May 30. Justin Raimondo has a good column this morning on Antiwar.com. It is written as a fundraiser. But what it shows is that journalists (and whistle-blowers) who tell the truth in America are more likely to be pummeled than rewarded, whereas those who lie for powerful interest groups live high on the hog.
It wasn't just Bush, Cheney, and the neoconservatives who deceived us into an illegal war in behalf of a hidden agenda. It was the American media. Raimondo names some of the culprits who are complicit in the deaths of some one million Iraqis, an unknown number of Afghans, and thousands of American soldiers.
It was all for a lie. A lie told by the President of the United States and his handmaidens in the media.
Two of the worst handmaidens, Billy Kristol and Thomas Friedman, have been rewarded for their treachery to America by the New York Times, which pays these men, who have never been right about anything, to pontificate from columns on its pages. Others, such as Peter Beinart, are installed at the Washington Post and other publications.
The benefit of being a name columnist at a name newspaper is that it puts you on the lucrative speaking circuit. Raimondo reports, for example, that Friedman is paid $65,000 for a speech.
Such extravagant fees are not paid for words of wisdom. They are paid by interest groups for service. Even if Friedman had anything intelligent to say, it is unnecessary to pay him $65,000 to repeat what he writes in the New York Times.
The same interest groups that control the government offer the most extravagant fees on the speaking circuit. Global corporations that are driving up their stock prices and management bonuses by moving American jobs offshore reward journalists who write propaganda about the benefits of globalism. The military-security complex rewards journalists that feed hysteria about terrorism and foreign threats.
There are far better columnists available than Friedman and Kristol. There's Raimondo himself. There's Alexander Cockburn, Jeffrey St. Clair, Pat Buchanan, Lew Rockwell, to name just a few. If the print media had columnists of intelligence and integrity explaining events, instead of propagandists for government and interest groups, the United States would not have wasted eight years (so far) in pointless, illegal, and immoral wars of aggression that have been financed by foreign loans, thus sapping the strength of the dollar and American power.
In America, money, not truth, has the power. If the New York Times had Cockburn instead of Friedman and the Washington Post had Raimondo instead of Beinart, the newspapers would lose advertising revenues and connections with the power brokers.
The same problem exists outside the media. Studies produced by think tanks and university professors serve the causes of those who finance them. Does anyone think we will ever see a study from the American Enterprise Institute, for example, that is critical of Israel's policy toward the Palestinians, the military-industrial complex, or the offshoring of American jobs? With rare exceptions, think tanks serve the interests of donors.
Even in universities there is not much of the academic freedom that we hear so much about. The Israel Lobby was able to reach into an American Catholic university and deny tenure to a fine scholar, Norman Finkelstein, who refused to obey the rule against truthfully examining Israeli policy and behavior.
Try to find an academic economist who will describe the devastation that offshoring has brought to the American economy and the economic prospects of US labor.
Try to find an academic physicist who will express in public his doubts about the official explanation for the collapse of the three World Trade buildings. An academic career in physics is almost totally dependent on government research grants. By bringing federal funding to education, liberals handed government the power to control. One physicist who expressed his doubts about the collapse of the twin towers, Steven Jones, was terminated by BYU at the insistence of the federal government, which held the power of the purse over the university's head.
The same constraint on truth exists everywhere. I once asked the proprietor of a distinguished engineering firm why he didn't publicly express his doubts about the World Trade Center buildings. He said it would be the end of his business, that he would be denounced as an anti-American and demonized as a terrorist sympathizer. The fact that he would be an expert giving an expert opinion would carry no weight.
The same resistance to truth is found in scholarship where enormous vested interests are entrenched. Taking on these vested interests is most often a career-ending event.
Even when the US had an independent press with independent points of view, hysteria could sweep the country in wrong-headed directions. Today it is easier than ever.
Paul Craig Roberts, a former Assistant Secretary of the US Treasury and former associate editor of the Wall Street Journal, has held numerous academic appointments. He has been reporting shocking cases of prosecutorial abuse for two decades. A new edition of his book, The Tyranny of Good Intentions, co-authored with Lawrence Stratton, a documented account of how Americans lost the protection of law, was published by Random House in March, 2008.
And if and when the day comes when the rule of law has returned to the land then they deservedly belong in the dock right alongside Bush's neocon nazis and the rest of the knuckledragging Lumpen Republican goons whose thuggish brownshirt tactics have brought us to the edge of the abyss.
They should face the full fury of the law for their actions in facilitating the murders of hundreds of thousands and the torture of god knows how many and just doing their jobs is not an excuse, it wasn't good enough for Eichmann and it shouldn't be for O'Reilly, Malkin, Limbaugh, Hannity and the rest of the goons who poison the airwaves in their attempt to incite violent pogroms while adhering to the fuhrerprincip whether they happen to believe their spewings of filth or not. Fifth columnists is what they are and they are enemies of America.
Another great column for Paul Craig Roberts, a damned fine American and a truthteller who recognizes that there are greater things at stake here than partisanship.
My two cents
EE
by
Ed Encho (6 articles, 10 quicklinks, 54 diaries, 371 comments)
on Friday, May 30, 2008 at 5:21:05 PM
The Orwellian babble that we have hammered into our heads to treat conspiracy theorists as nuts is mind boggling. How after all, is it possible for rich and powerful people who control government and thus law enforcement as well as MSM possibly get away with a conspiracy? LOL.
As you explain the truth as you see it to an innocent, you can see the awareness grow as it becomes apparent to them that you are trying to con him with a conspiracy theory. As his eyes open wide, you see the word conspiracy forming on his lips, he then gets a bit red in the face before spitting out "CONSPIRACY THEORY!" He walks away, showing his contempt and smug in the knowledge that his truth is the real truth, since it is free of conspiracy. "The ignorance of the ignorant is the malady of the ignorant."
Most people are good, and like to think everyone is like them. Finding the Truth requires they have an open mind, and be willing to think, and have the time to do so. Most people are so busy surviving, they do not have the time nor the energy. So they decide to trust in Fox or CNN or whomever speeks the truth they have chosen. It's too much for them. I don't believe it is denial so much as a coping mechanism.
Evil, like scum, rises to the top, above the good. This is where the psychopathic elite dwell, and they substitute Truth with the Lie. Normal people are not smart enough to do evil, they get caught and go to prison. If you are rich and powerful and control government and media and most institutions, you have nothing to fear from within. Unfortunately, as the only superpower, there is no external savior, and the evil becomes globalized. Truth is dead. The Lie is our Emperor
While some of us see the Emperor is nude, flaunting a herpes infected serpent that stands tall in it's salute to Lucifer, this is an unpleasant sight, so most look away and pretend to admire his fine clothes. I like to think those who know whats going down exist in larger numbers, but worry that if they point this out, the other people will not believe them, or they will be punished. A legitimate concern.
The whistleblower wannabes, and there may be many, likely fear that the MSM will not even report they tooted their whistle, and only the evil psychopaths will hear, and that the normal people would not believe even if they heard. I can understand their reluctance.
Maybe these people have sold their souls to the devil, being sold a pack of lies, promises to be one of the elite if they go along with what is to come, with all the personal sex slaves they can eat. Perhaps they may find they will live out the rest of their days as slaves to the elite. Anyone complaining they broke their promise to let them be one of the elite go to the ovens. History repeats, remember the holocaust, only next time it won't be just Jews, they say the planet can sustain only 1 billion people. The herd must be culled to protect Mother earth for the psychopaths.
Many Americans may think, well we are only 300 million, we won't be culled. To them I warn that the contempt the elite have for the American WASP and the entire Worlds Catholics is immense, and African Americans top the list. As one of the Rockefellers said, we dont need thinkers, we need workers. As McCain said in admiration when defending his support for Hispanic immigrants, Americans can not do what they do, trust me. As Stalin said, if you don't work, you don't eat. Your jobs are being sent to China for a reason. The Chinese are hard workers, and don't eat like Americans. They might keep 50 million of us.
Psychopaths rule us. Ignore them at your peril. Listen to the PCR's of the world. William Engdahl also speaks truth.
by
pft (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 304 comments)
on Saturday, May 31, 2008 at 3:21:51 AM
Truth is too painful for many thoughtful, good people
PFT, I enjoyed reading your polemic. I would just like to expand on your questioning why so many people are content to live with lies. As you wrote, it is much more comfortable to live with Fox or CNN or Time, or whatever than face Truth. But it is not only a matter of comfort. I have 3 good Liberal friends who can barely hide their contempt when I speak of 911 as a "Let it Happen" event. After arguing with them and getting nowhere, I finally pinned one down. Finally, to his great credit, he told me straight out that if he had to believe that the US government could cold-bloodedly murder 2700 of its own citizens (for starters), his life would be ruined. He would not sleep and could not go on.
People like us just dont understand the psychology of these type of people who number so many. They are the movers and shakers in the Democratic Party. They are not bad or ignorant or evil. But they cannot tolerate the cognitive dissonance that arises when they compare their comfortable, vanilla lives with the fact that the people they vote for, that democracy itself, could be so evil. Somehow, we Progressives have greater tolerance for this dissonance. Indeed, to my shame, I sometimes feel like I thrive on it. I better stop here.
P.S. Paul Craig Roberts is probably the best columnist out there today.
by
Deano (2 articles, 1 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 14 comments)
on Sunday, June 1, 2008 at 12:19:49 AM
