Your Media Running Far Away Fast From News
Over at After Downing Street.org, I happened on an excellent blog about our missing media. We now are very aware that when news occurs, it will be ignored except as it fits accepted tropes - and forget any digging for the truth if it's not a good reflection on villagers.
All the more need for the internet, and blogs like this one.
A week ago, I published a report on 1,200 photos of U.S. torture that I have examined but the public at large has not seen. I talked about the photos on a few progressive radio shows. I received calls from some advocacy groups that have been trying for years to get hold of these photos. But I received not one single inquiry from the corporate media. Even most good blogs ignored this story despite a handful of prominent blogs promoting it. This started me thinking and fantasizing: what would the world look like if we had major media outlets that were worth more than a warm bucket of spit?
(snip)
Democratic (small d) media would be very different from Democratic or Republican or Bipartisan media. It would treat laws as mandatory, not subject to the whims of those in power. It would treat enforcement of laws against those in power as more important than their enforcement against everyone else. Such media would not cover resistance to a war without noting that the war was (if it was) illegal. Such media would not cover the prosecution of low-level soldiers for crimes they were ordered to commit, without investigating their superiors and asking why they had not been prosecuted. Such media would not quote nonsensical statements by those in power about possibly investigating whether crimes had been committed without noting (when it existed) the publicly available evidence that in fact crimes had almost certainly been committed. And if a former vice president appeared on a democratic show and brazenly confessed to felonies, the producers would invite the attorney general to view the tape on the air and respond to it.
The absence of the media has at least made an atmosphere that demands we on the blogs keep hacking away at the internet, making sure that the truth isn't drowned out by powers wielding money.
(H/T to Mike's Blog Roundup )
All the more need for the internet, and blogs like this one.
A week ago, I published a report on 1,200 photos of U.S. torture that I have examined but the public at large has not seen. I talked about the photos on a few progressive radio shows. I received calls from some advocacy groups that have been trying for years to get hold of these photos. But I received not one single inquiry from the corporate media. Even most good blogs ignored this story despite a handful of prominent blogs promoting it. This started me thinking and fantasizing: what would the world look like if we had major media outlets that were worth more than a warm bucket of spit?
(snip)
Democratic (small d) media would be very different from Democratic or Republican or Bipartisan media. It would treat laws as mandatory, not subject to the whims of those in power. It would treat enforcement of laws against those in power as more important than their enforcement against everyone else. Such media would not cover resistance to a war without noting that the war was (if it was) illegal. Such media would not cover the prosecution of low-level soldiers for crimes they were ordered to commit, without investigating their superiors and asking why they had not been prosecuted. Such media would not quote nonsensical statements by those in power about possibly investigating whether crimes had been committed without noting (when it existed) the publicly available evidence that in fact crimes had almost certainly been committed. And if a former vice president appeared on a democratic show and brazenly confessed to felonies, the producers would invite the attorney general to view the tape on the air and respond to it.
The absence of the media has at least made an atmosphere that demands we on the blogs keep hacking away at the internet, making sure that the truth isn't drowned out by powers wielding money.
(H/T to Mike's Blog Roundup )
Labels: DFHs, Disinformation, the Press
posted by Ruth at 1:00 PM
3 Comments:
News you can use
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/torture/
Thanks, pbs has done a few mentions of the torture we have performed, wish the commercial media were so forthcoming.
what would the world look like if we had major media outlets that were worth more than a warm bucket of spit?
nice fantasy.
nagahappun.
corporatism rules the media.
in a corporate state, corporate media are state media.
media are not gonna unincorporate, ever, again.
free, aggressive, critical media are antithetical to corporate authority.
that's why the corporats bought 'em up, and why government let 'em.
The age of the "Press" as the "Fourth Estate" ended with Clintoon's ill-advised but entirely predictable signing of the modification of the Communications bill of 1936.
That was the end.
And nothing ever goes back...
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