Mangate and UFOs: Stick a Fork In the MSM, It's Done

[smoogatz]

Before heading out to my weekly poker game last night, I caught a few minutes of the Peter Jennings UFO special. It was, as expected, an embarrassing piece of tabloid crap--kind of like "Unsolved Mysteries," but with a (formerly) respected news anchor doing the narration. Watching Jennings slog through what was meant to be a breathlessly suspenseful script was a little like watching a bear ride one of those tiny bicycles in a low-rent circus: you felt sorry for the guy, and wondered what drugs they were giving him in order to keep him subdued.

As the MSM winks and leers about Scott Peterson and Michael Jackson and whether AARP really does hate the troops, only Sy Hersh and the bloggers seem to be paying attention to the real news: the subversion of America's right to a free press by paid government propagandists posing as journalists; the cooking of elections at home and in Iraq by an administration that claims to have been called by God to spread democracy; the drawing up of battle plans for yet more war in the Middle East; neocon empire building; fascism stirring after its fifty-year sleep--opening one eye, then the other. The corporate barons want us to step away, please, from the computer screen--the liberal bloggers have Gone Too Far.

In a way, watching the MSM disintegrate is like the breakup of a long-term love affair: you feel depressed and exhilarated at the same time; it's simultaneously liberating and sad. What will take its place is still a bit of an unknown: how long before the bloggers, too, are co-opted by corporate money and power, and/or cowed by government intimidation? But for now, we can congratulate ourselves for having been around at the genesis of something revolutionary if not exactly new--something a lot like Ben Franklin and his printing press, fearlessly speaking truth to power. And maybe that, ultimately, is why the powers that be seem so afraid.

[mwb970]

1. We're living on borrowed time.

"How long before the bloggers, too, are co-opted by corporate money and power, and/or cowed by government intimidation?"

I think it's more "How long before they shut down private access to the Internet(s)?"

[MGKrebs]

8. We need to start now figuring out a new platform.

Personally, I'm betting on optical vortices.

[SmokingJacket]

30. Funny, I was thinking of getting an old letterpress and

printing out broadsides...

[proud patriot]

40. I think that is an awesome idea

didn't they use those in the 60s to spread the word .

I wonder how you'd go about setting that up .

[SmokingJacket]

42. I've been drooling over this one...

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=26249&item=3875899505&rd=1

Maybe after I've saved up a few bucks...

[yella_dawg]

44. Growing up in small-town America

I remember when those things still ran once a week. Trust me, spring for an HP LaserJet. Cheaper, much cleaner and quieter, and better to boot. Mmmm... I just love the smell of lead fumes in the morning!

[smoogatz]

43. mimeographs--

Hand cranked. Ah, there's nothing like the smell of mimeograph ink on a spring morning...

[shrike]

2. Hey, I like Unsolved Mysteries

Sort of my guilty pleasure. 'Least they give you a disclaimer at the beginning, "What you are about to see is not a news broadcast."

Maybe some of the MSM should be doing the same thing.

[Bronco69]

9. LOL!

I love it! Have every corporate media machine start each program with "What you are about to see is NOT a news broadcast." :-)

[EVDebs]

14. Or "submitted for your approval...." eom

[d_b]

10. Me too.

Was just watching it on Lifetime actually.

[StClone]

David Bowie, Iggy Pop, Lou Reed,

I win I win! Don't I? Oh darn.

[d_b]

25. I've no idea what you're talking about.

[EVDebs]

3. Operation Mockingbird has gone way way way too far hasn't it ?

We need another Church commission and help weeding out or exposing the compliant payola recipients.

[mattclearing]

4. I thought the UFO thing was kinda cool.

But I only got to watch the first half-hour or so. Still, at least they didn't ridicule it as tinfoil-hattery.

I agree with the rest of what you said, though.

[ClassWarrior]

5. Don't use MSM. There's NOTHING mainstream...

...about their twisted agenda of greed and manipulation. Please call them what they are: The Corporate Media.

NGU.

[bunkerbuster1]

12. Concur, mostly because it's wingnuts who use the MSM label most.

and also because "Corporate Media" says what they are, and where the problem lies, best of all.

[Hong Kong Cavalier]

21. I was trying to get the courage to ask out loud:

"when did we start using that freeper-ish term"?
As far as I know, "MSM" came from Freerepublic.com.
Corporate Media is much more accurate than "Mainstream Media"

[bunkerbuster1]

35. Say it loud: "I think MSM usage sucks and I'm proud!"

seriously, we should stop helping those rats and frame the debate our way.

[smoogatz]

36. I used MSM

Because we all know what it refers to. If CM is the accepted universal shorthand in these parts, I'll stick with that from now on--it's certainly more descriptive.

[Hong Kong Cavalier]

37. I understand completely.

I've stated thinking in those terms, too.
I've noticed it's usage increasing exponentially on DU in the past six months, and honestly, it was fascinating to see a catchphrase take life like that.
MSM is accepted here by everyone, including me (although I wish it was "Corporate Media".) If it felt like I was criticising you, that's not what I intended, and I'm sorry if I seemed overly critical.

[EVDebs]

15. .....and nothing but Viagra hard-on pills for sale too ! I wonder how

many kids out there are going to be named "Viagra", "Cialis" ? I can also see little "Ibuprofen" running behind his sisters too !

[bpilgrim]

18. M$MW

"main stream media whores" with the dollar sign denoting their true motivation is more definitive ;->

peace

[Karenina]

27. *CM

CORPORATE MEDIA. Connect the dots for extra credit. WHO OWNS WHAT?

[MGKrebs]

6. Nice post.

[Stephanie]

7. Really, how long has the MSM existed anyway?

Since the birth of the three television networks? Since radio? The free press is a different matter and still thriving, IMO. But broadcast news is relatively new in the scheme of things and if it's run its course so be it.

[ewagner]

11. The death of television news

happened when ABC first decided that the News Division was a Profit Center and demanded that they behave in a way that would maximize corporate profits. Other networks followed suit. Soon it became more intense when the big media corporations bought and sold each other and diversified so that news became part of the cross-pollination of corporate profits.....

They've destroyed themselves...because the only reason TV news had such great viewerships was because it was CREDIBLE!. They have truly killed the goose that laid the golden egg....

[EVDebs]

17. Right on. William Casey and his Cap Cities /ABC episode...

Even Peter Jennings said something back then, as they became known as the CIA's Network. They don't even mention that now.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/duforum/DCForumID45/1908.html

This post above starts with a great quote from Wm Colby !

[Beam Me Up]

13. Not "MSM." Use C O N__Corporate Owned News. n/t

[Swamp Rat]

16. Peter Jennings sucks n/t

[progressoid]

19. Back when I watched TV news, Jennings was one of the few

I could count on for a semi-intelligent broadcast and an occasional bullshit-free comment. I was saddened when I watched about 30 minutes of the schlock UFO bit.

HOWEVER, on the Daily Show Jennings stated that he spends a LOT of time online reading blogs. So, I'm sure that he (and many others in corp media) can see the touble they are in.

[burythehatchet]

26. There was a very telling exchabge in the Jon Stewart interview

where Jennings tried to dis bloggers and Jon waited a minute before smacking Jennings down on that idea. It was great.

[StClone]

20. I predicted such

I posted this a week ago.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=3125419

[SoCalDem]

22. Bread and Circuses and and UFOs

If the public ever stopped and paid attention to what is really going on, most of them would freak out.. Better to keep the public "sedated" and happy.:)

[Stirk]

23. If you asked me, I'd say the only reason this UFO show was produced

was that it offered a great opportunity to showcase crackpots. When Jennings was on the Daily Show promoting his UFO show, he anxiously read something he claimed was a blog entry. This unkown commentator was breathless about Jennings' relationship to the "shadow government", a phrase that Jennings himself took great pleasure in mocking.

Personally, I think his UFO show was a reaction to new media.

[Tactical Progressive]

24. Yes, but this is good NEWS

Now, you can say "You heard that on ABC News? Weren't they doing investigative work on UFO's recently? Or was that the National Enquirer? No, I think it was Peter Jennings and ABC News. What was that they were saying about Iran?"

[formerrepuke]

28. The UFO show on ABC was tame compared to FOXs show

.."Stars Without Makeup" which was on at the same time..possibly a new low in television programming- no easy feat for FOX. An hour-long hard-hitting exposee about how celebrities look when they get groceries.

[Must_B_Free]

29. here's my take on the show

I'll divide it into three main components
1. operation bluebook
2. roswell
3. abductees

1. was important. it made some important points:
a. the government made little effort to investigate, the only effort was put into ridiculing anyone who saw a UFO as a crackpot. (same as conspiracies). The investigator pushed excuses regardless of how implausible. After the project closed in 1969 he was one of the greatest proiponents of UFOs.

2. roswell was a governt project to detect soviet nuclear testing with a baloon system so there was a valid intent to cover up the system when it fell from the sky. I don;t beliebve roswell was aliens because all the pics of material are of foil, not any sort of technology

3. the abductee people arfe the true crackpots. my roommate and I discussed that they may have repressed memories of sexual abuse that come out as alien abduction under hypnosis.

[Wind Dancer]

32. This is an interesting article posted yesterday.

The UFO hype is a distraction - the MIC want to own the airspace (PNAC) so they will create a crisis.

> December 2000
> From Duncan Roads
> [email protected]

-snip-

>
> When I was a Corporate Manager of Fairchild Industries from 1974 through
> 1977, I met the late Dr Wernher Von Braun. We first met in early 1974. At
> that time, Von Braun was dying of cancer but he assured me that he would
> live a few more years to tell me about the game that was being played-
> that
> game being the effort to weaponize space, to control the Earth from space
> and space itself. Von Braun had a history of working with weapons systems.
> He escaped from Germany to come to this country and became a Vice
> President
> of Fairchild Industries when I had met him. Von Braun's purpose during the
> last years of his life, his dying years, was to educate the public and
> decision-makers about why space-based weapons are dumb, dangerous,
> destabilizing, too costly, unnecessary, unworkable, and an undesirable
> idea,
> and about the alternatives that are available.
>
> As practically a deathbed speech, he educated me about those concepts and
> who the players were in this game. He gave me the responsibility, since he
> was dying, of continuing this effort to prevent the weaponization of outer
> space. When Wernher Von Braun was dying of cancer, he asked me to be his
> spokesperson, to appear on occasions when he was too ill to speak. I did
> this.
>
> What was most interesting to me was a repetitive sentence that he said to
> me
> over and over again during the approximately four years that I had the
> opportunity to work with him. He said the strategy that was being used to
> educate the public and decision makers was to use scare tactics That was
> how
> we identify an enemy. The strategy that Wernher Von Braun taught me was
> that
> first the Russians are going to be considered to be the enemy. In fact, in
> 1974, they were the enemy, the identified enemy. We were told that they
> had
> "killer satellites". We were told that they were coming to get us and
> control us-that they were "Commies."
>
> Then terrorists would be identified, and that was soon to follow. We heard
> a
> lot about terrorism. Then we were going to identify third-world country
> "crazies." We now call them Nations of Concern. But he said that would be
> the third enemy against whom we would build space-based weapons.
> The next enemy was asteroids. Now, at this point he kind of chuckled the
> first time he said it.
>
lots more--------

[Greylyn58]

31. I watched last night

but I have to say it was mostly re-hashed info that I've seen or read other places. I didn't hear or see anything new.

I watched the full 2 hours while I was working on my laptop. It was okay, but I've seen other programs that were better.

I have to agree about Jennings hosting the show, being a joke. He just sort of read the script. My take was he thought those that believed in UFOs were slightly off.

Once upon a time I use to watch him on ABC Nightly News. I stopped back during the '90s with all the Monica crap, Whitewater and everything else.

[hvn_nbr_2]

33. I've been trying to figure out that UFO show. It's bizarre.

It was just plain weird--they take a two-hour time slot in prime time during sweeps month (Isn't Feb. one of the sweeps months?) and have their prime news anchor do a show that says nothing new or exciting or different. It must have looked so bad in advance to sponsors that they had to fill the commercial slots with stuff that's usually on 3 a.m. infomercials--"BUT WAIT! For this TV special we'll throw in a Scoop-Jack, worth $500, FREE! But wait! THERE'S MORE! If you call within the next five minutes, we'll send an extra complete set - ABSOLUTELY FREE!" I guess they just ran out of creativity and couldn't think of any more ways to feed live insects to societal misfits. :boring: :shrug:

They're dying, folks. :nopity:

[Disturbed]

34. "Lamestream Media"

Another poster coined this. It fits perfectly.

[Kimber Scott]

38. I thought the same thing when I was channel surfing and found the UFO

show. What a crock of shit. These guys are starting to smell like $5.00 whores - used up and sold out.

[HeeBGBz]

39. I just posted this on another thread but it applies

Another view of media suppression

There was quite a bit of manipulation in the construction of that "special."

[chalky]

41. I know I'm off topic, but I love that analogy--

"Watching Jennings slog through what was meant to be a breathlessly suspenseful script was a little like watching a bear ride one of those tiny bicycles in a low-rent circus: you felt sorry for the guy, and wondered what drugs they were giving him in order to keep him subdued."