Category Archives: Media

America: From The Age Of Enlightenment To The Age Of Lunacy.

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In a 2017 radio interview, the late comedian and “King of Fake News” Paul Horner described how he earned the title. He explained that he was looking for a way to reach more people with his comedy through satirical posts on Facebook. He quickly learned that Democrats, liberals, and progressives immediately recognized the satire or fact-checked his posts. As a result, he received few clicks and, therefore, little money from them. On the other hand, he found that a significant percentage of Republicans and conservatives embraced his posts believing them to be factual and quickly shared them with friends.

So, it’s not entirely surprising that an individual peddling bizarre conspiracy theories could gain traction on social media. Such is the case with Q, the anonymous poster who claims to expose deep state secrets from within the government.

Q began with an October 2017 post on the white supremacist website 4chan which stated: “HRC [Hillary Rodham Clinton] extradition already in motion effective yesterday with several countries in case of cross border run. Passport approved to be flagged effective 10/30 @ 12:01am. Expect massive riots organized in defiance and others fleeing the US to occur. US M’s [Military] will conduct the operation while NG [National Guard] activated. Proof check: Locate a NG member and ask if activated for duty 10/30 across most major cities.”

Of course, Q’s prediction did not come true. In fact, few, if any, have. Nevertheless, Q quickly gained a following of millions and continues to “drop” information from within the “deep state.” Moreover, Q has convinced followers to believe that Donald Trump is a “Messiah” who has been chosen to quietly lead a revolution against the deep state. They are told that they must protect Trump at all costs. Even more bizarrely, the QAnon cult has come to believe that Trump will expose and imprison those involved a secret worldwide child sex trafficking ring run by a satanic cabal consisting of leaders of the Democratic Party, A-list celebrities, and Pope Francis.

They actually believe that, in addition to their sexual lust, members of the cabal kill children in order to harvest and consume their blood for its life-extending properties. In other words, Q followers are completely and hopelessly delusional.

That doesn’t mean that they aren’t dangerous.

In 2018, an armed Q follower drove an armored vehicle onto a bridge spanning the Hoover Dam and blocked traffic. He demanded that the government “release the OIG [Office of the Inspector General] report,” a report that Q claims will expose the deep state. In 2019, another Q follower murdered a leader of the Gambino crime family believing him to be an enemy of Trump. And earlier this year, a Q follower was arrested for threatening to kill Joe Biden.

These nutcases are encouraged by Rush Limbaugh, Alex Jones and other conspiracy theorists. And the cult recently gained traction when six unabashed QAnon followers ran for national office as Republicans. Even more worrisome, at least three of them won their Republican primaries!

Some of the most notable targets of Q followers are the Clintons, President Obama, Bill Gates, Tom Hanks, Steven Spielberg, Robert Mueller, George Soros, Ellen DeGeneres, Oprah Winfrey, Justin Trudeau, Senator Scott Wiener, John Legend & Chrissy Teigen, the Gates Foundation, the Clinton Foundation, the United Nations, the World Health Organization, the Centers for Disease Control, Wayfair, and Disney.

QAnon followers have been led to believe that they are victims of chemtrails and vaccines. They think the world is controlled by the Bilderbergs, the Illuminati, the Freemasons, and the mainstream media. They are convinced that artificial intelligence (AI) and 5G cell towers are designed to kill them. They believe that ordering an armoire from Wayfair is code for “send me a child to abuse.” And, despite the debunking of pizzagate, they still believe that Comet Ping Pong, a popular Washington DC pizzeria, is a cover for the trafficking of children. In case you’ve forgotten, in 2016 a young father from North Carolina who had been convinced that Hillary Clinton was operating a child sex ring out of the pizzeria’s basement burst into the restaurant with an AR15 demanding to be shown to the pizzeria’s basement. After scaring the bejeezus out of the restaurant’s patrons, he discovered the pizzeria had no basement and he was arrested by police.

Of course, none of these fantasies should come as a surprise when you consider that QAnon followers see Trump as a savior and great president.

A Few Questions For Republicans.

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1. You have witnessed the decay of the middle class and the growing inequality of wealth. Do you not understand that it’s the inevitable result of Reaganomics and the continuing tax cuts for the very wealthy?
2. You have seen Congress and state legislatures blatantly ignore the will of the people on numerous issues. Do you not see that it is the result of lobbyists for billionaire businessmen and multinational corporations? Do you not realize that GOP lobbyists and corporate-sponsored organizations such as the conservative American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) write many of the bills that reach the floor of Congress and legislatures for votes?
3. I am sure you are aware of widespread voter suppression tactics waged against Democrats and minorities. Do you not understand that such tactics are blatantly undemocratic? And that your party is alienating minority voters for generations?
4. You have heard reports from all of our intelligence agencies that document Russian meddling in our elections. In fact, the Mueller investigation offered a mountain of evidence of cooperation between Russians and the Trump campaign. Similarly, you have seen Trump impeached for withholding funds from Ukraine in exchange for opening a bogus investigation into Hunter and Joe Biden. You likely also witnessed him openly ask China to interfere in the upcoming election on his behalf. Do you not worry that, in addition to being blatantly unconstitutional, such interference permanently weakens our nation?
5. You have cheered Donald Trump’s attacks on many of our most important democratic institutions – the free press, the Department of Justice, federal prosecutors, the FBI, the CIA and other intelligence agencies, the courts, and inspector generals. Do you not see that such attacks are, in fact, attacks on the rule of law and our nation?
6. You have applauded the Trump administration’s cruelty toward immigrants and refugees, including its separation of children from their parents. How can you continue to celebrate our nation’s history of immigration – “Give me your tired, your poor, your wretched masses yearning to breathe free?” Do you not realize that without these immigrants – even the undocumented immigrants – we would not have nearly enough “essential” workers to pick our produce, to process our meats, to cook our food, to serve the infirm, and to clean our buildings?
7. You claim to be “pro-life.” Yet you ignore the homeless and the hungry. And you continue to dismiss the deaths of 168,000 Americans in your rush to get back to “normal.” Do you not hear your own hypocrisy?
8. You continue to brag about American exceptionalism and claim that our healthcare system is the best on Earth. Then how do you rationalize the fact that the pandemic has disproportionately impacted Americans? And that more than 900 of our healthcare professionals have died as a result of a lack of proper protective equipment? How can you justify Trump’s attempts to dismantle the Affordable Care Act during the pandemic which will deny healthcare to millions more Americans?
9. You claim to admire our nation’s military. Do you not understand how little regard your president has for veterans? Did you not hear him deny that Sen. John McCain was a war hero? Did you not hear him say that avoiding STDs was his personal Vietnam? Did you not hear his vile insults aimed at a Gold Star family? Do you not realize that, in order to build his great wall on the border with Mexico, he redirected essential funding from military personnel and their families? Have you not heard him demean our nation’s military leaders by saying he knows more than our top military generals? Have you not seen that he delayed essential relief funding to the Navajo – the Native American nation that helped win WWII as “Code Talkers?”
10. You boast of America’s natural beauty “from sea to shining sea.” Do you not realize that the Trump administration has compromised that beauty by auctioning off mining and drilling leases on environmentally sensitive lands? Do you not know that the administration plans to reopen uranium mining in the Grand Canyon that will, once again, make the Colorado River radioactive? Do you not see that the administration’s actions are polluting our air, our soil, and our water? Do you have no concern for the hundreds of thousands of wildlife species that are made vulnerable as a result? Do you not worry that your party continues to deny climate change despite the multitude of evidence that it endangers the planet?
11. You now label many of your party’s former leaders – George W. Bush, Colin Powell, Jim Mattis, Michael Steele, Tom Ridge, Steve Schmidt, Rick Wilson, George Will, John Weaver, George Conway, the McCain family, Nicolle Wallace, Jennifer Horn, and many, many others as RINOs and Never Trumpers. Have you not considered why those leaders call for the defeat of Donald Trump? Do you seriously believe they have abandoned conservative ideals to become “libtards?” Or have they simply recognized that Trump is a real and present danger to our nation?
12. Many in the corrupt Trump administration and Trump’s GOP – Steve Mnuchin, Jeff Sessions, Ryan Zinke, Tom Price, Ben Carson, Wilbur Ross, Scott Pruitt, and Trump, himself – have been caught squandering taxpayer money to enrich themselves and their friends. Do you still believe that Trump will drain the swamp and hire “only the best people?” Or is Trump himself the real swamp monster?
13. You condemn a Democrat-controlled House for seeking testimony from cabinet officials and for attempting to conduct oversight of this administration. Will you have the same reaction when the roles are reversed? Or do you truly believe that a president – any president – is above the law? Do you want to tear up our Constitution and destroy our democracy so that we become an autocracy?
14. When you don’t like facts and truths based on irrefutable evidence as reported by news media, you call them “fake news” and refer to them as enemies of the people. You seek only those media that share your political ideology. Where does that end? Is the party’s longtime propaganda arm, Fox News, no longer believable because Chris Wallace dared to fact-check your Mango Mussolini?
15. You call yourself “patriots” for wrapping yourself in the flag with a Bible in one hand and a gun in the other. What kind of patriot supports a fascist regime that seems intent on destroying constitutional norms by refusing congressional oversight and claims the leader is above the law? What kind of patriot condones the funneling of taxpayer money to millionaires and billionaires? What kind of patriot denies people of color social justice, equal opportunity, and economic equity? What kind of patriot believes the most outlandish conspiracy theories and embraces foreign interference on their behalf while viewing a significant majority of Americans as the enemy?

Once Again, The GOP Plays Politics With The Economy And People’s Lives.

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Following the breakdown in negotiations over a second pandemic relief bill between the Senate, the House and the White House, many media reported the story as if it was a serious negotiation.

It wasn’t.

The House passed its $3 trillion HEROES Act in May showing that the majority understood the extent of pain being incurred by the public during the pandemic. That bill extended an additional $600 unemployment benefit for those unable to work. It extended the moratorium on evictions and foreclosures for a year. It guaranteed $13 per hour hazard pay for essential workers. It provided $900 billion to states to compensate for lost revenue and increased expenses during the pandemic. And it repealed the $135 billion giveaway to millionaires that was part of the first relief bill.

Unfortunately, the majority leader in GOP-controlled Senate refused to allow the bill to come up for a vote. Instead, Moscow Mitch delayed any discussion of a relief bill until the previous until the benefits of the original CARES Act were about to expire.

Then, operating under a self-imposed deadline, the Senate managed to cobble together a $1 trillion bill that reduced the expanded unemployment benefit to $200 per month and offered no eviction moratorium for renters. It did, however, include items unrelated to the pandemic, such as tax deductions for 3-martini lunches, funds for F-35 fighter jets, and an astonishing $33 million (that’s right, $33 million) for remodeling the West Wing of the White House.

When the Senate stated that its bill was non-negotiable, the House attempted to negotiate with the White House, offering to meet Republicans in the middle with a $2 trillion relief bill. When the White House refused to accept a compromise, the talks broke down and the GOP senators left town!

Rather than a failure of negotiations, I believe the outcome was pre-determined – a political trick. The Senate and the White House never intended to negotiate in good faith. By refusing to compromise, they saw an opportunity to boost the president’s re-election chances by setting him up to “save the day” with yet another unconstitutional executive order that would raise his approval ratings with voters whose support was wavering over his failure to address the pandemic: “See! The Democrats let you down by refusing to accept our offer. But I will help you.”

It’s not unlike the Treasury Department holding up the first round of stimulus checks in order to print Trump’s name on them.

Here’s the thing: Trump’s order and accompanying memos are not only unconstitutional – the responsibility for federal spending lies with Congress – the order relies on states to pay half the cost of the additional unemployment benefit and most states are so struggling financially that they are already considering the probability of lay-offs and cut-backs to essential services. Like the federal government, state governments are receiving less revenue from taxes. But, unlike the federal government, they can’t print more money.

So where do we go from here?

If the White House and Senate refuse to negotiate a new relief bill, House Democrats will be faced, once again, with filing lawsuits to protect the constitutional power of Congress and preventing the Executive branch from further consolidating power. Of course, that will give the false impression that they don’t care about the plight of ordinary working Americans. And, if they fail to negotiate a bill that will provide necessary aid to the unemployed, there is a very real possibility that the nation will fall into an economic depression. More than 50 million Americans have already filed for unemployment benefits during the pandemic. And we have already experienced the greatest drop in GDP in our nation’s history.

If so, the fault will not lie with Democrats. It will have been caused by a Republican president who called the pandemic a hoax, who botched the response by abdicating all responsibility to governors, who has tried to create a race war to distract from his failures, and who continues to claim that that the pandemic will just miraculously disappear.

Dear Trump Supporters: What Will It Take?

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I understand that you chose to support The Donald because you wanted change. You were angry. You felt the economy was rigged. That you would be left behind. He promised to shake up the government and end business as usual.

He most certainly has done the that.

You’ve continued to support him despite abundant evidence that he colluded with Russian agents to rig the election and obstructed justice. You’ve supported him despite an avalanche of thousands of lies as documented by independent fact-checkers. You ignored his lies about an extramarital affair with a porn star. You’ve given him credit for his predecessor’s work in rescuing and expanding the economy. You’ve continued to support him as he alienated our longstanding allies and weakened NATO. You supported him as he took Putin’s word over that of our own intelligence agencies headed by Trump appointees.

You cried “fake news” at reports of his filling the “swamp” with an astounding menagerie of swamp monsters. You ignored the evidence showing that Trump, his family, and many of his cabinet appointees used their positions to line their bank vaults with taxpayer money. You seem not to care that he dismantled ethics offices and fired inspectors general whose job it is to investigate and expose the corruption. You seemed to take satisfaction in watching him take revenge on whistleblowers. You applauded his stonewalling of congressional oversight and his demands that administration officials ignore subpoenas. You’ve seen him dismiss investigative reporters whose job it is to expose government corruption by calling them “enemies of the people.”

You turned your backs on reports that the administration ordered children to be ripped from the arms of their refugee parents. You claimed not to see videos of those children confined in cages with only a foil blanket. You ignored the obvious racism of his calling Mexicans rapists and murders, of describing Latin and African nations as “shithole countries,” of referring to neo-Nazis and white supremacists as “good people.”

You continued to support him despite all of that. (Maybe because of it?)

You stood by your con man as dozens of former administration and government officials spoke up about his incompetence and his unfitness for office. You ignored the outrage of Republican leaders and strategists who have been repulsed by his actions. You watched as he corrupted the judicial system. You seemed not to care that he continues to hide his income taxes despite legitimate claims of money-laundering and tax evasion.

You cheered when the Senate refused to remove him from office as a result of his impeachment despite overwhelming evidence that he had broken the law by demanding the Ukraine to interfere in the upcoming election in exchange for congressionally-approved financial and military aid.

And what did you do when his incompetence led to the now 140,000 American deaths from the coronavirus? You blamed it on China and claimed his failed response was due to distractions caused by the impeachment. Following his example, you have contributed to the spread of the coronavirus by ignoring the pleas of scientists to practice social distancing and to wear masks. Not even Trump’s attempts to dismantle the Affordable Care Act in the middle of the pandemic has shaken your support. Nor has the addition of roughly $4 trillion to the national debt. And when his failures led to an economic collapse, you gave him a pass, blaming it on the CDC, the WHO, Dr. Fauci, and the media, instead.

Even when it became clear that Trump ignored reports that Russia offered payments to the Taliban for killing US military personnel, you have seemingly refused to blame him or even his buddy Putin.

So, I ask: What will it take for you to finally admit that you made a mistake by voting for a con man who has placed us all in danger? A president who operates more like a mob boss than a principled public servant? A man who is intellectually, ethically, and morally unfit to hold office? A man who has done more to serve Russia than the United States?

We’re All Victims Of Trump Scandal Fatigue.

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For many politicians, a single scandal has ended their careers. For Howard Dean it was a single, excited “Yaaay!” after losing the Iowa caucuses to opponent John Kerry. For Gary Hart it was an extramarital affair. For Hilary Clinton it was the use of a private email server as Secretary of State. But those are insignificant to any one of the scandals of Donald J. Trump.

In case you have forgotten them, they began with making racist statements about immigrants, demeaning the parents of a US soldier who died in combat, claiming Senator John McCain was a “loser” for being captured during the Vietnam War, bragging to a TV host that he grabbed women by their genitals, telling a radio host about walking into dressing rooms of his beauty pageants, and mocking a disabled reporter.

As his 2016 presidential campaign continued, we learned that more than a dozen women accused him of rape and sexual assault (including one who had been a teenager at the time). We discovered he had committed fraud with his charities and Trump University. We read that he had likely participated in money laundering by selling hundreds of millions of dollars of real estate to Russian oligarchs – a charge supported by the fact that he refused to make public his tax returns. We learned that Russian spies were interfering on behalf of his campaign and that the FBI and CIA documented dozens of contacts between his campaign and Russian officials. We even heard him ask Russia for help in uncovering the emails of his Democratic opponent.

Following the controversial results of his election, we heard him lie about the size of his inaugural crowd. In a blatant act of nepotism, he rewarded his daughter and son-in-law with White House jobs and classified access. We saw his National Security Advisor be fired and charged with lying to the FBI and secretly lobbying for a foreign government. We learned that he had paid hundreds of thousands to cover up extramarital affairs with a porn star and a Playboy model. And we heard him refuse to condemn the violence of neo-Nazis and members of the alt-right toward the counter protestors in Charlottesville, saying “there are good people on both sides.”

We saw him lie about his son’s pre-election meeting with a Russian agent offering dirt on Hilary. We saw him try to use his office to undermine the investigation of Russian election interference. We heard him call the FBI agents assigned to investigate “rogue” agents. We saw him kowtow to Vladimir Putin and take Putin’s word over that of our own intelligence agencies. And we saw a number of his friends and campaign officials plead guilty to crimes or be convicted in court as a result of the Mueller investigation.

Yet, despite the Mueller Report’s conclusion backed by reams of evidence that the Trump campaign requested and benefited from Russian interference, we hear Trump continue to call the investigation a hoax, say the investigation “exonerated” him, and refer to news reporters as “enemies of the people.”

We watched as Trump ordered his administration to ban entry to Muslims. We heard him threaten the future of DACA recipients – the so-called Dreamers. We saw his administration place thousands of Central American refugees in detention centers without access to toiletries, bedding or even water. We were shocked to learn that he ordered the separation of children, toddlers and infants from their immigrant parents placing them in cages with only an aluminum foil blanket. Yet, despite videos of the separated children and the accounts of reporters, he and his administration denied the obvious.

We’ve seen Trump spend more than 200 days golfing at his own properties resulting in the Trump organization receiving tens of millions in taxpayer money for rooms and golf carts for Secret Service agents. We’ve read reports of lobbyists and foreign officials spending tens of millions in Trump’s Washington, DC hotel in hopes of currying favor with the president. And investigative reporters uncovered corruption by numerous members of his cabinet – the Attorney General, the Treasury Secretary, the head of the EPA, the Labor Secretary, the Interior Secretary and more.

In just the past year, we saw him impeached for demanding the Ukraine announce an investigation of the Bidens in exchange for US financial and military aid. We also saw him ask for Chinese help for his re-election. We learned that he even made that a condition of his trade negotiations with China at the same time stating that he had no problem with China’s human rights abuses in Xinjiang. We learned that, for more than a year, he ignored Russian bounties to the Taliban for killing US soldiers. And we’ve seen 136,000 of our fellow Americans lose their lives as a result of Trump’s inaction and incompetence in dealing with the coronavirus.

Any one of these scandals would have ended the political career of any other politician or government official. So how does Trump survive? I believe it’s simply a matter of the sheer quantity of his scandals. By committing so many unethical, immoral, and illegal acts; by refusing to participate in any investigation; by claiming executive privilege; by firing anyone he considers disloyal; by constantly and blatantly lying; by politicizing everything, he keeps his political opponents, the media, and most of the nation in a constant state of outrage.

There simply isn’t enough time and there are not enough resources to fully investigate all of the scandals. Each real scandal is buried by an avalanche of news reports detailing the next one. And all of them are lost in the daily outrage over his insane statements, his drug dilated pupils, his slurred speech, and his revenge politics. It creates what I call scandal fatigue. So, is it true that he could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue, as he once claimed, and nobody would care?

Maybe. He’s already done worse.

Now Available On Amazon:

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Ironically, in the age of information, our nation has been compromised by lies and disinformation as never before.

Decades of consolidation, short-term thinking, corporate greed, extreme political ideologies, and poor leadership have left our nation’s economy, healthcare system and its citizens unnecessarily vulnerable.

Many of the decisions that led us to this point were made in good faith. Some were dictated by difficult situations. But others were made willfully and knowingly, their true purpose and their all-too predictable results hidden in a fog of falsehoods and lies. This book attempts to cut through the misinformation to examine the problems, explain how they happened and reveal the truth.

Journalistic Malpractice.

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As a graduate of journalism school, an advertising copywriter, a teacher, an author, a journalist, a political commentator and a long-time critic of media, I am horrified with the current status of journalism.

Certainly, there are brilliant and dedicated investigative reporters who work long hours, often at the risk of their own safety, to bring us the information we need to be informed citizens and voters. Many have lost their lives by reporting the uncomfortable truth about powerful and dangerous people. Just in 2019, 49 journalists were murdered around the globe (a death toll that was actually the lowest in 16 years). But while the number of journalists killed dropped in 2019, the number jailed in 2019 climbed to 289 (an increase of 16 percent from the previous year). Most were jailed in China, Egypt and Saudi Arabia for daring to publish stories that were unflattering to the government and the autocrats in power.

Even in the US, Trump and his supporters continue to call journalists the “enemy of the people.”

While it is true that there are media organizations doing great harm to our nation, they are not the ones Trump’s supporters imagine. Fox News, Sinclair Broadcasting, Breitbart, rightwing radio, Facebook, various hate groups, and some churches are the true purveyors of fake news.

By unquestioningly repeating Trump’s statements, these media outlets regularly tell us that up is down, black is white, and false is true. Indeed, Trump and these media have led to the creation of a new industry of fact-checking that has been overwhelmed by Trump’s more than 15,000 false or misleading claims since taking office. Worse, the vicious lies about political opponents, people of color, women, gays, the poor, immigrants and foreign rivals too often lead to violence.

Even the media that have sterling reputations for accuracy have lowered their standards in their quest for speed and ratings or readership. Determined to be first to report a story, they sometimes rely on information from questionable sources. In an attempt to seem unbiased, they host guests from both major parties and permit them to engage in shouting matches filled with opinions and false information. They hire columnists who offer more opinion than fact. They seek the most sensational aspect of a story allowing sensation to overwhelm information. And, when unable to find controversy, they attempt to generate it.

The latest example is the exaggerated spat between Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. Apparently finding it too difficult to contrast the candidates’ ideas and policies, the media seized upon the superficial and sensational. It’s not that they truly believe that such personal conflicts matter. It’s merely because they believe sensational controversies create profits by attracting audiences. Since virtually every media platform is driven by profits, their success is measured less by accuracy and reliability than by ratings and readership. The problem is exacerbated by the fact that the potential audience for television and print news continues to dwindle as more and more people “cut the cord” of cable TV and tune their smart TVs to entertainment provided by Netflix, Prime, Hulu, etc. So the competition for attention is greater than ever.

It is this thirst for controversy and sensationalism that paved the way for Donald J. Trump. In 2015 and 2016, the media was filled with everything Trump. Not because the media liked him or believed his outrageous statements. But because they felt that he would be good for ratings. At the same time, the only media attention given to his opponent, Hillary Clinton, centered around the sensational accusations her enemies promoted – accusations for which she has since been fully exonerated.

Not surprisingly, there are also legitimate reasons for media failures. Most traditional media outlets have been purchased by large conglomerates. Like all corporations, they focus on increasing profits by increasing productivity. As a result, the budgets for news-gathering operations have been slashed. Reporters are expected to do more work with less time and money. They’re forced to take shortcuts. In addition, some newsrooms have hired young editors because they’re willing to work for less. These people, though they may be talented and energetic, lack experience, perspective and the context of history.

In addition, having torn down the firewalls between the newsrooms and business operations, these conglomerates sometimes dictate news coverage that is favorable to their greed and ambition.

Despite all of this, I believe there is a growing thirst among Americans for real information. Indeed, I think the growing superficiality of television and radio newscasts has led Americans to turn to the Web and social media for information. Online, they can search the websites of traditional news operations. They can find more in-depth news from around the globe. They can find legitimate websites that compile the top stories for them.

Unfortunately, they are also exposed to an overwhelming amount of false information and fake news stories – stories generated by hate groups and foreign rivals hoping to divide us.

The Web is filled with information created by ideologues, renegades, haters, and fakers. Yet, to date, our government and the social media platforms have, for the most part, refused to police it. Under Trump, the government has even stopped tracking the lies and hate-filled diatribes posted by white supremacists and other domestic terrorist groups.

It’s long past time for Americans to demand real and accurate journalism; to expose the liars and the phonies; to hold propagandists disguised as news sources accountable (I’m referring to you, Fox News Channel); to ask the government to reinstitute a form of the Fairness Doctrine that required media to operate in the public interest or lose their license to operate.

It’s time to demand the truth.

Destruction Of The US. (Part Ten – Propaganga)

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The Founders had such high regard for the role of the press that they included it in the Bill of Rights as one of the essentials of freedom. Nevertheless, the news media has had a checkered past. During the late 1800s, newspapers , led by William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer published increasingly false and sensational stories in an effort to build circulation. Indeed, their focus on crime and fear, and their sensational reports of Spanish brutality combined with the explosion of the Maine in Havana harbor likely led to the Spanish-American War.

Yet following the war, Pulitzer led the industry to reform. By the time of his death, his newspaper had become highly-respected. And journalism became a highly-respected profession. The industry’s reputation continued to grow as the result of the efforts of war correspondents during World War I, World War II and the Korean War when Americans at home were hungry for news of the war efforts. The industry reached a pinnacle in the 1960s and 70s when reporting by CBS and Walter Cronkite led to the end the Vietnam War and reporting by the Washington Post exposed Watergate.

Additionally, thanks to the Fairness Doctrine, broadcast media were held accountable for “serving in the public interest.” That meant that radio and television stations were held to a standard of telling the truth and separating opinion from fact. (Imagine that!)

But when the Fairness Doctrine was repealed in 1987, everything began to change.

The end of the Fairness Doctrine opened the door for sensational radio shows hosted by the likes of Rush Limbaugh, Mark Levin and Sean Hannity. These devolved into political shows that railed against the government. They told you that your democratically-elected government was the enemy. And that liberals were only one step removed from communists who were determined to take your money.

Shortly afterward, Roger Ailes and Rupert Murdoch saw an opportunity to become wealthy by building Fox News in order to capture the same audience. Promoting Fox as “fair and balanced,” Ailes quickly divorced its viewers from the truth. In a few years, Fox had become little more than the propaganda arm of the Republican Party. Not the Republican Party of Eisenhower and Rockefeller – a previously moderate party that focused on the interests of business . Rather Fox News pandered to those in the Republican Party who sought to rebuild the government to serve their personal agenda – the extremely wealthy who, like the Koch brothers, believed that government should only provide for national defense and law and order. In other words, the government should protect them and their wealth.

Over the same time period, the so-called Mainstream Media began to change. Where broadcast newsrooms had long been treated as a service, the new corporate owners saw them as a potential revenue stream. They became focused on ratings and the bottom line. CBS News, once the premier news-gathering institution in the world, slashed its news bureaus and fired reporters. Others followed suit. And local news stations adopted the “if it bleeds, it leads” philosophy that focused on crime and sensational stories to build ratings.

It’s as if the ghost of William Randolph Hearst has invaded the boardrooms of corporate media organizations.

The Sinclair Broadcast Group, Disney, Comcast and many other large media owners have also jumped on the money train placing profits ahead of truth. The same is true of the new media. Breitbart and others fan the flames of division and hatred by publishing highly biased stories un-tethered from the truth. Their fear-mongering has led to the explosion in gun ownership and the resulting shootings. Because of them, there has been a rise in hate crimes. Because of them, we are more divided than at any time since the Civil War. And, only because of all them could someone like Trump gain access to the White House. Trump likes to attack the media as “fake news.” But it is precisely because of fake news from Fox, Breitbart, Sinclair and others, that the leader of a crime family, someone who has been found to make factual statements just 5 percent of the time, can claim the title of president.

And, though Trump is a product of fake news media, it is the legitimate news media that will likely lead to his undoing. It is only because of the hundreds, if not thousands, of dedicated reporters that we know of Trump’s many crimes. The reporters who spend months digging through files to uncover corruption and those who are willing to put their jobs, their reputations and, in some cases, their lives on the line to get at the truth.

If our nation survives this criminal administration, we will all owe them a great debt of gratitude.

Dear Media, Stop Saying Trump’s Statements Are “Considered Racist By Some.”

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Call them what they really are: Racist! This was settled decades ago. When someone tells a person of color to “go back where you came from”, that’s racist as defined by most every Human Resources department in America, including the government’s. Moreover, members of the white majority don’t get to decide what is racist. That’s up to the victims of racism to decide. If you’re confused, ask them.

When you say one of Trump’s Tweets or remarks is “considered racist by some”, what you’re really saying is that many in the white majority don’t think it’s racist.

And, on a related topic, the white conservative majority doesn’t get to claim “reverse” racism until white Americans’ employment resumes are filed in the trash because they have white sounding names; until their white suburban schools are given less resources than those of people of color; until police pull them over because they don’t look like they belong in the neighborhood; until police shoot and kill them during a routine traffic stop because “they felt they were in danger;” until the best neighborhoods are “redlined” to prevent them from purchasing a home there; until white-face becomes a thing in stage and theater as a way of demeaning them; until they are subject to poll taxes; until it becomes difficult for them to vote because of limited polling places and limited hours; until their congressional districts are gerrymandered to diminish their representation in government; until people of color begin calling the police on them for being white; until they are treated more harshly by the justice system; until they have far less wealth and far fewer resources available to them because of the color of their skin; until they are grossly underrepresented in movies, television shows and commercials because they don’t represent the majority; until they are blocked from attaining executive positions because they aren’t considered capable. That language in your reporting only perpetuates the problem.

So, Dear Media, the next time Trump or one of his supporters says something patently racist, please report it by calling it what it really is: Racist.

And as long as I’m giving advice – advice I gleaned from journalism school – the next time Trump says something verifiably untrue, stop reporting it as “unverified”, “unproven”, “questionable”, or even a “falsehood”. Follow the lead of the Washington Post and CNN. Both are now calling Trump’s lies what they really are: Lies.

It should be easy for you to identify his lies. If his lips are moving, or if it’s from one of his thousands of Tweets, there is a roughly 75 percent chance that it’s a lie.

Finally, Dear Media, stop giving Trump live coverage for his “chopper talks” and impromptu statements to the press. You haven’t done that for previous presidents. Anyway, almost everything he says in these sessions is an outright lie and all he really wants is to feed his narcissism by seeing his face on the news each evening. Better that you record video or audio and take notes. Then report only those things of truth and substance later. I guarantee you won’t be missing out on any bombshells or breaking news. No competitor will beat you to a story…unless the story is about his propensity to tell lies. Indeed, delaying your reporting will make your news media seem more insightful, more honest.

By refusing to participate in Trump’s propaganda effort, you’ll be doing the public a real service. And you’ll be secure in the knowledge that you’re not being treated as a modern day Leni Riefenstahl.