Last night I was listening to the Mike Malloy Show. Mike was asking his listeners if they had what he called "rage fatigue." I was in our Nova M Radio founders chat room and all of us agreed that we were all exhausted from the feeling of powerlessness that has been caused by Bush and the gutless MSM. This country has collectively been subjected to the most egregious psychological challenge since the Great Depression.
Fortunately for America, FDR took office in 1933 with his famous inaugural speech quotation; "The only thing we have to fear is, fear itself." This country had to face a worldwide depression and an impending world war and yet our leader held us psychologically together with the wonderful Roosevelt optimism. The threat to America then was far greater than it is today. The post war nuclear arms race was much more of a danger to our existence than any threat of terrorism inside or outside the United States. As Michael Bloomberg has been saying for many years, the chances of being killed by a terrorist are about the same as being hit by lightening. And yet the Bush Administration aided and abetted by corporate self-serving media have made terrorism a cottage industry.
Goebbels and the Nazis exemplified the success of the big lie in media in the 1930s that also exploited fear to rally the German people into their own self-destruction. In the case of the German media, at least they could say that they were afraid to tell the truth. What in heavens name is the excuse for the reporters and newscasters who know the truth and still refuse to state the obvious? Are they so afraid of losing their jobs that they would allow these lies to go on without comment?
When Katie Couric started broadcasting the CBS Evening News, she and her producers featured the first pictures of Tom Cruise's new daughter. Not only was that an insult to the listeners, it was hardly in the tradition of CBS News people like Edward R. Morrow or Walter Cronkite. What she should have done on her premiere show was to do what Walter Cronkite did in 1968 when he told the nation that the Viet Nam War was a failure. President Johnson famously said after that, "if I have lost Walter Cronkite, I have lost the nation." What a breath of fresh air and what momentum she would have gotten if she would have done something similar on her premiere show. Instead she listened to Les Moonves and his ilk in corporate media to launch her disastrous start. Both will deservedly be out of a job soon.
Unfortunately that is the rule rather than the exception. All of these news anchors act as if they are merely observers that have to remain neutral. Sorry, that is a copout. A person who truly cares for others and humanity does not become a bystander in such an obviously corrupt and evil environment. The Nazis would have murdered any newscaster that betrayed them. What excuse do Brian Williams, Charles Gibson, and Tim Russert have for not speaking up? They are already very rich. Does being famous and rich out trump saving the country from the madness that is going on? You can't help your country and humanity without taking risks. And it is not like they are risking their lives to do this as our soldiers in Iraq have been doing.
Those of us who were against the war in Iraq from the beginning knew with certainty that Iraq was not a threat to us or responsible for 9/11. I suspect that Hillary and the other Democrats who voted for the war knew this as well and yet they all betrayed their country by putting their trust in a man who was obviously exploiting the psychological fear mongering that the Bushies were perpetrating. So they succumbed to the political state of terror that was predominant in 2002. These Democrats failed us more than Bush or any of his group. They are the go along get along types who allow these maniacs to control and exploit our worst fears.
I realize that it is not possible to rally the progressives to boycott the networks and make the complaints necessary to have serious changes made in the media. And the wealthy liberals who could make a difference in changing the media have not supported any significant investment in progressive or independent media. I learned that when I was trying to fund liberal talk radio since 2002. Not much has changed. I realize now that the Democratic Party and their elitist supporters as well as the DLC do not want control of the party to go to their constituency. They want the leaders of the party to create an image of "one size fits all" policy that is determined by the elites and for the elites. That is why they are losing their base on a daily basis. With the exception of Nancy Pelosi and a few other courageous people, the party is lost and needs to have a course correction.
I now understand how people must have felt during World War II in the occupied countries. In a sense, without an invasion by a foreign country, we are living in "occupied America" where are freedoms and sanity has been ruthlessly stripped from us. As it was with other oppressive regimes in history, it is just a matter of time before they will self-destruct. I just hope that this "occupation" ends soon before the country and the world have a collective nervous breakdown. In the mean time, the pharmaceuticals, oil companies, and armaments industries will continue to rape and pillage until the present occupiers are driven from office. And that includes the news anchors and politicians that stood by and let it all happen.
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