It’s Just Sad

Posted on by Alex Symington

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by Alex Symington…….

The world seems to be coming apart at the seams and events of just the past few weeks are making my head spin. I have to wonder, are the fundamentalist radical Christians correct about the apocalyptical end times or are they just frantically engineering it into existence with the help of their Abrahamic cousins? We are living within a perfect storm of fear, hate and religious/political extremism being made much worse by an impotent press. Corporate sponsored media is more concerned with keeping their jobs than DOING their job of keeping the powerful in check by asking the tough questions and exposing graft and misuse of power. This course of journalistic inaction and flaccid coverage has helped spawn an ignorant, uninformed and in some cases, dangerous citizenry.

Following the news of the latest * NRA sponsored/US Congress sanctioned assault weapon attack on a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado, it seems corporate media just can’t bring itself to call a white guy a terrorist. Always the “lone gunman” or the much sexier “lone wolf”. Another NRA sponsored/US Congress sanctioned murder spree by a white dude took place just last June in Charleston, SC where nine African American church members at a bible study were gunned down. African Americans, people of Middle Eastern descent (or those that resemble Middle Eastern descent) and health clinics that provide abortions as part of their services are being attacked on a regular basis by American WHITE guys. I find it a little more than disingenuous when a handful of black people commit a crime and they are all “Thugs” or when a handful of Muslims commit a crime, they are all “Islamic Terrorists”, but when white guys commit similar crimes they’re just a crazy ol’“Lone Gunman.” The corporate press has made this double standard the standard.

Meanwhile the right wing POTUS contenders seem to be in a contest to see who can fabricate the most outrageous pronouncements because they know they can get away with it as the press passively looks on chewing their cud. These shameless snake oil salesmen and woman are appealing to their lowest common denominator base with inflammatory lies and misinformation that prompted, directly or indirectly, the murders at the Colorado Planned Parenthood clinic. The phrase “stochastic terrorism” is used to describe the use of mass communications to stir up random unstable individuals to carry out violent or terrorist acts that are statistically predictable but individually unpredictable.

Imagine a sociopathic personality with an ego so inflated it would knowingly straight-up lie to millions of people on national TV and incite the mentally unbalanced to go out and commit murder and then double down on it’s lies and deny any culpability in those deaths, just to garner points for it’s campaign. What sort of excremental demographic are they trying to impress? These are the kind of people today we have vying for the office of President of the United States. Corporate media refuses to call these sociopaths out. That would be bad for business. To add insult to injury, some of these right wing “stochastic terrorists” demand and are receiving Secret Service protection as they vomit up their hate speech. Ya gotta love the irony.

I am voicing my disgust with a press that has sold out to corporate interests, but of course there are those fearless journalists who work very hard to chronicle the truth, but they cannot and will not be employed by corporate media. Ninety percent of all media; print, radio, cable and network is owned and controlled by six corporations, GE, News-Corp, Disney, Viacom, Time-Warner and CBS. 232 media executives control the information disseminated to 277 million Americans. That is one media exec to 850,000 people or roughly the population of San Francisco. In 1983, 90% of media was owned by FIFTY different companies! You will find more alarming info in the links below.

So is it any wonder that if corporate interests are backing a particular person or product and are at the same time holding the purse strings of say, NBC, it would behoove any journalist that likes his or her job at NBC to not say anything untoward about that person or product, even if there was something hideously wrong with that person or product. Not the best recipe for healthy, robust journalism.

Journalist Chris Hedges faced a dilemma as a twenty year veteran foreign correspondent for the NY Times with the build up to the Bush/Cheney war on Iraq. He was given a choice by his editors to either talk nice about W’s invasion or look for another job. He is now writing independently and actively speaking truth to power. Bill Moyers is another journalist unafraid to take on the radical right and has been extensively involved with public broadcasting, producing documentaries and news journal programs. PBS is still funded publicly but is increasingly using corporate sponsorship to stay afloat. Stay tuned. Reader funded internet publications are the least beholding to corporate, hence the least tainted, but Al-Jazeera, The Guardian and Rolling Stone Magazine are the closest to “main-stream” press that have maintained journalistic integrity.

The fact is, put all of the aforementioned professional journalists of integrity and several more not mentioned together and their exposure to the average American is minimal. Most Americans get their news from TV and most of that is corporate sponsored infotainment pablum designed to steer the viewer in one direction or another. At the conclusion of ten short political verbal joustings on ABC’s coverage of the 1968 Republican and Democratic conventions between ultra rightist William F. Buckley, Jr. and ultra leftist Gore Vidal, Buckley spoke of his displeasure with the relatively new medium of TV news. “Does television run America? There is an implicit conflict of interest between that which is highly viewable and that which is highly illuminating.” Buckley’s political descendants have proven his words prescient.

*Written before the San Bernardino NRA approved/US Congress sanctioned assault weapons murder spree. It is very difficult to keep current with the frequency of all the different NRA approved/US Congress sanctioned murder sprees.

More from other sources:

http://scholarsandrogues.com/2015/11/29/stochastic-terrorism-and-lone-wolves-why-arent-rubio-and-fiorina-in-jail-this-morning/
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/stochastic
http://www.alternet.org/election-2016/robert-reich-hate-speech-republican-candidates-more-despicable-its-inciting-people
http://www.cnn.com/2015/06/19/us/charleston-church-shooting-suspect/
http://www.cnn.com/2015/11/29/us/colorado-planned-parenthood-shooting/
http://www.politicususa.com/2015/11/29/republicans-blood-hands-inciting-deadly-domestic-terrorism.html
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2015/10/19/source-trump-carson-likely-to-get-secret-service-protection.html
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/the_age_of_the_demagogues_20151129
http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/33856-the-lee-of-the-door-planned-parenthood-and-freedom
http://www.businessinsider.com/these-6-corporations-control-90-of-the-media-in-america-2012-6
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Hedges
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noam_Chomsky
http://howardzinn.org/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Moyers
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glenn_Greenwald
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matt_Taibbi
http://www.gallup.com/poll/163412/americans-main-source-news.aspx

25 thoughts on “It’s Just Sad”

  1. well, again, you have abused the reading public of any semblance of truthful, credible reporting. your misinformation is exceeded only by your cognitive dissonance. at this point, I no longer have the will nor the volition to offer a more tenable truth.

    I must point out again however, that you cannot malign the structure of the media, disparage their deficiencies, question their loyalties, and then use that very same media as your source material.

    Isn’t that garbage in, garbage out, as they say?

    PS-If you think al-jazeera, the guardian and rolling stone are differentiated journalism, you have just defined your own naiveté.

      1. Pippy, baby, bubala… always appreciate the vitriol and name calling! I know it makes your day to put that acerbic “wit” on display for all to enjoy your hapless, though energetic attempts at literary badinage, but perhaps you could interrupt your busy day of dome polishing and critique what I actually said; how about that?

        c’mon, fill the board with your intelligence!

        we’re waiting……

          1. a rejoinder for the ages! color me shocked that “nah” is the apex of your literary adroitness. you can now take a seat in the corner next to your buddy shaquille.

            well, hopefully all is not lost, and at least you’ve got a good shine going….

    2. “NRA approved/US Congress sanctioned assault weapons”
      and the progressives go rolling along with the same o same o theme of deception. maybe the next deceit will be to blame the nra/congress for passage of the 2nd amendment? yep the nra was there in 1776 will read the new and improved school books introduced by the ‘progressive’ [Marxist] department of education just before intro of another new liberal law to ban those ‘military assault’ style/looking weapons. oh wait you chewed your pop tart to look like a gun so we the school authority are suspending you.

      https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/compost/wp/2013/03/05/pop-tart-gun-suspension-seriously-folks/

      the progressive way of getting them while they’re young. makes you feel all warm and fuzzy all over more then anywhere else don’t it!

  2. GM Alex, I wrote a rant on the Coconut Telegraph around a year ago about everyone has been brainwashed since the day they were born, and probably when still in the womb? Mother, nurses, siblings, relatives, friends, classmates, Clergy and Polititians. All spewing their agenda. A few?grow out of their clutches, but the rest of the herd plods along doing what they’ve been programmed to do. The heard doesn’t want to be bombarded with uncomfortable influences, just continuing along the preprogrammed path. Marshmallow TV, social media, gaming, Safe Zones in College, nothing much seems to motivate the herd to take the different path.
    You mentioned the Egomaniacs, obama, putin, that N. Korean guy, etc; examples of My Tribe is better, and lets get real Local. What about our own Gangsters of Three? U’ve read my rants and others here and possibly in the Coconut Telegraph about about the corruption, Extortion, misappropriation of tax funds, lies, put upon We The People, by Monroe County, the BOCC, and the FKAA, Fl. DEP, US EPA, etc. and Nobody except that 10% that took the other path give a shit. The herd just bends over-Thank U Sir, May I have another, and re-elects them(the Other guy Might be a crook). It should be apparent that this current civilization is following ALL former civilizations toward total collapse, followed by CHAOS. As said by myself and others, the next form of currency will be ammunition. Is there a chance that we Will get our shit together and get out of the mess?? Has anyone done it in the past??

    1. In the USA, and perhaps others, The Welfare State is happy with their ?Entitlements? and the Slaves supporting the W S recognize that there’s nothing they can do about it; they’re OutVoted, so they give up.

  3. Moe enlightening research and insight–“stochastic terrorism,” similar to the incitements on Jihadist websites. Thanks, Alex. Keep using the non-corporate media that still somehow exists, our vital Blue Paper.

  4. Perhaps if the leaders of the UK, France and USA had stood up to Hitler and Hiro Hito before WW II broke out, there would have been no need to fire bomb German cities or drop atom bombs on Japan.

    Radical Islamist Terrorism is spreading and I have had enough of politically correct nonsense. We are in a world war against freedom fueled by an ideological belief that the infidels must be killed.

    The path ahead for the free world is clear but do they have courage to take it.

    1. you should do a little research into who wanted and provoked WWII; the result may surprise you. Hint: it wasn’t Germany.

      it will also explain the war crimes that are the fire bombings of Germany and atomic bombing of Japan, as well as the slaughter of millions of post war German soldiers and civilians. it also explains the Islamic “threat.”

      your last sentence made me at once laugh out loud, and then slink into a despair realizing that you were serious.

      1. Who wanted and provoked All Wars?? Whom ever wanted something someone else had. That’s about as simplistic as I can get. Remember, it’s all about the money(figure of speech). Both the Japanese and the Americans wanted rubber, oil, raw materials. In Europe, German expansionism for raw materials. Nothing to do with racial purity or whatever other nonsense was spouted. Ego, greed & corruption is universal. Read history.

    2. rothauserc,

      An intellectual exercise, [of a sort]:
      Take the number of people killed by terrorism on 9/11 and multiply by ten. Is the answer still many fewer than the average gun deaths per year? Yes, by far!

      Should we maintain and probably increase our diligence against terrorism now that ISIS is entering the game worldwide? Of course!

      Is the larger problem our own predilection to surmise that private gun ownership is the answer rather than the greater danger? Absolutely!

      Following the pragmatism of leaders such as Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton, IMO, would be a better idea than acceding to the fear mongering of our Republican candidates and/or office holders, [most, not all of course]. We must keep in mind that a small number of jihadists should not be conflated to represent a billion and more Islamic people.

      If my assumption that you are most likely a Republican is incorrect, I apologize for the insult,
      [but you do sort of write like one].

      And yes, you said nothing about gun owners, but in a nuanced argument, it IS related, I think.

      🙂 pip

  5. Another fine article, Alex! However, [and maybe this is just me hoping], I’ve noticed a couple of ‘mainline’ reporters pushing back against the corporate media garbage. One, Is Lawrence O’Donnell. Also, Chuck Todd has been asking tougher questions lately too, I’ve noticed.

    Just as there was a swing away from in depth questioning with more accusations from republicans of “biased reporting” – now there seems to be a swing back as we accuse them of not doing their jobs.

    So, keep shouting, and stay tuned…

    😉 pip

  6. Rothauserc, I answered this comment last week with what I’m about to say now. Maybe this time you will learn from it. Listen up … the dropping of the A-bomb on Japan and the fire bombing of many German cities (most famously Dresden), WERE NOT NECESSARY. They were the result of the immoral revenge-like traits that your country is no better than any other at controlling. You still believe in “good guys” and “bad guys”. There is only the latter, including US. Best wishes, Jerome (PCM)

  7. Alex, The other day I had a run off at the mouth that came out pretty well. It went like this: “What makes someone like Bernie Sanders unelectable in America is that he is honest, sincere, has good ideas, really wants to serve the greater good, has no ulterior motives, and so on”. This immediately disqualifies him. Bernie Sanders just does not know how to lie properly, nor is he interested in such. Our political culture simply cannot accommodate that, mainly because the electorate cannot recognize it. Woo! Thanks for the good read, Jerome

  8. I loved the link in the comments by “wankajm” to the Washington Post article about the little kid being suspended from school for chewing his strawberry-goo-filled pastry into the shape of a gun and saying “bang, bang!”

    I agree 100% with Alex on the effect of controlled mainstream media on manipulating the population. They have even convinced people that this country’s founders were buffoons to have included the 2nd Amendment, and that we are all in grave peril because people other than criminals have guns.

    Where I went to school in south Texas long ago, the Mexican thugs would race their switchblades in the boy’s bathroom, and brass knuckles or pieces of chain on a leather rope were carried openly. Pistols were built from pieces of pipe, so nobody needed to buy a gun. There were plenty of kids beat up (including me) and several stabbings every year, but nobody got shot. A pistol would have been more convenient, but a hardwood dowel with a steel pipe coupling fastened on one end that was carried in my book bag was enough deterrent to save me from one gang beating. In my experience, one does not want to be defenseless, or believed to be defenseless.

    9/11 was not a foreign terrorist attack. It was a domestic terrorist excuse for war with “collateral damage” in the form of a lot of innocent people killed or sickened. People at home believed everything the mainstream media told them, even as they saw the evidence of deceit on their TV screen- like the 16 foot hole in the heavily reinforced concrete walls of the Pentagon that miraculously swallowed a passenger jet airliner that was incredibly larger than the hole, leaving no wings or tail section outside and adjacent Pentagon windows unbroken. Duh… whatever you say NBC…
    Please, people- wake up, be observant, come to your own conclusions based on logic instead of propaganda. And if someone is shooting at you, pray that some Good Samaritan who is not afraid of guns is returning fire before the assailant’s aim improves. Only police and National Guard have guns? Two words: Kent State.

    1. yes it simply amazed me how the seeming bulk of society did not observe a controlled demolition…or maybe they did? especially after the ‘inconvenient truth’ was ignored by the ‘official 9/11 commission’ report….building 7 that mysteriously fell into its own footprint due to a small fire on the 25th or so floor of a 47 story building not hit by a plane in fact hardly damaged at all. this after the bbc reported building 7 down 20 minutes before it fell and the orders to ‘pull #7’ by the owner and a count down from 10 by the ‘officials’ whereby on 0 the controlled demolition progressed and when leached into the public record to be quickly covered up by ignoring the report and then making a fumbling excuse about its meaning being the directive for the fire fighters to vacate the building. DUH!

      when the mainstream media is controlled by 6 ‘elitist’ progressive/fascist corporations the propaganda created makes for a world of lalaland. repeat a big lie often enough and etc…as [his story] history is being carved in the ‘official’ record! future history books will reveal that building 7 fell due to catching fire from the 2 towers….that is if the collectivist influence prevails. I do see though more and more of society waking up to the ‘big con job’ of pop tarts and alike!

  9. Halloween, I’ve said this to you once before, but I’ll try again. If you are so afraid of the environment around you that you believe the only way to go on living is by having a gun with you all the time; that the only way this country can continue to provide the search for happiness it so boasts of is to have everyone else have a gun with them all the time, then this country is not worth saving. Not only that, if this is where the common “wisdom” has arrived, then it is a country that cannot survive, a country that has already failed, a country that, for the good of humanity, needs to and deserves to die. I think we can do better, you obviously have reached a point in your thinking that denies any possibility of a healthy future. I’m sorry for you and the rest like you, but there are some of us who will go on trying to deal with this kind of thinking. best wishes, PCM

  10. Mr. Grapel… could you at least consider the possibility that the gun control issue is just misdirection? just another tool to divide? just another “issue” to be bandied about to keep people occupied? again, does it not mystify you in the least that with all the guns in the hands of the people of the world, we, and we alone suffer from these mass shootings? everyone else seems to be able to control themselves. obama’s talks, and all these false flags(like san bernardino), attributed to gun control, are again, simply misdirection. if the government really wanted the guns, they would just take them. but instead we see yet again record sales for firearms. so the gun control argument is bunk. again, like everything, it has to do with social control. the terrorists or the gun nuts aren’t coming for you; but the Rothschild’s through the u.s. government are.

    1. Keysbum, Yes, I can, and such things are not exempt from my thinking. As I’ve said before, I rule out nothing … but to actually operate on the basis of conspiracy theories such as you propose does still not have the proper odds in its favor. To suggest that Sandy Hook et. al., has been staged is simply not plausible (possible? Nothing is impossible, maybe Napoleon never existed). There would have to be so many, many, many people in the loop of conspiracy that it goes beyond the possibility of probability. But I’ll always listen to such theories. As I’ve said with regard to 9/11, I could believe those in charge might have wanted something like that to happen in order to enable their war policies, but I’d say they got more than they bargained for with 9/11 … if anything like that is true. ciao, PCM

  11. As a final evaluation of the validity of this particular journal entry of yours, Alex, not that my conclusion is definitive, but the personal issues inserted by the various commenters validates that our fourth estate is failing us. I doubt that people would generally come up with the conspiracy theories espoused by about a quarter of your readers on their own. If our media were doing their job, they would be addressing the absolute crap that is being spread through various media outlets, whether TV, radio or online. Once it reaches a measureable level of emotional acceptance. it should be, actually ‘must’ be addressed – head on!

    Chris Hedges: take note…

    :/ pip

    1. Lawrence, I agree many of the conspiracy theorists participating here are beyond the pale, but … when it comes to main stream media the problem is this: they are an important part of what I like to call the “Industrial-Military-Media Complex”. Big Media feeds from the same trough as the rest of the big boys in the game of neo-liberal capitalism. Their wiggle room for ideology is very narrow if they want to maintain their profits … or at least their HUGE profits. This is the Catch 22 of our society. How to deal with it? That’s a tough one. ciao, Jerome

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