11 Responses

1. 

   1)

   Dredd said on 3/31/2008 @ 11:40pm PT: [Permalink]

   Good focus, but lets not under estimate the scope of the problem.

   It has been corroding British and American freedom arteries for near 100 years:

   Noam Chomsky: One of the most important comments on deceit, I think, was made by Adam Smith. He pointed out that a major goal of business is to deceive and oppress the public.

   And one of the striking features of the modern period is the institutionalization of that process, so that we now have huge industries deceiving the public“”and they’re very conscious about it, the public relations industry. Interestingly, this developed in the freest countries””in Britain and the US””roughly around time of WWI, when it was recognized that enough freedom had been won that people could no longer be controlled by force. So modes of deception and manipulation had to be developed in order to keep them under control.

   And by now these are huge industries. They not only dominate marketing of commodities, but they also control the political system. As anyone who watches a US election knows, it’s marketing. It’s the same techniques that are used to market toothpaste.

   And, of course, there are power systems in place to facilitate this. Throughout history it’s been mostly the property holders or the educated classes who’ve tended to support power systems. And that’s a large part of what I think education is””it’s a form of indoctrination. You have to reconstruct a picture of the world in order to be conducive to the interests and concerns of the educated classes, and this involves a lot of self-deceit.

   (Noam Chompsky, emphasis added). Teach your children to teach their children, cause we gotta long, long ways to go.

2. 

   2)

   Big Dan said on 3/31/2008 @ 11:47pm PT: [Permalink]

   “Have the media undermined our democracy?”

   Yes. It’s THE biggest factor, the umbrella under which all other deceit is allowed to flourish, like e-vote machines, stolen elections, 9/11, etc…

3. 

   3)

   Linda said on 4/1/2008 @ 12:08pm PT: [Permalink]

   Even though this video manages to have some fun with a very serious issue, let’s not fool ourselves here.

   Americans as a whole are a bunch of stupid, malinformed, arrogant jerks. Studies have been out for years now showing us just how misinformed we are, and how those misperceptions affect our policy-making.

   America launched a campaign years ago to shame cigarette smokers into seeing how stupid their decision to smoke was/is. Imagine if we were to do the same thing around shaming news consumers into seeing just how stupid their choices for news sources are.

4. 

   4)

   Larry Bergan said on 4/1/2008 @ 2:31pm PT: [Permalink]

   Frantic corporate commercialism + News = Shit.

   Great video that speaks for me.

5. 

   5)

   karen said on 4/1/2008 @ 4:44pm PT: [Permalink]

   the video would be funny if it wasnt so darn sad
   while back comcast took ovr my area….i had always had c span 3 before that,now i dont
   i called to complain and they said i nevr was entitled to c span 3(even tho i have an”upper” package) so for 12 bucks more a month i can add c span 3
   to say i was angry is an under statement
   i called sen durbins office and told story,they said well,there is really nothing we can do////i was like….write legislation that MAKES any cable customer receive ALL c span channels at no charge…no more “public service stuff” ,put it in LAW
   the office said was good idea
   call ur senators and tell em same
   i mention because c-span (altho it seems more and more biased all the time) is the only real news we have left on tv

6. 

   6)

   Big Dan said on 4/1/2008 @ 5:23pm PT: [Permalink]

   Linda: Yes, but why are we misinformed? On purpose by the corporate media (see Dredd’s comment #1). They want/need a stoopid populace. As George Carlin says, you don’t think they want a bunch of analytical/independent thinkers walking around, do you? That would be the end of them!

7. 

   7)

   Nunyabiz said on 4/2/2008 @ 5:52am PT: [Permalink]

   This is by far the best video/documentary that tells it like it is about the US corporate Media.

   Orwell Rolls in His Grave

8. 

   8)

   Nunyabiz said on 4/2/2008 @ 5:53am PT: [Permalink]

   http://video.google.com/videopl...97883469976340

9. 

   9)

   JUDGE OF JUDGES said on 4/2/2008 @ 3:39pm PT: [Permalink]

   Remeber this old chestnut ~ 5 min. “Take Back The Media”

   Hmmm… Blitzer and Ware . . . . . Hook & Crook . . .

10. 

    10)

    JUDGE OF JUDGES said on 4/2/2008 @ 5:52pm PT: [Permalink]

    Fox is not news. . . it’s propaganda

    Economics don’t trickle down . . . Urine does

    There is no such thing as Islamofascists!

    It’s a word specifically designed to divert the attention

    of sheeple from the gop (Greedy old Perverts) fascist practices.

    Pigs don’t fly . . . They wallow in shit

11. 

    11)

    Dredd said on 4/2/2008 @ 6:17pm PT: [Permalink]

    Linda #3

    Sometimes I wonder if we have morphed into equating stupid with experience?

    My post one quotes scholars who point out that one of our oldest experiences in Amurka is deceit.

    When we demand ‘experienced’ candidates for our government we mean ‘deceived’ candidates. Those who ‘luv Amurka’ no matter how fucking insane Amurka wants to be.

    No other business goes back so far and has such a ‘now’ presence than the deceit business (PR … public relations … MSM).

    Once upon a constitution there was a ‘free press’, then journalism and politics had a sexy change, and then like bad parents, they became tolerated, hated, and obeyed.

    Now we are all trying to run away from ‘home’ because it has become the ‘best little horror house in texas’.

    It is a lot less complicated just to kick their ass.