Shaming the Devil...(TvNewsLIES.org)

SHAMING THE DEVIL

IMAGINE ALL THE PEOPLE WHO MIGHT STILL BE ALIVE


HAD THE CORPORATE MEDIA NOT BETRAYED THEM!

A TvNewsLIES.org Accusation

There can be no higher law in journalism than to tell the truth and to shame the devil. - Walter Lippman

A SINGLE MOMENT OF TRUTH

Mouths are agape and praises are flowing. Applause and accolades are heard everywhere. Imagine! Just imagine! For the first time in five years, a handful of reporters and television pundits actually told the truth. For the first time in five years, the evidence was so clear and the consequences so shocking, that a few corporate news people who were witness to the horror that followed Katrina, actually found their own voices.

For the first time in five years, the Bush administration was publicly accused of being inept and dangerous and deceptive. Finally, some reporters who could no longer deny the obvious simply refused to play the White House game. For a brief moment in time, American television viewers heard the hard questions and learned the damaging truth about a painful and devastating disaster from the corporate sychophants themselves.

And guess what? In the wake of this terrible tragedy, the likes of Tim Russert, Shepard Smith, Geraldo Rivera, Jack Cafferty Anderson Cooper and yes, even Paula Zahn, were transformed into instant heroes. Why, because they were actually honest with the public? Why, because they refused to toe the corporate line and give George Bush another uncontested pass? Why, because on this one occasion they did what they should have been doing for the past five years? Exactly.

Only it’s too little, too late. Thousands are dead in Louisiana because no one asked questions when they should have been asked. All of the hoopla is taking place after the fact. And therein lies the greater horror. In the past few years, so many lives might have been saved, not only in New Orleans – but in so many parts of the world, had the media only raised the questions they was morally obligated to ask. The dead are dead, and they had no one in the corporate media to champion them. The silence of the news networks has been shamefully deafening and will remain predictably so for a long time.

But for a moment, imagine the numbers of people who might have lived had the corporate media not betrayed them. Imagine what might have been had George Bush and his band of thugs been confronted at every turn by the hard questions that should have been asked by honorable journalists? Just imagine what might have been if this administration had been held accountable for its lies and deceptions by the news networks and the press corps. Imagine how many thousands of people might still be alive. Imagine how many maimed bodies might still be whole. Imagine how much suffering might have been avoided. Just imagine.

YEARS OF BETRAYAL

There is so much, it can’t all be told here. There’s no time to retrace the way it all got started during the disgraceful election of 2000. But we can start with the attacks that horrified the nation and the world on 9/11. What if the right questions had been asked back then? What if fear and intimidation had not paralyzed the mainstream media? What if they had acted as watchdogs instead of our lapdogs? What if the media had demanded the truth instead of becoming complicit in the lies? What if? What if?

What if people in the corporate media back then had exhibited the kind of backbone we saw coming out of New Orleans? What if these ersatz journalists had mustered the real courage that was needed to investigate the discrepancies and the distortions about 9/11 and its aftermath that were coming out of the White House? What if they had challenged the dangerous lies of the warmongers who used 9/11 as a tool to catapult us into Iraq? What if?

What if someone, somewhere in some news network had refused to swallow the distortions then as they did now? What if even one reporter had demanded that the President, his handlers, or his hired guns answer the questions that the American people had the right to know? What if someone, somewhere in some news network had bothered to investigate and reveal even a minimal amount of truth to the American people? What if?

What if there had never been a war against Iraq because the truth had been exposed? What if a single corporate news network had challenged the lies about WMD’s and the Iraq - Al Qaeda connection? What if someone had revealed the PNAC pre-9/11 war plans and had exposed PNAC members in high positions in the Bush administration? What if even one corporate news network had refused be a cheerleader for “Operation Iraqi Freedom?” What if even one corporate journalist had publicly questioned the legality of an unprovoked invasion of a sovereign nation? And what if only one honest investigative reporter had stood up and denounced the “shock and awe” bombing of a vibrant, populated city of innocents? What if?

What if the lies had been reported and as a result, carte blanche war powers had not been given to George Bush? What if there had been no war? What if there had been no beheadings, no road side bombs, - no insurgency and no increase in terrorism? What if there had been no horrific torture of prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan and Guantanamo? And what if Halliburton and the Carlyle group had not profited so handsomely from the destruction their friends in Washington had designed. What if?

What if tens of thousands of Iraqi civilians were still alive? And what if thousands ore had healthy, unscarred bodies? And what if more than 2000 American and coalition troops were still alive? And what if thousands in the military were whole again in body and in mind? What if? Really, what if?

WHO WILL SHAME THE DEVIL?

Full article:
http://tvnewslies.org/html/they_might_still_be_alive.html

couldn't agree more

Excellent article. Thanks for posting it.