OT OT -- The C-SPAN cult
Ilmarinen,
Thanks a lot for all the fantastic effort you put into understanding and exploiting the C-SPAN phenomenon. :)
I can't say that I understand why a Finn would be quite so enthusiastic about a very quirky little media anomaly in the U.S., but I like it! :)
Here in my home town, C-SPAN 2 comes over my cable system on the same wavelength on the Coaxial cable as a free air paging system that is separately owned. There is an occasional "leak" onto the coax, which creates an interference pattern on the TV. I had a service tech out to clean up the signal and he told me something interesting. He said that of the dozens of stations that are part of the basic package on our system, that C-SPAN and C-SPAN 2 are the least watched of any. That means that the eveangelicals, the shopping network, and other pure mind rot gets more viewership. It was a disappointing discovery for me. But it goes a long way toward explaining why America is so obtuse about world affairs, the nature of the growing fascism at home and public affairs in general.
George Bush is a very lucky man to have such an ignorant population to lead about by the nose. And I'm certain he intends to do everything in his power to make sure the public remains in the dark for as long as possible.
*************
Here's a 'downer' article on the destruction of democracy in the U.S.:
newsday.com
A Fate Sealed Under Secrecy
Jimmy Breslin
NEWSDAY
June 22, 2003
On Friday, I rode across the Brooklyn Bridge, whose gray netting went with the sky, and as long
as there was tension about the bridge, I was remembering Richard Seaberg, a big cop from
Emergency One, who climbed to the top of the bridge so many times and pulled somebody down
before he jumped. Seaberg protected the Brooklyn Bridge.
Now there is a charge by the government that terrorists intended to blow up the Brooklyn Bridge,
or pull it down. Simultaneously, while protecting the bridge, the government was doing
frightening damage to the life of the country.
Because of it, I am thinking that it could be time for me to begin thinking about leaving this news
business. It is not mine anymore. Let me tell you why.
Friday, the newspapers and television reported the following matter with no anger or effort to do
anything other than serve as stenographers for the government:
On March 1, give or take a day, in Columbus, Ohio, the FBI arrested an American citizen they say
is Iyman Faris. There wasn't a word uttered. He vanished. No lawyer was notified. He made no
phone calls and wrote no postcards or letters.
He was a United States citizen who disappeared without a trace into a secret metal world.
This citizen's proper name was Mohammed Rauf. He took the Faris from a street name in his
neighborhood in Columbus. I don't know why he did this for sure. A friend of mine in
Columbus, Mike Weber, told me Friday that he thought the federal agents wanted him to use
Faris because the real name, Rauf, purportedly would alert others that he had been caught. Who
knows? You believe the FBI, you belong back in public school.
They held him secretly in an iron world for the next six weeks. This is plenty of time to hand out
giant beatings. Oh, yes, don't gasp. If cops are performing a Fascist act, then always suspect them
of acting like Fascists. They have fun beating people up.
In mid-April, again in deep secrecy, the government says Faris was allowed to plead guilty to
plotting to pull down or blow up the Brooklyn Bridge. He was in a sealed Virginia federal
courtroom. If he had a lawyer, that was some lawyer.
After that, he was sentenced. We don't know what the sentence was because it is sealed.
I don't know what Faris looks like or sounds like or what he thinks and what he was doing. He
could be the worst. I don't know. Prove he wanted to blow up the Brooklyn Bridge and let him
paste a picture of Osama bin Laden on the cell wall for inspiration over the next half a century.
But first bring him into open court and try him. Pretend you live in America. Even pick a jury. I
don't know. What a thing it would be if he comes up not guilty.
What we do know is that this is your country now.
Once before this, in 1942, we detained Japanese-Americans in secrecy. The nation swore never to
do it again. We haven't. This case is out of the old Soviet Union. He was neither booked with
television watching nor arraigned in front of a judge. Anybody concealed by government agents
and guards for more than three months could have marks on him somewhere. And our
newspeople write like the worst of the old Pravda. I read in papers from everywhere yesterday
morning, "After Mr. Faris was secretly arrested three months ago... " and "court papers this week
said that Mr. Faris secretly pleaded guilty to charges of terrorism last month." They say. They
were simply typed out, as if to report the guy getting a parking ticket. Now, the FBI doesn't even
tell you the right name of a kidnapped man and makes the news reporters love it.
Why would the government say he is a terrorist if he isn't guilty?
The only thing that could possibly bother anybody is the thought of somebody reading this 50
years from now and saying, "Look at that. This is where they blew a couple of amendments."
This government's kidnapping of Faris/Rauf violated the laws handed down by Madison,
Jefferson, Marshall. A small religious zealot, John Ashcroft, takes their great laws and bravery
and using our new Patriot Act, turns it into Fascism.
He could do this openly because news reporters go about the government like gardeners, bent
over, smiling and nodding when one of the owners shows up. You only have to look at a White
House news conference to see how they aggressively pursue your right to know.
The newspeople stand when the president comes into the room. They really do. They don't sit
until he tells them to. You tell them a lie and they say, "Sir."
And now you have a citizen kidnapped by agents and there is no anger. The day's news is about a
children's book, and a has-been heavyweight, Mike Tyson, under arrest in a Brooklyn precinct at
the foot of the bridge. Newspeople like to be called "journalists" and write of "the need to protect
sources." They don't have any. Here's a guy held for three months and nobody even got a phone
call.
The newest attribution in today's news reporting is, "senior law enforcement official." That is
news report for a cop. Newspeople can speak French all over the place but I know of only two
reporters in New York who can speak Arabic, and one of them is in the Middle East now and is of
no help. That means you can't even quote somebody and attribute it to a "senior Arab."
There is not even the beginnings of anger about an American kidnapped by his government, over
freedom being taken from us all, and bet me you won't see it back. The newspeople are
comfortable with being known as the "media." That is a dangerous word; all evil rises around
those afflicted with it. |
