Controlling the news
Media - - Posted on May, 11 at 10:20 am by Ken L
Glenn Greenwald has been running a series of posts about what should be a scandal in the USA, but isn’t. It should be a scandal because it reveals how the media’s whole coverage of the Iraq invasion and occupaton - not just the opinion pieces but the so-called news as well - has been heavily shaped and dominated by the US military as part of a calculated and sustained campaign of misinformation. It isn’t a scandal because the self-same media has largely ignored the story.
Greenwald’s latest post is here. Sample:
So the Pentagon would maintain a team of “military analysts” who reliably “carry their water” — yet who were presented as independent analysts by the television and cable networks. By feeding only those pro-Government sources key information and giving them access — even before responding to the press — only those handpicked analysts would be valuable to the networks, and that, in turn, would ensure that only pro-Government sources were heard from. Meanwhile, the “less reliably friendly” ones — frozen out by the Pentagon — would be “weeded out” by the networks. The pro-Government military analysts would do what they were told because the Pentagon was “their bread and butter.” These Pentagon-controlled analysts were used by the networks not only to comment on military matters — and to do so almost always unchallenged — but also even to shape and mold the networks’ coverage choices.
It really does highlight the foolishness of the pro-occupation cheerleaders who have spent the last five years excitedly citing ‘facts’ from the MSM to support their preferred interpretation of events.
BTW - does anybody know what happened to Paul McGeogh who used to report from the Middle East for the Sydney Morning Herald? He was one of the few reporters who actually lived in the place for extended periods and seemed to rely on sources he cultivated independently rather than handouts from the approved authorities. Refreshingly, he also engaged in extensive decription of what had happened free of the ‘he said/she said’ bullshit that usually passes for journalism these days. However, I haven’t seen his byline for a long time.
Posted in Media |
May 11th, 2008 at 1:13 pm
My posts on this scandal can be found under Iraq on Labor View from Broome. Cheers!
Silence is consent or in the case of the mass media collusion.
May 11th, 2008 at 3:41 pm
I agree Ken, Paul McGeough wrote a number of insightful pieces. And was on the ground, knew the cultures. A REAL foregn correspondent. I’m not sure what happened to him. We need more reporters like him. Guess he didn’t fit into the MESSAGE that the Howard govt & their sycophantic media enablers wanted to push…
this from 2005:
It follows that what foreign correspondents file is not always appreciated …by governments and especially by their arm-chair generals, that band of pliant columnists, who’s shrill certainty that the US-led coalition and Canberra are on the right track is in inverse proportion to the time they’ve spent on the ground in Iraq, Afghanistan or any war zone.
George W. Bush didn’t go to Iraq to understand the people of Al-Shuala. He had his own personal reasons - ‘Saddam tried to shoot my dad!’ - that made him susceptible to the lobbying of the Neocons who assured him back in 2001 that this would be a little war in which his forces would be welcomed by Iraqis with flowers and candy. But history will look at the facts, so we might as well be clear about the Iraq war - it was based on lies.
Saddam had nothing to do with 9/11 and he was not connected to Osama bin Laden or his Al Qaeda terrorist network. And Saddam had no weapons of mass destruction.
(Paul McGeough: morals, history, hope, debate, and the human spirit -National Trust Heritage Lecture 2005 By Paul McGeough
Chief Correspondent The Sydney Morning Herald)
The rest can be found here:
http://webdiary.com.au/cms/?q=node/854
May 11th, 2008 at 4:42 pm
Indeed.
Here is part of a story McGeough wrote just 3 months after the the crawford cretin’s childish “MISSION ACCOMPLISHED” crothfest. QUOTE:
“…I could see their faces. I fired three grenades - two at a truck and one at a Humvee. Then we escaped across the fields to a car that was waiting for us. It took just a few seconds because God makes it easy for us.”
This is the third mission for Ahmed, a 32-year-old who has inherited family wealth, including a factory and a farm, and the fourth for Haqi, a 25-year-old Baghdad taxi-driver who defers to Ahmed as “my instructor”.
Their claim to success is in keeping with exaggerated local accounts of the hundreds of hit-and-miss resistance attacks on the US.
I checked. At Al Meshahda, near Tarmiya, which is 60 kilometres north of Baghdad, the road is scorched and gouged. Two local farmers, brothers Muhammad and Ibrahim Al Mishadani, insist three US soldiers died when the tail-end vehicles in a convoy were hit.
But the Americans reported no deaths from Tarmiya on Tuesday.
The postwar US death toll in fighting in Iraq now stands at 60, with almost 500 wounded. The conflict is showing all the early signs of what could be a protracted guerilla war.
When he took up his commission in mid-July, the new US military chief in Iraq, General John Abizaid, acknowledged the rapid development of the resistance: “They’re better co-ordinated now. They’re less amateurish and their ability to use improvised explosive devices combined with tactical activity - say, for example, attacking [our] quick-reaction forces - is more sophisticated.”
Washington has been reluctant to accept that what is happening in Iraq constitutes a guerilla war. It has repeatedly pinned the blame for instability on Saddam Hussein and Baath Party loyalists; and, particularly since last week’s bombing of the Jordanian embassy in Baghdad, on foreigners associated with the terrorist network al-Qaeda and its offshoots.
So it fell to Abizaid to finally acknowledge the Americans face a “classic guerilla-type campaign”. But he, too, stuck to the Washington script, insisting the critical threat to the Americans was from “mid-level Baathists” and from an organisational and financial structure that was, at best, localised.
The Pentagon, the US military and American analysts are reluctant to acknowledge popular support for the Iraqi resistance. But the chaos has tribal sheiks, Baghdad businessmen and many ordinary Iraqis speaking in such harsh anti-American terms that it is hard not to conclude there is a growing body of Palestinian or Belfast-style empathy with the resistance.
If the accounts of the resistance given to the Herald in interviews in the past 10 days are accurate, US intelligence is way behind understanding that what is emerging in Iraq is a centrally controlled movement, driven as much by nationalism as the mosque, a movement that has left Saddam and the Baath Party behind and already is getting foreign funds for its bid to drive out the US army.
The warm night air is so heavy that, when Ahmed exhales, his cigarette smoke hangs just where he parks it. It is a week before the attack, and we are in the garden at the comfortable home of one of his relatives in a west Baghdad suburb.
Ahmed denies having served in Saddam’s military or any of the security agencies. He offers a peculiar account of how he avoided military service: “I put lots of tea leaves in cold water and gulped it down so that it filled my lungs. The tea showed up as spots in my lungs and, after I paid the doctor some money, I was rejected on health grounds.”
Asked why he has joined the resistance after going to such lengths to avoid doing time for Saddam, Ahmed declares: “Saddam was a loser. His wars were useless and he made enemies of our Muslim neighbours.”
But this weapons dealer is uncomfortable talking war in a family environment, so he makes a call on a satellite phone, organising the use of a room in a nondescript hotel nearer to the city. Its ground-floor windows and all but one of its doors are still bricked up to fend off looters.
Slightly more at ease, Ahmed sits in a formal armchair at the hotel, the folds of his white dishdasha draped over the chair’s red brocade upholstery. Toying with his beard, he describes a Sunni resistance that is a disciplined, religiously focused force. Asked where authority rests, he says: “It’s with the sheiks in the mosques. Baath Party people and former members of the military are not allowed to be our leaders. Baathists are losers; they didn’t succeed when they worked for the party.
“We now have a single, jihadist leadership group that operates nationally. Everything is done on instructions carried by messengers. There are 35 men in my cell and I’m a leader of three other cells. The number of foreigners who are coming to help us is increasing - Syrian, Palestinian, Saudi and Qatari.
“US claims about al-Qaeda and Ansar al Islam are just propaganda.” But then he goes on: “We don’t even ask the fighters if they belong to these groups or to political parties.”
Speaking through an interpreter, he continues in guttural Arabic: “Our fighters are protecting our religion. We cannot allow foreigners to occupy our country.”
Then he repeats the argument in much of the anti-American graffiti around Baghdad: “We suffered under Saddam and we hate him, but we would put him in our hearts ahead of a Christian or a Jew, because he is a Muslim.”
This is a culture in which revenge is honourable, and Ahmed vents his opinion freely: “The Americans do not respect us, so we cannot respect them. They are a cancer of bad things: prostitution, gambling and drugs.”
Haqi: “This struggle is not about Saddam. It’s about our country and our God. Our aim is not to have power or to rule the country. We just want the US out and for the word of Allah to be the power in Iraq.”
THIS POCKET of the resistance calls itself the Army of Right. Like others, including the Army of Mohammed and the White Flags, it first came to notice in leaflets and graffiti around the fabled Abu Hanifa mosque in Baghdad’s Aadamiyah district.
Both Ahmed and Haqi refuse to give their real names or any information about where they live. “Iraq is my home,” Ahmed says.
However, their chat is peppered with references to life on the land and a tribal background. Ahmed tells stories of dropping explosives into the Euphrates as a child to stun fish which he would then gather; and of learning how to conceal weapons in his clothing from the sheep smugglers who criss-cross the Jordan-Iraq border.
Estimates of how many resistance fighters are on call run as high as 7000, but these two will not discuss numbers.
And just as Iraqi children are being coached to lie when foreigners inquire about their parents or the whereabouts of their homes, the families of resistance fighters deny their involvement in the war.
In a far-flung Baghdad suburb, dentist Amar Abbass insists his “little brother” Ameer was armed only with his “student papers and a calculator” when he was arrested six weeks ago. But neighbours say the 20-year-old - now prisoner No. 10496 at the Baghdad Airport prison - was carrying an RPG launcher when the Americans grabbed him from the street.
Ahmed’s first mission was an attack on a small US convoy near Balad, in the Tikrit region, in June. Weeks later he was part of a failed attempt to down an American helicopter at Mahmoudiya, 25 kilometres south-east of the capital.
He adopts a worldly tone as he talks about the missions: “First we watch the Americans to understand their movements. We know from the way they shoot in every direction that they are afraid.”
Usually the cells operate teams of four or five - two to manage the rocket-propelled grenade launcher and two or three to provide covering fire. In most cases the identity of each fighter is withheld from the others.
Because the roots of Iraqi offence at the American presence are to be found in their tribal culture as much as in the Koran, the resistance fighters confidently rely on tribal networks for information on the Americans and for help to get away in a hurry after an attack.
Ahmed says: “The people offer us hiding places when we are in danger. They support us with words and blessings and sometimes they hide our fighters in the boot of their cars to take them to safety.”
Their approach is as effective as it is simple…”
Journalism!
May 11th, 2008 at 5:59 pm
Hehe and all the time it was Moqtada and the Persians. Sneaky blighters these Islamofascists.
May 11th, 2008 at 7:42 pm
Sorry, Ken, but I think you’re underestimating war-mongers and chickenhawks. These tools weren’t quoting the MSM (who, BTW, was quoting them to justify their war. They didn’t need to JUSTIFY it. This war came about because they wanted it to. And they could. Plain and simple. Any ex post fact bullshit (including the hilarious “flypaper” excuse) was just political cover. It was never meant as a genuine way of explaing their actions.
Those of us who always believed that war should be a last resort, and not a first choice had the fact available to us months before the first shot was fired. Be it ex-USMC weapons inspectors, UN officials, diplomats, honest intel analysts(serving and retired), or real journalists, there was ALWAYS information available to expose this fiasco …for those who cared enough about the cost to look.
On the other hand we had (and have) those individual and groups (with their own varied agenda) who studiously, and aggressively ignored any interpretation which would derail their unprovoked war.
May 11th, 2008 at 8:54 pm
The power to provoke and engage in War remains entirely in the hands of Government.The MSM is but a pimp in the process,as can easily be assessed by the term “embedded journalism”.The Islamic brothers fighting the Americans,maybe wrong about prostitution,because some of the recent strange deaths of American Prostitutes to blow the whistle on the powerful,would seem to cut across the whole American establishment,which must include the lazy-minded war-monger or two.Some of these Prostitutes appear to me to be worthy of almost Sainthood,without, decrying the Injustices meted out to many in Iraq.There is no courage in these words of mine,but,I think,they the two dead that Alex Jones picks up about, may have been more than brave faced,but ,when really pressed,ready to be the force for Justice.The denial process is a machine to its self. Some Mainstream Media,find it all too much.Geraldo,or Gerardo is one,but,I wonder how long any of these people will last,often even myself.
May 11th, 2008 at 9:53 pm
Good stuff Mars. Interesting points philip.
Yep, the majority of the media drank the administration’s “kool aid” (some w/ their hands tied behind their back looking down into the shark pool) & then spewed it up over a gullible public, and got away w/ these blatant acts of propaganda & deceit even tho a number of courageous journos & bloggers were providing the links between these Pentagon analysts & contractors benefitting from the war process:
http://mediamatters.org/items/200805090008?f=h_latest
It’s obvious now that the mainstream, corporate media & a few Right-Wing/Hawk Dem bloggers, doco makers & authors were feeding us BS thanx to the connections their parent companies & shareholders had.
Not to mention the big buckeroos to be made from providing a “dumbed down” & BREAKING NEWS…LIVE!!! addicted worldwide audience w/ the soap opera GREATEST CON ON EARTH.
Any reporters w/ integrity who had access to a large audience were generally pushed out the back door…or put onto less stimulating stories & projects…& funding was cut & or reduced for public broadcasting crews that didn’t toe the “al Qaeda everywhere including Iraq” PRO-WAR stance.
You’d think Joseph Goebbels had risen from the dead…as Kevin Rennie points out on his informative blog (see comment #1 above):
“bloggers, Robert F Kennedy jr and Brendan Demelle use far more colourful rhetoric:
In a sophisticated propaganda effort that would make Joseph Goebbels and Edward Bernays green with envy, the Pentagon had turned some fifty former officers, posing as independent experts, into hand puppets mouthing pro-war talking points on Fox News, ABC, CBS, CNN and NBC. Unearthed: News of the Week the Mainstream Media Forgot to Report
(Labor View from Broome)
NO LONGER EYES WIDE SHUT…but the media are still mouths tightly closed…unless it comes to promoting MORE WAR. I’m no longer listening or watching.
May 11th, 2008 at 10:18 pm
The internet is a wonderful thing. Paul McGeough is writing books.
http://www.thenewpress.com/index.php?option=com_catalog&task=author&catalog_id=70&author_id=P39181
May 11th, 2008 at 10:28 pm
Occasionally, rarely, the $$$ machine hits a small bump. But is ALWAYS shrugs it off and keeps rolling.
The Lucrative Art of War
The New York Times
Friday 09 May 2008
Congress is finally moving to shut one of the more egregious forms of Iraq war profiteering: defense contractors using offshore shell companies to avoid paying their fair share of payroll taxes. The practice is widespread and Congressional investigators have been dispatched to one of the prime tax refuges, the Cayman Islands, to seek a firsthand estimate of how much the Treasury is being shorted.
No one will be surprised to hear that one of the suspected prime offenders is KBR, the Texas-based defense contractor, formerly a part of the Halliburton conglomerate allied with Vice President Dick Cheney. According to a report in The Boston Globe, KBR, which has landed billions in Iraq contracts, has used two Cayman shell companies to avoid paying hundreds of millions in payroll, Medicare and unemployment taxes.
Unfortunately right now there is nothing illegal about this. The House has approved legislation to plug the dodge…
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/09/opinion/09fri2.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin
“Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing happened.”
~Winston Churchill
May 11th, 2008 at 10:32 pm
Of course the thugs and parasites at Blackwater have nothing to fear.
May 12th, 2008 at 12:18 am
Partially because of their contacts in government/congress…Wayne Madsen wrote this in Sept 2005:
Blackwater’s CEO and co-founder is Michigan-based Erik D. Prince, an ex-US Navy SEAL, an heir to an automobile parts corporate fortune, a former intern for President George H. W. Bush, and a contributor to such right wing Republicans as recently indicted Tom DeLay.
Prince also has strong political links to Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania, Family Research Council President Tony Perkins, one-time GOP presidential candidate Gary Bauer, a political action committee called “Restoring the American Dream,” (whose board of directors included Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour, Robert Bork, former Rep. Steve Largent, Domino’s Pizza founder Thomas Monaghan, North Carolina Rep.
Sue Myrick [appointed to the Joint Congressional “Review” panel for Hurricane Katrina relief], and former Rep. J. C. Watts) and, more interestingly, current House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI) chairman Peter Hoekstra, who has been pressuring the CIA to accept more intelligence from HPSCI sources.
The close connection between Hoekstra and Blackwater, a company that advertises its own intelligence gathering services: “Our mission is to provide the client with veteran military, intelligence and law enforcement professionals with demonstrated field operations performance tempered with mature experience in both foreign and domestic requirements,” should be of concern to non-politicized and career U.S. intelligence professionals.
Erik Prince’s sister Betsy, who is chairman of the Michigan GOP, is married to Dick DeVos, the son of Amway founder Richard DeVos, a member of the board of the conservative and Christian Dominionist Council for National Policy (CNP), an umbrella organization where he rubs shoulders with such leading right wingers as Jack Abramoff, Howard Ahmanson, the Leadership Institute’s Morton Blackwell, Focus on the Family’s James Dobson, Coral Ridge’s Dr. D. James Kennedy, Edwin Meese III, Pat Robertson, Richard Viguerie, and Paul Weyrich.
The DeVos family has used a corporate entities such as the Windquest Group, DP Fox Ventures, and Alticor, Inc. to funnel thousands of dollars to conservative GOP politicians and their PACs, including Restoring the American Dream board member Sue Myrick, South Dakota Sen. John Thune, and Louisiana Rep. Bobby Jindal. Erik Prince, through a Virginia entity called Prince Household LLC, as well as the Prince Group, has contributed to Tom DeLay, Peter Hoekstra, George W. Bush, South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint, and Oklahoma Sen. Tom Coburn.
Blackwater maintains the largest private military training facility in the United States.
Located on an abandoned U.S. military base at Moyock, North Carolina on the edge of the Great Dismal Swamp near the North Carolina-Virginia border, Blackwater’s Security Consulting subsidiary attracts military and paramilitary trainees from around the country and the world.
Former Chilean and Honduran military personnel have been trained at Moyock prior to deployment to Iraq.
What is even more attractive for the Bush administration and Blackwater is the fact that, as a private company, Blackwater is far removed from oversight by government inspectors general, Freedom of Information Act requests, the Government Accountability Office (GAO), and snooping reporters.
Iraqi insurgents killed and mutilated the bodies of four Blackwater mercenaries near Fallujah, Iraq in April 2004, an act that triggered a massive U.S. military response that laid waste to the “city of mosques.”
Recently, Blackwater mercenaries have been patrolling the streets of New Orleans along with other mercenaries from the United States and Israel.
waynemadsen report. com
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Those who construct wars to earn big bucks have spread thruout our Democracies like bloody viruses.
If we are going to examine the validity of herbal remedies & claims made by healers…maybe we should remember to put more money into our public health systems for research…& to pay for more compassionate/empathy based training of Doctors & those on the front line of Medicine…
and ensure more Doctors & Nurses exist so that patients are not rushed thru like cattle at the killing yards…& in turn remember that some of these “mumbo jumbo” practitioners who offer up “placebo effects” tend to be anti-war, pro-peace…whilst some scientists & rationalists are being paid to distort truth, cover up bad side effects of RUSHED THRU DRUGS FOR PROFIT…which helps to undermine the RESPONSIBLE science work. Stuffs up overall credibility.
Very similar to the antics of the Bush admin & their media enablers who have STUFFED UP TRUST IN GOVERNMENT & the MEDIA. Perhaps WE need to scrutinise further their EVIDENCE for WAR…& their Corporate/profiteering connections & lobby groups.
And perhaps WE need to question why THE MEDIA that preaches to our children are not held more accountable…& are not forced to be REGISTERED like teachers, nurses, doctors and so on…?
May 12th, 2008 at 1:38 am
Dunno, nasking. Would YOU trust a meeja outlet which is registered and held accountable by a govnt body?
Meanwhile, the serial-aggression, threats of obliteration and general chest-thumping is creating a (not unexpected) adjustment in the way biz does it’s thing.
Crude jolt for US as Iran scraps oil trade in dollar
1 May, 2008
MUMBAI: With Iran, the world’s fourth-largest oil producer, shifting its crude trading to the euro and the yen, instead of the US dollar, treasury managers feel that this could well be the first challenge to the US dollar’s dominance as currency of global trade.
On Wednesday, Iran decided to make all transactions with euros in Europe, and the Japanese yen within Asia. This was largely triggered by the tensions between Iran and Washington for the past few years and lately, due to the weakening of the dollar. Despite its weakened position against almost every currency last year, the dollar has continued to dominate as currency of trade. Traders continue to use the greenback as it was a convenient currency. While exporters stood to gain by billing in dollars, buyers did not always agree. Also, there were logistics problems in carrying out trade in multiple currencies.
However, unlike other trading countries, the inconvenience of moving away from the dollar is not enough to deter Iran. The Islamic republic’s decision to reduce exposure to the dollar is more political than economic with the United States ratcheting up sanctions because of a dispute over Tehran’s nuclear programme. In December, an official said 90% of its oil export earnings were outside the dollar.
“All of Iran’s oil trading is being done with the euro and the yen,” Hojjatollah Ghanimifard, international affairs director of the National Iranian Oil Company, told Fars News Agency. “We agreed with all the buyers of Iran’s crude to trade oil in currencies other than the dollar,” he said. “In Europe, Iran’s crude is being sold in the euro, in Asia in the euro and the yen, and trading with the yen has not only been in Japan.”
Other treasury managers said the impact on the dollar could be much more intense if other economies such as Saudi Arabia and Russia decide to follow suit. Another forex manager added that much would depend on the bilateral deals between Iran and the countries buying oil from it…
//economictimes.indiatimes.com/opinions/3000162.cms#top2
Like they say in the movies “it’s strictly business, nothing personal”
May 12th, 2008 at 2:17 am
Mars, I’d prefer a media that receives funds from govt. as well as limited contributions from viewers that is governed/overseen by an independent body.
It just seems crazy to me that political blogs are blocked from being read by students but the mainstream media hits everyone’s households on the basis of self-regulation. There’s almost no accountability. They can pump their corporate propaganda/ads & infotainment & WAR lies into any HOME they like…and people too often swallow the sh*t. Part of the reason we’re in this mess.
But I do understand your fears…as we’ve all noted, the Howard/Bush/Blair/Brown/Berlusconi etc. admins have really undermined our TRUST in govt. As have the “meeja”.
Continuing the corporate/company/contractor connection to Congress:
Senator)Feinstein supported the Iraq war resolution in the vote of October 11, 2002; she has claimed that she was misled by President Bush on the reasons for going to war. However, former UN Weapons Inspector in Iraq Scott Ritter has stated that Feinstein in summer 2002 acknowledged to him that she knew the Bush administration had not provided any convincing intelligence to back up its claims about the Iraqi weapons of mass destruction.
and
Between 2001 and 2006, Feinstein served as the ranking member of the United States Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies, also known as the “MILCON” subcommittee. Feinstein also served as chair of the MILCON subcommittee when the Democrats controlled the Senate in 2001 and 2002.
While on the MILCON subcommitte, Feinstein voted for appropriations worth billions of dollars to firms owned by her husband, Richard C. Blum. This included millions of dollars in contracts awarded to Blum’s Perini Corporation to provide goods and services in Iraq and Afghanistan.
As the ranking Democratic, Feinstein would have again become chair of the MILCON subcommittee when the Democratically controlled Senate of the 110th Congress was sworn in on January 4, 2007. However, Feinstein resigned from the subcommittee prior to the new congressional term, forfeiting chairmanship of the MILCON subcommittee to Tim Johnson. Metro Newspapers reported that Feinstein’s resignation was attributable to a series of articles, partially funded by the progressive Nation Institute, exposing the potential conflict of interest posed by Feinstein’s voting to award contracts to her husband’s firms.
In April 2007, Feinstein’s office denied any ethical conflict, however, the director of the Project on Government Oversight who has examined evidence assembled by investigative reporter Peter Byrne stated that “the paper trail showing Senator Feinstein’s conflict of interest is irrefutable.”
Additional scandal arose when it was revealed that members of Feinstein’s Senate staff attempted to purge references to these alleged conflicts of interest from the Wikipedia articles on herself and her husband.
and info on her husband:
Blum did hold over 111,000 shares of stock in URS Corporation, which is now one of the top defense contractors in the United States. URS bought EG&G, a leading provider of technical services and management to the U.S. military, from The Carlyle Group in 2002. Carlyle’s trusty advisers, past and present, include former President George H.W. Bush, James Baker, and ex-SEC Commissioner Arthur Levitt, among other prominent neoconservatives and Washington power brokers.
URS and Blum have since banked on the Iraq war, scoring a $600 million contract through EG&G. As a result, URS has seen its stock price more than triple since the war began in March 2003. Blum has cashed in over $2 million on this venture alone and another $100 million for his investment firm.
“As part of EG&G’s sale price,” reports the San Francisco Chronicle, “Carlyle acquired a 21.74 percent stake in URS – second only to the 23.7 percent of shares controlled by Blum Capital.”
The Carlyle Group has long been accused of exploiting its political connections to turn a profit. And if Carlyle can come under the microscope for its government ties and war profiteering, as it did in Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11, than surely Blum’s URS ought to be subject to the same scrutiny.
Owen Blicksilver, Blum’s spokesman, claims his boss and Sen. Feinstein have never talked shop at home in their gated mansion: “Mr. Blum and Sen. Feinstein have never had any discussions about outsourcing, government contracts, or URS.”
and
In November 2007, Feinstein was one of only six Democrats to vote to confirm Michael Mukasey as Attorney General.
(all Wiki pedia)
———
Is it any wonder that just about nothing changes & wars/invasions/bombings continue almost unabated?
Games people play to keep up a good lifestyle. Amongst other things.
May 12th, 2008 at 2:31 am
And speaking of Attorney-General Mukasey:
MUKASEY’S FALSE TESTIMONY
Michael Mukasey, who promised he would be an independent Attorney General, has turned out to be just as much of a lackey for the Administration as his predecessor Alberto Gonzales. Mukasey seems to feel, as Gonzales did, that he doesn’t work for the public but is there to ensure that his bosses stay out of jail. (Interesting side-note: Barack Obama says that, if elected, he would ask his attorney general to investigate whether Bush and Cheney might have committed indictable crimes while in office.)
But what really got Mukasey into hot water in recent days was his assertion that the U.S. knew that a terrorist in Afghanistan was calling someone inside the U.S. prior to the 9/11 attack but the supposedly “outdated” FISA laws wouldn’t permit the Administration to tap that phone call and thus prevent the 9/11 events from happening. Mukasey was using that fallacious argument in 2008 as a scare reason for why the Bush Administration needed re-authorization immediately of the NSA’s domestic-spying program, complete with built-in amnesty for the big telecom companies working in cahoots with the Administration.
But Mukasey’s explanation is total B.S.
As Glenn Greenwald and others have made clear, under then-existing FISA law the Bush Administration could have eavesdropped on the pre-9/11 call and didn’t really need any more draconian spying programs. (Mukasey has since tried to tapdance away from having misled Congress.)
The whole object of the Bush Administration, in this and every other matter, has been to amass total control of information and intelligence in the White House, cutting out the courts (in this case, the FISA Court) and Congress. They want full freedom to operate outside the law, with nobody — no judges, no legislators, no media reporters — looking over their shoulders at what they might be up to, and telling them what they can or cannot do. It’s possible that at least one aim of the domestic-spying programs is to learn from secret phone-taps and emails what their political enemies are thinking.
(Impeachment Now Or Apocalypse Later?
Posted by CrisisPapers in Editorials & Other Articles, Tue Apr 22nd 2008,
| Bernard Weiner |
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There’s Glenn Greenwald again Ken…guarding Democracy. I can’t imagine any impeachment proceedings happening under this Congress/Senate, Supreme Court & Atttorney-General can you?
Rigged by Busheviks & their enablers (incl. media) from top to bottom.
It’s up to the American public to chuck ‘em out & bring SANITY & PEACE to America again. Best they really RESEARCH their candidates. Like Clintons link to Rubin:
Director and Chairman of the Executive Committee of Citigroup. In November 2007, he was appointed Chairman of Citigroup, but left the post in December. He served as the 70th United States Secretary of the Treasury during both the first and second Clinton Administrations.
In 1999, affirming his career-long interest in markets, Mr. Rubin joined Citigroup. Of note, the supermerger between Travelers Group and Citicorp was facilitated by the repeal of the Glass Steagall Act (Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act). This legislation was passed under the Clinton administration, days before Rubin’s resignation. Consolidation of investment, commercial banking, and insurance services as practiced by Citigroup under the direction of Rubin, has been implicated in the subprime mortage crisis. Despite criticism for his role in this debacle, Rubin serves as a Director and Chairman of the Executive Committee, and remains there to this day. He sparked controversy in 2001 when he contacted an acquaintance at the Treasury Department and asked if the department could convince bond-rating agencies not to downgrade the corporate debt of Enron, a debtor of Citigroup. Rubin wanted Enron creditors to lend money to the troubled company for a restructuring of its debt; a collapse of the energy giant might have serious consequences for financial markets and energy distribution. The Treasury official refused. A subsequent congressional staff investigation cleared Rubin of any wrongdoing, but he was still harshly criticized by political opponents.
(wiki pedia)
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Recently Hillary Clinton said America needs Robert Rubin & Allan Greenspan back…
It really is enuff to make you wanna puke.
May 12th, 2008 at 3:08 am
Part of the reason it isn’t more of a scandal, I think, is because it is absolutely _PREHISTORIC_ news. Those of us in the commie, liberal intellectual elite have been reading that satanic Noam Chomsky for _literally_ DECADES on how consent is manufactured through the media. The fact that anyone with an IQ above the institutionally retarded should start to get it now is gratifying, I suppose, in a “is there still time to save a democratic republic” sort of way.
May 12th, 2008 at 8:43 am
I too would be interested to know what happened to Paul McGeough. Last seen on the Radio National Book Show as ‘correspondent and former editor for the Sydney Morning Herald’
http://www.abc.net.au/rn/bookshow/stories/2007/1837825.htm
I’m assuming ‘former’ applies to both. I recall reading that he was dismissed but may be wrong.
Can there be a clearer example of how far the SMH has fallen than them sending Miranda Devine to Baghdad to interview Petraeus at the beginning of the surge rather than using McGeough.
May 12th, 2008 at 10:37 am
Smchris there’s a significant difference in kind between understanding the general principles upon which the MSM works and the disclosure of a concrete example complete with verifiable evidence. Are you suggesting nobody should bother reporting specific verifiable cases of (for example) men sexually harassing women on the grounds that feminists have been telling us for ages that this is what men do? Ridiculous.
May 12th, 2008 at 11:39 am
Smchris has made a condescending, sarcastic & ignorant comment either to distract…or demonstrate they’re an arrogant twit. Perhaps both.
Knowledge is not something to be kept in elite boxes only to be pulled out to show off or make money off when THE KEEPERS feel so inclined.
Human DNA has changed little from prehistoric times til today…but some significant CHANGES have occurred. Being able to compare ensures we know the structure of DNA, it’s role…& what has…& hasn’t changed. A search for continuity can REVEAL useful & eye opening information, valuable for human & other species interaction & progress.
Understanding NEWS gathering & dissemination practices are as relevant today as they were yesterday (so called “pre-historic” times)…that includes understanding the makeup of the News organisations, their purpose, their feeding habits (funding), their alliances, the goals of shareholders…& why they choose (if that’s the RIGHT WORD?) to MANUFACTURE & CONSTRUCT the news the way they do. There is a fine line between spewing outright PROPAGANDA to benefit THE FEW & providing information that serves the public interest as whole.
So where is Paul McGeough?
May 12th, 2008 at 11:51 am
Paul is finishing a book. I think he back in the real world soon.
May 12th, 2008 at 1:15 pm
Leo Strauss had a better idea. Rule by an unscrupulous intellectual elite. They control the flow of information and use the “noble lie” as needed to protect the confused citizens from themselves.
Apparently Libby, Negroponte, Abrams, Wolfowitz, Chertoff, Feith etc are keen to give it a go.
May 12th, 2008 at 3:50 pm
Apparently Libby, Negroponte, Abrams, Wolfowitz, Chertoff, Feith etc are keen to give it a go.
Yeah, but they missed the lecture where Strauss reminded the elite not to believe their own lies.
May 12th, 2008 at 4:38 pm
From the man himself:
The point is that you have to work. And that’s why the propaganda system is so successful. Very few people are going to have the time or the energy or the commitment to carry out the constant battle that’s required to get outside of Lehrer, or Dan Rather, or somebody like that. The easy thing to do, you know, you come home from work, you’re tired, you had a busy day, you’re not going to spend the evening carrying out a research project. So you turn on the tube, you say it’s probably right, or you look at the headlines in the paper, and then you’re watching sports or something. That’s basically the way the system of indoctrination works. Sure the other stuff is there, but you’re going to work to find it.
(Noam Chomsky)
I recall Chavez at the UN referring to GW Bush as “Satan” whilst brandishing a piece of Chomsky fact.
Leo Strauss eh?
Sh*t Mars, we’ll find ourselves reading Homer’s Iliad, Plato’s The Republic & Stendahl soon.
No just or happy man here as the American Nation-State, some call REPUBLIC, crumbles under the weight of its own hierarchical hypocrisy…as borders & laws & a pursuit of the “fair-go for all” inspired by a New Deal are smashed by ruthless corporations under the guise of FREEDOM & FREE MARKETS & God’s children.
The FIREWALLS for the PRAGMATIC & PSYCHO FIENDS are the Usual Suspects…
Patriotism (Imagine Cheney: “question my activities & tactics & I’ll call you out…traitor”)
The Holocaust (The sickos…thank goodness many in the Jewish community - Greenwald et al - have woken up to these deceivers…those psychologically traumatized/brain washed to the point of IRRATIONALISM types…the TRUTH SEEKERS see how they hide behind this tragic episode in history - indeed i’m no “denier” -…not to mention support for Israel at all costs. Israel WILL BE protected in a two-state agreement by Obama…I’m sure of it…not by strategic nukes on Iran…& bomb bomb bomb singing by wily Repugs)
Democratic Capitalism in the Middle East (“just pursuing it” say some pyramid builders as they spread the good word & suck in the moolah…whilst using some Filipinos like Serfs to do their DIRTY WORK)…I’m glad to see some WORKER’S RIGHTS emerging in the Gulf States tho…including Dubai.
The Democratic Party (as tho being a Democrat makes you automatically a “good guy or girl”…depends who they play with I guess…& who taught them…at which Uni…or at home)…
& now we have FAUX conspiracy sites that were constructed to anticipate the uncovering of info. & evidence…so they play THE GAME…& send the curious down “red herring” road.
Yep, they like to “cover all bases”…have so for many years.
I’m helping people develop intellectual self-defense… I don’t mean go to school, because you’re not going to get it there… It means that you have to develop an independent mind, and work on it. That’s extremely hard to do alone… The beauty of our system is that it isolates everybody. Each person is sitting alone in front of the tube. It’s very hard to have ideas or thoughts under those circumstances. You can’t fight the world alone. Some people can, but it’s pretty rare. The way to do it is through organization.
(Noam Chomsky)
Thank goodness we have a saner govt. here in Australia than elsewhere…I think.
Looking forward to the budget.
May 12th, 2008 at 6:12 pm
Dan Rather was sidelined quite easily.
May 13th, 2008 at 1:06 am
Rather, yes…caught in a Rovian trap perhaps?…guess he was weakened by Kryptonite of the Bushevik kind…& trussed like a Texan turkey. Shoved in the oven & baked until the tears ran…& most of his character burnt to unrecognisable.
Guardian of Democracy treated by friend & foe like Thanksgiving dinner…forked, sliced, chomped on…sh*t out w/out ceremony or thought….nor recognition of his former life, & how long it took to grow. Such is the way in the good ole USA.
Still, he’s making a comeback…i think. Another Phoenix perhaps…but at what cost?
Here’s a trip down memory lane:
Later during the 1980s, Rather gained further renown for his forceful and skeptical reporting on the Iran-Contra Affair, which eventually led to an on-air confrontation with then Vice President George H. W. Bush: Bush referred to Rather’s “dead air incident” saying, “I want to talk about why I want to be President, why those 41 percent of the people are supporting me. And I don’t think it’s fair to judge my whole career by a rehash on Iran. How would you like it if I judged your career by those seven minutes when you walked off the set in New York?” Rather ignored the swipe and continued his line of questioning.
It also marked the beginning of Rather’s ratings decline, a slump from which he never recovered. Rather was the only anchor of the “Big Three” never to be granted an interview by Bush during his administration. His son, George W. Bush, followed suit and never granted Rather an interview during his presidency.
(wiki pedia)
I can think of a lonely little old lady sitting in front of THE PODIUM who is treated same…that’s how petty these screwballs are.
Some Roman Emperors had the same habits. Tho the methods of exacting revenge were sometimes far more brutal. Or so it seemed.
May 13th, 2008 at 12:34 pm
The revelations continue from Greenwald et al:
Throughout most of Donald Rumsfeld’s tenure as Defense Secretary, his top aide, particularly for communications, was Larry Di Rita. Di Rita left the Pentagon in 2006 to become spokesman for the Bank of America Corp. His duties at the Pentagon included the maintenance of the “military analyst” program which was exposed recently by The New York Times’ David Barstow.
(and)
“we develop a core group from within our media analyst list of those that we can count on to carry our water”; “by providing them with key and valuable information, they become the key go to guys for the networks and it begins to weed out the less reliably friendly analysts by the networks themselves”; “This trusted core group will be more than willing to work closely with us because we are their bread and butter.” In reply, Di Rita expressly endorsed this description: “I think it makes a lot of sense to do as you suggest and I guess I thought we were already doing a lot of this . . . . We ought to be doing this.”
But before the DoD released these emails to the public, Di Rita — on April 27, 2008 — appeared on CNN’s Reliable Sources, was questioned by Howard Kurtz about the program’s purposes, and made statements that, as we now know from those documents, were completely false (h/t John Amato via email):
KURTZ: I talked to retired Colonel Bill Cowan, who was a Fox military analyst. He said that three years ago, after he criticized the war effort on “The O’Reilly Factor,” he was booted off the group, was never invited to another briefing, never got another telephone call, never got another e-mail. So it sounds like access was provided to those who weren’t too critical.
(Glenn Greenwald, Salon. com: May 12, 2008, Larry Di Rita’s responses to questions about the “military analyst” program)
the rest here:
http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/05/12/di_rita/index.html
———-
I think we can safely say the American people, and the rest of us in the COW, did NOT get the FULL PICTURE in the run-up to the Iraq War. Instead, we were offered up by our media & politicians “sexed up”, unadulterated claptrap…instead of EVIDENCE.
And now over a million are dead…& parts of Iraq & Lebanon have been blown to smithereens…insurgents rise up & are referred to as “terrorists”…criminals run rampant…war machine companies have helped to BREAK the US govt…& so many xenophobic, fear-driven, religion-crazed, gun toting whack jobs convince their neighbors the way to heaven is by supporting “limestone cross & crusader” Bush and the fella he’s passing the baton to…”clean green nuclear” McCain.
Is it any wonder Hillary feels compelled to let her MUSCULAR & bigoted side out? She attracts the ignorant, brain-washed & paranoid like they were moths & she were a FLAME.
Ironically, methinks Obama needs Hillary…but I hope she & the others who voted w/ Bush & stirred up THE HORNET’S NEST…& also previously provided Citigroup/Carlyle Group etc. w/ plenty of opportunities…can see the errors of their ways.
The Dems need the brains & passion of Rahm Emmanuel & Hillary/Bill Clinton. Particularly, if they want to grab the Vital Center.
But not if they are going to undermine his Presidency…do a Johnson to his Kennedy.
Let’s HOPE that these muscular, pragmatic Dems have the interests of the many…& not THE FEW…at heart. It’s a long road to REDEMPTION.
May 13th, 2008 at 12:46 pm
That should be “do a Johnson to Obama’s Kennedy”. He’s also got a bit of the Roosevelt in him too.
The Neo-Cons know exactly how to appeal to the Jewish vote in Florida & elsewhere…hopefully the Jewish Americans can see the dishonesty and BS for what it is. Vote buying & profiteering by way of fear-mongering & moral panic.
As Greenwald notes:
It isn’t just the American neocons, but also the Israelis, who are escalating the “Attack Iran” campaign. The Jerusalem Post yesterday “reported” that “with Iran racing forward with its nuclear program, Israel now believes the Islamic Republic will master centrifuge technology and be able to begin enriching uranium on a military scale this year”
The principal tactic Israel-centric neocons have repeatedly used with Bush to induce him to attack Iran has been to tell him that history will judge him based on whether he permits Iran to obtain a nuclear weapon.
“The president has said several times that he will be in the historical dock if he allows Iran to get the bomb. He believes that if we wait for threats to fully materialise, we’ll have waited too long — something I agree with 100%,’ Podhoretz said.
And now, magically up pops these new reports from Israel warning that the deadline to stop Iran’s nuclear bomb is the end of the year — right before George Bush leaves office. Bush has less than eight months left to fulfill his history-mandated mission “to prevent another holocaust” by attacking Iran, or else “be in the historical dock if he allows Iran to get the bomb.” They’re as transparent as they are dishonest and bloodthirsty.
(Glenn Greenwald, Salon. Com: May 8, 2008
Neocons and the truth: Bitter enemies to the end)
—————–
There’s NO WAY Obama & Clinton will not DEFEND Israel. But hopefully SANITY will prevail in the process…i have seen little from the Busheviks.
But can the Corporate media see the LIGHT?
Excellent topic Ken…I’m out here for awhile. Budget, budget, budget…
May 14th, 2008 at 11:55 am
I might add, I haven’t turned off the mainstream media completely. I do sneak in “The Situation Room’ occasionally…Jack Cafferty is pretty cool & grumpy (tho he needs to be a bit more careful talking about China…& around cyclists…that goes for plenty of other clowns out there…tho more bike tracks would assist the problem full bore):
Cafferty was reprimanded by the president of CNN when he called Donald Rumsfeld “an obnoxious jerk and war criminal” on the eve of the 2006 midterm election. He made an on-air acknowledgment of having “stepped over the line” however he later told an interviewer: “I will go to my grave as Jack Cafferty, Private Citizen, believing that these people committed war crimes.”
(Wiki pedia)
Sounds “right on!” to me.
Jeffrey Toobin is wide thinking…& Jeanne Moos does some witty stuff kinda You Tube style at the end of the show…she can be a bit in yer face & loudmouthed but kinda grows on ya after awhile.
I take most of what they say w/ a pinch of salt.
Obama gave a great speech today. He’s almost like a black Roosevelt. Yet half-white.
I also take in SKY NEWS Eco Report now & then. One of the shows I can tolerate on SKY NEWS.
May 14th, 2008 at 2:19 pm
Hillary gave a half-decent speech. She’s a goer. I wouldn’t want to be the enemy of anyone she supports…that’s for darn sure. Tough lille mudda. Gets her teeth into a campaign, that’s for sure. Today she was West Virginia’s “Mountain Mama”…:)
Sometimes when I’m watching the Corporate media, particularly under the Bush regime, and the previous Howard era here in Australia, I feel/felt like I’m watching “shadows” or “masked” characters rather than REAL people, REAL characters of change.
As tho the news readers, journos, correspondents were merely “talking puppets” controlled by media barons & corporations & wealthy families who preferred us to live & learn in the shadow world instead of learning to see the REAL by the light of the sun.
Images & interpretations of events on THE BOX/TV seemed to be defined by the same experts over and over again (think military advisers in the run up to the Iraq War…now possibly Iran & Lebanon & Syria)…& the alternative views were barely heard…or MOCKED or censored/cut off (think O’Reilly).
Another commentor once got me thinkin’ about Plato’s ‘Allegory of the Cave’…& i thought it fit well w/ this idea that WE are not getting out enuff, nor are reporters, to SEE & TELL/DEFINE the EVENTS & CAUSES as they are. We rely on THE BOX & it’s celebrity reporters/talking heads to DEFINE the news for us.
DIVERSITY of OPINION & DEFINITION OF THE NEWS is ESSENTIAL in a PARTICIPATORY & OPEN, FUNCTIONING DEMOCRACY.
Paul McGeough was on the ground…he had the experience & contacts to tell it as it was…well, at least an interpretation that differed from the DOMINANT view being espoused by Howard’s cronies & much of their media enablers. The same went for Dan Rather…& many others…those who were disappeared from THE BOX.
Thank goodness for the blogs. I start my day w/ Huffington Post…then go to Asia Times Online, Information Clearing House, read thru the Buzzflash & Bartlett Diaries emails, The Raw Story, Salon.Com, Counterpunch, Crooks & Liars, The Smirking Chimp, Crikey, Lavartus Prodeo, Tim’s blogocracy…the list goes on & on…& of course Road to Surfdom.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allegory_of_the_cave
(Allegory of the cave)
May 14th, 2008 at 11:17 pm
Quote from John Podhoretz (son of Norm), in the New York Post, reasoning away the preznit’s unprovoked aggressive attitude towards Iraq:
“Maybe his conviction led him to believe things that turned out to be fraudulent, but that would mean he misled himself. And if he misled himself,then by definition he wasn’t lying.”
An ironclad explanation if I ever heard one. No harm done. NEXT!
May 15th, 2008 at 3:19 pm
Soon it will be “not guilty by reason of insanity”. So much for the Republic’s “safe-guards”.
“Sh*t Mars, we’ll find ourselves reading Homer’s Iliad, Plato’s The Republic & Stendahl soon.”
I could kick myself on this one…it’s spelt Stendhal.
Mars, ever experienced Stendhal Syndrome?:
Stendhal syndrome or Stendhal’s syndrome is a psychosomatic illness that causes rapid heartbeat, dizziness, confusion and even hallucinations when an individual is exposed to art, usually when the art is particularly ‘beautiful’ or a large amount of art is in a single place. The term can also be used to describe a similar reaction to a surfeit of choice in other circumstances, e.g. when confronted with immense beauty in the natural world.
(wiki pedia)
————–
I get it when I look at some paintings or read poetry from the so called Romantic Era…& listening to Mahler:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qmiieWJyCZ8&feature=related
(Mahler: Symphony No. 5 in C sharp minor, Adagietto)
Some would say my sense of the INDIVIDUAL is in conflict w/ my understanding for the need to be part of THE COLLECTIVE/Nation-State, society…and my IRRATIONAL tendencies are clouding RATIONAL judgement.
That the journey to understanding by way of muse (touching the OTHER…GOD?)…& observing from that mountaintop the valley covered in fog (FOG OF WAR), is merely egotistical, distancing and delusional.
But sometimes I need that distance & time to comprehend…provided i have diverse sources & a deep pool of knowledge (Internet) to draw upon:
“Composer-conductor Leonard Bernstein, who felt a strong affinity with Mahler, expressed the view that Mahler’s music “foretold” the many cataclysms of the twentieth century.”
But it’s also ESSENTIAL to come down from the MOUNTAIN or the CLOUDS…put away those WINGS OF DESIRE…& mingle w/ the many…
breathe in other ideas, views, cultures …& learn thru EXPERIENCE, adapt to CHANGE by diversifying skills…and go beyond consuming from the SOCK PUPPETS & shadows playing GAMES, in our CAVE….or in THE BOX…the thing of FAMILY VIEWING.
Some get Jerusalem syndrome. Mebbe the Neo-Cons & some Dem Hawks have it? It can make people irrational. Myopic. Almost insane.
Mebbe Bush & co. need to come down from the MOUNTAIN, stop acting like EAGLES?…or the LUFTWAFFE?…and listen to OTHER DEFINERS of the news…mingle with other cultures.
“I can see clearly now, the rain is gone,
I can see all obstacles in my way
Gone are the dark clouds that had me blind
It’s gonna be a bright, bright
Sun-Shiny day…”
May 15th, 2008 at 8:38 pm
I wonder if there is a Mecca Syndrome too? Or a Rostam (mythical hero of Iran)Syndrome? And a Vatican Syndrome? And a Evangelical glass house syndrome?
It’s truly amazing how political & business leaders can be infected by myth & then during FEVER use the media to spread the infection…& once the Nation(s) are burning w/ fever motivate young people to go drop the bombs, ignite the petrol to create the fires…& build the temples, construct & advertise the icons.
I think we need to shower in some cold water…& consume wider, rational thinking…& get actively involved in empirical study/research…& take a dose of diplomacy…so the human mass body can fight the infection & reduce the fever.
Is it me…or has the BBC World News on TV been swallowed by advertisers?
Kimberely Dosier’s (reporter for CBS)experience in Iraq is a tragic case of why REPORTERS should not be imbedded w/ invading armies…&/or be connected to Corporations…but rather should go independently to conflict zones, keep a low profile, get to know the culture & head off the beaten track…& keep a blog.
Gaining knowledge on events from indigenous reporters living in those areas is also valuable. Plenty of those blogs around.
Tho some military types like to target such independent or less PENTAGON STORY friendly reporters…silence them…or arrest reporters on bogus “colluding w/ terrorists” accusations.
Or ensure news channels are BLOCKED or not made available if some of their sources & talking heads don’t tell the White House STORY as they think it should be told.
Plenty of ways to spread infection…bring on THE FEVER…& block the antidote if a govt. &/or Corporations feel the need.
Which I guess brings up the questions:
1) What news is & isn’t in the national interest?
2) Can we TRUST governments & the Corporate media to give us a fuller picture?
3) Do we really know the influential characters & their motivations BEHIND THE NEWS?
4) How do we ensure DIVERSITY of media & knowledge acquisition (include Universities)?
5) Has media ownership…and the horizontal & vertical integration of companies connected to media…become a major issue for the public?
If not, why not?
6) How will governments tackle this problem if they have also been infected…or are afraid of being undermined by the dominant media groups?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horizontal_integration
(Horizontal integration)
scroll down on same page & see VERTICAL INTEGRATION
Thought Julia Gillard was superb on Lateline…she doesn’t seem to FEAR scrutiny. She opens up the debate…gets you to see issues in a wider context.