U.S. news media has become a threat to the Republic-By Robert Parry

[kpete]

Media Is the Key to Democracy
By Robert Parry
December 20, 2007

A new Democratic reason for not holding George W. Bush and Dick Cheney accountable is that the Washington press corps would react to impeachment with hostility and ridicule. While no excuse for their timidity, the Democrats do have a point: the careerist U.S. news media has become a threat to the Republic.

When senior Democrats, such as House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, explain why impeachment of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney is off the table, they cite their fears of hostility from the American news media.

On Amy Goodman’s “Democracy Now” on Dec. 20, Conyers said the U.S. news media has become such a problem that any Democratic attempt to hold the President and Vice President accountable might end up achieving the opposite result.

“There is a very stark reality that with the corporatization of the media, we could end up with turning people, who should be documented in history as making many profound errors and violating the Constitution, from villains into victims,” the Michigan Democrat said.

......................

The current right-tilted asymmetry of the American news media has made it difficult if not impossible to achieve any sustained accountability for any of the Bush-Cheney offenses. For instance, the Washington Post, which led the charge on Watergate, now leads the defense of Bush/Cheney for their role in exposing CIA officer Valerie Plame.

...............


more at:
http://www.consortiumnews.com/2007/122007.html

[HereSince1628]

1. Conyer's is talking about the DCDems 1% principle.

If there is a 1% chance something might result in a risk to their incumbency they won't take the chance.

It's damned hard to find anything in politics that is 99.1% or better free of risks other than saying you wish to cut taxes and that gem is working for the other side.

[Echo In Light]

2. The KEY to EVERY scandal of the past several yrs is MEDIA CONTROL!

People cannot react appropriately to what is strategically withheld from them, or spun and subverted to the point that "reality" is reversed. Please watch this film:

Orwell Rolls in His Grave
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3SV_mvc4zKw

Chomsky
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=676452061991429040&q=noam+chomsky&total=1413&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=0

[JHB]

7. You misspelled "decades"

It's "past several decades".

The current media structure came into being under Reagan.

[Echo In Light]

8. Is this directed at my posting? See my #5 if that's what you're getting at

[Judi Lynn]

19. Thanks for sharing these links. Very helpful. n/t

[defendandprotect]

32. Wonderful links!! Thank you so much!! Will watch them ASAP --- !!!

[flashl]

3. There is a grain of truth in Conyer's comment ...

if the gravity of the state of America is NOT on TVee then the average American will NEVER know.

Most Americans believe in the 'bootstrap levitation' (I do not know who to attribute that coinage to, but I like it) and other myths widely circulated. Many do not have a clue about hunger, false imprisonment, corporate crime wave, the cause of the housing crisis, or the current economic meltdown.

Americans simply do not have a clue that their personal interests are at risk.

[defendandprotect]

33. Most Americans didn't understand civil rights, feminism, homosexuality . . .

but they learn quickly!!!

And despite decades of the "free press" not discussing issues, the message does get out ---
and that's why the right-wing so fear ANY liberal comments --- !!!

There's at lot at stake for these people . . .
patriarchy is going down ---
capitalism is going down ---
and if we manage to get it by the throat, American imperialism/imperialists will go down ---
it happened with Vietnam and it can happen again with Bush's wars ---

[Mountainman]

4. If the media supports the right it is because they have the power. If we get elected to more

positions we could have the power. Of course it would take middle of the road Dems to grow the base to get the power and most left leaning Dems don't want that. But they sure will bitch and moan about the right running the media.

[Echo In Light]

5. That's untrue. Corporate interests are inherently anti-democratic, and based on greed

One has to research what has happened with the mainline media in the U.S. over the past three decades in order to have a better understanding of it. Ours is a phony, managed democracy {actually an oligarchy} which manufactures the consent of the America people by using the media to sell them a movie script scenario of any supposed "need" for American "intervention" and of course now, retaliation. This process is certainly not new to the past seven yrs alone.

[defendandprotect]

35. In fact, check out some corporations you may be supporting: ExxonMobil, The Gap, Hallmark ---

The Business Round Table, for one --- consists of almost 300 corporations who work against
the ideals of democracy --- equality, fair labor practices, etal ---

[malaise]

49. Bingo

That's the simple truth.

[NewJeffCT]

10. If Dems controlled Congress & the Presidency

the media might be a bit harder on Republicans. Only a bit, though. However, Dems would not get a break.

Look at it this way - support for impeaching Clinton started in the teens and never went higher than 36-38% support. Yet, it was a nightly topic on the news.

Support for impeaching Bush is already past that 36-38% threshold and the idea gets no coverage in the media. Dems control Congress now, while Republics controlled it from 94-00 under Clinton. You'd think with all the egregious criminal activity and shredding of the Constitution, the topic would be brought up on the news?

[Mountainman]

18. Your ideas leave out that support for Clinton was 60% and support for Bush is 30%

The media did not manufacture those figures

[defendandprotect]

34. If you put more conservatives into the Democratic Party, you won't have a Democratic Party ---

it's almost unsalvagable now ---

[Toots]

6. Let's all play the blame game

They allow Rush Limbaugh to politicize the US Military and then have tha gall to bitch about the Media.. These people are not fit for office of dogcatcher let alone the US Congress.

[defendandprotect]

36. Actually, it's the FEAR GAME . . . !!!

[pleah]

9. Isn't it a fact that most Americans are againt bushdick right now,

even though the media is skewed? I think they are just a bunch of ckickenshits.

[OHdem10]

11. Corporate Media's allegiance is to Corporate Bosses who's

primary Allegiance is to the GOP.

[depakid]

12. No question in my mind: the corporate media is public enemy #1

and bears the lions share of blame for sorry state of affairs throughout the country.

When the chickens finally come home to roost en masse, my hope is that there's be PLENTY of Mme Defarges out there who remember not only the faces of the newsreaders and other paid lairs and propagandists- but the owners and senior news editors behind this ongoing travesty.

If the political fortitude and public awareness doesn't exist for a return to responsible regulation and ethics before then, eventually peasants with pitchforks will take care of the matter.

[defendandprotect]

37. OK . . . now, r-w media isn't only against the Dems . . . it's against any other

party but the Business Party/GOP . . . and that part of the Dem Party which is controlled
by corporations --- maybe 20% of the Democratic Party?

Other parties also suffering infiltration by corporate interests ---
they also suffer lack of exposure in the press, etal --

And -- for the life of me, I can't understand why liberal/progressive groups everywhere don't come
together --- !!! ???

[Kansas Wyatt]

13. 'Right tilted American news media'

Yet every time some republican or reich wing pundit spews, Liberal Media, Liberal Media, Liberal Media etc. etc.

No Democrat sitting there ever throws it back in their face and corrects the record. Sure, they can cut them off and refuse to put them on anymore, but the Democrat can still get the point across by refusing to move on until it has been corrected. Also, if the Corporate Media refuses to let Democrats on because of them correcting the record, sooner or later, they will run out of Democrats to put on and they will have admitted exactly what they are.... Tools of the Reich Wing.

[defendandprotect]

38. Actually, I think it was very successful when they refused to go on FAUX FOX ---

and they should continue with that kind of a stand ---

The MSM has been operating at what must be large losses because their viewership has dropped severely ---

They don't care ---- they're out for the larger prize: blocking news and winning the final battle --- ending democracy and turning America into a third world nation.

[spanone]

14. All the MORE REASON to IMPEACH NOW.

[defendandprotect]

39. Bush's biggest stick is being a "wartime president" --- that has moved all this legislation ---

which runs in fascist channels and destroys the Constitution ---

and which has given us Blackwater --- and TORTURE --- and all the other ugliness

that we're living with now ---

PLUS the FEAR -- for all of us ---

and most notably for the Dems in Congress!!!

[tom_paine]

15. K & R for the sad truth.

[NNN0LHI]

24. The media would have the Chimp with a 70% approval rating with the Dems persecuting him

If they tried to impeach him. "In a time of war no less!", would be their rallying all. Most media "personalities", have shown their true colors over the past 7 years. And it is obvious the media is slanted against the Dem's in a huge way. The data is out there to prove it.

Don

[defendandprotect]

40. and maybe even with their spin Bush would drop to 10% --- ????

You're making a fear based argument ---

[Blackhatjack]

16. The solution is reinstituted regulation and breakup of media consolidations...

The MSM is owned by large corporate entities which have their own agenda and interests, which conflict with promoting the public interest.

You have to roll back the giant media mergers and consolidations like John Edwards has suggested, and you have to make media access available to more voices.

As it is now there is virtually no competition in the Media. THey all have a vested interest in supporting the Republican Party agenda because in return they get their own interests protected and advanced.

There is no other way...

[EVDebs]

17. And the CIA/Hollywood propaganda alliance is now putting out whoppers....

Tom Hanks Tells Hollywood Whopper in Charlie Wilson's War Film
By Melissa Roddy, AlterNet

Hollywood wants to avoid a key truth about 9/11

http://www.alternet.org/stories/71286/

[defendandprotect]

41. Tom Hanks has played a lot of r-w lies in movies ---

and he got a lot of help from Opie in turning "The DaVinci Code" which expressed the need for
gender balance in patriarchal religions and for females being part of religous hierarchy ...
and they turned that into a car chase movie for 11 year olds --- !!!

HOWEVER . . .
Still many people dont' know that the US/CIA created the Taliban/AlQaeda with US/CIA $ thru
Pakistan's ISI ....

FURTHER . . .

BRZ tells us that WE went into Afghanistan SIX MONTHS BEFORE the Russians went in ---
"in order to BAIT the Russians in . . . in hopes of giving them a Vietnam-type experience."

BRZ told this to O'Reilly on the air ---
and it's included in his book --- "The Grand Chessgame"?
something like that ---

And the games go on . . . !!!

[EVDebs]

20. Related DU post that should be read in conjuction with this one

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x327423

[Judi Lynn]

21. Hope we haven't passed the point of no return. We need a complete awakening. n/t

[defendandprotect]

42. Global Warming is making that an immediate need ---

and corporations especially want to block that reality ---

How suicidal are corporations?
ExxonMobil seems ready to go all the way and take us all with them --!!

[Uncle Joe]

22. I'll believe until the day I die, they're the

primary reason Bush is in the White House today, not because he was the best qualified candidate for the job, to the contrary it was because he was the least qualified, had no scruples and could serve as a corporate puppet without question. They don't believe in the public good and I don't believe he and Cheney have disappointed them one bit.

If the late 1890s was the age of yellow journalism, then this is the age of baby diaper yellow journalism, and the national stench is overwhelming.

[snot]

23. The increasing Right-ward control was obvious decades ago--

what mystifies me is that the Dems have failed for so long to recognize it and the importance of reversing the trend -- media reform should have had a priority second only to election reform.

Third: public education, which has already been much vitiated and twisted.

Without those three working the way they're supposed to, there can be no meaningful democracy.

[loudsue]

25. Right on every count...

Without a well educated, well informed public, and without incorruptible, transparent elections, you cannot have a democracy.

[defendandprotect]

44. We still have to find a way to get from A to B and C and D despite all this ---

[defendandprotect]

43. They recognize it, just as they understand what they are doing WITH THE GOP . . .

in having PRIVATE firms control the debates --- !!!

Where is the League of Women Voters --- they won't participate on these terms!

Certainly Democrats are aware of the various counter-media info sites which have been set
up to combat the spin ---

Except, according to the Dems, they don't hear spin ---
Well, they heard it when they refused to participate in Fox News debates --- or interviews!!!

[symbolman]

26. gee that must be the reason

we started Takebackthemedia.com in 2000 - if only we'd got enough funding, people help, but it takes $$$ to fight the media...

[kentuck]

27. I have thought this for some time.

There is no crime they cannot rationalize and give the "other side". They automatically assume the Republican talking points are correct and that all Democratic talking points are subversive to the status quo. Even if 75% of the American people disagree with them, they take the side that the Republicans are espousing. Bottom line: Follow the dollar. They make more money off Republican policies. Whether it be taxcuts for the wealthy or huge defense contracts, the media is in bed with those that would destroy our nation.

[bbgrunt]

28. and yet there is very little dem support for AAR or other

alternate voices. AAR has had to scrap and fight to get any recognition or monetary help from big money liberals. They have also had to beg to get guests. Ed Schultz is right in his anger against dems like Clinton who won't speak to their base on liberal radio shows.

Parry is right--this is the death of reason and comity--and the democratic party in general has been complicit in letting it happen.
(Clinton signing media consolidation legislation in the 90's)

[defendandprotect]

45. I'd just amend your comments to: "the corporate-sponsored democratic party" ---

[SusanLarson]

29. Lets make the media accountable!

It's time to restore the fairness doctrine, and the requirements for equal time, and lets add a legal requirement that the media is to present the news in a truthful manner and bar them from putting a slant or spin on the topic at hand.

[defendandprotect]

46. If Dems come together in a block to work with other liberal/progressive groups . . .

we might bet there ---

Join with those whose enemies are the same as your enemies ---

Otherwise, we're all floating islands of discontent without sufficient energy on any
island to actually change things!!!

[defendandprotect]

30. While I find it hard to argue with Amy Goodman's observations . . .

here we are again with one after another FEAR based reason for not getting out of Iraq, for not
holding this administration responsible for wiretapping --- for not holding communications companies responsible for providing wiretapping info to government without reporting to FISA ----
where is this FEAR going to end; when we're all totally trapped by fascists?

[DemReadingDU]

50. Here's the link to the Democracy Now program 12/20/07

To Impeach or Not to Impeach? A Discussion with House Judiciary Chair John Conyers and CIA Veteran Ray McGovern

Three Democratic members of the House Judiciary Committee—Robert Wexler of Florida, Luis Gutierrez of Illinois, and Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin—have called on committee chair John Conyers to begin impeachment hearings against Vice President Dick Cheney. We host a discussion on impeachment with Conyers and former CIA analyst Ray McGovern.

http://www.democracynow.org/2007/12/20/to_impeach_or_not_to_impeach

[defendandprotect]

31. And this has been going on since they killed JFK . . . what next?

We couldn't investigate the coup on JFK --- and where has that led us?

MLK, RFK --- ??? Same thing --

What is further down the road?

[Enthusiast]

48. I have fear...................

I have a fear that it is too late to act in behalf of freedom and restore fairness in the media. In truth the fascists are already in control. Consider if the fairness doctrine was to voted on. How many so called Democrats would vote against it? Pelosi no doubt would lead the charge to protect corporate interests. There was a coup in the year 2000. It can't be fixed unless it is recognized first.

[defendandprotect]

53. Not only 2000 . .. but 40 years of VOTESCAM steals --- Please see . . .

VOTESCAM which is the story of the computer steals which goes back to the mid-1960s . . . !!!


Journalists Jim & Ken Collier began investigating computer steals in our election in the 1960's and wrote a book called "Votescam - The Stealing of America" --- the book was suppressed ---
but you can scan or read it on their website.

So if much of the election results over the past decades have seemed odd to you, you were correct.

The 2000 steal was extraordinary because they couldn't rely simply on computers ---
and many of their other dirty tricks became visible --- like their broad campaign to disenfranchise
Democratic voters by removing them from the registration rolls.

Of course, we also saw the extradorinary Nazi-like GOP-sponsorered rally outside Miami-Dade Election
HQs to stop the vote counting which had been ordered by the Florida Supreme Court. And, their fascist near-riot actually did stop the vote counting!

And, then, of course, moving the decision to the Bush friendly Supreme Court --

The Fairness in Broadcasting Act stood for 60 years!!

[Perry Logan]

47. Most DUers were weaned on media lies about the Clintons. You can see the damage here every day.

[OnceUponTimeOnTheNet]

51. K&R

[The Wizard]

52. TAAS, Pravda and Izvestia

are the models upon which we receive information. The Soviets knew it was propaganda and it became a national joke. Ridicule our corporate news at every turn. They need to be marginalized. When the numbers demonstrate most of us are ignoring them and not buying the bullshit they're selling, things will change.
The reich wing is well organized in contacting media outlets when they're unhappy with what's presented, hence the hackneyed liberal media theme.
From the time of Goldwater's resounding defeat in 64, the media has been accused of having a liberal bias. As Stephen Colbert brilliantly put it. "Truth has a liberal bias."
They will lose when we shun their product in numbers they can't accept or realize they've reached the point of diminishing returns.