The rapaciousness of media occurs in the same manner that the rapaciousness of corporations like A.I.G. occurs. All function in a system which allows for greed and corruption to subvert the well-being of communities and taxpayers nationwide.

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Break up the banks. Regulate the financial industries, to within an inch of their existences. Roll back corporate legal protections. Make liable the officers of corporations, for their debts, and for their deeds. Resurrect the rallying cry of a hundred years past: bust the trusts!

AIG gives "failure bonuses" to the cretins whose dalliances in derivatives brought the company and part of the nation to her knees? Spin off that division whose traders are owed the 165 million in bonuses, under fund it, and cause it to go bankrupt.

Enough!

I doubt that Keith Olbermann had the audience that Jon Stewart had when he thoroughly exposed the systemic problems with CNBC last week. But, Olbermann’s “Special Comment” was a searing populist condemnation that should resonate with all Americans searching for their moral center during America’s crisis in capitalism.

Keith Olbermann opened his comment by labeling what is going on “an atrocity from the banks.”

Olbermann called for CEOs like Vikram Pandit of Citigroup to be fired. Pandit, as Olbermann explained, is using bailout money to fund “a new $10 million executive suite for himself and his key associates.”

Rightfully, Olbermann went after the "far right":

“The far right in this country, without the slightest provocation, screams "socialism," and the sheep who follow it, who do not know what the word means and do not know it is only being used because "communism" now rings laughably hollow. In this cry of fire in a crowded unemployment line, there is outrage.”

 

And then, surprisingly, Olbermann’s “Special Comment” took an unexpected turn after he cried out in true Teddy Roosevelt fashion, “Bust the trusts!”

“…If the monopolies of radio or television rear up to support the corporate structure, to say a contract is a contract, even though that isn't true for a union these days, only for an AIG Trader. Take the invisible, unused Sword of Damocles they still fatuously insist hangs over their heads, and make it real.

Enough!

Make sure both sides are heard. Re-regulate the radio and television industries to limit station ownership and demand diversity of management and product. Re-instate the old rules that denied one man all the voices in a public square. End all waivers of multiple ownership of television stations and networks and newspapers in the same market.

And, yes, if a voice of the privileged classes unfairly uses his cable platform to call our neighbors who are the victims of this, "losers" to insist he alone speaks for the real people.

Or if another, indicts without equal time for defense a particular elected official, and then offers himself as a candidate for that very official's seat, in violation of all canons of good or even fair broadcasting then tell the cable industry that the free ride is over and it is time that it too be regulated by the FCC.

Enough!

In less than seven minutes, Olbermann connected the rapacious greed of corporate executives to the need for true economic reform in this country and also to the need for true media ownership and regulation reform in America. How often do you hear a pundit cry out against media on a channel owned by Big Media (i.e. NBC owned by General Electric)?

Not too many know what media reform is but let’s just say if media ownership rules and media regulation was different in this country, presumably, not as many newspapers would be printing their last editions. Not as many newspapers would be scaling back the degree of journalism practiced so they could continue to put out a paper for citizens to read on a regular basis.

Why should we be concerned about media reform? In two words, I would say “public naïveté” is why.

Why should we be vigilant about the media which citizens consume? Why should we care so much about where the public gets their “news”?

The rapaciousness of media occurs in the same manner that the rapaciousness of corporations like A.I.G. occurs. All function in a system which allows for greed and corruption to subvert the well-being of communities and taxpayers nationwide.

I was writing when the Bailouts stormed through Washington, D.C. I was following it closely when politicians were crying, “The sky is falling!” like Chicken Little.

I don’t want credit for being right. I don’t believe in being pompous and I definitely do not believe in buying T-shirts that say, “Don’t Blame Me! I Voted…” But,  I do, however, believe now may be a good time for Americans who read Internet news to go back and recall what was happening when the Wall Street Bailouts were handed down.

Ron Paul, a member of Congress who knows America’s free market economy better than most members of Congress, called this week's anger over the bonuses as a “distraction.”

"I rise in opposition to this rule and the bill because of the problem -- because of the lack of need for this and the disgrace that this has brought upon us…Yesterday, for instance, the Federal Reserve met and they came out and they announced that they would create new money to the tune of $1.25 trillion…Today...on emergency legislation, we're going to deal with $165 million of bonuses, which obviously shouldn't have never been given, but who's responsible for this?...It's the Congress and the president who signed this [$787 billion stimulus bill that allowed the bonuses to go forward]. So this is a distraction, this is an outrage."

It's been revealed that the Senate stripped the provision that would regulate the bonuses going to executives at corporations being bailed out like AIG.

Sen. Chris Dodd appeared on television and said he knew nothing about it and then, as the muckraking comedy show The Daily Show w/ Jon Stewart showed on Thursday night, he came back the next day to claim he went back and looked and yes, he did have something to do with a provision which allowed bonuses to go to A.I.G.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Larry Summers were Clinton people who were wholly supportive of Robert Rubin’s economic policies which involved repealing the Glass-Steagall Act, an act which conceivably, if still in place, would have been a huge barrier to all the Wall Street corruption being regularly exposed right now. 

According to a new article from David Corn and Jonathan Stein, who write for Mother Jones, a “Top Geithner Aide Fought Against CEO Pay Reform.” Mark Patterson, now chief of staff to Timothy Geithner, was a lobbyist for Goldman Sachs who fought Obama’s “effort to limit excessive corporate pay.”

Patterson is now part of the team charged with the task of curbing executive compensation to corporations like A.I.G. receiving bailout money. Does anyone else see the obvious conflict of interest and does anybody else remember Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson’s connections to Goldman Sachs and how he was accused of being a "fox guarding the chicken coop"? 

And how does this impact the credibility Obama built up during the campaign when he was offering sweeping condemnation of lobbyists’ influence on Washington politics? That a once-Goldman Sachs lobbyist is a member of the economic team charged with rebuilding our economy---does that impact Obama’s integrity?

The anger and rage is warranted. But, without recalling how all of this unfolded and without knowing how much of it unfolded under our noses during the election, without recognizing how so many Americans were distracted with the election of the first black president as corporate pirates earned one final favor from the Bush Administration that Obama would continue upon his election, will we ever be able to correct America’s jaded moral compass?

I didn’t want to do this. But, the state of things in America requires that I do something that many Americans cannot handle.

I don’t know why, but citing the words spoken by this individual often leads to those who hear him speak becoming enraged. Those who hear others support him are tempted to spit on and shun those who give the words of this man second thought.

My citation could cost me a job. So, be it. 

Ask yourself, how convenient is it that the one with so much wisdom to speak out in these times has been marginalized? Ask yourself, why of all the people out there do you find it hard to listen and be okay with this man?

Really, “Special Comment” from the mouth of Olbermann was nothing new because the words “ENOUGH is ENOUGH!” had already been written by the likes of Ralph Nader in reaction to the bailouts in September 2008. 

“Americans are crying out -- ENOUGH IS ENOUGH! For themselves and their children. Summon your senators and representatives to a school auditorium before November 4, 2008 and instruct them in no uncertain terms. After all, your senators and representatives are supposed to work for you, not against you and for the corporate greedhounds and gamblers with your pension, mutual funds and small investor's money.

Ask why they didn't require speculators to fund their own bailout while you, the taxpayer, pay 5-10 percent sales tax for necessities. Speculators buy $500 trillion of securities derivatives each year and don't pay one penny. A mere 1/10 of 1 percent sales tax on purchases of these derivatives would raise $500 billion per year to pay for their bailout. Let the speculators fund their own bailout

Why didn't they comprehensively re-regulate the financial services industry to prevent future collapses?

Why didn't they give shareholders the authority to control the companies they own including their out-of-control bosses?

Why didn't they provide the resources for a corporate crime crackdown?

The New York Times lead editorial this Thursday lamented the "sweetened" version of the bill passed by Senate for doing too "little to avert the defaults and foreclosures that are pushing house values ever downward," and called it "unwise and unfair" to leave struggling American homeowners out of the bailout bill. Why did this bill provide nothing to prevent or avert homeowners' foreclosures?

Dallas Federal Reserve Bank President Richard Fisher chalked up the cause of the financial markets crisis to "a sustained orgy of excess and reckless behavior."

Now Congress has engaged in its own sustained orgy of excess and reckless behavior.”

The blame can be pinned on the corporate executives, but the corporate executives have and always will be corrupted by the greed that comes from engaging in their casino capitalist endeavors.

What the public should be doing is blaming Congress. It should be calling on Obama to find the moral fortitude to whip Congress into shape, to whip his administration into shape, and to figure out which side his administration and Congress will be on.

You may not like it when society points fingers, but, let’s face it---Fingers must be pointed if we are to get out of this mess. Accountability for crooks must occur if we are to stem the tide of this financial crisis.

You may not like the man, but listen to the words Ralph Nader said in October 2008.

If we do anything to fight corporate dominance in America, we should consider these words as we move forward and find a way out of this mess that politicians and corporate crooks have created with the silent approval of Americans like you and me.

Authors Bio:
Kevin Gosztola is managing editor of Shadowproof Press. He also produces and co-hosts the weekly podcast, "Unauthorized Disclosure." He was an editor for OpEdNews.com