THE AMERICAN 'TC' Saga - Part 7 - MEDIA
SARTRE
There are laws to protect the freedom of the press's speech, but none that are worth anything to protect the people from the press” Mark Twain
Totalitarian Collectivism
Part 7 – MEDIA
Totalitarian Collectivism could not exist without the active involvement and implicit deceit of the media. If you believe that the media writes the first draft of history, you must also accept that journalism is the prime distorter of facts, truth and honesty. Free speech is the soul of authentic reporting and unfeigned chronicled accounts of events. The tradition of candid expression of thoughts and interpretation is central to western civilization.
The trial of John Peter Zenger is a hallmark in freedom of the press. "Seditious Libel" against the state, defined by government and implemented by court fiat is a jealously defended privilege that "TC" regimes guard. Attorney James Alexander, who actually penned the remarks that caused the governor for New York, William Cosby to suppress the publisher Zenger, suffered his own punishment and was disbarred for his advocacy. Only the brilliant defense of Andrew Hamilton prevented the seditious libel charge conviction and criminal punishment for statements impugning the authority and reputation of the government, regardless of the truth of the statements.
It should be self-evident that repudiations of government officials have a sordid record at face value. Surely, the idea that truth in statements is the current basic standard for reporting published by the press is preposterous with today’s multi-media propaganda machine.
The "medium is the message" and "global village" of Marshall McLuhan represents a technological age and universality broadcasts void of principles in urbane discourse and intellectual integrity. Journalism is no longer about the Who, What, When, Where, Why and How. In the post republic, the media mission is the shaping of public opinion. Reality is geared to define or exclude, realism itself.Entertainment media is show business, with fantasy about the show, while the material emphasis is on the business. Making money by manufacturing illusions plays an Oscar lead actor role. Delusional suspension of personal responsibility and subjugation under an academy of ruling elites is central to achieving a Totalitarian Collectivist society.
Responding to the British parliament’s re-introduction of government licensing of printers, hence publishers, John Milton in the Areopagitica, 1644, made an impassioned plea for freedom of expression. "Give me the liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely according to conscience, above all liberties."
John Stuart Mill continued the arguments. Freedom of speech today is understood as a multi-faceted right that includes not only the right to express, or disseminate, information and ideas, but three further distinct aspects:•the right to seek information and ideas;
•the right to receive information and ideas;
•the right to impart information and ideas.
The mass media respects none of these rights and insults the intelligence of any thinking person with the misinformation that is provided twenty-four seven. The government facilitates media consolidation while preventing entry of dissenting viewpoints. If this is the information society, just who controls the press, the tube and the image?
Ownership Chart: The Big Six and There Were 88 Media Companies . . . Now There Are 6 presents the list and ownership control of major media. Brother Nathanael Kapner argues and concludes: "An open and shut case can be made that the media in 2010 is NOT "Corporate-owned," as so many fearful political analysts put it, but rather, "Jew-owned" . . . So long as the Jews control America’s media they will control our politicians and the policies they make. We will not be able to shut down the welfare system, control our borders, or restore Christian values to our society so long as the Jewish media-masters make Americans feel "intolerant" for wanting to do these things."Does freedom of the press exist to fact check, discuss or even whisper such an assessment? Maybe this is the true "seditious libel" test of the Zenger case legacy. When the media promotes a "PC" culture, the medium gatekeepers of the message are really demanding "TC" compliance. The feeling that one is living in a real Twilight Zone is now, the new normal. The effectiveness of cultural dislocation transmission is undeniable. Media venues propagate confusion in order to create the conditions for centralized control.
The eminent columnist, J. R. Nyquist cites, "in a remarkable posthumous book, titled Death of a Republic, Professor John Dickinson contrasted the moral and political conservatism of Cicero with the "instrumentalist" and revolutionary spirit of Caesar. According to Dickinson, "For Cicero the essence of tyranny is lawlessness; the two are synonymous. Where there is tyranny, there cannot be a state in any proper sense, since the essential characteristic of the state is law." We may be reminded of George Orwell’s characterization of totalitarian socialism in his novel, 1984, as a "lawless order." With Cicero we find that legitimate authority is always lawful, while illegitimate authority has the character of lawlessness."The grip of self-delusion that imprisons the addicted believers of the mass media would be better off drinking from Socrates’ cup of hemlock, than prostrate to the dictates of a despotic Caesar. Meaningful political dialogue is impossible within an environment that is based upon a distorted viewpoint of world events. The American media is especially skilled in homogeneous distortion of facts, of fairy tale versions of fabricated enemies and dedicated devotion of the corporate/state economy.
The concept of liberty is absent from the press dictionary. Just like "Tinsel Town", the business of print and broadcast news is making money. The reason why their enterprises are in such deep revenue decline is that the big six ignored the needs of their customers and provided a continuous lecture on the ills of American heritage, while postulating the virtues of "TC" ecstasy.
Earnest investigative reporting is taboo. Objective, fair and balanced are mere slogans. Reapplying a FAIRNESS DOCTRINE oversight on talk radio would never produce a fairness and accuracy in reporting experience. Liberals, progressives, socialists, marxists, communists, statists, neocons, libertarians and conservatives all have their own preference for news sources. Usually the factual nature of the information within a story takes a subservient relevance to the source of the reporting.Censorship is more than the restriction of reading, viewing or discussing ideas. Effective freedom of thought requires that the right to receive information and ideas is real. Ignorance by default is the goal. The media filter allows only acceptable information to be available for the public, is the actual function of the mass media. The psychological damage done by falsehoods in reporting facilitates "TC" institutions. The lies told by the media morph into distorted current events and ultimately become fictitious history.
Mr. Nyquist continues: "For Caesar the ends justified the means, subordinating institutional checks and balances in a quest for "results." Claiming to represent the people, or serve the cause of a "higher history," the dictator serves himself. Caesar destroyed the republic with no greater object than gratifying his own ego."
The media is celebrity orientated. The press seeks to make or tear down public personalities. Journalists view stable social institutions as impediments to advancing humanity towards some mystical nirvana. The readers, listeners or viewers are the jury that judge on truthfulness and believability of the evidence reported. When the public rejects the notion of social progress, in the guise of media trappings, the broadcast needs to be ratcheted up.
Milton’s freedom of expression is a loathsome practice to many media editors. To most media publishers Mills’ right to seek information and ideas only refers to their own newspapers or broadcasts. Moreover, to the "TC" politician the right to impart information and ideas is seditious.
Albert Camus said: "The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion."Independent news reporting on the internet has ignited and fulfilled the journalist rights of Zenger, Milton and Mill. The establishment media betrays their profession every time they enable despotic regimes to deceive the public and distort events that reveal the corruptness of the "TC" system.
Movie moguls, press barons, TV programmers and media conglomerates have their own agenda that serves masters other than the American people. Selective viewing at the very least and active abstinence as a habit are the best ways to combat the prevarications of manipulation. Rebellion is rational, Cicero was right and valid traditional institutions enhanced the conditions for making the practice of free speech possible. Dedicated journalists need to be defenders of the republic.
It is the responsibility of every individual to judge the truthfulness of any media report and the obligation of the public to condemn dishonest reporting to the depths of irrelevance. The duty of every citizen is to protect the truth of daily events and expose the meaning of dishonest political actions. Authentic media requires a healthy distrust of government and the corporate state.
SARTRE – May 2, 2010
http://www.batr.org/totalitariancollectivism/media.html