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07 February 2012

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William R. Cumming

Agree and excellent post!

Charles I

I'm sorry, this is the new normal. You have the right to your expectations, its a free country. You just don't have a right, never mind a hope, of them being fulfilled.

Bill H.

" Are we going to allow ourselves to be railroaded again into a war..." Short answer: yes.

Roy G.

This is the fruit of the long war against 'liberal media bias.' Ironically, Al Jazeera provides much better news now than the hollowed out and co-opted American Corporate Media.

Rd.

matters of war and peace?

This reminds me of a story a diplomat member of family from previous generation once told me. A story of an old Iranian diplomat from the bygone years who was dispatched to face a commander of an invading army about to attack the homeland. Despite the diplomats valiant effort to consider a peaceful resolution, the commander was set in his Path to [conquer] Persia. At that point the diplomat showed his hand to the commander and said;

“If you ever see a hair in the palm of my hand, you will see Tehran”.

I must add, Iranians are literally and figuratively speaking, quite hairy.

In their few thousand year history, they have been over run by outsiders a handful of times and each time they have resurrected. With the Arab/Islamic invasion, they eventually created their own interpretation. With the Mongols, they were eventually converted to Islam and took up Iranian/Islamic names./ culture...

A simple question is, what has US gained since 1953?

25 years of a despotic, accommodating ruler. Frozen Iranian assets. A few arms sales to the compliant Arab dictatorships. Any others?

First it was the British and their sun-setting empire. Now it is the Israeli's and their Wall-Street bankers. What has the US brought to ME in this time frame, except wars, killing and bloodshed?

Where are the men like Marshall with their positive vision?

alvord

I agree that the media has failed us and it is not liberals who are pushing for a war with Iran. If anybody controls the media today it is the neocons and the corporatists.

steve

I am no longer aware of much distinction between liberals and "the necons and the corporatists".

William R. Cumming

By the way looking now like over $1B will be injected by the various political campaigns into the MSM this year. A stock boost?

Ever ask yourself how many politicians own MSM stock?

Alvord

Corporatist? Have you heard of occupy wall street? I don't know any liberals who are pushing for war with Iran. Just the opposite. Perhaps you should visit some liberal blogs to learn what liberals actually believe and are saying.

JohnH

The awareness that the American people are being conned by the media is long overdue.

People need to analyze the news just like Russians learned to analyze Pravda. If something becomes the standard media narrative, there's a strong possibility that it's not true.

Caveat emptor!

Matthew

The key to perception management is to disconnect the perception of competence from actual achievement.

Exhibit A: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

We are told that she's a "great" diplomat, but look at her accomplishments: (1) non-reset reset with the Russians; (2) failure to accomplish any meaningful cooperation with the Chinese on trade; (3) zero progress in establishing a relationship with Iran; (4) the final demise of American credibility as a "good faith" broker in Israel-Palestine; and (5) the bungled negotiations with the Iraqis.

Sure, she had Bush's treaty. But she did a lousy job preparing the country for the reality that the Iraqis wanted us out.

She had produced a long list of failures yet she is lionized every day. She's really representative of our political class and the craven sensibilities of the MSM.

Richard Hack

"Truth in media IS dying"?

You're a few decades late and quite a few dollars short...

Truth in media has been dead since at least William Casey stating quite seriously that the CIA controls ALL the mainstream media...

If you want a clear example, look at the coverage of Syria...

ALL accounts claim Homs was bombarded Saturday with "hundreds" of dead.

But Pepe Escobar in Asia Times published the account of a Syrian Christian he described as utterly trustworthy who declared their family went to Homs on Saturday...and there was nothing going on.

EVERY account you see about Syria is coming from the West-supported activists.

Then the Russians are castigated for vetoing a UN resolution which demanded that Assad pull back ALL his forces to their home bases WITHOUT demanding that the insurgents lay down their arms. As the Russian envoy said, no government would accept that deal.

And today there are reports the Pentagon is planning military intervention in Syria "if Obama calls on that option".

And State's Neuland says, "all options are on the table" for military intervention in Syria. Where have we heard THAT line before?

My prediction is very simple: The US and NATO will be bombing Syria by summer.

In the process, Israel will use the suppression of Syrian military forces by the US and NATO to enable a surprise attack on Hizballah in Lebanon.

One armored division will push north into southern Lebanon, a second will push into Syrian territory to protect the rear of the third armored division which will proceed up and left to flank Hizballah in the Bekaa Valley.

Once Syria and Hizballah have been weakened (assuming the US/NATO/Israel succeed - which is not a certainty), the next step, probably beginning next year or some reasonable time after the previous events, will be either Israel launching a unilateral attack on Iran in order to drag the US into a war with Iran, OR the US President will begin ramping up a naval BLOCKADE of Iranian oil exports (once the oil EMBARGO has been proven to have failed.)

Such a blockade will force Iran to retaliate, just justifying an all-out regime change war.

ISL

There was an interesting presentation on TED Talks by Lauren Zalaznick, NBC Executive, that TV is not a leader of society, but actually a follower or indicator of overall social state.

http://www.ted.com/talks/lauren_zalaznick.html

I highly recommend it, and more to the point, if our societies recreational viewing habits are an indicator of the zeitgeist, why not the news.

Despite their kvetching, maybe Americans prefer News that bears the same relationship to reality TV now, while in the 70s Americans like biting sarcasm from MASH and All in the Family and Walter Cronkite.

Anyway, just a modest proposal.

turcopolier

Richard Hack

What casey was referring to was CIA's long standing practice of cultivating certain journalists to the point of obtaining their nearly unquestioning loyalty. That is one influence on the media. Much stronger is the Israel first grip through access, advertising money and sheer muscle that can make or kill careers. pl

Fred

Israel is going to invade southern Lebanon (how'd that work out last time?) and Syria too? Just what are they going to do IF they 'win'?

Thomas

Yes, nothing is happening in Homs.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nEnAMMbiYko&feature=player_embedded

steve

I visit leftwing blogs routinely, but only those not affiliated with the democratic party.

By "liberal" I was referring to that segment of the democratic party which purports to call itself liberal yet supports the worst policies of the bush administration, particularly Obama and the democrats in Congress.

Castellio

I have to post this. It's hard to argue with the action, isn't it? Dual citizenships do have a way of influencing a nation's policies and security.

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4187233,00.html

IDF submarine fleet bans dual citizenship

The IDF now demands that new candidates for service in Israel's submarine fleet waive their foreign citizenship in order to join the elite unit.

The demand to concede one's dual citizenship is made at certain IDF combat units and for posts requiring high security clearance. Submarine fleet recruits receive a notification stating they must renounce their foreign citizenships in order to qualify for the prolonged training, as part of their security screenings....

William R. Cumming

Am I correct that over 80% of political campaign contributions go to MSM media buys?

Charles I

I heard analysis yesterday either on CBC radio or TV news or on PBS, can't recall, claiming that near $6 billion would be spent on primaries & the election.

rjj

More like 40% according to these tables (graphs only show Obama):

http://www.opensecrets.org/pres08/expend.php?cid=N00009638

and/though it does not reflect media buys by irregulars, auxiliaries, guerrillas, and fellow travelers.

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