The problem with our media is that is promotes the idea of civil discourse as a excuse for providing only one side of almost every important issue confronting Americans.
"Let's not be shrill and divisive" our media warns. Yet, in the preparation for the war on Iraq, almost no one in the media confronted the obvious lies being foisted on the American public. Perhaps if our media could have been a little more "divisive," this calamitous war would not have happened.
When is the last time you saw an article in a major media publication that questioned our giving 500 billion a year to the Pentagon? This is a highly militarized state and we spend more on making war than the rest of the world combined. Yet our media would never debate that. Too shrill.
And how about stories of corporate irresponsibility? It takes a meltdown the size on Enron to expose the obscene machinations of the corporate controlled ruling class. Too divisive.
Spend some time reading the media in many other countries. The Israeli press debates racism directed at the Palestinians. Not here. The Guardian in the UK runs detailed reports of how the Bush administration lied about WMD's. Not here. I spent a month in Amsterdam and learned about freedom of the press. For the first time in my life, I read mainstream media that discussed Cuba. Now, I can read about Cuba here, but it will be stories created in the Pentagon. We get propaganda from our media, not news.
