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• Sunday, November 30, 2008 11:12 AM

  Re: "Didn't we all already know that?"

  NBC and its parent GE (and to a somewhat lesser degree, their red-headed stepchild, MSNBC) are very much a part of the government/media complex. They practically define it. This is common, public knowledge. Or it should be.

  But it has little meaning, not when all the major media outlets -- including the New York Times -- are also part of the same continuum of government/media.

  The idea that the NYT is somehow purer than NBC because they print stories on their front page about the corruption of Barry McCaffery is simply absurd. Given the NYT's own astonishing and persistent corruption, it is very much a case of the pot calling the kettle and all that. Lots of people just tune that shit out.

  Barry McCaffery's self interest in promoting war and all that goes with it has been reported repeatedly. No, the networks that rely on their military experts -- who mostly have similar conflicts of interest -- do not report on those conflicts of interest. Newpapers like the Times will sometimes mention it. And Glenn will use his blogospheric bludgeon to make sure people know what's really going on.

  But it seems to me that the problem starts with a rather foolish reliance on the Big Media to act in the Public Interest and to Tell The Truth (and Shame The Devil.) This they do not do, and to a great extent they never have done.

  For some reason, Americans either expect them to, believe they do, or wish they would.

  But that's what we have alternative media for.

  Ahem.

  —Ché Pasa Read Ché Pasa's other letters
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