Fight back against Bush and Corporatism: Kill your television

[Jack Rabbit]

The root reason that Bush was even in the race has to do with the complacent mainstream media, especially broadcast journalism. They showed more integrity during the last several weeks than anytime in the last four years, but that isn't saying much. Outrageous lies, such as those from Mr. O'Neill and his fellow rogues, were never effectively challenged. The typical approach to the story was to simply say "John O'Neill said this" or "A group called the Swift Boat Veterans for truth said that" and not counter their nonsense with facts.

The mainstream media has a lot for which to answer. Three-quarters of those who voted for Bush had serious misconceptions about the Iraq invasion. Why? It would be one thing if those who voted for Bush didn't care if he led us to war based on lies, but they voted from him because they believed the lies. The fact is that since the initial drumbeat for war in 2002, broadcast journalists have treated the lies Bush and his aides told in order to make the case for the invasion with the same deference that was given to Mr. O'Neill and the Swift Boat Liars. Even prior to the invasion, there was good reason to challenge the administration's case for war, but one had to go to the foreign press or less orthodox American sources to find them. Most of us who marched against Bush's proposed war in February 2003 didn't need David Kay or the September 11 Commission to tell us that Saddam had no associations with al Qaida or that Saddam's military capabilities were not what Bush and his friends made it up to be; most of us were aware that intelligence was being politicized before Seymour Hersh's article appeared in The New Yorker (May 2003).

The founding fathers provided for a free press trusting competing private interests to inform the public with news from differing points of view. I may be a progressive, but there was a time when I could still learn something reading The National Review. Today, broadcast media is in fewer and more homogenous hands. Those who control television and radio are the same multinational corporation who contribute and support Mr. Bush's Republican allies. They have and interest in maintaining some of Mr. Bush's policies at the expense of the rest of us. They have no qualms about downplaying Bush's outrageous lies about his opponents or even the bogus facts the White House uses to support its policies from the action in Iraq to inaction on climate change.

It's time to say "enough." If broadcast journalism is not effective in informing, and even, at its worst (read: Fox News), active in misinforming and disinforming, then it is worthless at best and harmful at worst.

The time has come to turn it off.

[KingChicken]

1. I agree, the future foundation of media is the internet.

TV is old news, lets scrap the cable line and use it for high speed internet, a place where everyone can offer their unrestricted voice without having to have millions of dollars.

[spanone]

5. Watch Ashcroft and bushco* go after the internet. Watch 'em.

They will do it in the name of national security and terrorism. The internet was a burr under *'s saddle.

[mctrotter5]

2. And turn to our own media, Air America, Democracy Now and

go on to develop more alternatives and then support them! The cable news addiction is hard, but we must remember close to 50% of Americans did vote the right way. Blogs, books and home gatherings to turn our neighbors who voted Repub into Demos.

[Atman]

3. I just posted a very similar thread

Sorry...didn't see yours, but it doesn't make it any less valid.

Protest in front of ANY open window/set for NBC/CBS, etc. Make the Today sorry they ever built their studio overlooking the plaza. Make THEM go into bunker mentality for a change.

But, as good as that idea may be, there is something else BIG to fear...your internet feed comes via a BIG MEDIA COMPANY.

We're next, kids.

[gottaB]

4. Yes.

Cancel your cable, citizen.