Cenk Uygur Gets it Right — Big Time — on the Failure of the Media

(Did I mention he was right BIG TIME?)

Brad Friedman

December 14, 2006, 7:05am
PT

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The Young Turks’ Cenk Uygur hits the ball out of the park (and out of the stadium, as far as I’m concerned) railing about the “neutrality fetish” of our failed corporate mainstream media. Make no mistake, the CMSM now have immeasurable buckets of blood on their hands — and they will for years to come no matter what they do now — in regard to the situation America (and the rest of the world) now find ourselves in.

I missed Cenk’s original must-read rant when it ran back in October, but it deserves to be read in its entirety by all of us today. And after you’ve read that, don’t miss his must-watch, 100% on-the-mark ballistic freakout, captured on video, on this topic from his show back in September.

Here’s a sample from the October article, explaining the difference — for those who still don’t get it — between the objectivity today’s CMSM is supposed to deliver, versus the inexcusable and deadly neutrality they offer us instead:

Here’s neutral: The Jedi rebels say the Death Star is a peril to the universe, but Darth Vader assures the universe that the empire is trying to protect us from the insurgent terrorists that seek to do us harm.

Here’s objective: It’s called the Death Star. Its objective is complete control. Darth Vader’s tactics are brutal and dictatorial.

But, of course, it’s even worse. The headline today would read: Vader Says He Will Keep Us Safe.

That’s no joke. Watch me flipping out over a USA Today headline that says almost exactly that here.

Don’t miss that video.

But returning to a bit more from his written article where he (a Republican until just about five years ago, btw) continues his message to the media, holding them accountable (again, dead on the money) for their failure to appropriately highlight how the Military Commissions Act — signed by Bush just prior to the election — eviscerated the U.S. Constitution and the natural born rights of every American citizen by killing habeas corpus…

Here’s the reality. The right wing played you for the fools that you are. They complained and whined and bitched for thirty years about how you were liberal to the point where you were scared of your own shadow. You set out to prove them wrong. You were going to show them you weren’t liberal – you were neutral. Neutral, right or wrong. And while you were trying to prove them wrong, you proved them right. If challenged, you would submit. You would report things that aren’t true and hide things that were to show them you were neutral.

The facts aren’t always neutral, and it’s not your job to make them so. Your job is to report the facts, no matter what side they come out on.
…
Now, you can hate me. You can kill the messenger. I don’t care. As long as you get your head out of your ass and start PROMINENTLY reporting what is true. They killed America in the middle of the night. It is now day time, will you run the right fucking headline already?!

(Hat-tip Bob Geiger.)

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