Larisa Alexandrovna: The Most Trusted Names in News (Really!)

The Most Trusted Names in News (Really!)
By Larisa Alexandrovna, AlterNet. Posted August 25, 2006.

There are still some hero-journalists out there standing in front of the schoolyard bullies and fighting the good fight.

American journalism is not represented by the media establishment, which has essentially been co-opted into an extension of government-sponsored propaganda, or else has demeaned itself into a Vanna White-style superficiality, spinning content in order to sell another product.

But in a media era where propagandists and shills are ascendant, there remain a number of journalists who sustain the principles on which our free press was founded: to protect the governed from their elected officials and from the unelected corporate elite, always determined to skirt the law and undermine the social contract.

What the mainstream press has shamelessly proven -- more so over the last five years, is its complete contempt for its readers and viewers -- by presenting nifty parcels for purchase, as though facts can be diced and repackaged and still maintain their original meaning.

Or as the legendary journalist Edward R. Murrow put it: "If we were to do the Second Coming of Christ in color for a full hour, there would be a considerable number of stations which would decline to carry it on the grounds that a Western or a quiz show would be more profitable."

more at:
http://alternet.org/mediaculture/40803/

this is Larisa and she is "speaking our language"!!!

Fisk's name came up as quality reporter during the Lebanon/ Israel conflict.

She is at the edges of the *shadow government* operations and she files dispatches from the front all the time,like the bogus Holland Tunnel story based on ... of all things a chatroom. She's been way out front on election fraud and torture. She's also a stitch (look it up Larisa;)

How did we get so lucky? Thanks for your great work.

There are a few more that come up for me...Al Giordano of www.NarcoNews.com; Alastair Thompson and the "Scoop" Independent media crew www.scoop.co.nz , and Brad Friedman of www.BradBlog.com .

tell me the truth -

how many of you are there?

I cannot go anywhere today without running into you (a rather good thing - speaking of "the most trusted names in news")



Peace and rock-on larisa and autorank!!!

Oh, that coffee looks good...

Also Scoop. In fact, Scoop was my refuge wa-a-a-ay back before the 2004 coup. I thought it very ironical that I had to reach all the way to New Zealand to find out what was going on in my own country. Asia Times is also a hotbed of real journalism. And on Venezuela/Hugo Chavez, www.venezuelanalysis.com is an excellent resource.

K&R.

She gives special praise to:

• Keith Olbermann*** -- the anchor for MSNBC's Countdown
• Lou Dobbs -- the anchor for CNN's Lou Dobbs Tonight
• Sy Hersh -- investigative journalist for the New Yorker
• Helen Thomas -- senior White House correspondent for Hearst Newspapers
• Michael Smith -- defense and intelligence reporter for the London Sunday Times: (Downing Street Memos)
• Laura Rozen -- intelligence and national security correspondent for American Prospect
• Robert Dreyfuss -- national security freelance reporter and contributing editor for the Nation
• Mike Wilkinson, James Drew, et al, on Coingate -- Toledo Blade reporters
• James Meek, Ken Bazinet and Thomas DeFrank -- New York Daily News (national political stories; better than NYT)
• Ken Silverstein -- Washington editor for Harpers (Riggs Bank, ExxonMobile, CIA stories)
• Charlie Savage -- Homeland Security and Supreme Court reporter for the Boston Globe: (stories on unitary executive, broke 750 signing statements story)

Honorable mention:

• Walter Pincus and Dana Priest at the Washington Post,
• Warren Strobel at Knight Ridder & Jim Bamford (expert on NSA dealings)
• Dahr Jamail,
• Robert Fisk,
• Christopher Delisio,
• Justin Raimondo,
• Naomi Klein,
• Peter Arnett,
• Andrew Gilligan,
• Dan Rather
• Max Blumenthal,
• Jim Moore,
• Paul Krugman,
• Maureen Dowd,
• Molly Ivins,
• Bob Scheer,
• Bob Kohler***,
• Brad Friedman***,
• Rich Sale,
• Greg Palast***,
• Josh Micah Marshall,
• Danny Schechter.


------------------------

***What strikes me about this list--and something that I am furious at our best reporters about--is this: Look at all this brain power, and all this investigative power, and there are ONLY FOUR names on this list (as far as I know--correct me if I'm wrong) who have had anything to say about THE most important story in the history of our country--the takeover of our election system during the 2002-2004 period by Bushite electronic voting corporations, using TRADE SECRET, PROPRIETARY programming code to "count" all our votes, with virtually no audit/recount controls--a deliberate coup, engineered by the biggest crooks in the Anthrax Congress, Tom Delay and Bob Ney, now indicted or resigned in bribery scandals. The so-called "Help America Vote Act"--a nearly $4 billion electronic voting boondoggle for Bush's buds at Diebold and ES&S--was passing over Bob Ney's desk at the same time as the Abramoff bribes--and it was equally filthy, and far, far, FAR more destructive. It destroyed all TRANSPARENCY in our election system. This gigantic scandal has furthermore been marked by the MIND-BOGGLING SILENCE of the Democratic Party leadership as Bushite corporations gained SECRET control over election results! And they are...

DIEBOLD: Until recently, headed by Wally O'Dell, a Bush-Cheney campaign chair and major fundraiser (a Bush "Pioneer," right up there with Ken Lay), who promised in writing to "deliver Ohio's electoral votes to Bush-Cheney in 2004"; and

ES&S: A spinoff of Diebold (similar computer architecture), initially funded by rightwing billionaire Howard Ahmanson, who also gave one million dollars to the extremist 'christian' Chalcedon Foundation (which touts the death penalty for homosexuals, among other things). Diebold and ES&S have an incestuous relationship; they are run by two brothers, Bob and Todd Urosevich.

These are the people who "counted" 80% of the nation's votes in 2004, under a veil of corporate secrecy.

And not one peep out of most of these big-time reporters! Not to pick on Paul Krugman--a brilliant writer--but I remember in particular that he went on vacation just after the 2004 election. Where WERE all these big brains as the Bush junta instigated a fascist coup in this country in 2004?

56% of the American people opposed the War on Iraq way back in Feb. '03, before the invasion. Around 70% oppose Bush and his war today. And a whopping 84% (in one recent poll) oppose any U.S. participation in a widened Mideast war. How do you shove a war down the throats of the majority of the people, in a democracy? You have to rig the elections. And that's what they did. If they had WANTED to have a transparent vote count in 2004, we would have had one. Transparent vote counting is a no-brainer. People vote, and you count the votes in public view. They DIDN'T WANT a transparent election in 2004 FOR A REASON. The reason was the war--and its massive looting opportunities.

Non-transparent elections are tyranny. There is no other word for it. The 2004 election was a fraud GOING IN--and it produced a tyrant who remains in power on the basis of an illegitimate election, concerning which there is overwhelming inferential evidence that it was stolen.

Silence. Everywhere--among our Democratic leadership, throughout the war profiteering corporate news monopoly press, throughout the leftist press, and from 34 out of 38 of our best reporters! No warning about Diebold and ES&S. No follow-up. Didn't give a crap. So concerned about the high-end subjects of the NSA, and the Pentagon, and the war, and Bushonomics (grand theft), that they couldn't be bothered about the humble American voter and what SHE thought, and what Diebold was doing with her vote behind their "Wizard of Oz" curtain.

The Toleda Blade might have been a whistleblower on Diebold. I'm not familiar enough with the paper to know. Somebody did blow the whistle on Wally O'Dell--but it didn't go very far. Most Americans went into the 2004 election IGNORANT of what had been done to our election system--the complete non-transparency in vote "tabulation" that had been fast-tracked by the billions in HAVA funding, and millions in unregulated lavish lobbying of election officials and legislators.

Our country has been in a state of shock ever since. We, the people, KNOW that we didn't vote for this crazed bomber Bush and his master thief cabalists. How did they stay in power?

This is how--by thoroughly corrupting and de-legitimizing our voting system with corporate secrecy. And so I read all these brilliant people now with a jaundiced eye. Their work is important and often VERY important and courageous, no question about it. They have uncovered unbelievable illegality and horror. But they missed the big one--HOW all this illegality and horror could continue.

And I cannot heap praise high enough on those who smelled out the truth. Of the four on Alexandrovna's list, Brad Friedman has been the most persistent and devoted to the subject. Bob Koehler has written some stunning columns on it. And Olbermann and Palast have both been somewhat off point at times, and not terribly persistent--but they have both reported on aspects of the problem and that something's terribly wrong with how Bush retained power, when no one else was doing so. And there are unsung heroes NOT on Alexandrovna's list, such as our own TruthIsAll here at DU--and also Autorank (Michael Collins, now writing about it for Scoop.com), and LandShark (Paul Lehto, an election reform attorney), Steven Freeman and the statistical crew (UScountvotes.org), as well as Bob Fitrakis (freepress.org), and some other heroes at DU and a few other blogs/web sites.

The subject was black-holed. A great "Iron Curtain" came down upon it right after the 2004 election, which is only very slightly lifted now, as we face Stolen Election III. And I can't help it, I blame all the people on this list who did not cover this incredible assault on our democracy--an assault so serious that it very nearly amounts to the END of our democracy. It may be that the future--if there is one--will look back at the 2004 election as the turning point, beyond which the great American Experiment was so mired in fascism and illegitimate government that American democracy essentially ended that day: November 2, 2004.

I missed who deserves praise for covering the most important story in our history during its "Iron Curtain" period?

Anybody I've dissed unfairly?

But what amazes me is that 4 of them managed to slip some truth and light past editors and producers who are most likely part of the American Iron Curtain that has turned the Free Press into Pravda West.

And now, the junta is going after the internet.

We best be training some carrier pigeons and soon.

Yes, I have covered it a great deal, in between terra stories, best example: www.house.gov/judiciary_democrats/ ohelecfbifollowupltr12805.pdf (the FBI never looked into it and this story ran in Conyers report and RFK Jr.'s Rolling Stone piece)

And yes, on that list are some who focus on election fraud:
-Brad Friedman
-Bob Kohler
-Greg Palast
-Danny Schechter (to some extent)
-Lou Dobbs (HUGE amount)
-Keith Olbermann


But other topics covered by these heroes of mine:

-Ira/illegal war/intel manipulation/war crimes
-Issues with the official 911 story, such as the Norad time discrepancies, etc.
-Mission trillions of US $$
-Genocide, human rights abuse, torture, war crimes
-Civil Liberties and the the laws destroying them/dictatorial executive branch
-Arms/Drugs/Money and laundry

"the list" is now a permanent fixture on my bulletin board

in knowing what's been covered there. I'm dependent on the internet for what's happening in TV news. I've noticed that even the few reporters who have covered this enormous election scandal often dwell on the Ohio vote suppression and miss "the elephant in the room"--Diebold and ES&S. True also of the few Democrats who have spoken up--Boxer et al--and even, to some extent, of John Conyers. It's as if some Higher Power were directing all AWAY from the PERMANENT DESTRUCTION OF OUR ELECTION SYSTEM by Diebold/ES&S, and TO the egregious, but more limited and specific, events in Ohio. The remedy for Ohio is enforcement of EXISTING law--the Voting Rights Act. Why did Kenneth Blackwell & Co. feel IMMUNE from the law? That is the question that I think Diebold and ES&S is the answer to. They knew they could stomp all over black, student and poor voters in Ohio, because they had guaranteed re-(s)election of the Bush junta, and the future protection of Alberto "Torture Memo" Gonzales.

I don't know for sure if they needed Ohio or not. It's possible that the anti-Bush vote was so big that they had to pull out all stops--every devious trick in the book--to "win"--and that it really did "all come down to Ohio," as narrated. This would point to some constraints on electronic voting stealing (for instance, fear of suspicion and discovery, and protection of the non-transparent electronic system for future use--so they felt they had to confine the tweaks to modest percentages--a few percentages here, and few there, in many states*). On the other hand, with this massive electronic vote stealing capability, it may be that Ohio was gratuitous--a great pleasure to Karl Rove & Co. to smash black and other dissenting voters, just for the hell of it. Also, the tremendous grass roots movement that arose in 2004 to oust the Bush junta HAD to be smashed--demoralized, fractured, done in. It (like Seattle '99) was a great threat to the Corporate Rulers.

It seems so OBVIOUS to me--blatantly obvious--that the FOUNDATION of the coup was electronic control of the results, deliberately fast-tracked and installed all over the country. So it's hard for me to fathom (or forgive) those of good heart and good mind who missed it--or who succumbed to pressure--who were in a position to DO something about it, to blow a big whistle. I appreciate and honor the work of most of the reporters on this list, but I am puzzled by the overall lack of vigilance on what appears to me to be at the heart of every problem, from NORAD, to Abu Ghraib, to the "unitary executive": deliberate disenfranchisement of the majority, by installing unaccountable, secret and extremely insider hackable vote tabulation during the 2002-2004 period.

Is it because Kerry waffled on the war (and worse, in my opinion, was silent on torture)? That was a concern to the grass roots, certainly, but it did not dampen the movement to oust Bush, because we would have had, in Kerry, a president who was accountable to US, the majority. The Greens, the Naderites, everybody agreed on that, and pulled together an unbeatable coalition, that, for instance, blew the Bushites away on new Dem voter registration in 2004, nearly 60/40. People were flocking to the Democratic Party to oust Bush. But I can see how Kerry's stances could have given pause to thoughtful commentators and investigators. Why champion the election theft issue, to benefit someone who didn't seem to care that he had been robbed? The grass roots didn't think this way--we had a more practical attitude: we'll take what we can get, to oust Bush; we'll work with it. So, was it loftiness--that prompted all of these good reporters to vacate the premises on Nov. 3? (--on the election fraud issue; they didn't vacate the premises on other issues, bless them!).

And where was everybody when CA Sec of State Kevin Shelley was destroyed--after suing Diebold's ass for their lies about the security of their machines, de-certifying the worst of them (the touchscreens) and demanding to see their source code, prior to the 2004 election? He was, as a consequence, "swiftboated" out of office on entirely bogus corruption charges** in early 2005, a month after Bush's coronation. The CA Democratic legislative leadership abandoned him and allowed Schwarzenegger to replace him with an APPOINTED Diebold shill, Bruce McPherson, who has now ILLEGALLY RE-certified Diebold touchscreens (an issue in the CA-50 lawsuit). I have seen nothing about this in the truth-telling press corps. NOTHING!

-----

*(Bob Koehler wrote about the recent 60/40 vote flipping in Ohio, on the election reform initiatives. Polls said they'd win 60/40. Come election day and Diebold, they LOST 60/40! The worst flipover we've seen yet. So the fascists are testing out massive vote stealing--not just percentages here and there, to tweak close races over to the warmonger/Bushite side. They are also using their secret vote counting formulas to PREVENT election reform--the ultimate irony.)

**(The main charge against Shelley was "misuse of HAVA funds." Turns out his "misuse" was to WITHHOLD these funds from corrupt county election officials for the purchase of Diebold touchscreens. One of these corrupt officials, Connie McCormack (Los Angeles) stated that she wanted to "bulldoze" the Sec of State's office to get that money--her blood money for Diebold. McCormack is best friends with the former Diebold chief salesperson for Calif, Debra Seiler. McCormack and GA's Cathy Cox do sales brochures for Diebold. Can it be that our state Dems are AFRAID OF people like McCormack--who now have boffo secret power over election results? Or all they all in it together? Not sure. We now have DEBRA BOWEN running for Sec of State, who seems a genuine election reformer. But the Shelley story is so appalling, it makes you wonder about EVERYBODY. It makes your stomach hurt. It makes you want to build a bomb shelter.)

------

End of rant. I had to get this off my chest. Some of my assault on these brave and brilliant journalists is just frustration--and disappointment in myself as well. Why didn't *I* see what was going down with the Shelley "swiftboating" before it was too late? Why didn't *I" realize how grave a matter Diebold was, until it was too late? People have DIED because of this. Thousands of people. People have been tortured because of this. Our country is being bankrupted and destroyed because of this. Because we were ALL too late in grasping the one thing that could have prevented all this grief: transparent vote counting.

it reminds us we are alive and keeps us sane:)

Strike out Gilligan and put Monbiot in, I say.

Great list!


edit to add: I also like to read Larry Johnson's blog
http://noquarter.typepad.com/my_weblog/

as a way to get them to pay attention and quit depending on shills to inform them.

Is he still with the BBC?

Talk about courage. (--famous for the David Kelly story; nearly got strung up on a Fleet Street lamppost by the Blair ghouls for reporting what Kelly said--that they'd exaggerated the pre-war WMD intel--that which the Emperor-with-no-clothes cited as the Gospel Truth--and which cost David Kelly his life.)


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I've just got to throw this in, for any good investigators who might be stopping by:

July 14, 2003: Plame outed (by Novak).

July 18, 2003: Kelly found dead, under highly suspicious circumstances; his office and computers are searched.

July 22, 2003: The entire WMD counter-proliferation program that Plame headed, Brewster-Jennings, ADDITIONALLY outed (also by Novak), putting all covert agents/contacts at risk of getting killed, and disabling all projects.

There were TWO outings. Two! One four days before his death, the other four days after. And three, if you count whoever outed David Kelly to his bosses in late June. Another date of importance, July 7, 2003. Hutton report says that Tony Blair was informed on that date that Kelly "could say some uncomfortable things." Could say. Not HAD said. THIS may have been the trigger for the Plame/BJ outings, not the Wilson article of the day before, July 6, which surely the Bushites knew was coming. What did Kelly know about Bush/Blair/WMDs that he had not yet said? Did Blair call AF-1 (which was over Africa) circa July 7 with that "uncomfortable" news? Connective tissue: Judith Miller, friend of Kelly's (to whom Kelly wrote one of his last emails, on the day he died, in which he expressed concern about "the many dark actors playing games.") While Kelly was whistleblowing to the BBC, Miller was having clandestine meetings with Scooter Libby, the known content being disclosure of classified intel--false intel--on Iraq WMDs.

He really doesn't belong on that list, IMHO.