(Crossposted from my Real History blog.)
I read on Firedoglake of responses to Franklin Foer’s plea at TNR for the left to stop attacking the mainstream lest we aid the right wing in our efforts.
What?
Bloggers are the problem???
This got my blood boiling, and I fired off this scathing response…
—–Original Message—–
To: ‘theplank@tnr.com’
Subject: When the Mainstream Media is worth defending…
…the Mainstream Bloggers will defend it. I read your post and was just flabbergasted. You want to blame BLOGGERS for the loss of credibility of the New York Times? Bloggers didn’t hire Judy Miller. Bloggers didn’t beg the Times to sit on the NSA spying story for a year.
Meanwhile, please show me when the Times or the rest of the MSM told us the truth about something that really, REALLY mattered?
- When did the MSM tell us there were no WMD in Iraq? After it was too late to act responsibly on that information.
- When did the MSM tell us about Peak Oil and the implications for a society entirely dependent on oil? They haven’t.
- When did the MSM tell us about the dangers of electronic voting? Still waiting. (As a computer programmer I can assure you this is a stolen election waiting to happen, if it hasn’t happened already.)
- When did the MSM admit that Iran-Contra wasn’t just a wild conspiracy? When Hasenfus fell from a plane and the AP accidentally let that story slip through a foreign bureau.
- When did the MSM tell us that the hijackings on 9/11 coincided with pre-planned war games the US was running that included LIVE HIJACKINGS? Still waiting.
- When did the MSM tell us who profited by selling short on the airlines? The 9/11 Commission found that out and said go back to sleep America, it was just a coincidence. Give the people the information and let them decide. When the press starts treating its readers like grown-ups deserving of grown-up information, it will earn back some of the respect it has deservedly lost. When the press stops acting as an official part of government, they’ll stand a chance.
- When did the MSM tell us Nixon was a crook? Long after they had assured us that Watergate was just a “third-rate burglary.” And don’t get me started on Woodward and Bernstein. Woodward is and has always been a tool of the establishment who was led to the story by people in high places bent on bringing Nixon down.
- When did the MSM tell us that Kennedy was killed by a conspiracy? Not even after the House Select Committee on Assassinations hired not one but two acoustical firms which both confirmed at least four shots in Dealey Plaza – one too many for the lone shooter scenario – with one of those shots being from the grassy knoll. Yet ABC dares tell us, 40 years later, that Oswald acted alone. How can they do this? By omitting years worth of solid evidence to the contrary.
And you wonder why so few people trust the MSM?
Thank goodness for the Internet. Hey, I really appreciate the quality WRITING in the New York Times. I just miss quality INFORMATION. NPR commentators have lovely voices. But they aren’t covering the important stories either. Ditto the WP, the LA Times, the Chicago Tribune, and the other grand papers of our time, including The New Republic (which, as you probably don’t know because the MSM never told you, was created with the express purpose of gradually leading the left to a more empire-friendly viewpoint. That story is told in Tragedy and Hope, a massive volume written by Clinton’s idol Carroll Quigley.)
The NSA has a program called Echelon that enables the tapping of every electronic communication made on the planet. But why do I have to hear about that from the Canadian press? Now that the NSA’s spying is in the news, this would be a great time to discuss whether Americans approve of an agency of unelected officials having access to our most private communications. (The Village Voice thought so, and gave it coverage, predictably, by one of the few real reporters in the country, Jason Vest. Where was the Times? The Post? The other Times? Your magazine?)
I can’t watch TV news anymore. Who cares about the latest robbery or shooting? Has that EVER effected your life personally? Have you ever been spared some dangerous incident by watching a 20 minute car chase on TV, as us Los Angelenos are subjected to weekly?
I want the MSM to tell us how best to adjust to skyrocketing oil prices. I want to hear about new technologies I should be supporting because they will extend life on this planet. I want to hear about the true history of this country, and the real reasons the terrorists hate us. I want the press to hold the government’s feet to the fire every time anyone opens their mouth, be they a Democrat or a Republican. I want important information. I’m angry because it’s so hard to find in the MSM.
Don’t tell me I’m supporting the right wing by criticizing the MSM. Supporting shallow reporting, misinformation, and cover-ups does no one any good.
What this country needs is a big healthy dose of truth, right up the MSM.