(Crossposted from my Real History blog.)
I read on Firedoglake of responses to Franklin Foer’s plea at TNR for the left to stop attacking the mainstream lest we aid the right wing in our efforts.
What?
Bloggers are the problem???
This got my blood boiling, and I fired off this scathing response…
—–Original Message—–
To: ‘theplank@tnr.com’
Subject: When the Mainstream Media is worth defending…
…the Mainstream Bloggers will defend it. I read your post and was just flabbergasted. You want to blame BLOGGERS for the loss of credibility of the New York Times? Bloggers didn’t hire Judy Miller. Bloggers didn’t beg the Times to sit on the NSA spying story for a year.
Meanwhile, please show me when the Times or the rest of the MSM told us the truth about something that really, REALLY mattered?
- When did the MSM tell us there were no WMD in Iraq? After it was too late to act responsibly on that information.
- When did the MSM tell us about Peak Oil and the implications for a society entirely dependent on oil? They haven’t.
- When did the MSM tell us about the dangers of electronic voting? Still waiting. (As a computer programmer I can assure you this is a stolen election waiting to happen, if it hasn’t happened already.)
- When did the MSM admit that Iran-Contra wasn’t just a wild conspiracy? When Hasenfus fell from a plane and the AP accidentally let that story slip through a foreign bureau.
- When did the MSM tell us that the hijackings on 9/11 coincided with pre-planned war games the US was running that included LIVE HIJACKINGS? Still waiting.
- When did the MSM tell us who profited by selling short on the airlines? The 9/11 Commission found that out and said go back to sleep America, it was just a coincidence. Give the people the information and let them decide. When the press starts treating its readers like grown-ups deserving of grown-up information, it will earn back some of the respect it has deservedly lost. When the press stops acting as an official part of government, they’ll stand a chance.
- When did the MSM tell us Nixon was a crook? Long after they had assured us that Watergate was just a “third-rate burglary.” And don’t get me started on Woodward and Bernstein. Woodward is and has always been a tool of the establishment who was led to the story by people in high places bent on bringing Nixon down.
- When did the MSM tell us that Kennedy was killed by a conspiracy? Not even after the House Select Committee on Assassinations hired not one but two acoustical firms which both confirmed at least four shots in Dealey Plaza – one too many for the lone shooter scenario – with one of those shots being from the grassy knoll. Yet ABC dares tell us, 40 years later, that Oswald acted alone. How can they do this? By omitting years worth of solid evidence to the contrary.
And you wonder why so few people trust the MSM?
Thank goodness for the Internet. Hey, I really appreciate the quality WRITING in the New York Times. I just miss quality INFORMATION. NPR commentators have lovely voices. But they aren’t covering the important stories either. Ditto the WP, the LA Times, the Chicago Tribune, and the other grand papers of our time, including The New Republic (which, as you probably don’t know because the MSM never told you, was created with the express purpose of gradually leading the left to a more empire-friendly viewpoint. That story is told in Tragedy and Hope, a massive volume written by Clinton’s idol Carroll Quigley.)
The NSA has a program called Echelon that enables the tapping of every electronic communication made on the planet. But why do I have to hear about that from the Canadian press? Now that the NSA’s spying is in the news, this would be a great time to discuss whether Americans approve of an agency of unelected officials having access to our most private communications. (The Village Voice thought so, and gave it coverage, predictably, by one of the few real reporters in the country, Jason Vest. Where was the Times? The Post? The other Times? Your magazine?)
I can’t watch TV news anymore. Who cares about the latest robbery or shooting? Has that EVER effected your life personally? Have you ever been spared some dangerous incident by watching a 20 minute car chase on TV, as us Los Angelenos are subjected to weekly?
I want the MSM to tell us how best to adjust to skyrocketing oil prices. I want to hear about new technologies I should be supporting because they will extend life on this planet. I want to hear about the true history of this country, and the real reasons the terrorists hate us. I want the press to hold the government’s feet to the fire every time anyone opens their mouth, be they a Democrat or a Republican. I want important information. I’m angry because it’s so hard to find in the MSM.
Don’t tell me I’m supporting the right wing by criticizing the MSM. Supporting shallow reporting, misinformation, and cover-ups does no one any good.
What this country needs is a big healthy dose of truth, right up the MSM.
I was reminded of my parents’ morning routine: coffee and The Today Show. This episode featured something like “Real-Life Paralells with Narnia” and…wait for it…the triumphant return of exercise guru Richard Simmons!
I told them they can watch what they please, but dear god don’t mistake this tripe for news. Oh, they mentioned the mining disaster? Nope, it’s still not a news show, sorry mom.
That reminds me of an experience I had on the “grassy knoll” on one of the anniversaries of the Kennedy assassination. Over 1000 people were on the knoll, but a local Dallas camera crew found one isolated nut, complete with goofy sign and Parrot, and they were setting up to make THAT their story. I went over to the producer and read her the riot act.
“You mean to tell me with all these people here, this is the best you can do?” I cried.
“Don’t tell me how to do the news,” she said.
“Don’t call it news,” I retorted.
. . . from a reader in the city where Gary Webb put two bullets in his head.
Can you believe they have the nerve to use Murrow’s name for their new journalism program? In many ways more insidious than the blatant excesses of Miller or the Lincoln Group.
& now the NYT, according to Flashpoints Radio yesterday, won’t be following the lead of the Associated Press & sever ties with NED contractor Regine Alexandre in Haiti.
(Here’s a half-hearted apology for pimping an old diary — the connections between what we are doing in Iraq & Haiti & what may lie in store for S America are lost on far too many.)
As has been said before, Orwell’s title was originally going to be 1948, but his publishers thought that was too scary. Sure. “Help America Vote Act” actually hurts voters. “Clean Air Act” aids polluters. Why not a “Edward R. Murrow” entity designed to bury people like Gary Webb. It’s sick and tragic and we have to get up and call them on it at the top of our lungs!
Right on Lisa. Beautifully to the point and a fine rantata.
The press is just one big thought-shaping machine designed to keep the peons quiet and consuming under the illusion of ‘freedom’… but how exactly are any of us truly free when our lives are controlled so much by corporations and the govt’s who serve them.
The Cdn press (esp. the CBC, Globe & Mail, La Presse & the Toronto Star) are indeed a much better choice than any American MSM outlet today… I do think a main difference is that Cdn’s haven’t been raised on blood & violence (except in hockey) and have different expectations for our news… more in depth, lots of International and American news to keep us up to date (it helps that we play a big role in UN peacekeeping as that keeps conflicts around the world in focus for us), and helpful/ uplifting nature/ community stories to keep us connected to the HUGE country we live in and each other. And… it certainly helps matters that we have a crown corporation not beholden to shareholders (and kept independent from gov’t influence) in the CBC.
Finally, I truly believe our multi-party gov’t helps the media truly find balance as they give each party leader or rep equal time (so typically we are hearing from one or two conservatives, a socialist, a french socialist separatist, and a liberal).
It is shocking that the MSM continues the Republican tactic of shifting the blame onto the whistleblowers/ masses (ie. the bloggers) vs. taking a long hard look in the mirror…
But it may be too much to ask until their corp masters figure out a way to make truth-telling profitable.
Please forgive my ignorance, but what is the definition of a rantata? A musical rant?
good question… I have no clue actually, just always liked the sound of it as it did sound more lyrical than just a ‘rant’… so that’s the definition I go with 😉
hah. i’m sure they think your crazy.
in the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is a freak…
As long as “news” remains a commodity in an entertainment venue that is the corportate media, our democracy will continue to disintegrate.
Until the revolution and “Peak Oil”, that is.
What – is peak oil going to save democracy? I think I missed something..!
No! But as the spectre of Peak oil finally starts to become more a more irrefutable reality, the comfortable denial we as a society have been indulging in for the last 50 years or so will finally begin to unravel.
The arrogant complacency, the absurd notions of American exceptionalism and entitlement will be dashed to smithereens as society comes to grips with the fact that our wasteful and negligent lifestyles are coming to an end whether we like it or not.
Throughout history, empires have fallen in a variety of ways, but usually a root cause had something to do with the unsustainability of that empire’s needs, whether those needs were the availability of water, timber, slave labor, trade routes, or, in our case now, oil and natural gas.
Got it. Yes, the irony. The poor indigenous people who live off the land will be far better off than the humongous estate dwellers. And when no one can afford to drive to work to clean their houses…then what?? Ah, nature, the great equalizer…!
Reading my own reply to your comment I realize I’ve strayed somewhat far afield from the diary topic.
I don’t think peak oil is going to save democracy here in the US or anywhere else. In many ways I think we’ve passed the point of no return in the sense that there will be no easy and graceful remedies for alleviating the severity of what lies ahead in the not too distant future.
By invoking peak oil, my intention was to highlight the incredible depth of societal denial we’ve cultivated for so long and to draw a kind of (admittedly ineptly described) parallel between our denial of the inevitability of peak oil with our general refusal to acknowledge that with a press as severely compromised as ours is now that it’s almost inevitable that the corporate media is beyond repair withut a radical restructuring of the entire dynamic that keeps it in business. Or, in simpler terms, I think we’ll have to pretty much scrap the entire system in order to be able to create a new and responsible way of sharing important information again.
(I’ve had a weird day today and my writing seems less coherent than usual. But maybe it’s just that I’m so overwhelmed by the sheer volume of bullshit that I can barely think straight.) And, of course, I am not optimistic about too much of what’s going on.
Great rantette you have going up there. I speak in defense of a few random MSM reporters who suffer an occasional attack of conscience in the field. Yeah, I know, it’s rare but it seems they regain some measure of bonding to humanity when they are removed from the set and then set in a catastrophe.
Clearly then, we need more reporters personally mired in the depths of actual catastrophe.
I look forward to your next rantalogue.
We should have a rantathon here some night – goodness knows there are any number of topics to chose from. Thanks for your comments!
And here’s Digby’s . . . um . . . rantalata? on the same topic. If you haven’t seen it already, I think you’ll like it.
That would be great. I’m tired of having to maintain an appearance of rationality. The rare times I’ve brought my ranturbations public are usually met with questions of my sanity.
I’m ready to rant on Corporate Social Conscience
Here’s one that’s just plain fun to read.
Conyers Hammers Milbank
They’re not “Mainstream” anymore. They’re the “Traditional Media.” Kos says, “It’s Time To Retire The MSM.”