Why we need an alternate press...
Why we Need an Alternate Media?
Over the last few years we have seen perfect examples of why elite media is not going to cover some stories. Any News that challenges the right wing corporate narrative is studiously avoided. To our shock, after all we have a free media, we are finding just how not so free it is. The first instance was on the road to war in Iraq. It was to the Elite interest that the country was unified behind the war, and any doubts were simply ignored. It was an Orwellian way of looking at the world but ten supporters for the military action received all kinds of coverage. While millions in the streets were ignored. Once the war started those millions were even more absent. The Elites needed the illusion that the people were behind the military action, and any doubts were not recognized. Only later, after the war was not going well, did opposition become chic and permitted, to a point. These days the anti-war movement, however large or small, still will not get a hearing from our elite media. As far as Elite media is concerned, they do not exist.
These days we are seeing the same kind of "good quality coverage" on the labor struggles in the midwest. We need to understand the Elites do not want the people to see this challenge to the Right Wing corporatist system. Nor is this "new." The labor struggle has not been in the top of the coverage of the elites. They know that any challenges to the system might be problematic to the leading right wing corporatist ideology. You have to be convinced that if it is not on the TV machine, or in mainstream controlled media, it never happened. This is why the mainstream corporate news has gone out of it's way to igore the events in Madison, let alone Indiana of Ohio. This is why the tweeter and facebook and other blogging platforms should scare the elites. This is the beginnings of a labor movement, with an alternate press and an alternate means of communication. You might ask, and rightly so, is this unique to this moment? No. The workers who organized well in the past, created an alternate press. The workers had their own newspapers. They had...their own means of communication since the press of the time could not be trusted. The classic example of the 1880, which had a lot in common with our own time, is the Chicago Tribune. The Tribune blamed the Anarchist for the explosion of a bomb amongst the police officers sent to disperse a workers meeting at the Haymarket. This led to massive repression. The people blamed for it were tried and convicted in the press before they even faced a judge. These events of May First, have been scrubbed from our collective memory, and for good reason. It was a moment when a fear of radicals in the labor movement took hold. As James Green reminds us in the Death at the Haymarket this was not about labor, and the conflicts within labor, but also about dividing labor. This is why we need to be aware of what is going on. We also must realize elite media is not about news but about narratives.
In this historic context the violent union thug, is critical for the people at FOX, as well as others in the elite media. The paradigm of the violent thug goes back to the 19th century. Moreover, this uprising in Madison is a real threat. It is a direct challenge to what they want to create while canceling the 20th century. They will refuse to cover it. No, they are not evil. It is just not in their interest, and we have to create a new labor media. We have tools that make it easier these days, but be aware that even if we succeed, especially if we succeed, we will need to be ready to use older technology. Oh and CNN and the rest of them... To expect them to cover this is just crazy. It is not in the economic and elite interest of the major corporations that own them. Follow the money, and you will understand why they are not, and why 150,000 people in Madison in February is not news, while 300 members of the tea party do get press. If you think this is Orwellian, yes, yes it is. This is how you control the official narrative. They know that since they are NOT covering it, it will be a non-story. Sadly, they are probably correct. Just like the anti war movement never happened. Indeel Mr. Krugman is correct, but this is how the message is controlled.
The only miscalculation in this might be that this is an attack on our neighbors.
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