The Media Is Not Dead, It Is Undead

Spy poisoning: why Putin may have engineered gruesome calling card

Read the above article if you must, but read it carefully. Read them all, but read them not as a letter from a loved one but as information passed on from a stranger whose loyalties and motivations are suspect. Or worse, from someone who has lied to you in the past. Maybe not on unimportant matters but on those issues that matter most.

Read what is written, and ignore the headlines that are thrust at you from every angle. The game they play is to give you so much information you skim along the surface rather than plum the depths. So when you encounter an argument, engage with it or disregard it. Read carefully, noting as you go how much is mere speculation. Like every other article on Russia and whatever they are being accused of on a particular day, the careful wording is always the same, as in the article above: "insiders (unnamed) say", "suggesting", "probably", "many theories. The most obvious is", "One former senior Foreign Office adviser said:” (another anonymous source from an intelligence agency), etc. It's important that you note this now, because in a month or two this will all be referred to as absolute fact without any additional evidence presented. And it will be strung together with a myriad other articles that do not bear up to a careful read as an indication that so many different assertions cannot all be wrong. In short, assertions soon become incontrovertible fact, and if you dare question what was once an assertion you are labeled a conspiracy theorist, an idiot, and a Russian Troll.

For me, each weak argument shouted with great arrogance and confidence and lacking any convincing evidence does not strengthen the overall narrative that is pushed so very hard but does the opposite. I ask myself why serious journalism isn't being done on an issue that is so very important to get right. I wonder why it is that questioning the official narrative is not answered with cogent arguments and undeniable facts but instead with attitude and arrogance. And most of all, I question why each and every article plays upon our lower mental functions rather than our higher ones. If, in fact, Russia poisoned a Russian traitor, is that something that need be responded to immediately? If revenge is a dish best served cold (as some use as a rationalization for why Putin would revenge himself on someone whose relevance has long passed), should we not wait to find the appropriate response to such an action? And more importantly, shouldn't we get the facts right before making an assertion and acting upon it? Is there anything to be lost by getting it right, and would we not be doing a service to the general public and the notion of an informed citizenry to make sure they are in accord because they had the appropriate facts?

What I see is exactly the opposite. We are supposed to unquestioningly accept what anonymous sources from intelligence agencies tell us, and the press passes that off as journalism. It is the job of journalists to question, to be skeptical and to dig for the truth. What I am witnessing bears no resemblance to that. It has all the hallmarks of propaganda, how can you call it anything else? And yet American media smugly point out the flaws of the Russian media as though it were acting out the Biblical parable of the speck and the beam. The difference between Russian media and American media is that Russia shares American media with its citizens in order to show just how absurd it’s become. When was the last time American media has done likewise?

I’m going to make a suggestion to you, and you will at first find it ridiculous. Then I will give you my reason for it and if you find anything ridiculous in it, please share. My suggestion to you is that you watch RT. I don’t suggest that it has no bias, it is just infinitely more intelligent than any other news source you will likely encounter in the United States. Why is that? Because here we have been busy purging our media of anyone who has objected to either war or the propaganda required to make a country go to war. On what television station, newspaper, or radio program can you hear the thoughts of any of the prominent politicians and journalists who opposed either the Iraq War or the justifications used to support it? Phil Donahue, Chris Hedges, Jesse Ventura, Greg Palast, Pat Buchanan, Dennis Kucinich, Noam Chomsky, and many others. They have been purged from our media in a way that would make Joseph Stalin blush. They were the ones who got the story right, who should have been lauded and promoted, instead they have been silenced and marginalized. So where does one go to hear from those who have been banished from U.S. media for the crime of being right? RT. Meanwhile, those who got the story absolutely wrong are now pushing the Russian narrative with all the certainty and bullying they once used to push the Iraq War. Does anyone remember how Joe Scarborough was trying to get to the right on Bill O’Reilly on the issue? Does anyone remember the conservative Arianna Huffington’s appearances on FOX News? Does anyone care that the same think tank operatives that pushed for the Iraq War are now pushing for unfriendly relations with Russia?

What frightens me the most (besides nuclear war, of course) is that the mainstream media that gets every story wrong is in lockstep with those in the government who wish to silence independent journalists who dare ask questions of the official narrative. The brightest and most questioning minds of the day are being subjected to censorship on many levels, especially if they happen to express an anti-corporate or anti-militaristic viewpoint. The media is not simply dead, it is undead, and its only drive is to suck the brains from the skulls of the living. It is an active agent for oppressing the American people and, by extension, the world. A new media must arise that relies on journalists with integrity and a track record of investigation rather than propaganda. Sure, there are a lot of fake stories being pushed out there, but if you allow honest and open debate, the trustworthy will in time make reputations for themselves that will set them apart. But they will never be the big-name multi-million dollar salaried individuals working for mega-corporations we have now. Nobody makes $30,000 a day telling the truth.