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April 1, 2008 at 12:38:29

Hey CNN! I've got news for you. "Issue #1" is NOT the Economy, Stupid!

by Peace Brother     Page 1 of 1 page(s)

http://www.opednews.com

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It’s Bush and Cheney’s 3 trillion dollar unjustified war in Iraq, which has cost more than 4000 dead Americans along with God knows how many others from Iraq and elsewhere. Stupid!  

Why CNN would want us to believe that the economy is the number one issue facing the American people is anyone’s guess. I suspect it has less to do with CNN’s (and the rest of mainstream media’s) undying concern for our wallets and livelihoods than it does with their desire to frame the issues in such a way as to influence the upcoming presidential election.

 Perhaps CNN is hoping that if they create a big enough distraction, people will forget that we are even fighting a war. Or maybe they believe it is their patriotic duty to relegate this unpleasant war and its costly consequences to the back-burner of the news because they want to spare us the pain of realizing our dismal predicament? Surely, the “most trusted name in news” would never resort to anything as underhanded as trying to influence our political system by diverting our attention from the real number one issue. Fox News maybe, but not CNN! 

I’m sure CNN can back up its proclamation that the economy is the number one issue facing Americans with reams of polling data supporting this assertion. However, for me and most of the people I talk to, the number one issue is our occupation of Iraq with 140,000 or so American military personnel. I can only surmise that my demographic must not have been included in CNN’s polling data.

 

Someone needs to tell Ali Velshi and the other talking heads in the CNN Mutual Admiration Society who repeatedly remind us that Issue #1 is the economy, that our economic troubles are only a symptom of the real Issue #1 – the 3 trillion dollar fiasco of a war we find ourselves in.

 

Perhaps the people at CNN believe if they say something loud enough, and often enough, the American people will actually start to believe it. If they keep telling us that the economy is our number one problem perhaps we will all reach the same foregone conclusion as CNN. After all, if a trusted network news organization like CNN constantly presents this as an accepted fact, then it must be true. Right? I have come to expect such tactics from the good people at Faux News, but CNN? The fact that CNN is falling in line behind the others to carry water for the war machine shows just how complicit our media has become with the right wing war agenda.

 

The way I see it, the economy would be a “non-issue” if we hadn’t thrown 3 trillion dollars down a huge military/industrial black hole. Let’s face it! Bush and Cheney’s war has been a bad investment. We’ve not only lost our principal, with absolutely nothing of value to show for it, but we’ve guaranteed ourselves that we’ll be paying to dig ourselves out of this deep hole for a long, long time to come.

 

We can only imagine the return we might have, could have, and should have gotten from our investment if, for example, we had taken that 3 trillion dollars and invested it in hospitals, schools, roads, and other constructive endeavors, instead of squandering our resources on global military domination.

 

It is amusing to watch these so-called “news” anchors falling all over themselves as they discuss “Issue #1: The Economy” from their comfortable studios. Sometimes I get the feeling I’m watching magicians perform clever acts of prestidigitation. We all love a good magic show. They are fun to watch and filled with excitement as we try to anticipate what the performer is going to pull out of his hat next. The secret to being a good magician, of course, is distracting your audience’s attention in another direction while performing your slight of hand trick out of the audience’s view.

The part that scares me about watching CNN and most of the rest of the media is I fear that instead of a soft, furry rabbit or a snow-white turtle dove, the mainstream media outlets are trying to pull a sharp-talonned hawk out of their hats.

 

Peace Brother is a health professional and struggling writer interested in promoting global peace and justice.

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I am concerned about bring peace and prosperity to everyone in the world. I am concerned that people with too much power and wealth tend to be oppressive toward those who do not. I think the best policy is a balanced one. Balance comes when opportunity and motivation meet compassion.
im4unityI am concerned about bring peace and prosperity to everyone in the world. I am concerned that people with too much power and wealth tend to be oppressive toward those who do not. I think the best policy is a balanced one. Balance comes when opportunity and motivation meet compassion.

RE: Hey CNN

Well, there are a lot of us who would agree with you about the war being hugely important. However, I did see another poll, just today, that showed that the #1 issue on people's minds this week is prices of gasoline, which is actually part of the economy I guess. (Interesting that we're killing thousands of folks and destroying ourselves financially, and gasoline is what we're worried about.)

But what bothers me most is that CNN, and all the others, waste so much time rehashing and rehashing crappy stories that don't make a toot's difference....and yet they won't get serious and report on the damage that the privately owned Federal Reserve, and the rich and powerful corporations, and the oil barrons, and the greedy, lying, cheating, congress and administration are doing to our country. What's up with that? Could it possibly be because our so-called "news" organizations are controlled by a handful of rich, elite corporations who are all in it with the gov and other corps?

There's only one legitimate, professional newsman who takes on the "media" issue regularly, and that's Bill Moyers on PBS.

I'm glad you called their hand on this Issue #1 business. I just wish you'd also take them, and FOX, and MSNBC and all the rest, to task on the crap they spew out at us all the time and call it news.

What ever happened to legitimate, honest, investigative reporting?

by im4unity (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 36 comments) on Tuesday, April 1, 2008 at 6:40:50 PM
 


Former computer/communications marketing and product strategist. Currently teaching part time in retirement.
Alan MacDonaldFormer computer/communications marketing and product strategist. Currently teaching part time in retirement.

It's two, two, two mints in one

Peace Brother, there's no reason to argue about whether the #1 uissue is the Iraq war abroad or the economic oppression at home ---- it's both.

The #1 issue is really the corporatist Empire hiding behind the facade of this phony 'Vichy' government --- which is the singular cause of BOTH the Iraq war AND the domestic economic oppression of average Americans.

In fact, if you want to throw in spying on Americans, destruction of  Constitutional democracy, the health care disaster, the imperial presidency, global warming, and every other problem you can think of, the answer is still the same --- the corporatist Empire is the cause of all of our problems and sorrows in America.

As Hannah Arendt presciently warned decades ago during the Nazi EMPIRE era, "Empire abroad (always) entails tryanny at home". 

So let's stop arguing and dividing our selves into the anti-war movement, the anti-torture movement, the economic reform movement, the helath care movement, and all these other self-limiting identity movements, and just forcus on one laser sharp anti-Empire movement to cut the heart out of the signle cancer that is infecting our country and causing all these different terrible and problematic symptoms springing from one and only cause --- EMPIRE.

 

Peace Brother,

Sincerely,

Alan MacDonald

by Alan MacDonald (10 articles, 0 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 49 comments) on Tuesday, April 1, 2008 at 9:19:26 PM
 


Peace Brother is a health professional and struggling writer interested in promoting global peace and justice.
Peace BrotherPeace Brother is a health professional and struggling writer interested in promoting global peace and justice.

Excellent Points!

Thanks for your thoughtful comments Alan and i'm4unity. You both raised excellent points. Believe me, I wish I had the wherewithall to take on all these jokers who call themselves journalists and yet all they do is spew a bunch of nonsense and refuse to address the real and important issues.

It seems all media is willing to go along with Bush's insistence that they don't EVER show pictures of dead Americans being shipped home to their families in flag-draped coffins as they are being unloaded at Air Force bases along with other spent cargo. Perhaps if they would show this very real side of the war, people would be less concerned about the price of a gallon of gas or Britney Spears' latest trysts?

by Peace Brother (9 articles, 0 quicklinks, 15 diaries, 62 comments) on Wednesday, April 2, 2008 at 12:10:39 AM
 


 I like to watch. I am not a wage slave.
B York I like to watch. I am not a wage slave.

priorities

 

Sadly, I think for most people, it is the economy. It seems to me it always has been. No matter what principles or "issues" might otherwise be involved, "pocketbook" issues always turn elections. And right now, people are very concerned about their pocketbooks. They should ( I think ) be more concerned about the war and American imperialism and what that really means for our future, but when push comes to shove it is the money that rules.

Since war and economy can't really be seperated, what we really should be concerned with, and what the news media should be reporting is this: It is the fascism, stupid.

by B York (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 75 comments) on Wednesday, April 2, 2008 at 7:24:44 AM
 

 

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