjones.com...
www.atimes.com...

Just a list of some alternative news sources, not sure of their individual credibility but I am trying to figure that out in a thread started to try to debate or critique alt news sources.
To the OP, greatly thought out post, important issues indeed. From my perspective, it seems as if just finding political chatrooms and making friends of others in various countries is a good way of keeping tabs on what the MSM is and is not talking about in various regions, and varying hypothesis from said regions as to why.

Originally posted by Astyanax
Then two men named George Gallup and David Ogilivy (the curious may wish to google these names) found an easier way.

What they discovered was that you didn't have to prove yourself. You simply had to find out what people thought they wanted, and repackage yourself or your product in line with that. To hell with what they actually needed, to hell with your own beliefs and convictions (if any). No need, any more, for all that taxing stuff. No need, any more, to deliver results. All you had to do was pander to the people's needs, fantasies, prejudices...

Which you learnt about from media-usage statistics, polls and focus groups.

Which all goes right along into The Psychology Behind Mass Subservience to Tyranny...I just started that thread & even mention a bit about the collusion between Centralized Government coupled with Centralized Media.

reply to post by psychedeliack

Let's see if I can help augment that list of independent sources...Just a little.
www.alternet.org...
www.americanfreepress.net...
www.huffingtonpost.com...
www.informationclearinghouse.info...
www.newswithviews.com...
www.thetruthseeker.co.uk...
www.wanttoknow.info...
www.worldpublicopinion.org...
www.naturalnews.com...
www.guerrillanews.com...
www.libertymaven.com...
www.worldnetdaily.com...
http://__._/

So how does a system of mainstream media get by with so much outright propaganda?...By colluding with a once-free government on the fast track to tyranny. Just because it's not on MSM News doesn't mean it's not so. Here's some excepts from an article written over 1 year ago.
Source: Natural News

The empire turns its guns on the citizenry

In recent years, American police forces have called out SWAT teams 40,000 or more times annually. Last year did you read in your newspaper or hear on TV news of 110 hostage or terrorist events each day? No. What then were the SWAT teams doing? They were serving routine warrants to people who posed no danger to the police or to the public.

Occasionally Washington think tanks produce reports that are not special pleading for donors. One such report is Radley Balko's "Overkill: The Rise of Paramilitary Police Raids in America", Cato Institute, 2006.

This 100-page report is extremely important and should have been published as a book. SWAT teams ("special weapons and tactics") were once rare and used only for very dangerous situations, often involving hostages held by armed criminals. Today SWAT teams are deployed for routine police duties. In the U.S. today, 75-80 percent of SWAT deployments are for warrant service.

In a high percentage of the cases, the SWAT teams forcefully enter the wrong address, resulting in death, injury, and trauma to perfectly innocent people. Occasionally, highly keyed-up police kill one another in the confusion caused by their stun grenades...

...Today 17,000 local police forces are equipped with such military equipment as Blackhawk helicopters, machine guns, grenade launchers, battering rams, explosives, chemical sprays, body armor, night vision, rappelling gear, and armored vehicles. Some have tanks. In 1999, the New York Times reported that a retired police chief in New Haven, Conn., told the newspaper, "I was offered tanks, bazookas, anything I wanted." Balko reports that in 1997, for example, police departments received 1.2 million pieces of military equipment.

With local police forces now armed beyond the standard of U.S. heavy infantry, police forces have been retrained "to vaporize, not Mirandize," to use a phrase from Reagan administration Defense official Lawrence Korb. This leaves the public at the mercy of brutal actions based on bad police information from paid informers.


SWAT team deployments received a huge boost from the Byrne Justice Assistance Grant program, which gave states federal money for drug enforcement. Balko explains that "the states then disbursed the money to local police departments on the basis of each department's number of drug arrests."

With financial incentives to maximize drug arrests and with idle SWAT teams due to a paucity of hostage or other dangerous situations, local police chiefs threw their SWAT teams into drug enforcement. In practice, this has meant using SWAT teams to serve warrants on drug users.

SWAT teams serve warrants by breaking into homes and apartments at night while people are sleeping, often using stun grenades and other devices to disorient the occupants. As much of the police's drug information comes from professional informers known as "snitches" who tip off police for cash rewards, dropped charges, and reduced sentences, names and addresses are often pulled out of a hat. Balko provides details for 135 tragic cases of mistaken addresses.

SWAT teams are not held accountable for their tragic mistakes and gratuitous brutality. Police killings got so bad in Albuquerque, N.M., for example, that the city hired criminologist Sam Walker to conduct an investigation of police tactics. Killings by police were "off the charts," Walker found, because the SWAT team "had an organizational culture that led them to escalate situations upward rather then de-escalating."

More at Source-link

And guess what? Our taxes (or even more outrageous loans with interest from the Federal Reserve) are paying them to "keep us secure"...Who's going to secure us from them?

Now actual drug-criminals are getting paid to pick & choose which law-abiding Citizens can be subjected to para-military invasions! Is this the kind of "security" America wants? Is this another reason why the government keeps "infringing" our 2nd Amendment, even when expressly forbidden to do so?--You betcha' it is! Whatever you may say, personally I say, "Not only no, but HELL NO!"

But where is the media to cover events like this? In bed with a tyrannical government, of course. By looking at the people who own most of the major networks, you'll be able to see the same names cropping up in other (government-linked) circles, like Bilderburgers & other behind-the-scenes influences in government.

By the Laws of Nature as Set Forth by the Creator (& further expounded in the Founding Documents of the USA), We the People are the only ones who can ultimately provide for our own personal security, whether it be individually or in groups. But it's in the Nature of Governments to violate Natural Laws & so they must no longer enjoy our support (through fear-mongering, deception & coercion) to continue with violating Nature & our Fellow Human Beings.

More that never quite sees the light of day...This one nearly 4 years ago:
Third-grader arrested for disorderly conduct
From 9 years ago: Warrior Cops: The Ominous Growth of Paramilitarism in American Police Departments. This was from the CATO Institute.

Remember Mr. Padilla, a few years ago? Even the Supreme Court declared, 3 years ago, that:
President Bush can lock up anyone forever without charge.

Unless the Supreme Court overturns this verdict, the U.S. government can keep Mr Padilla, a U.S. citizen, in jail indefinitely, without charge. Worse, the government will be tempted to invoke this power against pretty much anyone it likes since the Appeals Court made no attempt to verify the authenticity of the allegations made against the prisoner.

So, where was the Mainstream News Coverage during all of this? None of the above came from "mainstream" sources.

I thank for pointing out some of the details behind the "journalism industry" that don't keep the public informed the way they should be if we're to restore & retain our Inherent Sovereignty against tyranny.

Here's some Commentary excerpted from the Baltimore Chronicle, Copyrighted in 2006 (the only MSM source in this whole post) that directly correlates with what you've been doing, SDog...Talking about the Mainstream Media itself:

-------Continued Below------

---------Concluded From Above-------

Shed Your Addiction: Beyond Mere Survival in the American Dystopia

1984 has come to pass, both chronologically and in the Orwellian sense. Americans are “liberators” in Iraq. Opponents of this “peace initiative” are “doubleplusungood." Unchecked by the judiciary, the NSA electronically trolls for perpetrators of “crimethink." Pundits and the “liberal media” (owned by a handful of monolithic corporations despised by people with the values which many define as liberal) have become the Ministry of Truth for the Party...

...Via Fox, the Bush Regime streams steady doses of its “opiate to the masses” via a distribution network reaching 85 million cable subscribers. Fox and most other mainstream media entities are the syringes mainlining the mind-altering, psychosis-inducing propaganda munificently showered upon Americans by the Party. Social Darwinists comprising the Party, including major corporate shareholders and executives, Israeli interests, the military industrial complex, plutocrats, the power players of the Religious Right, and intellectual elites, hold the Great Beast (us “commoners”) at bay with a powerfully addictive state of being called the American Dream...

...Mirroring Hitler’s Germany, this nation of “decent, God-fearing” people is pledging allegiance to a murderous regime. Are the comfort of conformity and the safety of loyalty to the Empire worth the price of one’s soul?

America’s ruling class has created a scintillating facade to hide its dystopia, assuring the Great Beast that we all have the right and the means to attain the looks of a Victoria's Secret model, the money of a Donald Trump, and the athletic ability of a Michael Vick. Infomercials work: home schemes, plastic surgery, hypnosis, and myriad other avenues to instant success and immediate gratification abound amongst the virtually infinite number of hollow pursuits littering the spiritually barren landscape of the United States. Those who fall short of the “American ideal” simply need to continue upping their dose American Soma. If that fails and they fall victim to the ravages of unbridled addiction, spiritual emptiness, poverty, despair, self-hatred, or anorexia, they can simply end their misery with a drug overdose or a shotgun blast to the face. America’s predator class, the pushers of the opiate of the masses, is not concerned with the suffering they inflict. In their zeal to appease the triumvirate they worship (power, money, and narcissistic desires), the “chosen ones” of our society do not hesitate to sacrifice the rights, dignity, sanity and even lives of hundreds of millions of innocent human beings. After all, if they come from amongst the rabble of the Great Beast, how can they be truly human, and why would their anguish or death matter?...

...Further insulating America’s ruling elites from the conflagration which would ignite (were the masses to awaken) is the insatiable American compulsion to shop and consume conspicuously. With the advent of easy credit, ubiquitous super stores open 24 hours, and payday loans, “buy now and pay later” has become as American as baseball and apple pie...

...Perhaps it is human nature for a few to hoard power and resources to the detriment of the many. One can witness a consistent pattern of such behavior throughout history, at least in the "more advanced" cultures. Yet as Scott Peck so aptly noted in The Road Less Traveled, defecating in one's pants and the absence of dental hygiene are aspects of human nature at birth, but most people learn the unnatural acts of utilizing toilets and toothbrushes. One of the most beautiful aspects of humanity is that, unlike animals, people are not enslaved by their nature. Human beings can evolve. However, most of humanity has chosen to readily accept the shackles of the ruling class. Historically, the Great Beast has been domesticated, tamed and manipulated in a variety of ways. Brute military force, manipulation by religious entities and institutions, propaganda, and careful restriction of knowledge are but a few of the tactics employed by monarchies, tyrants, Popes, and generals throughout history...

...Lord Acton conveyed truth when he wrote that "power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely." Despite its cleverly constructed image of a benevolent super-power, those ruling the United States are more corrupt than the power elite of any nation, including those in Bush's alleged "Axis of Evil." Due to its power, military might, and rogue leadership, the United States has also become the world's most significant threat to the perpetuation of life on Earth...

...Like a swarm of locusts, Social Darwinists have descended upon our nation and are rapidly devouring the fruits of our labor. Resembling leeches, these parasites drain the life-blood of America and return nothing. Acting as virulent strains of previously undiscovered illnesses, these pathogens have infected a nation filled with the promise and potential envisioned by Thomas Paine. The resulting disease has reduced the United States to a wheezing, gasping tyrant nearly on economic life support. This once admirable nation flails almost blindly as it wields the only real power it has left like a bludgeon, dispatching its awesome military on imperial errands and acts of revenge (against the wrong people) under the pretense of humanitarian intervention. Employing quick sound bites, propaganda packaged as gospel, tantalizing distractions, the lure of easy money, and a highly insular environment, these sociopathic plunderers have hijacked America. Their reckless piloting is destined to result in a disaster of Biblical proportions. America’s rulers view the world as their playground. Recess is in session and the schoolyard bullies have seized control. They kidnapped the school-yard monitor, have stolen the lunch money, are taunting and beating the weak, and are playing kickball with the class misfit’s head.

That's enough of these excerpts to get the idea, but the article itself is much longer. I liken the whole Mainstream Media Mess as similar to a concept I learned during my education in Electronic Engineering...The "Bells-n-Whistles" approach to marketing: The idea that People will buy anything if it's flashy enough, regardless of how useless the whole piece of equipment actually is.

Ignorance is rampant in this country as a result.

From Maria_stardust


First off - i would argue that ignorance has always been rampant, in all of humanity. The media only servers as a funnel to bring it into our living rooms.

now of course - i totally agree with the OP on this. its unbelievable how many people only get what they know from the talking heads of Fox News, CNN, MSNBC, and other likewise "entertainment" programs.

To give some real pop-culture influence on this line of thinking, i would like to quote the late, and greatest comedian of all time

George Carlin

"Mickey Mouse's birthday is being announced on the television news as if it were an actual event! I don't give a sh**! If I cared about Mickey Mouse's birthday I would have memorized it years ago! And I'd send him a card, 'Dear Mickey, Happy Birthday, Love George'. I don't do that, why, don't give a sh**!"

You can take the premise of that and apply it to almost every story on every network in every household on the face of this planet and realize why people don't know the underbelly of things like politics.

reply to post by MidnightDStroyer


First, let me thank MidnightDStroyer for his significant, valuable, and thoughtful contribution to this thread.
I would double applaud you if I could.
I'd also applaud AWiggin out of sympathy.

Originally posted by MidnightDStroyer

That's enough of these excerpts to get the idea, but the article itself is much longer. I liken the whole Mainstream Media Mess as similar to a concept I learned during my education in Electronic Engineering...The "Bells-n-Whistles" approach to marketing: The idea that People will buy anything if it's flashy enough, regardless of how useless the whole piece of equipment actually is.

So basically what you're saying is the MSM apply the "Trump" model to the news business, and we're the old ladies pumping in our quarters and eventually our dignity.
The metaphor is apt and damn depressing.

I'd also applaud AWiggin out of sympathy

lol whats that supposed to mean

not
a
deuce
liner

SD, thanks for (A) writing this thread and (B) putting it in your signature so that I could find it!!!

Stunningly well done, old man!!! Big double thumbs up.

SO, now we've identified the problem.....how to solve it? That begs the question.

Originally posted by weedwhacker
SO, now we've identified the problem.....how to solve it? That begs the question.

Well, for one thing, we'd have to get rid of the unlawful debt-based economy of the Fed Res out of the way...Money talks & the banks create it out of thin air. When the fake money (in essence, corporate scrip) is no longer influencing government, then corporate lobbyists lose a lot of their power to have legislature go "their way."

Also, bring the government back to Constitutional limits. Originally, the Founding Forefathers knew the dangers of corporations gaining any measure of control & influence...Remember that the English Merchants in the colonies was one of the major problems: Remember the Boston Tea Party? Excessive taxation is what the history books read, as for the cause of that, but the English Merchants were also sucking the people dry with price-gouging too.

This is why they wrote the Constitution to place corporations below government in the "Heirarchy of Sovereignty."
Sort of re-posted from here but greatly condensed, the Hierarchy was designed like this:

#1: The Creator that set forth the Laws of Nature.
#2: Individual. Born free with inherent Rights under the Natural Laws.
#3: Constitution. Laws written by the People
#4: President. The "chief executive" in charge of enforcing the laws
#5: Congress. Charged with making the laws (legislation of Statutes)
#6: Case & Statute Law. As applied by the Judiciary
#7: Public Servants. The Individuals that hold various Offices & positions within the government itself
#8: Corporations. Right where corporations belong...On the bottom!

In short, the government is supposed to provide checks against corporate excesses, but in today's USA, the hierarchy has been completely reversed! Only when the hierarchy is righted can we have a truly free press.

Of course, this (very basic) strategy means to attack the root of the problem...Once accomplished, then a lot of other problems can be fixed.

I know it seems a little selfish, but I just wanted to resurrect this thread and especially the OP. I thought that in these tumultuous times, it was more "a propos" than ever.

SD
I have read and re read this thread but it really does take some concentration to take it all in. Very serious reading. I will re-visit it from time to time.
First impressions:
I think the problem we're facing here is "failure to communicate" the issue is not really that we can't communicate but that true communication is not desired by the target audience.
I would like to give this quote from a thread I started about how many people in the US read. I have not included the posters name as it is not my intention to criticize him but to give an example from an honest participant.

"Books are a rather poor way of passing information from one person to another, it's a time consuming process for both participants. Because of this people have become very efficient at passing information using the printed word. The people that are particularly skillful at writing are most read and those that are particularly good at absorbing are promoted to the top of the academic industry.
Other media is newer and so it is less developed. At the moment the visual media are far more popular for entertainment purposes and in time the ever developing academic visual specializations develop, the printed word will see further decline.
I don't think this is necessarily a bad thing"

I did have one poster who believes books are for museums.
Others in the thread extolled the virtues of quick news on You Tube and the like as being better than wasting time with books.
One poster decried books as the trappings of the intellectual.

These examples were certainly the exception but they did show that we have some members of society that actively dislike the idea of genuine knowledge through study and want the ADD News network to entertain them and do it quick.
Most of the rest of the masses want to get their breaking news emotional Wow! fix and get on to the less serious aspects of media entertainment. They are not only uninterested in serious thought or discussion but are repelled by the idea that they might have to develop an informed opinion.
I think that it is obvious that we have to find a way to re-engage the populace but I honestly don't know if that is possible with a ratings oriented media.

Nice post by the way. I will be coming back on occasion to read again.
Hopefully some of our deep thinkers will give it a good and thorough read as well.
BP

reply to post by badgerprints


First let me thank you for your kind words.

What a person learns is ultimately determined by that person's will and commitment to "look things up." And looking at enough things up to get a comprehensive and holistic understanding of the world requires desire and commitment.

Something shows up on TV that calls itself the "news." The fact is that it is the "news" but is it the news that matters, no. Is it the news for your benefit, no. Is it comprehensive, considered, contextualized, properly vetted, no.

But most people already know this. They accept it as is precisely for the same reason that the majority of them choose not to read books. Not because they are being unwittingly duped but because they choose to remain in a relative state of ignorance.

For the greater one's knowledge the greater one's understanding of the fundamental flaws of our humanity. And that can only lead to two behaviors, one is an ever increasing state of depression, the other is personal accountability and action. And when people feel this the first time they get a glimpse the problematic "big" picture, and they hate the way it makes them feel.

Therefore CNN/MSNBC, local news, is the precise amount of news and information they require and seek out. Or else those media vehicles would not exist in their current form and NPR would be the number one news source. The news media is extremely capitalistic, in the sense that they provide the exact balance of news and ignorance which the public can live with. It is not a good life.