The Truth In News, What a Novel Concept

Truth In The News, What A Novel Concept.
Neal Ross
23, Nov, 2007

In response to many of my articles I have been rewarded with responses from people who are as aware of the danger this nation faces due to our governments inaction on certain issues, and its passing of legislation that I consider bordering on treasonous.

However, every once in awhile I get a response from someone who has fallen prey to the lies and disinformation fed to them by our elected representatives and the medial. Just the other day, in response to some criticism of the Bush Administration, I got an e-mail that said, "Ah yes... the gloom and doom of the EVIL Bush Administration".

When I get e-mails like that I feel as though I am talking to a parrot, who can only repeat what it has been taught to say and is incapable of thinking on its own. I partially blame these people for being so weak of character that they are unwilling to accept the truth when it is standing right in front of them.

On the other hand, I place a large part of the blame on the news media in this country. With the proliferation on 24 hour a day news coverage on stations like CNN, FOX, and MSNBC, as well as the regular watered down network news broadcasts, it is next to impossible to monitor everything that is broadcast that is commonly accepted as news.

There are the occasional bursts of light that illuminate a particularly subject sufficiently for the public to take notice. Lou Dobbs on CNN does a decent job of scrutinizing the inefficiencies of our government, its lack of action on illegal immigration, and the clandestine merger of the United States, Canada, and Mexico into a North American Union. Sixty Minutes also has its moments of glory, as when the Comptroller General recently cut through the rhetoric and plainly stated that our governments spending and future commitments to entitlement programs is placing our country on a path towards insolvency. Keith Olbermann on MSNBC also has done a good job on exposing the attacks upon our personal liberties undertaken by the Bush Administration in the name of the War On Terror. However these are just a few isolated glimmers of the potential of what broadcast journalism is truly capable of.

Edward R. Murrow, was, in my opinion, one of the best broadcast journalists in the history of this nation. While most of what he did on the air happened before I was born, I have read about his courage in standing up to the communist witch hunt led by Senator McCarthy.

In a speech given to Radio and Television News Directors Association in Chicago, Murrow is quoted as saying, “Our history will be what we make it. And if there are any historians about fifty or a hundred years from now, and there should be preserved the kinescopes for one week of all three networks, they will there find recorded in black and white, or color, evidence of decadence, escapism and insulation from the realities of the world in which we live. I invite your attention to the television schedules of all networks between the hours of 8 and 11 p.m., Eastern Time. Here you will find only fleeting and spasmodic reference to the fact that this nation is in mortal danger. There are, it is true, occasional informative programs presented in that intellectual ghetto on Sunday afternoons. But during the daily peak viewing periods, television in the main insulates us from the realities of the world in which we live.”

I would suggest that everyone read the entire speech which can be found at,
http://www.turnoffyourtv.com/commentary/hiddenagenda/murrow.html as it is quite enlightening.

When Murrow went after Senator McCarthy, he used the senators own words against him, via a series of speeches given by the senator. Our broadcast news media today could take a lesson from Murrow by piecing together a series of clips of President Bush concerning the war in Iraq. The President has lied, changed his story, and his reasons for fighting this war so many times that I do not have enough fingers to count these changes. Yet our news media, in the guise of being subjective, pussyfoots around the issue by reporting on the current troop losses, or the lack of action by the Iraqi government to take action in regards to the stabilization of their own country. Where is the courage of the news media to tell the people they have been lied to and manipulated in the aftermath of 9/11 into supporting a war that we have no reason to be involved in?

Part of the problem, as I stated earlier is that the people of this country are lack to courage to face the truth. We feel more comfortable accepting the rhetoric and propaganda put forth by our respective political party, that we are unwilling to accept anything that might shatter the house of illusion that we live within. Therefore anyone who does have the courage to speak out against the illusion that is fed to us as truth is labeled as either conspiracy nut or an extremist.

There is a growing disillusionment with the overall state of our government, from both sides of the political spectrum. Record numbers of people are switching their party affiliation to Independent. That is a good sign, in that it shows people are not willing to accept the status quo in government any more. However, when a candidate for president like Ron Paul has the courage to stand before us and tell us exactly what is wrong with this country and what needs to be done to fix it, we are still unwilling to accept the facts as he presents them. The supporters of Ron Paul are labeled terrorists by supposedly respectable journalists like Glenn Beck. We are told that the U.S. military should be used against us. So much for freedom of speech when people who believe in government according to the Constitution are labeled as terrorists.

Our freedoms and liberties as defined in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights have been trampled upon by our government, and the news media, for the most part, have remained silent on these violations. The final nail in the coffin of this republic may come as early as next week when the Supreme Court rules on whether the people of this country have the right to own firearms or if that right is solely in regards to the formation and maintenance of the militia. What is the old saying, ‘The second amendment is never needed until they try to take it away’? That time may soon be upon us.

The news media, every time there is some tragedy involving firearms reports non stop on the statistics regarding numbers of people killed due to firearm accidents. They give coverage to groups that call for more gun control legislation, yet shun the groups who say that firearms are as George Washington said, “Firearms stand next in importance to the Constitution itself. They are the American people's liberty teeth and keystone under independence.”

While many feel that our streets would be safer if nobody had any firearms whatsoever, I would like to present some statistics which prove to the contrary.

-In 1911, Turkey established gun control. From 1915 to 1917, 1.5 million Armenians, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.

-In 1929, the Soviet Union established gun control. From 1929 to 1953, about 20 million dissidents, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.

-Germany established gun control in 1938 and from 1939 to 1945, a total of 6 million Jews and 7 million others who were unable to defend themselves were rounded up and exterminated.

-China established gun control in 1935. From 1948 to 1952, 20 million political dissidents, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated

-Guatemala established gun control in 1964. From 1964 to 1981, 100,000 Mayan Indians, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.

-Uganda established gun control in 1970. From 1971 to 1979, 300,000 Christians, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.

-Cambodia established gun control in 1956. From 1975 to 1977, one million educated' people, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.

It is now, more than ever, that we need our news media to dig down within itself and find its backbone and stand up for the rights of the people. It is time for them to stop worrying about offending corporate sponsors and tell the people the truth about what is going on in this country. We have had enough of what they call the news. Our bellies cannot abide another story about the custody battle of Britney Spears, or the most recent arrest of Lindsey Lohan. It is time we were given the news as Edward R. Murrow would have reported it. It may come as a shock to many, but that shock might be just what the doctor ordered to awaken us from the stupor we have been living in when it comes to path our republic is on towards tyranny.