For years now---even before George Bush and his Ministry of Lies took us into a God-forsaken war in Iraq that has now killed over 600,000 Iraqis and made refugees out of millions more---the Freeway Blogger has been making reality “voiced and visible” in the Bay Area, using simple handmade banners hung above local freeways. Sometimes his signs have a short lifespan---no more than 15 minutes---before local authorities move in to remove them. And the next day, the relentless Freeway Blogger puts them back up again. In the process, while exercising his right to free speech, this dedicated individual is having real impact. See: www.freewayblogger.com
Why is this necessary? Because the much-vaunted “4th Estate” no longer exists in America. If it was working, organizations like “Project Censored” (http://www.projectcensored.org ) which monitor major stories that US media refuse to cover, would be out of business. We have to acknowledge that our fabled “media watchdogs” are now “corporate lapdogs.” Investigative journalism in America is dead. Apart from “horizontal media” (such as this site) there is no one left to sound the alarm. The average citizen knows a great deal about Paris Hilton and bugger-all about high crimes and misdemeanors of the Bush administration. So, unlike during the Nixon era, there is no outcry, we don’t see millions of people descending upon Washington, D.C. Our Democracy is broken! Millions of Americans “don’t know what they don’t know.”
Here is a partial list of major stories that the media have censored in 2007:
#1 Future of Internet Debate Ignored by Media
#2 Halliburton Charged with Selling Nuclear Technologies to Iran
#3 Oceans of the World in Extreme Danger
#4 Hunger and Homelessness Increasing in the US
#5 High-Tech Genocide in Congo
#6 Federal Whistleblower Protection in Jeopardy
#7 US Operatives Torture Detainees to Death in Afghanistan and Iraq
#8 Pentagon Exempt from Freedom of Information Act
#9 The World Bank Funds Israel-Palestine Wall
#10 Expanded Air War in Iraq Kills More Civilians
Of course, censored story number one should be:
“USA Edges Closer to Martial Law and Dictatorship as Constitutional Rights Trampled on a Daily Basis While Congress Loafs”
In the meantime, the Freeway Blogger continues to practice Democracy each day, doing what he can to get key ideas in front of the public.
Here are but a few of the signs posted by Freeway Bloggers in the Land of the Free:
