Fire! Polite Applause

Just kidding! Yes, it's my last column  at Knoxviews.com, but not because of any strained relations or secret maneuverings. Relations with Randy have been open and generous. The reason my column's moving  is because Dane Baker at Knoxville Voice has offered me a long-term deal to write for that publication and I've accepted. I'll leave it to the Voice to make any further announcements regarding this turn of events. 

My four-week run at Knoxviews has been a happy one. It helped me leave the News-Sentinel without missing a beat and with more money in my pocket. I've sailed more formal opinion out over the Internet in the past month than at any period in my career to date. Buzzflash, OpedNews and other websites have picked up columns, extending my reach.  

It's been bracing to see -- during our nation's state of denial, distraction and dysfunctional Big Media -- just how dedicated to truth some writers and editors, such as Randy Neal and Dane Baker remain. Networks from Fox to ABC and newspapers from the New York Times to the Knoxville News-Sentinel have failed the public outrageously the past decade when it comes to issues of impeachment, elections, global warming, human rights and the so-called War on Terror, among others. Through it all, many in media have been complicit with the forces of destruction and dishonest with the public. That sad beat goes on. 

When a courageous journalist occasionally points out that something horrible is happening, it's as if someone stands in a crowded restaurant, points and screams "Fire!" and everyone applauds politely, then turns back to devour shrimp and cheesecake. Examples abound.

 * Reporter Seymour Hersh, writing in the New Yorker, reveals that America stands cocked and loaded, poised to bomb hell out of Iran at a moment's notice, with a fleet in the Persian Gulf complete with Patriot missiles, aircraft carriers, submarines and more. Yes, it's common knowledge now, but it took months for this story to get any traction on the networks.

 * Next comes Hersh's astonishing revelation in the March 5 New Yorker http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/03/05/070305fa_fact_hersh that Bush is providing money to terrorists linked to al-Qaeda in order to make illegal war on their Shia enemies in Iran. Yes. Bush is funding al-Qaeda! And you're right. This should be show-stopping news.

 * Now we hear that Khalid Shaykh Mohammed (KSM, as some say) has admitted to 31 heinous crimes or attempted crimes, including masterminding 9/11, personally beheading journalist Daniel Pearl, bombing the World Trade Center in 1993. He's admitted to everything short of assassinating Kennedy and sinking the Maine. Hmmm, a few more seconds of water-boarding maybe….

 * Now you have scientists predicting both the north polar ice cap and Antarctica are melting away, followed by Al Gore on Capitol Hill warning on Wednesday of a global emergency.

 I could go on to discuss the new nukes being planned for England and America at Cold War levels, including new Hydrogen bombs and many other outrages, but in the interests of brevity, let's take the case of KSM.

You'd think Big Media would respond in one of two ways to a story like that. Either it's all true, or else something fraudulent and evil elicited a string of lies from the terrorist. If it's true that he's guilty of all he's admitted to, this should be the biggest media story since 9/11. I can imagine this headline:

Call Off the War On Terror, We Caught The Guy. Or…

But if the experts in Big Media deem KSM to be lying about anything on the list, you'd think they would report the disturbing news that our government is fabricating and torturing and holding kangaroo courts to beat the band. In that case, one might imagine a headline like:

Bush Administration Tortures Man Into Unbelievable Confessions. Or like…

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