Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac executives charged with securities fraud [GALLO/GETTY]
New York, NY - As every media critic learns, the
worst sin of our press is not its blatant biases, or crimes of
commission, but rather the pervasive patterns of omission; what's left
out!
Already, with two weeks to go, the Associated Press
has crossed the finish line with the top choice of the newspapers it
serves. Perhaps in the outdated spirit of Mark Twain's famous dictum
that: "There are only two forces that can carry light to all corners of
the globe -- only two -- the sun in the heavens and the Associated Press
on earth," their pick for story of the year is the killing of Osama bin
Laden.
The AP can't bring itself to label it for what it was -- a state-sponsored assassination.
Institutional power is their main beat and they beat it to death with every deadline and every headline.
There is no utterance by any political hack -- like most of the GOP presidential menagerie -- that goes unreported.
On the progressive side of the street, 2011 was "All Occupy All The Time," with the growing movement against economic inequality getting the most glowing attention.
I am certainly in this camp even if the encampments are mostly gone,
with a TV documentary, several radio shows, countless articles and
blogs, and now, a book collecting all my output called, what else, but OCCUPY?
And
yet, the story we have yet to see is the one that will ultimately
define this era of avarice and insult in a year of media obsession in
the US with the Kardashian wedding and break-up, the Michael Jackson
trial, and the daily scandal that is there to titillate and drive up
ratings.
It has yet to happen and most media outlets are not
focusing on why. I am referring to the lack of any real investigation
of Wall Street crimes, and the indictments of wrongdoers. I am talking
about "perp walks" by guilty Wall Street CEOs on their way to joining
Bernie Madoff in some institute of incarceration.
Lack of investigative oversight
This is not a call for revenge, but for justice. The reason: the
barely exposed chain of criminality that started in some salon of
securitization and then rippled across the world, bringing down
countries and economies. It has its origins in Wall Street, where three
industries colluded as a cabal to sell fraudulent subprime loans and
then transfer fees and foreclosures from poor and middle class Americans
to themselves.
Where is the examination of the pillars of our
"FIRE" economy -- Finance, Insurance and Real Estate? They became the
interconnected cogs in a leverage machine to enrich themselves while
plundering the rest of us.
So far, this story affecting so many
millions has not really crashed through in the 1 percent media machine
with a few exceptions here and there.
If you want to find out
about this story of the year and years past, in all of its disgusting
detail, you can't just trust major media. You have to read Matt Taibbi
in Rolling Stone, a music magazine, or blogs like Mandelman on Ml-implode.com, Naked Capitalism, Credit Writedowns, ZeroHedge, ProPublica, or Amped Status.com, to cite a few.
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