The death of objectivity
Consider some of these issues:
1. 'He looks.. black'
2. fast & furious
3. Benghazi
4. Irs targeting conservative groups.
5. 'If you like your doctor, you can keep him.'
6. 'They are nothing but domestic terrorists'
7. Solyndra
8. executive waivers to big business, unions, & executive staff on laws passed by congress & signed by the president..
9. Pick & choose law enforcement.. the prime directive of the executive branch.
10. Ordered 1000 boeing employees fired & shut down a plant in SC for union cronies.
11. BLM land grab in nevada
How many of these things have the media 'exposed' & covered, like a free press watchdog should? The american media has traditionally been part of our freedom process. Has it become just a partisan propaganda tool?
In the First Amendment, the Founding Fathers gave the free press the protection is must have to fulfill its essential role in our democracy. The press was to serve the governed, not the governors. The Government's power to censor the press was abolished so that the press would remain forever free to censure the Government. The press was protected so that it could bare the secrets of government and inform the people. ~Hugo L. Black
But what is happening now? The free press has become partisan. Most are shills of the democratic party, with a strong bias for the progressive agenda. A few are conservative, but balance of bias is NOT the goal, here.. truth & 'serve the governed' is the role of the press, not manipulation of public opinion by propaganda.
IMO, the corporatization of the press has led to this unholy alliance. They are shills of big money, the same as the politicians. TRUTH & PUBLIC INTEREST is not the mission statement of the press.. they are slaves to power & money, & are beholden to both.
[T]he administration of government has become more complex, the opportunities for malfeasance and corruption have multiplied, crime has grown to most serious proportions, and the danger of its protection by unfaithful officials and of the impairment of the fundamental security of life and property by criminal alliances and official neglect, emphasizes the primary need of a vigilant and courageous press, especially in great cities. ~Charles Evans Hughes
"There are laws to protect the freedom of the press's speech, but none that are worth anything to protect the people from the press" ~Mark Twain
Money is always a motivating factor, in any human venture. Journalists are not immune.. especially their bosses. But i think it is clear to any casual observer that the press has changed over the last 50 yrs. At one point, there was pride in objective journalism. Cronkite or Edward Murrow would not show overt partiality.. they would not be a partisan shill. But now we have Rather fabricating documents to smear bush, & most (all?) of the broadcast media complicit in the administration's coverups. Since Reagan, i have seen a slow decline in the objectivity of american media.. Both in print & broadcast. Fox covers things from a conservative angle, but they are a cable network, not part of the mainstream broadcast media. They have grown, mostly as a reaction from the overt partisanship of the others.
The press hounded johnson in the 60s, even though he was a democrat.. they were not as concerned about partisanship, & many of the old journalists took 'unbiased' coverage seriously. They were a bit soft on jfk, & they really went after nixon. They were not that kind to carter, & his blunders in iran, opec, & domestic policy were scrutinized.. contrast that with the pro obama propaganda from the current media. They hated reagan, & took pot shots at him constantly. Clinton got softer coverage, & bush 2 was vilified as an incompetent war monger.
Consider Sharyl Attkisson. She resigned in frustration from cbs because they wouldn't allow her investigative reports into the benghazi coverup. ANY of the media outlets in the past would have licked their chops at any hint of corruption, & made it their cover stories. It was a feeding frenzy with nixon, & all he did was spy on the opposition's political tactics & cover it up. The obama administration has done MUCH worse, where 4 americans died for incompetence, & the ensuing coverup.
Chris Christie is another. Here is a governor, linked to some bureaucrat closing down a bridge for political purposes.. inconveniencing a few people, & the media howls over this like a pack of wolves! Yet fast & furious, the irs scandal, benghazi, & a host of other administration 'scandals' are virtually ignored. A passing mention, at best, from the broadcast media. Some of these people died! Yet no coverage.. no expose.. no barking from the watchdogs. They have become useless mutts, lazing about, biting their owners, instead of the intruders.
In times past, the print media in almost every city had alternate views from competing newspapers. You could get a different angle from a different paper. It seems to me this has been dead for years, & it is clear that print newspapers are dinosaurs from the past. The Az Republic is a liberal rag, that promotes the progressive view in its pages. There are none that i know of that print the conservative view.. and this in a fairly conservative state!
I think there are many reasons for this.
1. Education has become the propaganda arm of progressive ideology. Liberal arts education is not the goal, but indoctrination. Each year a new crop of journalists enter the market with progressive ideology in their hearts, & matching words on their lips.
2. The conservative view is vilified so much.. linked to racism, stupidity, superstition, & back woods reactionary opinions, that it is difficult to get a fair hearing on the issues. The narrative is that conservative ideology is automatically irrelevant, so no reason is needed.. just dismiss it & continue the drive to a socialist utopia.
3. News & entertainment have become blurred.. the morning 'news' shows are mostly celebrity based entertainment, & that is what they deliver. That same mentality has taken over the 'hard' news divisions.
4. Money & power. Power follows the money, & money follows the power. Many despots have used the power of propaganda to subjugate the masses. Through clever use of the media, with their full consent, they are able to manipulate public opinion, not only by what they cover, but what they don't cover.
5. The rise of anti science. The concept of 'Truth' being something absolute, discoverable, & a goal to search for is becoming increasingly foreign. The trend now is to make the conclusions, first, then prop it up with supporting evidence, even if you have to fabricate it.
“The goal of modern propaganda is no longer to transform opinion but to arouse an active and mythical belief” ~Jacques Ellul
Any dictator would admire the uniformity and obedience of the U.S. media. ~Noam Chomsky
The United States is unusual among the industrial democracies in the rigidity of the system of ideological control - "indoctrination," we might say - exercised through the mass media. ~Noam Chomsky
Friday, May 9, 2014
Thursday, May 8, 2014
Reformation + Indians = American Freedom
Why did America become a land of liberty? During the time of colonization many areas of the world were targets of European imperialism.
Brazil, Argentina, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Mexico, Canada.. all had lots of Europeans invading their shores. Why didn't america become like one of them? ..another European style statist system? They could be loyal to the king, and rule & oppress the native peoples. That is what most of them did.
Here is my theory:
The admiration for the honor and culture of the Native North American people.
1. The Native American would not be enslaved.
2. The Native American believed in dignity and honor. Their word was sacred and was something to be proud of.
3. They were utilitarian in their view of of war. War to them was to take the other guy's stuff, to take over their turf, and to carry off their children and women. It was an expansive tactic of coalition nation building.
4. Even though the European settlers brutalized the Native Americans, they admired them. The concept of the noble savage has been prominent in North American culture to this day. They learned how to survive in the New World from their native neighbors. They saw how they faced adversity with courage. They were sanguine about death. They were independent and self reliant from any central government.
5. They fought bravely, even when outnumbered. Courage and freedom were highly esteemed. ..More so than life in slavery or domination from another.
The Europeans however, had different roots.
1. For a thousand years or more, kings and popes and lords and masters had ruled the Europeans. They were used to being nannied, cared for and submissive and subservient. Independent living and thinking was not in their dna.
2. When they made war it was for genocide. They sought to wipe out their enemies, or any race they thought inferior, not to assimilate them. Or, they felt a manifest destiny to manage and manipulate other people as pets or inferior beings. They enslaved those who would submit to their tyranny.
3. The europeans would willingly enslave them selves for material things. They would sell themselves as indentured servants for years to gain passage on a ship or to gain partial ownership of some business.
4. They lived lives of quiet desperation & degradation with no honor, yet they accepted this as their lot in life.
5. The religion of Christianity was used to placate. The concepts of freedom, liberty, honor and self respect was not common in European church circles. They preached submission to authority and honoring the king.
Then, a reformation began. Law was seen as above all. The written law superseded the edicts of men. This blend of reformation theology, combined with the noble savage sense of honor, freedom, and dignity came together to form a new creature: The American. It was the perfect storm. This guy would fight with ruthlessness like a European but die with dignity, honor, & self sacrifice like an Indian. He saw freedom and liberty as the foremost things. It flavored his religion and his outlook on Law and his fellow man.
Of course, this American went on to brutalize and break the spirit of the noble man he admired. He did not appreciate the lessons or the freedoms gained from his neighbors' philosophy of life. But the white man assimilated the ideology of the indian, even though he didn't know it. He tried to follow his euro creed of non assimilation and genocide. He pushed the red man into reservations to keep him dependent, subservient and broken. But the genie was out of the bottle. The spirit of the North American had taken over and blended with the European settlers.
Then more people came & were infected.. They got the idea that all men are created equal. ..They are endowed by their creator with unalienable rights. Not long after a great war was fought to free the black man from his years of servitude and oppression.
All during this time aggressive men and statists worked tirelessly to empower the state and strip the people of their liberties. Freedom, though tentative, was always preserved.
But now, as usual, we are at a crossroad. American liberties we took for granted are being chipped away by an ever growing & expanding state. No longer content with securing our rights, they make war at will, steal our property, and try to nanny and micro manage us like we are their third world conquests.
Wake up America! It is time to rise up and put these scoundrels in their place. It is time to remember our heritage, & honor the native american who has helped us cast off the chains of imperialism & servitude. No more euro nanny state! We came here for freedom, & we should not let anyone take it from us.
I am convinced that those societies (as the Indians) which live without government enjoy in their general mass an infinitely greater degree of happiness than those who live under European governments. Among the former, public opinion is in the place of law, and restrains morals as powerfully as laws ever did any where. Among the latter, under pretence of governing they have divided their nations into two classes, wolves and sheep. I do not exaggerate. This is a true picture of Europe. Cherish therefore the spirit of our people, and keep alive their attention. ~Thomas Jefferson
Brazil, Argentina, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Mexico, Canada.. all had lots of Europeans invading their shores. Why didn't america become like one of them? ..another European style statist system? They could be loyal to the king, and rule & oppress the native peoples. That is what most of them did.
Here is my theory:
The admiration for the honor and culture of the Native North American people.
1. The Native American would not be enslaved.
2. The Native American believed in dignity and honor. Their word was sacred and was something to be proud of.
3. They were utilitarian in their view of of war. War to them was to take the other guy's stuff, to take over their turf, and to carry off their children and women. It was an expansive tactic of coalition nation building.
4. Even though the European settlers brutalized the Native Americans, they admired them. The concept of the noble savage has been prominent in North American culture to this day. They learned how to survive in the New World from their native neighbors. They saw how they faced adversity with courage. They were sanguine about death. They were independent and self reliant from any central government.
5. They fought bravely, even when outnumbered. Courage and freedom were highly esteemed. ..More so than life in slavery or domination from another.
The Europeans however, had different roots.
1. For a thousand years or more, kings and popes and lords and masters had ruled the Europeans. They were used to being nannied, cared for and submissive and subservient. Independent living and thinking was not in their dna.
2. When they made war it was for genocide. They sought to wipe out their enemies, or any race they thought inferior, not to assimilate them. Or, they felt a manifest destiny to manage and manipulate other people as pets or inferior beings. They enslaved those who would submit to their tyranny.
3. The europeans would willingly enslave them selves for material things. They would sell themselves as indentured servants for years to gain passage on a ship or to gain partial ownership of some business.
4. They lived lives of quiet desperation & degradation with no honor, yet they accepted this as their lot in life.
5. The religion of Christianity was used to placate. The concepts of freedom, liberty, honor and self respect was not common in European church circles. They preached submission to authority and honoring the king.
Then, a reformation began. Law was seen as above all. The written law superseded the edicts of men. This blend of reformation theology, combined with the noble savage sense of honor, freedom, and dignity came together to form a new creature: The American. It was the perfect storm. This guy would fight with ruthlessness like a European but die with dignity, honor, & self sacrifice like an Indian. He saw freedom and liberty as the foremost things. It flavored his religion and his outlook on Law and his fellow man.
Of course, this American went on to brutalize and break the spirit of the noble man he admired. He did not appreciate the lessons or the freedoms gained from his neighbors' philosophy of life. But the white man assimilated the ideology of the indian, even though he didn't know it. He tried to follow his euro creed of non assimilation and genocide. He pushed the red man into reservations to keep him dependent, subservient and broken. But the genie was out of the bottle. The spirit of the North American had taken over and blended with the European settlers.
Then more people came & were infected.. They got the idea that all men are created equal. ..They are endowed by their creator with unalienable rights. Not long after a great war was fought to free the black man from his years of servitude and oppression.
All during this time aggressive men and statists worked tirelessly to empower the state and strip the people of their liberties. Freedom, though tentative, was always preserved.
But now, as usual, we are at a crossroad. American liberties we took for granted are being chipped away by an ever growing & expanding state. No longer content with securing our rights, they make war at will, steal our property, and try to nanny and micro manage us like we are their third world conquests.
Wake up America! It is time to rise up and put these scoundrels in their place. It is time to remember our heritage, & honor the native american who has helped us cast off the chains of imperialism & servitude. No more euro nanny state! We came here for freedom, & we should not let anyone take it from us.
I am convinced that those societies (as the Indians) which live without government enjoy in their general mass an infinitely greater degree of happiness than those who live under European governments. Among the former, public opinion is in the place of law, and restrains morals as powerfully as laws ever did any where. Among the latter, under pretence of governing they have divided their nations into two classes, wolves and sheep. I do not exaggerate. This is a true picture of Europe. Cherish therefore the spirit of our people, and keep alive their attention. ~Thomas Jefferson
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