John Conyers praises Bradblog, Raw Story and Air America for their coverage of "our ongoing national election scandal" in his opening statement for his forum on "Media Bias and Freedom of the Press" yesterday (5/24/05). See paragraph 4. He says he himself learned of the Bush/Blair "smoking gun" Iraq memo (the Downing Street memo) at Daily Kos (making the point that the news monopolies buried it). Although he doesn't credit DU (boo-hoo) on election fraud (and I also wish he had mentioned FreePress.org), I am profoundly impressed with the man's grasp of the two essentials of freedom--transparent elections and a free press--and how imperiled they both are right now.
His analysis deserves widespread quotation and praise. Here are some key paragraphs:
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"In the lead up to the Iraq war, every minor leak supporting the Administration's contention that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction was trumpeted on page one. Stories challenging these assertions and discussing the final reports of weapons inspectors concluding there were no such weapons, however, were banished to a few paragraphs in the middle of dailies. Such incidents have become the rule, not the exception, during the Bush Administration, particularly after 9/11 and in the face of a massive consolidation in media ownership.
"Can you imagine the media uproar ten years ago if the Clinton White House had given a fake journalist operating under a fake name unlimited access to the White House? Does anyone think for a minute that the Washington Times would have ignored stories about paid propaganda coming out of the Clinton Education Department, or if a Democratic Secretary of State had turned tens of thousands of Republicans away at the polls in a critical swing state?
"Would most of the major papers have buried stories detailing secret agreements to invade Iraq, billions of dollars in missing reconstruction funds, or fantasy war stories spun by the Defense Department if a Democrat were responsible? Consider what Bob Novak or Bill O'Reilly would have said if Mike McCurry had browbeaten them about their use of anonymous sources, or the Secretary of Defense had warned the press to 'be careful what you say' as Donald Rumsfeld had done. You know the answer as well as I do.
"There are a few alternative sources willing to speak truth to power. I first learned about the now infamous Downing Street Memo on Daily Kos. Bradblog, Raw Story and Air America have been at the forefront of our ongoing national election scandal. But these voices are too few and too diffuse to overcome the blatant biases of our cable channels and the negligence and neglect of our major newspapers.
"Thomas Jefferson wrote 'our liberty depends on the freedom of the press, and that cannot be limited without being lost.' Let me remind those in the media, by failing to exercise your rights and duties to challenge authority, you risk losing not only your integrity, but the nation's trust and respect...."
http://www.bradblog.com/archives/00001414.htm------
Note: Conyers uses the phrase "mainstream media." We've got to change this description of Bush's lapdogs. No way are these news monopolies representative of the majority of Americans, or of mainstream American opinion! They are way over to the right of the American people and are NOT MAINSTREAM. Look at the polls! Nearly 60% of Americans oppose the Iraq war, now, today--as they did prior to the invasion. Over 63% of Americans oppose the torture of prisoners UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES. Bush's approval ratings are dismal and unprecedented for a recently 're-elected' 2nd term president (48% on election day, 49% on the day of this 'inauguration,' 42% today!). Americans oppose every major Bush policy, foreign and domestic, in huge numbers--up in the 60% to 70% range. Do we see this reflected in the news monopolies? No, we do not. (This is also supporting evidence of election fraud.)
So, "news monopolies," for short. "The Bush Oil Cartel's lapdog news monopolies," if you want to be really accurate. Spread the word. Nix "mainstream" media.
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