The media needs a regime change.

Exactly right. It's all well and good to blame NYT or WaPo, or other media outlets, or even to single out individual reporters which abhorrent records. That's great stuff.

But the real problem is the billionaire media moguls who actively support and encourage this militant neocon line. FOX NEWS CEO Rupert Murdoch is only the most prominent and vocal of these corporate propaganda kings. These guys belong to a social elite whose actions are barely scrutinized. They hold secretive meetings at places like Davos and Sun Valley. They protect their peers from public pressure, and pump fortunes through political campaign back doors.

But how do you achieve "regime change" in media? Politicians on the Lobbyist money trail are not even talking about changing media ownership laws, unless it's to further loosen them. So it's down to consumers to boycott the bad guys and support new media alternatives. Like Glenn Greenwald! LOL

What's really ironic is that these media moguls are driving their own newspapers into the ground, while sitting resolutely silent on the biggest scandals of our times.

Guess who else had an anti-Russian Op-Ed in the Murdoch-owned Wall Street Journal this week?

Mohammed Fadhil, an Iraqi who co-writes a blog, IraqTheModel.blogspot.com, wrote a WSJ OpEd on Aug 23rd (link at my sig) saying:

"Russia and terrorism both target the values of Western democracies...

Russia is trying to revive the legacy of a totalitarian past and a foreign policy inconsiderate of smaller nations, so it does not have a good image to preserve or polish."

"Mo" Fadhil and his brother Omar know all about preserving a good image. Their Baghdad-based blog was a cesspool of rabidly pro-US wingnut warmongers, faithfully parroting the neocon line on issues large and small. Even the name of the blog belies the neocon fantasy that Iraq would be a model for other nations to follow.

The neocons liked the Fadhils' blog so much that Paul Wolfowitz often encouraged journalists to read ITM, and even brought the Fadhils to the Oval Office in late 2004, where they met with Bush. Another Fadhil brother, Ali, stayed at home alleging that they were being used for propaganda purposes by a bogus US "charity" called Spirit Of America, whose CEO Jim Hake was also at that White House meeting.

Ali said that Hake and his former "Director of Logistics and Procurement" Kerry Dupont were "stealing donors money" and lying to both Iraqis and Americans. He said Dupont offered the brothers $300,000 "that we could use to do what we want". Hake promised Ali "any position I wanted and any salary I would find suitable". A few days later, Ali mysteriously deleted all his posts and apologized for being a nuisance.

The Spirit of America "charity" was set up with help from two rightwing US thinktanks, Cyber Century Forum and the Center for Strategic and International Studies. And Cyber Century Forum was set up using Big Oil money for capitalization purposes.

In March 2007, Bush quoted another WSJ Op-Ed the Fadhils wrote as "proof" that living conditions were getting better in Baghdad.

The missions I described are only the opening salvos in what is going to be a sustained effort. Yet, the Iraqi people are beginning to say -- see positive changes. I want to share with you how two Iraqi bloggers -- they have bloggers in Baghdad, just like we've got here -- (laughter) -- "Displaced families are returning home, marketplaces are seeing more activity, stores that were long shuttered are now reopening. We feel safer about moving in the city now. Our people want to see this effort succeed. We hope the governments in Baghdad and America do not lose their resolve."

Omar Fadhil is now living in New York and studying international affairs at Columbia University. Brother Ali is also going to college at Sony Brooks in Long Island. While millions of other Iraqi refugees struggle to make a living in places like Syria, the Fadhils enjoy Fullbright scholarships.

More here if anyone is interested:

http://bushout.blogspot.com/search?q=fadhil