In this milieu then, one might easily imagine a Trump aide informing the POTUS that Russian president Vladimir Putin is on the hotline wishing to speak to him about a matter of considerable geopolitical import patiently waiting whilst the Trumpster finishes terminating Arnie's ass via Twitter -- itself the perfect medium for the media and political abbreviators' desired message du jour -- because the president feels it is in the national interest for folks to be aware his successor was actually fired from Celebrity Apprentice because he [Schwarzenegger] couldn't cut the mustard in the reality TV stakes and because he [Trump] thinks no-one does reality TV -- like most everything he "does" -- 'quite like' well, he does!
Which to be fair, President "Bluff 'n Bluster" has a point. He now also 'hosts' the biggest and longest running reality TV show cum soap opera on the Big Blue Ball -- and it's a 24/7 affair! No matter what he does or who he offends, the ratings will never falter, irrespective of the frequently dubious quality of the 'entertainment' on offer and the singularly unattractive personalities of the principal contestants/cast of characters. We know the ground has shifted. 'Not in Kansas anymore?' We're barely in the same galaxy. Old Sol barely gets a look in this far out!
-- The Mockingbirds of the Mainstream --
In few other areas of the broad body politic then do the pathologies of presumed privilege, hubris, sophistry, malice aforethought, venality, mendacity, civic delinquency, moral turpitude, self-delusion, righteous umbrage, trivia, elitism, unvarnished pharisaism, and self-serving expediency of the 'communal' variety coalesce as seamlessly as they do within the rarefied realm of Brand MSM. And in few areas does Postman's thesis manifest itself so obviously than in this same milieu.
Notwithstanding the backlash against it of more recent years from some quarters -- exemplified by the exponential growth, importance and influence of alternative news platforms and independent media forums and driven by a wider recognition from clued-up news consumers that the MSM has bartered its collective soul for something far removed from the basic tenets of responsible and ethical journalism -- it was ever thus. This "backlash" clearly reached a crescendo throughout the 2016 election campaign, and shows no sign of abating since the rise of Trump, said "rise" benefitting in no small measure from the resentment folks feel toward it.
There can be little doubt then that trust in and respect for the established media has reached a nadir. In fact, when we contemplate it, it is amazing they've been able to sustain their shop-soiled rep for so long. Well before the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) usurped effective control of the media conglomerates and their obsequious career minded minions both past and present via the insidious 'psyop' gambit that was Operation Mockingbird, the establishment media have always demonstrated a lascivious willingness to bed-hop with the power elites du jour in supporting their mostly hidden agendas whilst simultaneously denigrating then destroying the careers and lives of those who felt compelled to offer alternative narratives to the official line and/or foolishly sought to speak truth to that power in opposing such agendas. Again, the Wikileaks revelations are simply the latest evidence in support of this unholy conspiracy, the roots of which go back over seventy years. It isn't just Big Brother that's watching us now apparently; he's invited the whole clan along for the 'show'.
Nowhere it seems has this reality been more egregious and socially and economically destructive than when these agendas involved issues of war and peace ("war is peace" anyone?), said agendas invariably fuelled by grandiose predispositions towards empire building, hegemony, and full-spectrum dominance of the domestic public domain and the geopolitical arena. It is here where the blurring of lines between truth and falsehood has morphed into a highly sophisticated dark art-form that challenges even the most perceptive, intelligent, least distracted and proactive citizens of western democratic polities. We only need to take a cursory look at the contrasting way the Western media is reporting on the terminal conflicts taking place in Mosul (in Iraq) and Aleppo (in Syria) and the dynamics involved therein between the notional warring parties in both theatres -- a classic case study in media manipulation of the public reality on the ground in the service of the not so public agendas back in Washington.
What makes the countless sins of omission and commission of the MSM so egregious is that it is the purportedly liberal media -- represented principally by the likes of the presumptive 'papers of record' The New York Times, The Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times, along with their fellow travellers in the major news networks such as CBS, ABC, NBC, CNN etc. -- that long ago cornered the market on promulgating mass-scale misinformation and disinformation of the lowest common denominator kind. We might opine they are up in arms 'n umbrage about "fake news" coming from sources outside their purview because they don't like the competition!
-- All Propaganda is Equal (But Some is More Equal than Others) --
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