No news is bad news, not good news

If the past few weeks have proven anything at all they have proven to us that no news is not good news. In the absence of a steady stream of vigorous reporting to convince us that things are actually going well, we should never assume that things are okay.

We now have evidence that Donald Rumsfeld and Condoleezza Rice were advised of an imminent Al Qaeda attack in July, 2001, but that they did nothing to protect us. 

We now have evidence that an alleged stalwart protector of children, Mark Foley, is actually a brash and despicable Internet predator.  We know also that several high-ranking Republicans covered up the conduct of Mark Foley for months instead of protecting the teenage boys on the receiving end of Foley’s horny advances.

We now know from the recent NIE report directed to the President that the war in Iraq is inflaming the Middle East and that producing a new generation of Islamic radicals.  This contradicts the constant and ludicrous assertions by the President that attacking Iraq would make Americans safer from acts of terrorism.  In other words, the President’s claim that he was protecting us by attacking Iraq was utterly false and it should have been vigorously questioned by the press for years.

All of this recently revealed information makes me ask “what else don’t we know?” 

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Corporate media hypes alleged Bush bounce

Check out this article from Media Matters: Despite the obvious signs it exists -- and has for nearly 20 months -- the pervasive buyer's remorse that hovers around President Bush's second term, as measured by public opinion polls, remains off limits for the press. The topic is all but banned…

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Just say “no” to TV. Do it for your country.

A couple weeks ago, I asked a friend how close he thought we were to a time when Americans would get so frustrated with their corrupt and dysfunctional government that they take to the streets with torches.  He replied:  that won’t happen as long as they’ve got TV.  I think my friend has a good point.  TV appears to be electronic Soma.

As long as ordinary Americans are glued to the tube, there is little hope that they will be able to focus the requisite attention and energy necessary to fix their government.  It’s not that all heavy TV viewers would become active participants in their government if we took away their TVs. As long as they are glued to their hypnotic televisions, though, they won’t be active participants in their own government.  As long as American citizens suckle off their television sets, government will be run unabashedly by big corporations.

American citizens don’t seem to be inclined to give up their TV viewing, despite the fact that giving up most of their viewing would free them up to monitor their government and to advocate for needed changes.  According to the Nielsen Media Research Study released in September 2006, the average American household watched television more than 8 hours per day during the 2005-2006 television year. Individuals watched an average amount 4 hours and 35 minutes per day  To watch TV for 4 ½ hours per day, every day, is virtually the same amount of time many people dedicate …

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Oddly, the “J” in ACLJ is not for Jesus

Although it looks something like the ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union), the ACLJ (American Center for Law and Justice) is a dba for Christian Advocates Serving Evangelism, Inc. These two similar acronyms are often on opposite sides of issues, although both claim to be about supporting free speech. One of…

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