Friday, August 27, 2004

Media Conglomeration Spells Doomocracy

By Blondesense

I'll be over here guestblogging from Blondesense while Billydoom is away on family business. I've crawled into the Doomocracy bunker and will try to keep his readers abreast of failures in democracy and other news. Of course I don't hail from a former commie country and don't have the insight that Mr Doom has when he sees what is happening in America as he has seen in Eastern Europe, but I'll do my best since that NY is turning into a police state and I get the picture! I'll try to write really really long sentences too, like Billydoom does. (see previous sentence)

And now on to my post.

Democracy depends on a balanced media.It's no secret that we have lost the most important part of democracy which is to keep our citizens informed. We are dis-informed if we take the mass media at face value. Our so called journalists have turned into stenographers for the White House reporting only what is told to them, never questioning contradictions and never connecting dots. Cable television news repeats the same stories all day only changing the talking heads who give opinions rather than facts. All of this is described by Fox as 'fair and balanced' and CNN as "the most trustest name". It's all fabrication but it's been repeated so many times that most citizens believe it.

In the 14 Characteristics of Fascism by Dr Lawrence Britt, we are experiencing 2 characteristics when it comes to our media.

6. Controlled Mass Media -- Sometimes the media is directly controlled by the government, but in other cases, the media is indirectly controlled by government regulation, or through sympathetic media spokespeople and executives. Censorship, especially in wartime, is very common.

and

1. Powerful and Continuing Nationalism -- Fascist regimes tend to make constant use of patriotic mottos, slogans, symbols, songs, and other paraphernalia. Flags are seen everywhere, as are flag symbols on clothing and in public displays.



In our case now, the news media is overrun with patriotic themes and slogans. The mass media rarely questions the faux authority of the executive branch of government. The media was complicit in the war on Iraq even though the president went ahead with it without consulting congress. The media is also owned by just a few mega-corporations due to the deregulation of media controls. Now independents can barely be noticed in media and music. It's all corporate owned. Mass media only reports what benefits the corporation or its sponsors. The public airwaves are supposed to report relevent news to american citizens and it has failed miserably.

A democracy demands regulations. A democracy doesn't mean that it's a free for all. What has happened with media deregulation is that we are losing a variety of opinions. Not too swift citizens think that america is still a powerful and beloved nation worldwide while foreigners think we've gone bonkers. Americans think that the liberals are out to destroy them. The media has convinced the not too swift that even moderates are lefties. The majority of our country are moderates. We are not lefties.

Ted Turner has written a marvelous piece (My Beef With Big Media
How government protects big media--and shuts out upstarts like me.)for the Washington Monthly which explains much about what has happened in the past couple of decades.

Ted spells out what has happened over time in media and how it's declined due to media deregulation. He talks about the loss of quality, the loss of localism and the loss of democratic debate.

I freely admit: When I was in the media business, especially after the federal government changed the rules to favor large companies, I tried to sweep the board, and I came within one move of owning every link up and down the media chain. Yet I felt then, as I do now, that the government was not doing its job. The role of the government ought to be like the role of a referee in boxing, keeping the big guys from killing the little guys. If the little guy gets knocked down, the referee should send the big guy to his corner, count the little guy out, and then help him back up. But today the government has cast down its duty, and media competition is less like boxing and more like professional wrestling: The wrestler and the referee are both kicking the guy on the canvas. -Ted Turner


UPDATE: The right wing still thinks that big media is liberal as per Pat Buchanan on MSNBC. He has completely flipped his lid. Read this article at Gadflyer.

Tuesday, August 17, 2004

On The Lighter Side



The 2020 Romanian Women Olympic Gymnastics Team was born.

Tuesday, August 10, 2004

Bullies and Butt-Fucking

Risking to sound like "the rude pundit", I want to talk about "bullies".
Now we all have experienced, at least once or came across, a bully in our lifetime. Whether in kindergarten, elementary school, junior high, or high-school you find them all over. In television (Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity, Neil Cavuto) on radio (Rush Limbaugh, Laura Ingram, Armstrong Williams etc) in print ( William Safire, Bill Kristol, Ben Stein) at Abu Ghraib or in our very own prison system. They do not discriminate along gender, race, sexual preference, or religious affiliation, neither along philosophical beliefs unless you're a right wing neocon.

Psychologically a "bully" is a sociopath. An individual that has lots of problems with him/herself. It is his/her admission that "I am fucked up" and will do anything and everything to level the playing-field. If he/she fucks you up, than he/she doesn't seem so out of line. But along the way, they realize that there is something to gain by being a bully. You can rule, or at least leave the impression that you rule, if you intimidate, shit on, or beat up someone without a reason, plus you test the human fiber of the individual, until you break the spirit of another human being. It is the strategy implemented in interrogations. Break that human spirit.

Perhaps you were lucky and went through all your schooling without coming across a bully, and you never went to jail to learn that butt-fucking is not your cup of tea. Maybe you landed a job where you couldn't escape bullies. They are the managers of our corporations, and I tend to believe they're trained in this skill. A bully manager will bully you and push you to your very limits to see how much you can take. The philosophy is simple: if you take shit, you deserve shit and will be treated as shit. We've all experienced that, pushed by needs to pay the mortgage, to put our kids through school, to pay the bills or be destitute, and swallowed our pride, turned around, dropped our pants and got butt-fucked as long as the paycheck was coming.

Recently I rebelled. A year and a half ago, I got this job in a corporation as one of the top managers. Good pay, good perks, and not much to break my back with. Well, all good things come to an end after a while. The CEO of the corporation is a real bully that will push you to oblivion in a sadistic way to see how much shit you will take. He applied that to me; first time last january,by changing my job description only a bit . Just as a reflex of past experiences, I turned around and dropped my pants to see what would happen. Well, I got butt-fucked (not ashamed to admit it). The next thing he did in May was change my job description again trying to enslave me, and stuck a broom up my butt to sweep the floor while I did all my other duties. This time my butt got really sore and I started nauseating but the old reflex was still working. In a couple of months I realized that my kid was out of school, that I had a roof over my head, all paid for, and I don't have to take this anymore. And before I lost all dignity, I quit.

What I really want to talk about is John McCain. Another Vietnam war hero, the senator from Arizona, the man that built his political carrier on telling the truth, showing his integrity and standing up against dishonest traits in the American politics. That is all peachy. I used to respect him as a politician despite his opposing philosophical standing on issues. I respect anybody that really believes in something and dedicates his life to a cause.

I am not going to attack his service to this country. There is no question about his loyalty to the country or his suffering for 5 years as a POW. The only rationale that I will bring up is that no matter how much human fiber you're born with and taught in your life, being confined in a bamboo shack for five years in a foreign land and treated like an animal, it will eventually break your spirit .

John Mc Cain ran against George W. Bush in 2000, he ran the good-old-fashion way. He didn't have any idea that he is running against a conspiracy to highjack the presidency of his beloved country. They (the conspirators) unleashed their attack dogs to question his loyalty for this country, to denigrate, and strip him of all dignity and accused him of having a black illegitimate child. What he did after that we all know: turned around, dropped his pants and allowed them to butt-fuck him. Perhaps is the broken spirit, perhaps is the routine but over all is a surrender of ones dignity. You can see that once in a while he has a dignity flare-up when he recently stood up for John Kerry against the "Swift Boat Veterans for Truth" dishonest ad, which means he is a good man, but with a broken spirit if immediately afterward he will appear with George W. Bush on a campaign rally side by side and praising the very man that stripped him of all dignity which he had built his life and political career on. And he keeps allowing George W. Bush to butt-fuck him every chance he gets.

Wednesday, August 04, 2004

Better Later Than Never...

Hey, the bush administration together with Condi Rice and Tom Ridge (don't those two names rhyme somehow, or it's just my foreign heritage?! Perhaps just both suggest incompetence.) finally read the the aug 6th 2001 PDB that Al-Queda intends to attack certain financial centers in the US. Some by explosive laden trucks, some by airplanes piloted in major buildings.
"Jeez, we missed the airplane part, isn't it time to protect the country against explosive laden trucks that might be driven into our Saudi friends sanctuaries, I mean financial centers?"

Tuesday, August 03, 2004

And the Band Played on...

Yesterday finally Bush admitted that he didn't give a shit about faulty (darn good) intelligence reports in his decision to go to war with Iraq.
Actually he admitted to the fact that his mind was made up during his campaign for the presidency in 2000. "This guy (Saddam) really tried to kill my dad".

All the hoopla about this bullshit, intelligence, wmd's, al-queda-Saddam ties, uranium yellow cake purchase, it was to fool the american people...don't you get it!? "And you "motherfuckers" (press people) can kiss my ass! I got you in my pocket, with all the tax cuts you're getting and deregulation of media coming your way... you better shut your mouth and quit asking me about this shit!!!"

And the band played on...

"And you, left wing liberal, nigger lover, homo supporting commie assholes can go and Cheney yourselves or my bully bull-horn carrying teenagers will kick your asses and we're fuckin' going to steal the election this time again, so you keep barking, 'cause I don't give a shit. This country will stay a democracy... my kind of democracy!!!"

And the band played on...

"And the economy is great, don't you get it?! Actually it's the greatest ever, all my friends tell me so, their profit is up like 83% during my presidency, that has never happened in the American history. You pessimist left wing liberals just go and Cheney yourselves!!!"

And the band played on...

"And America is mine, and the American people really love me, you get it, and I'm not gonna let go no matter what, God has chosen me as president, so you all the left wing liberal, out of mainstream America, godless assholes, might as well start packing and move..."

And the band played on...

People, let's get serious!



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