System of Lies… What happened to us?

I just read this article about how the press has been usurped by political agendas–see clip below and read the whole, well-researched article at http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=33681.  I am depressed, the people who claimed they would save us from Orwell’s 1984 style governance were busy CREATING it.  Glad I never bought their crap, but still depressed that so many do.  When did we as a nation stop thinking and start just following the crowd?  Sigh…

Then I read an article about all the protesters showing up at health care town halls (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090812/ap_on_go_co/us_health_care_protests).  I am now considering the possibility that such people are being planted to disrupt the meetings and discredit reform that might actually ensure that we get better health in spite of an industry that only wants to profit on our illness.  Seriously, if ppl knew what HMOs, suppliers, and others did, they’d be BEGGING the government to get involved!!!

Gaaa!!!  Yep, I’m a leftest loony. But I’m also an idealist, and I believe in American democracy at it’s finest, where a free press challenges government assertions. This perversion of the press as marketing tool is depressing and disgusting.

Get the word out!

clipped from www.middle-east-online.com Palin’s ‘Death Panel’ and GOP Lying During the early 1980s, Republicans were adopting a conscious approach to deception that was qualitatively different from what was common in politics. With the aid of a growing right-wing media, the GOP covered up ghastly crimes by its allies and enflamed public opinion against its adversaries, regardless of the facts, notes Robert Parry. False Republican claims about President Barack Obama’s health-care initiative, including former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin’s demagogic charge about a “death panel,” are part of a pattern of systematic lying that has marked the GOP’s political tactics at least since Ronald Reagan’s presidency in the 1980s. Robert Parry broke many of the Iran-Contra stories in the 1980s for the Associated Press and Newsweek. His latest book, Neck Deep: The Disastrous Presidency of George W. Bush , can be ordered at neckdeepbook.com.

VOA Censored in USA!

I can see VOA propaganda being problematic–but shouldn’t we be allowed to hear what they’re telling others? This article is interesting (and pro-VOA) but also, we should have access to the media supported by our taxes.  I recommend reading it in full (it’s only 2 short pages!)…

clipped from www.foreignpolicy.com Censoring the Voice of America Why is it OK to broadcast terrorist propaganda but not taxpayer-funded media reports? This muzzling of VOA comes at a time when the U.S. media is shrinking, eliminating foreign bureaus, and increasingly relying on stringers (of sometimes dubious quality) for its news. VOA and other U.S. public diplomacy organizations, meanwhile, are staffed with professional journalists and editors who are adept and experienced with covering goings-on about the world.