The BFEE is not going down as long as we look to the media for help

[Blecht]

"Ooh, this Gannon/Guckert story has legs!"

If you're looking for salvation in the media, you're crazy.

Remember Harken? We had Bush then. "No way the media could twist this into nothing -- it's definitely something." Then it started. The outright lies on CNN and in print about SEC investigations that never occurred. We wrote LTTE. We sent nasty emails to CNN. The media backed off their lies a little bit, and then we became a little more optimistic, "See? It's working. We will get this bastard out of office!" Then the pundits got to work repeating Bush/Rove talking points; I don't think I've seen the word "vetted" used so much. Then it was over. No political damage whatsover.

It was similar with "Bush knew!" The August 6 PDB. The Texas Air National Guard. The truth that Gore actually won the fucking 2000 election got buried, for crying out loud.

The mainstream media are not and will never be our allies. They are the enemy. Al Franken is full of shit on this one when he says their atrocious behavior is not driven by politics, that it's purely because of greed. Well, Al, is there any other force in politics more powerful than greed? Greed is politics. Greed = Republicanism.

We have to stop looking to the mainstream media for help. We need to get to work on bringing this corporate media monster down. They have to become the target of our wrath. I don't even know if it's possible any more ...

[NAO]

1. Read the essays in the book "Into the Buzzsaw" for how this works

Into the Buzzsaw: Leading Journalists Expose the Myth of a Free Press, edited by Kristina Borjesson is a collection of essays by mainstream journalists with integrity who have seen what happens when you try to report on a story that the corporate media and the social power players do not want reported.

This book is highly recommended by Buzzflash and is critical reading for anyone concerned with media reform.

*****

Also highly recommend Censored 2005 : The Top 25 Censored Stories (Censored), edited by Peter Phillips. This book is a compilation of the most important stories of the year that were not covered or under covered by the corporate media. You can read the stories covered by Project Censored in this book here:

http://www.projectcensored.org/publications/2005


Censored 2005: The Top 25 Censored Media Stories of 2003-2004(articles for these topics are linked at the above URL)

#1: Wealth Inequality in 21st Century Threatens Economy and Democracy

#2: Ashcroft vs. the Human Rights Law that Holds Corporations Accountable

#3: Bush Administration Censors Science

#4: High Levels of Uranium Found in Troops and Civilians

#5: The Wholesale Giveaway of Our Natural Resources

#6: The Sale of Electoral Politics

#7: Conservative Organization Drives Judicial Appointments

#8: Cheney's Energy Task Force and The Energy Policy

#9: Widow Brings RICO Case Against U.S. government for 9/11

#10: New Nuke Plants: Taxpayers Support, Industry Profits

#11: The Media Can Legally Lie

#12: The Destabilization of Haiti

#13: Schwarzenegger Met with Enron's Ken Lay Years Before the California Recall

#14: New Bill Threatens Intellectual Freedom in Area Studies

#15: U.S. Develops Lethal New Viruses

#16: Law Enforcement Agencies Spy on Innocent Citizens

#17: U.S. Government Represses Labor Unions in Iraq in Quest for Business Privatization

#18: Media and Government Ignore Dwindling Oil Supplies

#19: Global Food Cartel Fast Becoming the World's Supermarket

#20: Extreme Weather Prompts New Warning from UN

#21: Forcing a World Market for GMOs

#22: Censoring Iraq

#23: Brazil Holds Back in FTAA Talks, But Provides Little Comfort for the Poor of South America

#24: Reinstating the Draft

#25: Wal-Mart Brings Inequality and Low Prices to the World

[CrispyQ]

2. I agree. The media is the monster to battle.

And I agree, I don't know if it's possible to bring them down.

I'm discouraged that my Dem friends no longer pay attention to politics & what's going on. For most of them, BBV & election fraud weren't even a blip on their radar! One friend, who was a big Dean supporter during the primaries & got me fired up last year, was surprised when I told her he was the new chair of the DNC. "I'm not inspired to follow politics anymore," she said. ~~Gasp!

I feel we've lost so much of the momentum we had prior to 11/2. So many people's fire & enthusiasm has fizzled out. It's as if they no longer care. I don't get it. Will they care in 2006? 2008? And will it matter by then if they do?

[realFedUp]

3. maybe the editors have to feel the wrath of the left...

conservatives so far have shown they
can put the heat, however flawed, on
editors and news producers.

It's really past time to flood large newspapers
and their editors with the facts and questions
as to why they haven't been printed.

[TWiley]

4. Maybe it is time to directly question the integrity

of the journalists who lie via "friendly" media outlets.

The bushtapo pressures the media to comply with its propaganda, maybe some pressure could be applied to those who actually spread it.