Red Herring

Solid doc outlining the ghoulish right wing shenanigans of FOX "News"...and the word 'news' is used quite loosely.

Bear in mind, however, that FOX is a strategic misdirect: since they are quite openly and obviously providing the role of the prostrating, right wing cheerleader - grotesquely, slavishly, groveling and salivating over the big-guns-big-pecks-might-makes-right-anti-humanitarianistic barbarism of the day, it serves to convey the idea to people that the other, remaining agenda setting, mainline outlets are *instead* providing the truth when they are indeed NOT doing so at all.

In order for propaganda to work effectively, many necessary illusions need to be created within the collective consciousness, implemented through elaborate systems of indoctrination. One of the most important being, you have to get the public to believe that their press, their media/journalism, is very "liberal." This serves to place limitations and boundaries on 'acceptable' thought. That is, if state power cannot control people though violence, they must develope very sophisticated ways of controlling what and how people think and value.

So in other words, you hear something on FOX, you cringe, you wince, and think, "Oh, I know, I'll switch over to a major network, or CNN or MSNBC or something, and I'll get the TRUTH there." .....auuuhhhhhh, no. Don't count on it, not by a very long shot.

Staging this ruse of right wing/left wing media works well to ensure that crucial, important questions will NEVER be discussed. If CNN or Hardball or whatever is supposedly 'lefty' leaning, than for anyone to go BEYOND what is discussed and 'reported' on there is, as Noam Chomsky says, "to take off from the planet...people will look at you like you're from Neptune." It's unacceptable, forbidden. It is to engage in FACTS; factual, institutional analysis, and such a person will quickly be discredited and dismissed as a "conspiracy theorist."

Do the media cretins who actively work to undermine truth, justice and humanity, honestly believe that when it all goes down the drain, that they and their loved ones won't be impacted? Sleep tight, and good luck with that one.

If you found this doc to be informative, check out the film about Chomsky, "Manufacturing Consent," and the recently re-issued "Orwell Rolls in His Grave."
Also, C-Span is pretty good at allowing for people who speak the truth, lots of speakers, authors, journalists. And yeah, many of them are the typical left gatekeepers who are either lying or in denial themselves, but occassionally you'll get Mark Crispin Miller, or David Ray Griffin, or others, whose insight and questioning strike much closer to the heart of the black cloud looming above us. Also, Sundance Channel is again running an hour segment of Air America, with Al Franken. I just wish they would've chosen Janeane Garofalo's segment instead.

An Ode to Intelligence

A European joke poses the question: "What do you call an intelligent person in America?" to which the answer is, "A tourist." If there are really people in the USA who watch the tripe that Fox churns out and seriously take on board all its backward fascist war-mongering, homophobia and Jesus club Bushie propaganda, then there is indeed cause for alarm. Presumably, people with basic educational backgrounds would be in possession of the critical insight to see far beyond Fox's joke-like existence, would they not? Cleary not. This documentary, posed as it is from it's own ideological position (we know, of course, that there is no outside to ideology, just as there is no "truth" or "God"), nevertheless succeeds in exposing much of the darkness at the heart of the Murdoch empire and its incestuous fornication with the American Empire. It should be watched by anyone who underestimates the power of the corporate media in shaping the outcomes of political processes. In this film lies a partial answer to the question posed in the Daily Mirror the day after Georgie's re-election: "How could 59,054, 087 people be so dumb?" It might well have to do with the fact that a vast number of them watch Fox News.

It can't be true...can it?

During the last election, when speaking out against the dichotomizing of conservative (i.e. patriotic, God-fearing, right) vs. liberal (i.e. a traitor, heretic and radical), I was looked at like I was a nut. When pointing out America's role in the rise in terrorism, I was branded a liberal (as if that's a bad thing). All of these counter views have been effectively squashed by big media. These dissenting views are unwelcome and the media has effectively swayed a large portion of our population to believe this.

So of course I was beginning to think it was me and that I was alone on this, that all liberals are required to put on the uniform of bad hair and bad clothes so we can be set apart, branded and quarantined.

Thank God (yes, God) for this video. Sure it's one-sided. So what? It makes no bones about its intentions. And it pulls out all the stops. That's what is necessary to awaken us from our desensitized slumber, taking in what we are fed by most news outlets. We can no longer just accept what's given; we must hunt out what is really happening. And so, this video. Fox 'News' is exposed for what it is - an adjunct of the GOP.

Former Fox associates being interviewed with snippets of Fox talking heads corroborating their statements (Sean Hannity's comments that we are 'X number of days from Bush being re-elected' should make your hair stand up on end) make up the bulk of the documentary.

Bill O'Reilly is taken to task. Yes, we get to see an update on the Jeremy Glick's appearance on his show. For those who may not remember, Glick was the young man whose father had been killed in the 9.11 attacks, who signed an anti-war petition. O'Reilly had claimed that no one who had lost family in the attacks would dare do such a thing. Mr. Glick did. Fox got him on the show. O'Reilly nearly accosted the young man. Fair and balanced my a**.

It's about time someone exposed this stuff. Again, the video is not claiming to be 'fair and balanced'. It merely takes Fox's outrageous claims of being fair and balanced to town, revealing that this is nothing but advertising, as if by stating it it makes it so.

The video is segmented into various sections (e.g. Election Day coverage, etc.) and is a whirlwind of editing prowess, composed of soundbytes - fitting, in my opinion, considering that the 'world update' on most news channels comprises about three minutes, just a bit longer than the feel-good story they tack on at the end.

Though a bit tedious - we get the point very early - this is an eye-opener. You'll laugh or you'll cry, or even through things at your television, but it's important to watch this. You are being lied to.