Direction of the media
Van
Foundations that cook their statistics to fit their agenda, think
tanks that release "studies" to the media for purely political
agendas, paid propagandists pretending to be populists - games
nothing but games. Politics as a game to won by any means - truth
an impediment, not a prerequiste. Sad.
I sometimes think the secondary motives of these folks is to
dilute media's credibility by reducing the media to tabloid
journalism. Propaganda is the tool used by those who cannot
make a cogent case for their agenda. A credible media with
robust investigative reporting is important to democracy but an
irritant to these folks. Even without the fringe assaults by
the likes of Reed Irvine or Rupert Murdoch, the major media has
drifted towards domination by corporations. With one network
owned by a company involved in defense and nuclear energy, one
network owned by a large defense contractor, and one owned by a
large conservative media conglomerate one might wonder if the
media is really speaks for the little guy.
Take a show like ABC's "This Week" that the conservatives
routinely label as "liberal propaganda"- how did they discuss the
UPS strike? Well, their main concern, as a group, was that the
strike get settled and the stock market settle down. All of them
were cluck, cluck, clucking about "wage inflation" and whether if
the union "won" would it lead to other stikes and more "wage
inflation." "Will a settlement make unions bolder and cause 'wage
inflation'" was the common theme. Will it cause an end to the
bull market?
Well, who are these objective journalists who were clucking about
the dangers to America of a 30k worker getting a raise?
Cokie - multi-million dollar salary, who with her husband Steve,
can make thousands per speech to various groups, including 30k for
a speech to Phillip Morris executives at a outing in Palm Beach,
Florida and $35,000 from Toyota dealers for a speech shortly
before the US--Japan auto trade talks.
Georg Will - multi-million dollar salary, whose wife makes 200k as
a registered foreign agent for the Japanese Automobile
Manufactures Association, and who also can make an easy 40k for a
half hour speech, if he ever should find himself in need of some
chump change.
Sam Donaldson - multi-million dollar salary, who also considers
himself a "rancher." His ranch consists of 20,000 acres in which
he has tapped into a government sheep and mohair subsidy. He uses
this subsicy to pocket a cool 50k per annum of taxpayer money.
Yipee-ey-o, cowboy Sam. When a reporter tried to get pictures of
Donaldson's ranch house, Sam had him thrown off the property.
His comment - "In the West, trespassing is a serious offense." Of
course Sam could also get a bundle for speeches if he cared to.
The show is the old David Brinkley show. David Brinkley owns one
of Andreas's condos at his Sea View Hotel complex in Bal Harbour
right along with Bob and Elizabeth Dole. They can all sit around
the pool drinking julips and clucking about "wage inflation" with
Dwayne. Bunch of bleeding heart liberals.
Andreas's company, Archer Danials Midland, is one of the biggest
recipients of corporate welfare for sugar subsidies, ethanol
subsidies, corn subsidies, etc. (2.1 billion dollars taxpayer
money over five years for ethanol alone). Of course ADM is
sponser for the show, along with just about every other news and
financial show on network, cable, public television, or public
radio that might be in a position to criticize its business
practices. Through good PR and ad agency work, ADM comes across
as a self-sacrificing company who has ecology and the welfare of
the world as its primary focus as it labels itself - "Supermarket
to the World." That's using the old bean, Dwayne.
Of course the show is on the network owned by the the world's
largest entertainment firm - media as entertainment. (sigh)
ABC paid the tobacco companies 15 million and apologized on the
air to Philip Morris for a "Day One" episode on spiking shortly
after the takeover - despite a solid case against the tobacco
company. Jim Hightower's nationally syndicated talk show was
canceled by ABC six weeks after the merger announcement.
Hightower was a force against corporate greed and voiced his
concern about too much power in too few hands diluting the media
into a top forty entertainment game. I saw him on a CSPAN
segment and he certainly won my admiration. A voice of sanity and
reason among the hate radio yahoos. However Bob Grant, WABC
resident hatemongerer, was welcome to stay until a public outcry
over his overt racism and violence inciting diatribes finally
forced WABC's hand.
That the Baptists seem to think Disney is a hotbed of liberalism
is indictive of just how far right the righ-wing rhetoric has
moved - hell, it's now hovering somewhere around Birchville.
Van
--
-----------------------------------------------------------
To live is to battle with trolls
in the vaults of heart and brain
To write: that is to sit
in judgement over one's self.
-Ibsen
------------------------------------------------------------
Van
Foundations that cook their statistics to fit an agenda, think
tanks that manipulate the media by releasing phony "studies" in
order to push their right-wing agendas, paid propagandists
pretending to be populists - games nothing but games. Politics as
a game to won by any means - truth an impediment, not a
I sometimes think the secondary motives of these folks is to
dilute media's credibility by reducing the media to tabloid
journalism. Propaganda is the tool used by those who cannot
make a cogent case for their agenda. A credible media with
robust investigative reporting is important to democracy but an
irritant to these folks. Even without the fringe assaults by
the likes of Reed Irvine or Richard Scaife, the major media has
drifted towards domination by corporations. With one network
owned by a company involved in defense and nuclear energy, one
network owned by a large defense contractor, and one owned by a
large conservative media conglomerate (that also owns an energy
company) one might question whether the media really speaks for
the little guy.
Take a show like ABC's "This Week" that the conservatives
routinely label as "liberal propaganda." How did they discuss the
UPS strike? Well, their main concern, as a group, was that the
strike get settled and the stock market settle down. All of them
were cluck, cluck, clucking about "wage inflation" and whether if
the union "won" would it lead to other strikes and more "wage
inflation." "Will a settlement make unions bolder and cause 'wage
inflation'" was the common theme.
Well, who are these objective liberal journalists who were
clucking about the dangers to America of a 30k worker getting a
small raise?
Cokie Roberts - multi-million dollar salary, who with her husband
Steve, can make thousands per speech to various groups, including
30k for a speech to Philip Morris executives at a outing in Palm
Beach, Florida and $35,000 from Toyota dealers for a speech
shortly before the US--Japan auto trade talks.
George Will - multi-million dollar salary, whose wife makes 200k
as a registered foreign agent for the Japanese Automobile
Manufactures Association, and who also can make an easy 40k for a
half hour speech, if he desires some chump change.
Sam Donaldson - multi-million dollar salary, who also considers
himself a "rancher." His ranch consists of 20,000 acres in which
he has tapped into a government sheep and mohair subsidy to pocket
a cool 50k per annum. Yipee-ay-oh, Cowboy Sam! When a reporter
tried to get pictures of Donaldson's ranch house, Sam had him
thrown off the property. His comment - "In the West, trespassing
is a serious offense." Of course Sam could also get a bundle for
speeches if he cared to. In about a half years work, Sam’s
salary outstrips a the total wages for an average 30 year career
with UPS. Thirty years of hauling packages = 6 months of news
anchor? I don't know.
The show is the old David Brinkley show. David Brinkley
owns one of the Andreas condos at his Sea View Hotel complex in
Bal Harbour right along with Bob and Elizabeth Dole. They can all
sit around the pool sucking up juleps and clucking about "wage
inflation" with their benefactor, I suppose.
Andreas's company, Archer Danials Midland, is one of the biggest
recipients of corporate welfare for sugar subsidies, ethanol
subsidies, corn subsidies, etc. (2.1 billion dollars taxpayer
money over five years for ethanol alone). Of course ADM is
sponsor for the show, along with just about every other news and
financial show on network, cable, public television, or public
radio that might be in a position to criticize its predatory
business practices. Through good PR and ad agency work, ADM comes
across as a self-sacrificing company who has ecology and the
welfare of the world as its primary focus, as it labels itself -
"Supermarket to the World." So we all pay a few cents more for
that soda pop, the commercials are neat. That's using the old
bean, Dwayne.
Since the Disney/Capital Cities/ABC merger, (made possible by the
recent rewrite of US telecommunications law), the show is now on
the network owned by the world's largest entertainment firm.
Media as entertainment. (sigh) Shortly after the takeover, ABC
paid the tobacco companies 15 million and apologized on the air to
Philip Morris for a "Day One" episode on spiking - despite a solid
case against the tobacco company. Jim Hightower's nationally
syndicated talk show was canceled by ABC six weeks after the
merger announcement.
Hightower was a force against corporate greed and voiced his
concern about too much power in too few hands diluting the media
into "top forty entertainment." I saw him on a CSPAN segment and
he certainly won my admiration. A voice of sanity and reason
among the hate radio yahoos. However Bob Grant, WABC resident
hate monger, was welcome to stay on until a public outcry over his
overt racism and violence inciting diatribes finally forced WABC
to drop him.
That the Baptists seem to think Disney is some sort of hotbed of
liberalism is indicative of how far right the right-wing rhetoric
has moved - hell, it's now hovering somewhere around Birchville.
Van
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SCREW the EPA!! SCREW OSHA!!
Mark them oxygen canisters empty and ship 'em!
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