Glenn Greenwald [1] is one of my most trusted self-critical sources of information. He writes for Salon.com. Check out this post [2] (and explore his other recent writings) and consider viewing the short video interview at CNN, and you’ll see why I’m so cynical about the mainstream media, including host Jessica Yellin of CNN (BTW, the ex-Bush adviser on this clip is really a piece of work).
And then check out this post [3] and the following comments, where Yellin tries to redeem herself:
The following comment to the video sums up Yellin’s alleged even-handedness nicely:
Jesse Frederik December 28th, 2010 7:33 pm ET
Compare the questioning of Fran Townsend:
“[After showing a video of Joe Biden calling Assange a high-tech terrorist] Is it fair to call him a terrorist?”
“Is there anything good that can come from what Assange is doing?”
To the questioning of Glenn Greenwald:
“Shouldn’t he go to jail in defense of his beliefs?”
“Any qualms about that he is essentially profiting of classified information?” [Bob Woodward anyone?] And do you see any irony in the fact that he’s making money of a corporate publisher?’
“What is his ultimate goal, beyond embarrassing and disrupting the US government? What good do his supporters hope will really come from everything he’s doing?”
“Do you think [the rape charges] are part of a smear campaign? And beyond that do you think it hurts his credibility?”
Is the difference in the questioning not obvious?
My feelings about Wikileaks and the person(s) that leaked the most recent cables are inextricably woven with the many disturbing revelations disclosed by Wikileaks. [4] This is not the sterilized slow drip of information that you get from the mainstream media, such that we only really learn what was going on 30 years after we could have done something about it. Wikileaks has enabled a torrent of important and often disturbing information and it is causing massive embarrassment to the elites that run this country, and they run it far too often in secret [5].
Yes, I live in the U.S., but it is no longer my country. The leaders of the U.S. rarely speak for me anymore because they don’t treasure the First Amendment, they are crushing our children with debt and they are xenophobic and unapologetic warmongers and torturers. I’m tired of waking up to ever more of their shameful behavior, but making myself seek out real news is necessary medicine. When I repeat the disturbing things II know to many people, they don’t want know–they’d rather use Facebook only for lite chat, talking about their favorite new movie or a cool new restaurant. I do think I understand why many people resist getting serious. It’s a lot of work and it causes lots of stress. Once one understands the magnitude of the situation, it will cause massive cognitive dissonance to those who would rather sit back and enjoy their lives. It causes much less anxiety to trust government and media—it’s much less distracting to one’s ability to have fun, to be happy. It allows us to teevee, including endless streams of sporting events and reality shows, in good conscience.
I hope Julian Assange can pull off his huge leak of Wall Street banks, because it was the threat of these bank leaks (likely to embarrass BOA, it has been suggested) that seems to have caused the U.S. and its bevy of big banks to ramp up its efforts to shut down Wikileaks throughout the U.S. And this shutdown has gone on despite the fact that Wikileaks has not been charged with any crime. Nor should it be charged with a crime, based on what I have heard and read, because Wikileaks does what the New York Times does, except that Wikileaks does it in a more intense primary-source driven way.
Beware the lies that Wikileaks has indiscriminately dumped its documents—Glenn Greenwald has repeatedly harpooned that bald-faced lie in the above video and in other recent writings and appearances. Pretty amazing that we have a government of thugs, and yet this is not reported in these stark terms, except ever so rarely. And pretty amazing (as Greenwald points out) that journalists have so exuberantly attacked Assange, willingly picking up the propaganda lines spewed by so many conservatives, but also by the Obama Administration (and see here [6]). Recent events are giving me a bout of PTSD, triggering old feelings about the lack of responsible journalism during the 2003 run-up to the unwarranted Iraq invasion, which has killed, injured and displaced many tens of thousands of people. The United States did that needless damage in my name and in your name.
Here’s a damning list of many of the recent Wikileaks revelations, this list compiled by Greenwald [4]. Carefully consider this long list of corruption and wrongdoing by the U.S. and by many other countries and entities. You’ll rarely if ever see any comparable list published by most media organizations that claim to do “journalism.” They would rather not deal with the substance of these recent revelations. If they did, people would wonder: “What the hell have YOU been doing for the past ten years? Are you really journalists?
As Greenwald points out, the media defends itself in an incredibly muddled way:
Meanwhile, the American establishment media — even in the face of all these revelations — continues to insist on the contradictory, Orwellian platitudes that (a) there is Nothing New™ in anything disclosed by WikiLeaks and (b) WikiLeaks has done Grave Harm to American National Security™ through its disclosures.
We are at a critical fork in the road. Are we going to give up on factually based criticism of our government? If so, lets make it official by renaming “news” shows “Not News” and by repealing most of the First Amendment:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble [in cyberspace], and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
Without a vigorous and free exchange of ideas through unbridled media and citizen journalism, none of these paper rights found in the First Amendment mean anything at all. Without a vigorously enforced First Amendment, we are a body politic stumbling around without a collective brain. Without journalism that causes discomfort to our government and to those powerful corporations for the most part control it through their confiscation of the electoral process, our country is no longer, as Abraham Lincoln said at Gettysburg, “[a] government of the people, by the people, for the people . . . .”
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