Here's What I Don't Get

[Blue Velvet]

As the last of the nation's wealth gets sucked out of the Treasury and the taxpayers' wallets and is poured into the pockets of the Bush regime's Fat Kat Karlyle Kronies, why oh why is the Corporate Owned News/Media Elite (what I like to call the CON/ME) still reading the Republican talking points and underreporting the truth of what's happening in this country?

I mean, I understand that the CON/ME is owned by the same corporations who are profiting from the War Machine and all that, but why aren't the anchors and reporters and, well, EVERYONE ELSE but the CON/ME CEO's realizing that their future and their childrens' futures are going into the shitter along with ours? I pretty sure the regime has not saved them a place next to Paraguay's aquifers - so why are they still carrying all of W's water now?

I'm both naive and cynical enough to believe that people like Brian Williams and Bob Schieffer and Katie Couric all know what's really going down (maybe not to the extent that we at DU do, but overall they're smart people who read things and can make educated inferences). So I am seriously asking for your help as I wonder: why are they still assisting the thieves who are ultimately robbing from them as much as from anyone else?

Is it just out of habit? Or are they all Armstrong Williams types who have been bought off under the table? Or perhaps the CON/ME is now populated by a majority of Operation Mockingbird-type CIA operatives? Are they afraid of being Dan Rathered? Or are they really too stupid to not know that they're throwing away their childrens' futures when they are in the best position to help secure a more decent tomorrow by ACTUALLY REPORTING THE TRUTH?

None of the above? Some of the above? Help me out here, good people of DU. Because I am seriously flabbergasted that the CON/ME continues to eat eagerly from the trough of their own demise.

[dbt]

1. You read what's on the TelePrompter.

If you go off-script, you lose your gig quite early--very low on the Media Borg food chain--and you are never heard from again. People like Schieffer and Couric and Williams rise to positions of great compensation by staying on-message. That is, whatever message appears on the TelePrompter is what comes out of their lips.

The talking heads (no offense intended to Tina Weymouth, et al) are quite aware that the world is falling apart all around them, but they've got theirs. They have no incentive to make even the smallest waves. As long as they read exactly what's on that little screen, they and their progeny have no worries.

And the Five Giant Corporations that own the Alleged News Media have no reason to want anything approaching the truth to appear on your telescreen. If they told you the truth, you'd stop buying their shit; you'd be hoarding food, stockpiling ammunition, pulling your money out of banks and plowing up your lawn to grow purplehull peas.

[Blue Velvet]

5. Sure, they've got theirs for now.

But are they really expecting their progeny to be taken care of by this gang of thugs as we careen towards some kind of corporate neo-feudalist future? Their lack of foresight/conscience is stunning. I wonder if some of them feel trapped and/or guilty now that it has gotten so out of hand.

[liberal N proud]

2. Two words

Corporate Owned

[Berry Cool]

3. I don't think all of them fit that mold

and you can see it...if you know where to look.

[Blue Velvet]

6. Care to point me in the right direction?

I mean, aside from Olbermann and Maddow, who do you think is breaking out of that mold? I'm talking mostly about the TV folk, but if you could throw in some print outlets that would be swell as well. I'm always eager to expand my limited amount of trusted CON/ME sources!

[Warren Stupidity]

4. It is real tough to put 7 figure salaries on the line.

These people are paid off handsomely to lie and lie and lie some more. "Here's your daily batch'o'lies", "sir, yes, sir, ready to lie my ass off sir".

[SammyWinstonJack]

7. Those people you cited are part of the haves and have more, bu$h's real base, they are

financially secure and don't give a rat's a$$ about the truth. Oh and I like your name for the media CON/ME :thumbsup:

[IDemo]

8. Baghdad Bob Syndrome n/t

[nichomachus]

9. It's the same syndrome as people in the tobacco industry

In order to peddle the propaganda day after day, you have to bring yourself to believe it -- otherwise the cognitive dissonance will eat you alive.

I used to deal with the tobacco industry a lot -- as an adversary. Their shills were amazing. They would get up and tell the most amazing lies -- and you could tell they really believed it. They had to. There is no way you can sell that shit convincingly.

I don't know how many times I had to resist the urge to grab someone by the lapels, shake them, and ask if they really believed the crap they were telling me.

[Blue Velvet]

12. Interesting comparison. So it's kind of like "Thank You For Smoking" except in this case

it's more like "Thank You For Bathing In Our Propaganda Pool" (which would admittedly be harder to fit on a marquee). I would be surprised if there weren't some kind of willful ignorance happening here, as I'd imagine it would be hard to live with yourself otherwise.

[Winterblues]

10. Do you really think people making between six and sixty million a year

are at all worried about their furure or their childrens? Those that have the money will just buy up all the property of those that don't have any money and are being fleeced. The rich will continue to get richer as long as we/Democrats support this top down stimilus ie giving huge bailout sums to wealthy bankers and insurance corporations in hopes some of that will trickle down to people in dire need...A compasionate government would simply bypass these lending agencies and put money and resources directly to the people. Clinton did something like this his first year in office only it was just for student loans. He made it so the government would loan directly to students at very low interest rates. One of the very first things changed when Bush* took office. The government used to do this fairly often. Veterans loans for buying houses for instance. Now they only back portions of those loans but the loans have to come from a lending institute. The government guarantee makes it easier to get the loans but the interest rates are still very high. I am not sure the Obama team has any intentions of changing how the financing is done and that is the root of the problems IMO.

[Blue Velvet]

14. Intellectually, it doesn't surpise me that the CON/ME "haves" need to keep lying in order to

join the ranks of the "have mores." But I have a gut feeling that the TV talking heads - even if they're making millions peddling their propaganda now - aren't a part of the PTB's end game (at least as far of the sharing of wealth is concerned).

In other words, I think these media elites will eventually just be used and cast aside like so many other human casualties of this badministration. And I don't think their offspring will be offered a place at the Big Kids' Table of the "have mosts" just because of the Lies of Their Fathers (or Mothers, as the case may be).

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

11. Nobody has any idea what's going on, and that's a huge part of the problem.

The economists say we need to rescue Wall Street, so we say "OK, how do we rescue Wall Street?" and nobody seems to know the answer to that question. So far the solution seems to have been to say "OK, we'll set aside a huge chunk of money to be used for rescuing Wall Street when someone figures out how to do it." Now we have people saying "Oh, we've got to rescue GM!" And then obviously the question becomes where do you draw the line? We weren't happy about trying to bail out Wall Street, we sure as hell ain't happy about possibly having to bail out GM, so how far do we go?

The simple fact of the matter is that the extent of the problem is not even known by the people who are trying to solve it. So we get a lot of panic solutions offered up as the only alternative. And the panic solutions are backed by the interested parties because the alternative is doing nothing, or dithering. This has little to do with conservative or liberal political affiliation and everything to do with fear. Fear has disrupted the credit markets. Fear has impacted consumer spending. Fear has resulted in the bankruptcy of otherwise reasonably well-run companies. There is no conspiracy here. What everybody is looking for is security - and for someone who can do something about the fear. Unfortunately there isn't anybody who can do that.

[kentuck]

13. Nobody knows but they throw money at the problem anyway...

No questions asked.

[Two Americas]

15. unless...

Unless thousands of union jobs are at risk.