Do you ever wonder why?

Been wondering why the American public has no clue what is really going on in Iraq (or anywhere else in the world)?

Check out yesterday's Doonesbury for a clue.


It's not just Faux Noise, though they are the worst. The corporate media overall can't be bothered to do actual reporting. One exception of note is the McClatchy folk who chronicle the reality on a daily basis. Cf. the Iraq desk of their DC bureau and their blog:

"Inside Iraq" is a blog updated by Iraqi journalists working for McClatchy Newspapers. They are based in Baghdad and outlying provinces. These are firsthand accounts of their experiences. Their complete names are withheld for security purposes.

Admittedly, I get McClatchy information almost entirely second-hand via Juan Cole.

Anyway, I thought Gary Trudeau did a bang-up job in last week's strip about reporting on the plight of Iraqi Christians in exile.
--the BB

When ordinary people claim democracy as their own - UPDATED

Bill Moyers commented, not long ago, that:

Sadly, in many respects, the Fourth Estate has become the fifth column of democracy, colluding with the powers that be in a culture of deception that subverts the thing most necessary to freedom, and that is the truth.

In These Times has an article with his words. They also note this:

This article was adapted from Bill Moyers’ keynote address at the National Conference for Media Reform Conference in Minneapolis on June 7. You can read and respond to the full speech at http://www.pbs.org/moyers.

Bill Moyers always merits a listen or a read.

h/t to don mikulecky at Daily Kos.
Don notes the challenges posed by Moyers and is troubled. He concludes (following the quote in the graphic above):

Ummmmmmm, but that is the answer? Most of the people I know don't find me a person who is a good substitute for Fox. Who is going to be listening as we go tell it to the mountain? The blogs, for example, are quite safe unless they begin to change things significantly. We just lost FISA as another in a long series of significant losses. We are fighting a covert war in Iran right now. This is all information that is available. The public just goes on plodding along listening and watching as the lies and distortions are spewed out to them. When I try to talk about how upsetting this all is, their eyes glass over and I pick up the brain waves "Oh no there he goes again. He doesn't even watch Fox." I wonder why Moyers is so good at seeing the problem yet comes across, to me at least, as helpless to change the situation? Anyone have any ideas?

UPDATE:

The Collect for the Day read in church this morning (All Saints, River Ridge) seemed especially apt in light of the questions raised here, viz., what can be done? What ought we to do?  How can we accomplish it?

O Lord, mercifully receive the prayers of your people who call upon you, and grant that they may know and understand what things they ought to do, and also may have grace and power faithfully to accomplish them; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

--the BB

Jingoistic asshats

Bill in Portland Maine has some suggestions for CNN:
Sunday the Most Trusted Name in News asked on its homepage: "Does Barack Obama show the proper patriotism for someone who wants to be president of the United States?"
Here are some other poll questions they should ask:

When George W. Bush puts his hand over his stomach during the national anthem, he seems to be signaling that America is a piece of chewed-up food headed straight for the crapper. Is this proper patriotism?

Mike Huckabee says the Constitution needs to be amended to reflect God's standards, including, we assume, stonings for adultery. Is this proper patriotism?

...

When President Bush says "we do not torture," and we find out that we really do torture, is this proper patriotism?

...

When the White House guts the Fourth Amendment by enlisting the phone companies to abet the most blatant and illegal form of warrantless eavesdropping and then demanding retroactive immunity for them, is this proper patriotism?

You can read it all here.
--the BB

What Atrios said

I've tried to express this point a few ways, but I'm not yet sure I've managed to get it quite right. The media coverage of campaign 2000 was a complete horror show, and not just because of the War on Gore. Essentially, the media covered the campaign as if it was a reality show to determine who would be the new star in a prime time dramedy called "The Presidency." You should vote for the guy you want to see on the teevee regularly, the one who will keep you entertained and make you feel good inside. The idea that this was a rather important job with consequences never entered into it.

-Atrios
[Emphasis mine]

So, how do We the People keep the pressure up on the media NOT to keep doing this?
--the BB

The invisible candidates

I get furious with the American media for ignoring... well, lots of things. What goes on in the world that may be important to the globe but isn't fixated on the U. S. Substantive issues. Concepts that take more than a soundbyte to explain. Context. And damned near anything that might conceivably threaten the corporations that own the media.

I also get upset over their trying to shape campaigns instead of reporting them or helping us understand them. Eliminating candidates from debates, for instance. Or acting as though it is only about A or B, while ignoring C, D, E, etc.

I have already admitted that, with Gore out of the picture, I have a preference for John Edwards. I may be very white collar professional but my roots are entirely blue collar. I know what it feels like to try to scrape by while wondering how to keep some semblance of health care, and struggling to decide which bills to pay this time around. I have lived close to the edge far too many years of my life (and am still far from financially secure). So when Edwards speaks of "two Americas" and the need to disempower those who profit from the misery and insecurity of the many while continuing to accumulate more power and wealth in the hands of the very few, I cheer him on. One may argues parties and ideologies but for my money, Edwards has targeted where some of our thorniest and most intractable issues lie, the ones that actually affect us daily. So, my bias here is right up front, where it should be.

Now, sit back and enjoy the video. John who?




h/t to the Vagabond Scholar, who has more on this, including a nice graph to help one visualize the issue, and to FranIAm who pointed me to the video and to the Invisible Scholar.
--the BB

Climbing the nearest church steeple

Hunter got a major rant on over at Daily Kos and I can so identify with it.

I can't do it. Maybe it's the cough medication talking. Maybe it's the season. Maybe it's the knowledge that we're about to launch into a new presidency which seems already, by many of the most important measures, to be destined for either completely out-in-the-open Republican insanity or fear-spangled Democratic timidity. But I have Outrage Overload, and I can't manage anything pithy to say about the current environment that doesn't involve just climbing the nearest church steeple and swearing at the top of my lungs.
...

Right now I just want to run every last reporter and politician on earth through a cheese grater.

--the BB