Mainstream Media Cowardice: An Overview of "Into the Buzzsaw"
by Victor Thorn
NOTE: Into the Buzzsaw was edited by Kristina Borjesson, and published by Prometheus Books - www.prometheusbooks.com
Fact: Not including home ownership, the wealthiest 10% of Americans own 76% of this nation's net worth. Plus, more than half of that is accounted for by the top 1%. Guess what some of the things are that these very rich elitists own: TV stations, newspapers, magazines, Internet news sites, and radio stations.
Whenever I see a preponderance of lies, half-truths, censorship, and steady streams of disinformation in the various media outlets each day, I ask myself, how can these people continue to sell their souls? How do they possibly look in the mirror after knowingly enabling drug traffickers, murderers, and sexual deviants to get away with their crimes? And I'm not even referring to true-life criminals; I'm talking about politicians, government officials, intelligence operatives, and the Controllers themselves. How can any member of the mainstream media sleep at night, pat their children on the head, or not cringe with shame when they pass an American flag knowing that a plethora of blatant crimes go unreported each day?
"Into the Buzzsaw," an excellent book recently released in 2002 by Prometheus Books and edited by Kristina Borjesson, answers some of these questions. By giving eighteen different journalists a chance to speak freely on a number of issues (as opposed to being muted by the corporate media), this collection shows how the field of professional journalism has lost its fire, and why its members continue to wallow like yellow-spined lemmings in pools of aloofness and deceit.
If you think I'm being too harsh, start reading this book. You'll see how there is an overwhelming amount of evidence that proves not only that our military shot-down TWA Flight 800 off the coast of Long Island and commanded ships in the area to speed away (thus avoiding blame), but the mainstream media continues to cover for these MURDERERS to this day. Then check out how the CIA has admitted to blatant cases of cocaine trafficking, yet our fine lily-livered journalists don't have the guts to expose these DRUG DEALERS in a meaningful way. We could then branch off into other areas: the Franklin pedophilia case, AIDS as a man-made genocidal disease, Bilderberg secrecy, Votescam, Federal Reserve deception and theft, or the mysterious death-count surrounding the Clinton's (to name just a few).
What it boils down to is this - many of the devils in positions of power have intimidated the American mass media journalists to such an extent that they now tremble and COVER for these killers, drug dealers, and deviants. Why? Why are they enabling them to get away with this shit? Isn't it time to stand-up and expose these creeps, criminals, and traitors?
Well, that's what "Into the Buzzsaw" is all about - trying to bring to light what those in power want to conceal. When a reporter does so, they've entered the "buzzsaw," which Kristina Borjesson defines as, "A powerful system of censorship in this country that is revealed to those reporting on extremely sensitive stories usually having to do with high-level government and/or corporate malfeasance." Kristina continues to describe the 'buzzsaw' as, "What can rip through you when you try to investigate or expose anything this country's large institutions - be they corporate or government - want kept under wraps. The system finally fights back with official lies, disinformation, and stonewalling."
If the reporter or writer in question cannot be silenced, then the media big-wig moguls, who are merely pawns of the multinational corporations and international bankers, use a technique called 'marginalization.' In other words, when one gets too close to the truth, they are labeled a 'conspiracy nut,' then subjected to a propaganda juggernaut, which Borjesson says happens to "anyone who didn't believe the government officials or the journalists who unquestionably reported what the official said." She further explains, "If you don't go along with the party line, you're shoved into the margins and eventually out of the picture." What does this mean? Well, simply that the media never turns against itself unless you walk outside the accepted parameters. Then they turn on you like bloodthirsty sharks! It's absurd, but rather than going after the guilty party, they attack the reporter who upset the apple cart. (See Gary Webb and his expose' on how the CIA imported drugs into L.A. during the mid-1980's to start the gang-war crack craze.)
Philip Weiss reinforces this point by saying that we DO have freedom of speech and freedom of the press in this country, but to combat the dangers inherent to the elite class, it is marginalized by the Enforcers to the 'fringe'. Weiss goes on to tell us, "Corporate media outlets cannot entertain serious questions about the legitimacy of the powers-that-be, even when spokesmen are shown to lie." Stated differently, the American media is extremely conservative in nature because stability is much desired, and the status quo reigns supreme above all. To show that this statement is true, Weiss observes, "Most well-paid reporters are urban liberals, firmly ensconced in the blue zone, physically and culturally." By being so comfortable and removed from the streets, isn't it funny how an entire industry of left-leaning journalists are enveloped by a CONSERVATIVE corporate framework? The worst part is; most don't even realize the irony of how shackled and enslaved they are by this system.
But this concept doesn't only apply to newspapers or TV. The publishing industry also censors itself, as Gerald Colby points out with the concept of 'privishing'. This phenomenon occurs, "When a publisher kills off an author's book without the author's awareness or consent." Basically, they "cut off the book's life-support system." Publishers can plunge a dagger through the heart of a book in a number of different ways, such as:
1) reducing the print run
2) refusing additional print runs
3) gouging the promotional budget
4) failing to support a book-signing tour
5) or by simply saying that a book is not available
One may wonder at this time how the corporate media is allowed to get away with such nonsense. Well, the key word here is "corporate." Y'see, as Ben Bagdikian notes in "The Media Monopoly," in 1993 there were 50 major media corporations in America. Less than ten years later, there are six! Six multinational companies now control all the network, newspaper, radio, and magazine news departments in this country. The corporations, of course, are owned and beholden to the international bankers, whose primary goal is Globalization, which is reflected in their foreign policy decisions. In all, the media becomes a conditioning tool used to 'maintain' the status quo, while maximizing profits to boot.
Greg Palast reflects on the result of this monopolized media. "If the Rupert Murdochs of the globe are shepherds of the New World Order, they owe their success to breeding a flock of docile sheep; snoozy editors and reporters who are content to munch on, digest, and then reprint a diet of press releases and canned stories provided by officials and corporate P. R. operators."
Maurice Murad adds, "The manipulation of perceptions is replacing reality as the governing principle in human affairs."
Y'see, when President Dwight D. Eisenhower delivered his farewell speech in 1961 before leaving office, he warned Americans about the dangers of a growing military-industrial complex. The media should act as a WATCH DOG against these forces, but instead, the press has actually been MESHED TOGETHER with these jerk-offs under the same corporate umbrella. Hell, look at how many of these cowering dogs still refer to Lee Harvey Oswald as JFK's "lone-nut assassin," and rarely acknowledge how horribly their ranks have been corrupted and poisoned by the perpetuation of outright lies.
What do I mean? The New York Times came clean once in 1977 and verified to what extent the CIA had infiltrated the media and publishing industry. Author Michael Levine weighs in by saying: "If the CIA is good at anything, it is complete control of the American media. So secure are they in their ability to manipulate media that they even brag about it in their own in-house memos." Gary Webb adds further ammunition by writing, "The national news organizations have had a long, disappointing history of playing footsie with the CIA."
Gary Webb then asks, "Do we have a free press today? Sure we do. It's free to report all the sex scandals it wants, all the stock market news we can handle, every new health fad that comes down the pike and every celebrity marriage or divorce that happens. But when it comes to the real down and dirty stuff - that's where we begin to see the limits of our freedoms. In today's media environment, sadly, such stores are not even open for discussion."
George Seldes, author of "The Lords of the Press" (1983), lays it all on the line by sneering, "It is possible to fool all the people all the time - when government and the press cooperate." Unfortunately, we've reached that point in this country. Most everyone is being bamboozled!
In essence, then, the American media's cowardice is a direct reflection of their "don't rock the boat" mentality; starting with the editors, program directors, and network heads and filtering down to the reporters. By utilizing bias, omission, under-reporting and outright censorship, they remain beholden to corporate (and local) advertising, while preserving their incestuous relationship with governmental P. R. sources. These two forces make sick, twisted bed-partners - sort of like a sadistic control-freak fucking a masochistic, resigned whore. The question I have to keep asking is this: how can these guilty parties keep wallowing on their backs - legs spread wide - while the Controllers come in and fuck every ounce of integrity out of them? Are the few dollars they slap on the dresser afterward worth it?
Carl Jensen reinforces this point quite nicely by writing, "The high salaries many of our leaders receive, in newsrooms and business offices as well as corporate headquarters, have turned into golden handcuffs. And those handcuffs morphed into blindfolds and gags ..."
Jensen goes on to describe how this failure to break-free from their constraints leads to a journalistic conundrum. "The United States has a free press guaranteed by its Constitution, it has the world's most sophisticated communication system, and it has more independent media outlets disseminating more information 24 hours a day than anywhere else in the world. Considering our autonomous press and the quality of information that bombards us daily, we should be a very well-informed populace. Unfortunately, high-tech and a free press do not guarantee a well-informed society. The problem is not the quantity of information that we receive, but the quality."
With this in mind, we should look at exactly what the main function of journalism is. Robert McChesney provides an excellent answer: "The media system must provide a rigorous accounting of PEOPLE IN POWER and people who want to be in power, in both public and private sectors. This is known as the watchdog role." McChesney continues, "Contemporary journalism serves as a tepid and weak-kneed watchdog over those in power, especially in the corporate sector."
But these watchdogs have turned into simpering LAP DOGS who suckle at the tit of their corporate sponsors, while those who speak the truth are shoved to the fringe, or viewed as rabble-rousers and subversives. But let's keep in mind the reality of the situation, which Henry Adams reminds us of. "The press is the hired agent of a moneyed system set up for no other reason than to TELL LIES WHERE THEIR INTERESTS ARE CONCERNED."
As you'll soon see, Robert McChesney explodes one of the prevailing myths of journalism. "Trained editors and reporters are granted autonomy by the owners to make editorial decisions, and these decisions are based on their professional judgment, not the politics of the owners and the advertisers, or their commercial interests to maximize profits." How laughable.
Closer to the truth, of course, is McChesney's summary of Public Relations in regard to the media. "By providing slick press releases, paid-for 'experts,' neutral-sounding but bogus citizens' groups, and canned news events, crafty PR agents have been able to shift the news to suit the interests of their mostly corporate clientele."
Alex Carey, who wrote, "Taking the Risk out of Democracy" in 1997, adds weight to this argument by showing how these smarmy shysters add another level of confusion to America's social fabric. "The role of PR is to so muddle the public sphere as to take the risk out of democracy for the wealthy and corporations."
In other words, the media, when combined with public relations firms and their overlord Controllers, end up conditioning us with a game of misdirection - sorta like children when they played "hotter-colder" (you're getting hotter . hotter . now colder .). By using a variety of subtle techniques, the media directs us away from stories that they deem too "hot" or "explosive." Robert McChesney describes professional journalism as being, "Biased toward the status quo. The general rule in professional journalism is this: if the elite, the upper two or three percent of society who control most of the capital and rule the largest institutions, agree on an issue, then it is off-limits to journalistic scrutiny."
McChesney continues, "To the United States elite, democracy tends to be defined by their ability to maximize profit." He also adds, "U. S. professional journalism, even at its best, serves as a propaganda function similar to the role of "Pravda" or "Izbestia" in the old USSR."
If we return to media ownership, we see that our faithful television broadcasters are essentially controlled by: AOL Time-Warner, Disney, Viacom, GE, and Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Also, check out these disturbing facts:
- The ten largest media firms own ALL U.S. TV networks.
- They also own most every TV station in the major markets, all major film and music studios, nearly all the TV cable channels, and most all book and magazine publishers.
- In terms of NEWS, Jim Squires, former editor of the Chicago Tribune, found this trend so disturbing that he said resentfully, "Our generation has witnessed the end of journalism."
As it stands now, the American media has relinquished its role as watchdogs of the high-and-mighty, therein surrendering their dignity and ability to help make the world a better place. And what a pitiful, disheartening surrender it has been - to not only themselves and their families, but also to the American public. This once proud, vital institution has allowed itself to be reduced to pathetic marionettes dangling from the Controller's strings. Rather than calling these bastards on the carpet and shining a light on their evil, underhanded practices, they promote their Globalist aims while letting them undermine this great nation. But what do you expect from a profession that has, by and large, lost its backbone and grit?
Hell, they'll even bend over for the international financiers and whip us into frenzies so the death-mongers can ship our boys off to die in another one of their perpetual wars. McChesney sums up the media's role in fueling the greedy War Machine: "The government needs to lie in order to gain support for its war aims. The media system, in every case, proves to be a superior propaganda organ for militarism and empire."
McChesney continues (and LISTEN to what he's saying --- this is important stuff), "The United States media conglomerates exist within an institutional context that makes support for the U.S. military seemingly natural. These giant firms are among the primary beneficiaries of both neo-liberal and globalization and the U.S. role as the preeminent world power. Indeed, the United States government is the primary advocate for the global media firms."
Isn't it clear what's taking place? The mainstream corporate media and the power elite are no longer separate entities, but one-in-the-same! There's no dividing line between them any longer. They're in bed together, with the multinational Globalists whipping the reporters, anchors, and editors like obedient dogs. And I have to tell you, the scent they're following isn't one that benefits us, but only further promotes the Controller's New World Order goals.
With all of the above information in mind, I'm going to end this essay with an emotional plea to every member of the mainstream corporate media. Please, before it's too late, bury your cowardice and stand up to your bosses. Why are you selling your country, your family, and yourself out? Can't you see what's happening in America? We're being deliberately undermined by a group of power-hungry devils that allow 100,000 people to die of starvation EVERY DAY - that created a deadly sex virus and uses it to commit genocide on entire peoples - that advocates a perpetual, bloodthirsty War Machine that is now ready to start rolling in overdrive. These same people steal our money via an unjust tax system; then pilfer even more money through their privately-owned, for-profit Federal Reserve System. These same people run drugs, launder money, murder as if they lived outside the law, and are increasingly setting up a Big Brother type surveillance system that will alter the world in a way that'll bring us directly into George Orwell's "1984". They're also destroying the planet's environment with wild abandon, then building even more underground bases to protect themselves when shits starts hitting the fan (while we'll be locked out in the cold to suffer and gasp for breath). Hell, they've even trampled the very foundation of our democratic system via "Votescam," and do so with such arrogance that it is appalling.
So, I have to ask each and every one of you journalists at CBS, the New York Times, Newsweek, CNN, local newspapers, and talking on the radio - when are you going to expose these lying, murdering, traitorous devils for what they are? Why are you so afraid to stand up to them? If every journalist in this country decided to start telling the truth, we could run those bastards out of town in a week! That's all it'd take - the TRUTH! But for some reason beyond me, you allow the above-mentioned atrocities, and many more, to go unfettered year after year. Why? Be a MAN . be a WOMAN . be a TRUE PARENT and AMERICAN and do what's right. Refuse to be their sloppy, yellow-spined prostitutes any longer. Quit telling lies and let the American people know what's REALLY going on in the world. That's your duty and responsibility. Forget about status, position, and money. Just tell the truth, for, in the end, what does it matter if you've gained the entire world, but lost your soul in the process? It's time for some dramatic changes in this country, and I challenge every member of the media to stand-up and expose the Controllers and their loathsome goals. If we don't do it soon, we won't have another chance. Are you willing to have that on your conscience?
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It's time that We The People openly discuss and share with one another these simple truths about these core FRAUDS that spread these dark seeds of claim, blame and shame throughout our world.
The current government and corporatized controlled media has walked far, far away from the truth. For the media to ignore the massive, massive, massive financial fraud - see FED-IRS - that supports this PONZI scheme that's been masquarading as our government is criminal. Here I and many many others are writing about the truth about this fraud on the only open publishing platform on earth - ie. the public internet.
So turn off the T.V. Turn off the radio. Turn off and tune OUT of the controlled media. For, like our current criminal government, it's totally irrelevant.
Do the math: FRAUD IS IRRELEVANT!!
You cannot build anything on a fraudulent foundation. Those who believe in this fraud are like caged animals spinning their wheels as they eat the controlled morsals of information which are designed to keep them comotose, caged and enslaved by the illusion of it all.
In less than 3-4 Washington D.C. will be like a wasteland - a veritable open air museam of these walking illusions which will have faded from public view as the ONE (1) Light of this New Day in this New Jerusalem Age of Aquarius spreads more and more and more and more and more!!!
It's Wizard of Oz time BIG-TIME!!
Repeat after me.....
"There's no place like home, there's no place like home...."
Peace and God Bless!!
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