Letters to the Editor
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The media needs to take control...
again as they did before. Whether Bob W. was a poser or for real doesn't matter so much as that there be others willing to do the job our founders planned. Get to it jounalists and don't leave the heavy lifting to comics and well, comics.
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Not going to happen
Our media are far too corrupted themselves to investigate this level of corruption. Our only hope is Congress and all our crusading heroic Democrats.
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Rosemary Woods!
"Love grows
Where my Rosemary goes
And nobody knows
Anything."
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The media is in bed with the people they should be exposing
The media only wants one thing these days...ACCESS. So they sell their soul to various political criminals to get a good story. ...And end up as willing pawns in the right-wing propaganda machine.
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It's too late, the die is cast
"If you tell a lie long enough, it becomes the truth."
Here's the real Nixon-Dubya connection: Karl Christian (oh irony, have you no shame even when it comes to nomenclature?) Rove.
Ole Turdblossom was head of the College Republican National Committee in 1972, which is not an easy feat when you're also busy ducking the draft. As far back as August 9, 1974, Rove swore never again would a Republican administration's crimes be brought to light by real investigative reporting. He, along with Richard Viguerie, Roger Ailes, Lee Atwater and a gaggle of nasty Far Right carbunkles took it upon themselves to destroy the media at the roots. All those snarling Dobermans would be pliant lapdogs in conservative hands. It took time, of course, but year after year the wingnuts chanted the mantra: Liberal Media... Liberal Media... Liberal Media...
Flashforward almost thirty-seven years later from the day Nixon resigned. Today's "journalists" now come in two varieties. One, those who are simply part of the Republican echo chamber, regurgitating the latest GOP talking points. And two, those who may actually wish to do some real reporting but are stymied by corporations who dictate what is and isn't reported, topped with the fear of ostracization by their fellow colleagues as being labelled (gasp) "liberal" if they dare to even sniff at right-wing impropriety.
Joseph Goebbels, you were only ever an amateur to Karl Rove.
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Excellent juxtapositions.
It's not the media's job, not the Democrats' job, but our job. (Not that there's anything wrong with holding the Fourth Estate and our elected officials' feet to the fire.) It's our country. Always was.
I suggest we take it back.
By any means necessary.
I believe I read somewhere that the price of freedom is eternal vigilance. I believe we've been asleep at the wheel.
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awesome
It's worth pointing out that Nixon didn't start the war, while Bush sure did.
This, like the failure of the media, makes today's example that much worse.
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Compliant Media
I don't have much to add to the excellent comments which preceed mine. It might also be noted that the main stream media is largely owned by large corporations. Corporate exeuctives are almost all conservatives, who favor ineffective or no government regulation, low taxes on high incomes, and govenment policies that maximize their short term profits.
Is it any wonder they went after Clinton over Lewinski, but refuse to budge on W in spite of...well everthing that is so much worse.
Haans
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Countdown to blaming
Israel in 5..4..3..2..
Da Joooos !
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RealName's Paranoia
Okay RealName...
Nothing in this stream of discourse particularly pointed towards Israel and "Da Joooos" being blameworthy...
I went back and checked: Sure, Monica Lewinsky is mentioned (she's Jewish down both lines of descent, no?); Rose Mary Woods is mentioned (remember that Jewish plot? The Syrians told us all about it...); And then someone mentioned the large corporations with their conservative, tax-hating executives (they have to be Jews, no? The Protocols explain how Jews control and run absolutely everything, no?)... But NOTHING was said about Israel and The Jews...
Perhaps YOU are the one who brought the matter to the table and injected into the discourse. In the real world, reflexive, knee-jerk reactions are inappropriate and not helpful. They do not forward the conversation; they do not promote understanding. You may be merely highlighting and bringing attention to the crazy-making theories of those with whom you are locked in struggle. Agonistic thinking with its simplistic binary "us/them" oppositions is part of the problem, no?
So you are a confessed Paranoic: It can be treated, you know - You don't have infect the rest of public discourse... Consider it... Please...
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seriously, Real Name
Get a grip.
Pre-emptively launching a charge of anti-Semitism just makes you look utterly unhinged. Not capable of rational debate.
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Journalistic superheroes and lapdogs
Okay, so the Viet Nam War went on for about 15 years (depending how you count), engulfed 3-5 countries, lasted through 2-4 presidents, and cost 58,000 American lives. And there was a draft! And protesters got killed! How hard should it have been to stop that war?
It took Uncle Walter, the most trusted man in journalism, what, six years to actually go there, and see the disaster? Only then did public perception really start to change.
Fast forward 40 years. Granted, journalists weren't that vigilant in the run-up to the war. (Were they that vigilant during the build-up of the Viet Nam War?)
The Iraq War is nearly invisible to most Americans, but not because of lazy journalists. Within six months of the start of the war, there were articles about how badly it was going. Any chimp who picked up a paper in 2004 whould have know who to vote for. It's the administration that made sure that 90% of Americans are entirely unaffected by this war, in blood or treasure (to coin a hackneyed phrase).
Hey, it's not like every American has a hundred different ways to get news every day! It's not like it's delivered to you on your doorstep, or in your car, or on your computer screen. What does a journalist have to do, get himself blown up? Apparently even that's not enough.
And Watergate. Sure, Woodward and Bernstein did some real work there. But this was an actual cops-and-robbers crime, with actual people breaking into actual offices. Of the Democratic Party. And they were paid off by the President. With actual money. And it still took two years to make the guy resign.
So don't give me this crap about the journalistic superheroes of yesteryear. Or the journalistic lapdogs of today. They're the same guys, just as hard-working and just as lazy as 40 years ago.