Irony on the rocks with a twist...

The speed of communications is wondrous to behold. It is also true that speed can multiply the distribution of information that we know to be untrue. –Edward R. Murrow

I’m too young to remember hearing Edward R. Murrow’s tagline as he ended his broadcast each night. My parents were still young children when Senator Joseph McCarthy helped bring the true terrors of communism into the homes of every American citizen. Regardless, history provides few greater examples of just how easy it is for even the noblest of motivations by men in power to become misguided and corrupt as a result of that power. In a crusade to uncover subversive communist influences within the United States government itself, McCarthy’s investigations were only a part of a much greater paranoid “witch-hunt,” where by implication alone, without having to produce any evidence or follow due process, American citizens were tried, convicted, and sentenced, to years of being ostracized by their friends and family, blacklisted from their jobs, carrying the “suspicion” of being subversives. It is not without irony that the Senate investigations into communism in this country were responsible for creating the same sort of “Police State” conditions that were popular in the Soviet Union, and China, at the time.

No one can terrorize a whole nation, unless we are all his accomplices. – Edward R. Murrow

Considering the subject matter, it is not terribly surprising that Good Night, and Good Luck seems virtually overlooked by the press and moviegoers. The movie had no flashy action sequences, no high caliber automatic weapons, and included an intentional absence of color. There can be little doubt that the movie was meant to be a social and political statement drawing parallels to the conditions of our present day, alas, people want to be entertained, not reminded, of the stark reality of history repeating itself. Edward R. Murrow isn’t portrayed as a complicated man, rather, a straightforward, stubborn, hard-working, intellectual, who is hardly ever seen without a cigarette. Seeing the “behind-the-scenes” workings of early television news is a treat, but coming to an understanding of the true tensions between corporate sponsors, the U.S. government, studio executives, and a bunch of hard-nosed, uncompromising, journalists, who won’t back down, despite the enormous pressure to do exactly that. Perhaps the most relevant part of the whole movie is just how well he understood the medium of television and just how accurately he predicted its downfall; we’re living it today.

We cannot defend freedom abroad by deserting it at home. – Edward R. Murrow

The movie starts and ends with Murrow giving the keynote speech at the 1958 convention of the Radio and Television Directors Association & Foundation where he openly admits to his audience that what he is about to say may do no good, but that inaction could mean the difference between the [then] relatively new medium of television either having the potential for a well-informed and aware citizenry, or allowing it to fully degenerate into merely an “entertaining distraction,” representing only the interests of its corporate sponsorship. As a part of this sort of television, the “free press” would not be free to pursue the truth and report upon it, as studio reliance upon corporate sponsorships becomes greater, its influence over all television programming, including what is considered to be “news,” can only continue to be greater. If a “free press” is to be considered one of several important “pillars” for the promotion of a free society, one that is “bought and paid for” can only serve to subjugate the very cause of freedom it was intended to protect. “News” thus filtered by profit-minded executives prior to broadcast is no longer “news,” at best it becomes advertising, at worst, propaganda. There can be little doubt that Murrow’s dire warnings concerning the future of television programming is part of the core message the producers wanted to leave with audiences, but it may very be that the message has come too late to be of any inherent value. What Murrow might have to say about the current state of affairs in this nation is speculative at best, but it is probable that he would view it with great skepticism, and sadness.

Our history will be what we make it. And if there are any historians about fifty or a hundred years from now, and there should be preserved the kinescopes for one week of all three networks, they will there find recorded in black and white, or color, evidence of decadence, escapism and insulation from the realities of the world in which we live. I invite your attention to the television schedules of all networks between the hours of 8 and 11 p.m., Eastern Time. Here you will find only fleeting and spasmodic reference to the fact that this nation is in mortal danger. There are, it is true, occasional informative programs presented in that intellectual ghetto on Sunday afternoons. But during the daily peak viewing periods, television in the main insulates us from the realities of the world in which we live. If this state of affairs continues, we may alter an advertising slogan to read: LOOK NOW, PAY LATER (from the speech cited above).

We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty. When the loyal opposition dies, I think the soul of America dies with it. – Edward R. Murrow

I’ve written many times before that we live in a time of unprecedented access to information of every kind, but most of us lack the time needed just to develop the skills to determine the “good” information from the “bad,” let alone what to do about it. Decision makers in government and private corporations have whole staffs of people to sift, sort through, and make sense of available information for them, so where does that leave the rest of us? Inundated with information, most people are going to take “…The path of least resistance,” and find one, possibly two, sources of information and trust them. If these “trusted” sources are in any way tainted or slanted by the financial interests of others, then viewers are being told something other than the whole truth, and journalists have become more the “mouthpieces” beholden to corporate and government entities, rather than reporters of any truth at all. Most people haven’t the time to do anything other than take what they are told at face value, and once they’ve been told, there is little that will dissuade them otherwise.

We will not be driven by fear into an age of unreason. - Edward R. Murrow

While T.V. news outlets have always tried to “out scoop” one another, for a long time, were used to a relatively narrow field of competition. After having a virtual monopoly on T.V. for nearly 40 years, suddenly, the “big three” television networks found themselves having to “sell” their stories harder than ever. With 24-hour news networks on cable, the “old” networks had to change quite a bit just to keep up. Sensationalism, flash, and style, became far more important than substance and truth. The even more instantaneous information available by the Internet and World Wide Web could only help to fuel a move towards more “tabloid” content and less interest in actually reporting truth. Because each news outlet still wants to be first, they are less careful about the information they present. Given such conditions, how easy it is for more rapidly reported, carelessly confirmed, “news” to be picked up by other news agencies and repeated? How easy is it for specific messages to be given more “play” than others as a result of profit-minded interests rather than truth-minded ones? A sense of convenience, pleasing popular opinion, and urgency, should never be allowed to become a surrogate, or excuse, for truthfulness in reporting. Yet for information-saturated society that has a hard time telling the difference between popular entertainment, and vital information, that seems exactly what it has become. Irresponsible journalism can only lead to its deliberate misuse in order to create an ignorant and ill-informed general populace.

Our major obligation is not to mistake slogans for solutions. – Edward R. Murrow

Is there any comfort to be had in the knowledge that there was a time when journalists actually stood for something other than shamelessly promoting the interests of corporations and governments? A time when they were relentless enough to report the truth, even if that truth turned out to be unpopular, unfashionable, or came with the prospect of dire consequences for those who reported it? Modern television news bears little resemblance to its forebears. It has forgotten its roots, sold its soul, and lost its way. With a general populace interested in popular entertainment, preconceived notions, and tabloid sleaze, major news markets have no incentives to change. If ever there was a time for men like Edward R. Murrow, it is today. In light of the most recent world events, the decline of the "Free Press" in America can only be seen ultimately, as the herald for the decline of the United States of America. Should the unthinkable occur, the global ramifications are endless.

When the politicians complain that TV turns the proceedings into a circus, it should be made clear that the circus was already there, and that TV has merely demonstrated that not all the performers are well trained. -Edward R. Murrow

What more might we do? How might we begin to fix what is broken?
If the news media truly wishes to mend fences it must break with it's addiction to corporate sponsorship, advertising, and government payola, and dedicate itself to total and absolute reformation of character. It means reporters will go back to "living on the cheap," working long hard tired days, doing a nearly always thankless job of reporting the truth, without endless speculation, rumors, inuendos, insinuations, or blatantly transparent biases. No more "fillers" or "slow news days." They must relentlessly dig and root out the truth wherever it may try to hide. They must report the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, and let the public decide what they should think about it. Anything less will only be more of the same.

To be persuasive we must be believable; to be believable we must be credible; credible we must be truthful. -Edward R. Murrow

"A patriot must be ready to defend his country against his government."
-Edward Abbey

TANSTAAFL!

©2004-2006 J.S.Brown

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This is my current list of what I consider to be the "essential" political, informational, and alternative media resources on the Web. This list is by no means meant to be comprehensive, as I am alwasy finding more, and sites are being added and dropped from it on a regular basis.

Alternet

Andrew Sullivan

Bushwatch

Buzzflash

Counterpunch

Crisis Papers

Crooks and Liars

Cursor

Democracy Rising U.S.

Disinformation

Evil GOP Bastards

Fact Check

Free Republic

Freespeech Network

Illiberal Conservative Media

IMAO

Lew Rockwell

Lies

Media Transparency

Morons

MoveOn

Open Secrets

Political Moneyline

Project Censored

Project for the OLD American Century

Radical Reference

Reason Magazine Online

Reclaim the Media

Samizdata

Seeing the Forest

SourceWatch

Spinwatch

Talking Points Memo

The Agonist

The Beast

The Cato Institute

The Free Press

The Globalist Media Center

The Independent Institute

Last Chance Democracy Cafe

The Media Drop

The Memory Hole

The Nation Magazine Online

The Plank

The Political Graveyard

The Progressive Magazine Online

The Project On Government Oversight

The Skeptic's Refuge

To The People

Tom Paine

Truthout

War and Piece

Watching America

Working For Change

Wonkette

ZNet Magazine Online

TANSTAAFL!

©2004-2006 J.S.Brown

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I was reading through the March 20th issue of The Nation magazine when a regular column caught my eye. It was the weekly installment of “Diary of a Mad Law Professor,” written by Patricia J. Williams, entitled “Perfect Knowledge, Perfect Ignorance.” In it, Williams puts into a predictable focus and context, the ongoing antics of the Bush Administration, in a whole new light.

Bush always promised he would run the country like a corporation, and so he has (even if the corporation that springs to mind is Enron). In business ethics good corporate leaders are beholden first and foremost to their investors and trustees, not to the public at large.

WHAM! The last six years play out in my mind. How wonderful it is to finally understand what it is Bush and his cronies were so brazen, so blatant, and remain so willing to disregard democratic rule of law, and the American people, as they manage the country as if it were their own private trillion-dollar, for-profit corporation (and considering how badly Bush ran his own business into the ground, is it any wonder why our nation is experiencing record debt?).

When one stops to think about how major corporations and business decisions are made, and how the Bush White House has been managing our country becomes so obvious that it is a wonder more of us didn’t see it sooner, but we had “real” problems to worry about, or did we? If a multi-million dollar corporation can convince people to buy cheap crap at outrageous prices, just how much influence do you think a multi-TRILLION dollar government, which is being run like a corporation, might have? Think about that, long and hard. Handing American ports over to a questionable Arabian country may not make good sense from a government perspective, but it makes terrific “business sense.” It makes one wonder just how many “deals” have been made at the expense of the American People, in favor of profitability.

Should we be surprised when more and more American jobs move overseas and Bush doesn’t do a thing to stop it? Why should he? From the “corporate” perspective, this is a profitable move. Unfortunately for the Bush Administration, the corporate world and world governments are not the same thing, nor is the President of the United States afforded the luxury of treating citizens like “customers,” while he treats his “fat cat” cronies like major shareholders. Tax cuts for the wealthy? No, no, that’s “dividends” to the major shareholders (campaign contributors). Rather than worry about “the people,” corporations rely on clever marketing and public relations to “sell” their message (in politics it’s called propaganda). Their message is the only one that matters to them, and they have the resources to see to it that their message is louder, gets more play, and is more “catchy” than all the rest.

The “Corporate Culture” has another advantage over government, it doesn’t have to put up with dissent, “…The Boss says so” is law, therefore no need to concern one’s self with such trivial matters as the Constitution, that’s between the government and the people, not private business. The corporate world has its own set of rules, where ethics, morals, compassion, are not virtues, they are “excess baggage.” The first, and only, rule in the corporate world is “…Show me the money.” People in the corporate world don’t care too much about others as they climb their way up, or protect their “niches.” It is far easier to be silent and do nothing than it is to “…buck the system,” especially when the “corporate sharks” are sniffing for blood. The Left has been effectively silenced because it doesn’t want to lose what little power it has left, it’s either “tow the company line, or get marginalized.” Protesters are at best, ignored and corralled away from “the seat of power,” at worst, they’re arrested and manhandled on trumped up charges. Corporations aren’t democracies; the only votes that count in a corporation are the ones cast by the board of directors, the major contributors and shareholders, not the “working stiffs.”

And so the Bush Administration has turned our government into Major Corporation, busy at work, selling all democracy money can buy. They’re even “opening up new markets” overseas, albeit at the point of a gun. I’m sure it is wonderful what the corporate mindset can accomplish when it has its own private “all-volunteer” military force at its disposal (it gives whole new meaning to the term “hostile takeover”)? Who has to care about “foreign competition” when the Bush Administration is managing the biggest superpower in the world? Imagine just how much regard this “mindset” has for the rest of us? At best, most Americans qualify as “worker bees” to these people. They may need us, but they don’t want us to know too much about that. Far better to keep us busy, fighting amongst ourselves, while they “conduct their business” from the boardrooms of the Senate, and White House.

But wait one minute…this is America, “…Land of the free, home of the Brave…” we’re smarter than this, how did we let this happen? How did they do this to us? Who brought us television advertising, popular entertainment, “Reality TV,” tabloid journalism, and got us “hooked” on sensationalism? Who constantly bombards us with messages to buy, buy, buy, and takes our money with a smile? Who has peppered us with repeated messages of just how inadequate we are: too fat, too skinny, too ugly, to pretty, too bald, too short, too tall, sexually impotent, physically ill, mentally ill, too self-indulgent, uneducated, unskilled, too ignorant, too smart for our own good? Who makes us doubt ourselves so effectively that we’ll believe whatever we’re told, spend any amount of money, and take all the right pills, if it will “fix” us and make us feel better? That’s right, corporations do. Business as usual, except now it’s firmly wrapped its slithery coils around the very arteries of our nation and it’s beginning to squeeze tighter. Before too long, we’ll no longer be able to tell the difference.

Government doesn’t operate on a profit motive, and democracy isn’t supposed to be for sale, yet this is exactly the sort of “corporate culture” which has been cultivated by the Bush White House, and despite ever mounting evidence of widespread corruption, and scandal, after scandal, after scandal, after scandal, yet it has been far too easy to keep us from actually knowing the facts: “cover-ups” are a normal part of the corporate culture, “business as usual,” is the name of the game. Control what information gets play and what does not, and there wasn’t really a scandal at all, it was all just a big misunderstanding that is easily explained, justified, and just as easily forgotten, at least until the next time.

Well, I’ve got news for you Mr.Bush. My government isn’t your “business.” You aren’t the CEO of a world superpower, you are a public servant, and all your cronies are too. You can’t sell me what I’m not buying, and you’re just about out of “capital.” Governments cannot be “managed” like big businesses, and you and your cronies will only get away with it for so long before everyone realizes the truth, the days of taking “corporate gambles” with the American people, Our government, and Our nation are over. That’s right, Mr. Bush, finally the REAL stockholders of this nation are wising up to you and yours, and we’re not about to let you run this great nation into the ground so your corporate friends can keep profiting at our expense. You have lied to us again and again. Your lack of concern for the American people permitted the worst attack ever on American soil to occur. You used crooked intelligence to justify the invasion of a country with the second largest oil reserves in the world, you have debased the Presidency by using the tremendous power and influence that office carries with it, around the world, not to make it safer, not to “…Protect and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, both foreign and domestic,” but to “conduct business.” How many people have died so you and yours could make money? How many more lives will you “throw away” so you and your buddies can brag about your “record profits?”

I am reminded of a scene from “It’s a Wonderful Life,” when Jimmy Stewart lets Mr. Potter know why he can’t quite “figure out” what life is about, why Mr. Potter can have all the money in the world, but he can never have everything, and he can’t take it with him.

Just a minute, just a minute. Now, hold on, Mr. Potter. You're right when you say my father was no business man. I know that. Why he ever started this cheap, penny-ante Building and Loan, I'll never know. But neither you nor anybody else can say anything against his character, because his whole life was.....Why, in the twenty-five years since he and Uncle Billy started this thing, he never once thought of himself. Isn't that right, Uncle Billy? He didn't save enough money to send Harry to school, let alone me. But he did help a few people get out of your slums, Mr. Potter. And what's wrong with that? Why...here, you're all businessmen here. Doesn't it make them better citizens? Doesn't it make them better customers? You, you said, what'd you say just a minute ago? They had to wait and save their money before they even ought to think of a decent home. Wait! Wait for what? Until their children grow up and leave them? Until they're so old and broken-down that they....do you know how long it takes a working man to save five thousand dollars? Just remember this, Mr. Potter, that this rabble you're talking about...they do most of the working and paying and living and dying in this community. Well, is it too much to have them work and pay and live and die in a couple of decent rooms and a bath? Anyway, my father didn't think so. People were human beings to him, but to you, a warped, frustrated old man, they're cattle. Well, in my book he died a much richer man than you'll ever be!

I’m reminded of an even more appropriate Jimmy Stewart movie: “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington,” where a man who is willing to live an die by his word trumps the corrupt machinations of a political machine gone awry: “Lost causes are the only ones worth fighting for,” and this is one cause that is far from lost. It is time for this country to remember the people who died for it, the people who willingly gave their lives so we could be free. It is time to end the sham once and for all and it is time for our government to return to the cherished ideals spoken so eloquently by Abraham Lincoln at Gettysburg:

...It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

The American people don't want, or need any more of your “corporate management style” Mr. Bush. We don’t want or need any more of your empty promises, your lies, your willful disregard for the law, nor do we care for your blatant disrespect for the American people. You want to manage our government, you're going to do it the way the Constitution says, or you and all your corrupt pals are going to find themselves out of a job. I don't suspect your corporate world will welcome you back with open arms if the words "IMPEACHED" were to appear on your resume.

TANSTAAFL!

©J.S.Brown Date & Time as listed above

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