One of the things that strikes me about the current state of American journalism is it's ability in this modern age to concentrate on stories that are easy to understand, and shocking. The traditional type of journalism that was (in it's modern era) defined by people like Edward R. Murrow and lead eventually to Watergate is now pretty much on life support.
Part of it is the "dumbing down" of America media, in an "Entertainment Tonight/ American Idol" world. Thanks to short attention spans caused by an overwhelming bombardment of images and choices offered to viewers, and less time available to spend because of the need to spend hours working trying to survive, viewers now want a media experience that is less challenging, fun, and an escape.
Journalists in the past had been outcasts, they were professionals that were far closer to the working class than the aristocracy. Although well known, they were not living within the same circles of power that the people they commented on were.
Today, journalists (at the top levels) are celebrities. They are millionaires, they live in the same privileged communities as those they oversee, they send their children to the same schools, and their futures are decided by the contacts they have.
As opposed to the traditional model that existed before, they now have too much to lose, and too much in common with those that run the country. That causes them to avoid conflict, and to avoid questioning too much. Journalists have been "outed" by this administration, publicly revealed to be homosexual, simply because they questioned what they had seen going on.
That type of attack has lead to journalists that are afraid to go against a government that will take any measures, without any regard for decency or tolerance, and that threat silences them effectively.
A perfect example of this is the lack of coverage of the reversal of H.R. 3100, entitled the East Asia Security Act of 2005, on live TV ( C-Span). It was the death knoll of democracy in America, in my opinion. An act was proposed to protect America's security, votes were cast ( enough to ensure passage) - and then stunningly they were reversed - after rich lobbyists from the defense industry and corporations started telling American politicians how they were supposed to vote.
Without any shame, or guilt, they replied to their masters request - like the lapdogs they have become.
Here is what that act was all about, and why not only it's defeat was so telling of the current state of government in America, and the lack of any real coverage of it in the media. It should have been front page news the second it happened.
Almost no American I have spoken with is aware of this, thanks to the lack of intestinal fortitude of the journalists that are supposed to be looking out for such things, and reporting on them.
Official Title: To authorize measures to deter arms transfers by foreign countries to the People's Republic of China.
Project Vote Smart's Synopsis:
Vote to pass a bill that requires the President to report all information to Congress relative to any foreign individual or country who transfers arms or related technology to the People's Republic of China.
Highlights:
Grants the President the ability to place sanctions on any individual or country that violates the arms embargo, including:
- Denial of participation in cooperative research and development
- Prohibition of ownership and control of any business registered as a manufacturer or exporter of defense articles or services
- Removal of all licenses relative to dual-use goods or technology
- Prohibition of participation of any foreign military sales
Jul 14, 2005: This bill failed in the House of Representatives by roll call vote. The vote was held under a suspension of the rules to cut debate short and pass the bill, needing a two-thirds majority. (Roll 374.) The totals were: 215 Ayes, 203 Nays, 15 Present/Not Voting.
Democrat/ Republican/ Independent
Aye 96/ 118/ 1
Nay 97/ 106/ 0
Absent 9/ 6/ 0
Here is who voted, and how :
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/vote.xpd?vote=h2005-374
This changing of votes crossed party lines too, and it shows how badly the legislative branch of government has been bought off by multi-national corporations and special interest groups.
Those politicians, the ones who voted for that act and then changed their votes afterwards, betrayed their duty to represent and protect the citizens that elected them.
That's a pretty straightforward act, taken against a clear and present possible future danger to America - and Americans. It traded money, over homeland security. That same homeland security that your politicians have kept telling you for five years is of critical importance. They speak constantly of a need to protect against any threat.
We have experienced the horror of September 11. We have seen that those who hate America are willing to crash airplanes into buildings full of innocent people. Our enemies would be no less willing -- in fact they would be eager -- to use a biological, or chemical, or a nuclear weapon.
Knowing these realities, America must not ignore the threat gathering against us. Facing clear evidence of peril, we cannot wait for the final proof -- the smoking gun -- that could come in the form of a mushroom cloud.
As President Kennedy said in October of 1962: "Neither the United States of America nor the world community of nations can tolerate deliberate deception and offensive threats on the part of any nation, large or small. We no longer live in a world," he said, "where only the actual firing of weapons represents a sufficient challenge to a nation's security to constitute maximum peril."
-President George Bush Jr.
Tuesday, October 8, 2002
China is perhaps the only country on this planet right now that could perhaps pose a real threat to the USA. It's economy is exploding, thanks to American business using it as a source of cheap labour. Walmart alone accounts for a large sum, not to mention all the others.
That country currently has a strong military, growing wealth, weapons of mass destruction, and is expanding it's influence and control outwards slowly across Asia. It now is allowed to purchase the latest and most modern military technology without restraint or supervision, thanks to that act being defeated. Thanks to American businessmen and politicians working together hand in hand, it has access to better weapons, and the money with which to purchase them.
Those that gained the most by it's defeat ? The rich and the powerful, in essence the aristocracy of America. Those that have been rewarded the most by the freedom and democracy offered to them by America, those that live lives of privilige and wealth - they sold you out like Judas, for thirty pieces of gold, or at least it's modern equivalent.
10 And Judas Iscariot, one of the twelve, went unto the chief priests, to betray him unto them. 11 And when they heard it, they were glad, and promised to give him money. And he sought how he might conveniently betray him.
Matthew 14:10-11
"The Capitalists will sell us the rope with which we will hang them."
Vladimir Ilyich Lenin
That's it, the greatest story never told.
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