open Democracy News Analysis - america inside out - Comments

bfearn on "Taxi to the Dark Side: an open letter"

bfearn — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 05:09:23 +0000

The 'good' guys must tread carefully in America. If you step right up and speak as if the truth will be accepted you will be marginalized as quickly as Obama's former pastor. As an actor once said, referring to America in general, "You don't want the truth" and he was surprised how it worked out for him and he wasn't even close to the truth. The anti-truth factions are so powerful in America that real change is impossible and I don't use the word impossible lightly. It's all too bad and very sad but then America never got off to a very good start did it?
Try any one of the 50 chapters in this book for some of the 'truths'.
www.amoralamerica.info

joe_11 on "The choice"

joe_11 — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 05:01:26 +0000

I will miss Sidney's contributions to this site. His point about self defeating and hubristic demands for purity is valid. But one can be too compromising, and that is what has really snatched defeat from the jaws of victory from the democrats for the past 50+ years. Any of the Democrats would definitely be superior to any of the Republicans, but I'm not sure Hillary has really demonstrated the ability to take on the established powers. Her support for the Cheney/bush invasion of Iraq demonstrates her real style and substance.

Gaius Baltar on "The choice"

Gaius Baltar — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 09:08:51 +0000

Ha! Ron Paul is hardly a challenge to multinational corporations. He wants to practically dismantle the federal government which will mean it wont be able to regulate corporate interests.

SamEllison on "The choice"

SamEllison — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 06:07:12 +0000

Right on all counts, we must rid our country of the "Cheney Precedents" and rescue the Constitution and the rule of law. Good luck with HRC and all that goes with it. Listen for the voice from the back of the auditorium, it'll be me.

longviewhaus on "The choice"

longviewhaus — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 20:49:51 +0000

Comments Mr Blumenthal wants Hillary to become president. That is the subtext of this story. However thoughtful it may be, the Democrats most likely to win will, if even elected, continue the "War & Plunder" tradition of our county these past 100-plus years(only interrupted by the 1920's financial collapse). Without going into endless detail, when Democratic candidates get their majority backing from large corporations (via the DLC), the congressional-military-industrial complex, the corporate controlled media, and the permanent 'elite' political classes, what could possibly happen but perhaps the illusion of a slowdown of the "War & Plunder", not a true change of economic and political direction. A juggernaut with the magnitude of the current political momentum is unstoppable without some even greater force, perhaps a massive military and/or economic push-back from a group of major nations willing to commit themselves to confrontation with the United States. It could happen, but until it does, a change of political parties in this country will only mean more of the same. It is naive or disingenuous for Mr Blumenthal to infer otherwise. But then duplicity and deception toward its most dedicated backers has been the hallmark of the Democratic Party for decades. Don't be deceived. dci Posted by: Donald Carl Isenman | November 23, 2007 at 12:35 PM

wolf1929 on "The choice"

wolf1929 — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 19:53:12 +0000

I admit I actually stopped reading when I got to the part suggesting we have two opposing parties. This is of course completely untrue. There is only one 'party' in Washington; the 'money' party and they are having a fine time indeed. The socalled democrats are absolutely on board with the imperial presidency not to mention the fact Hillary and Bill are two of the most powerful neocons in Washington. Repubocrats are simply the minions of the multinationals performing theater-for-the-masses. The 'people' fell asleep at the wheel and the result was predictable. The Republic is no more, the 'elections' are a charade creating the illusion of 'opposing' parties. Whoever is 'nominated' (unless it is Ron Paul of Texas) will be owned lock, stock and barrel by the multinationals. When we 'vote' now, we are simply tightening the noose around our own necks. Open democracy my foot...............

alfredo.bremont on "The choice"

alfredo.bremont — Thu, 22 Nov 2007 23:47:30 +0000

the choice is simple accurate rationale and wise, the third way which is in this asymmetrical world the proper one is the less unexpected but the most appropriate. Sydney Blumenthal for president. he has the character the aim, the vision and is impartial on this fratricide battle for power, America deserve new men,new blood from a younger wiser and noble generation. as estrange as it might seem defeating the prognostics of the press and the certain expectations of many this is the men for America, and America can return to his original roots by having an original men. he has the expertise and the knowledge. brave America now is your chance to return to real democracy, Sydney is the will be real president this wonderful nation needs and deserves. moreover he has keep his image his mind and his soul clean from the disrupted and very corrupt present, and his vision is Cristal clear, the fact is he deserves the post or Rather America demands a men of his integrity to guide it and sail it out of the current turmoils the nation has being on the past decade.

boyte on "The choice"

boyte — Thu, 22 Nov 2007 11:49:12 +0000

Harry Boyte Peter Levine, director of the CIRCLE -- the main US center of research on young people's civic and political involvements, and also the source of the annual Civic Health of the nation index for the congressionally mandated National Conference on Citizenship -- has important reflections on civic versus technocratic and hyperpartisan leadership styles in his recent blog posts. See http://www.peterlevine.ws/mt/

boyte on "The choice"

boyte — Thu, 22 Nov 2007 11:30:35 +0000

Harry Boyte There is a different way to look at the challenge of a new president -- from the vantage of the whole society, and how to tap the civic energies and agency of mulitple institutions and the general citizenry. From this vantage, Blumenthal's "choice" is a Faustian bargain -- between a state-centric, technocratic model and Bush's market-centered approach. Both depend ultimately on authoritarian leadership, cloaked in different legitimation narratives. The alternative -- appearing across multiple domains, as I describe yesterday in "Building Civic Agency" -- is a citizen driven approach to change, in which markets and states are resources, but on tap not on top. There are rich leadership traditions that support such a third way, such as the biblical tradition of Nehemiah and his parallels in US civic and political life, from Lincoln to Addams, Roosevelt to ML King come to mind, as I argued recently in the Star Tribune: http://www.startribune.com/562/story/1554072.html

Peter Maffia on "Walter Lippmann and American journalism today"

Peter Maffia — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 00:51:55 +0000

Blumenthal fails to mentions the independent journalists that exist. While showing the need for noncommercial journalism he does not adress any alternatives. This is sad. Furthermore I have doubts whether the basic theses of the text are really resilient. A journalist can just give his description/interpretion of what happened. He does not have "access to the facts" nor do we. Thats why we have to discuss. If truth exists it can only become present in the discourse. It is the structure of the public which does determine the prejudices one does use for judgment (statistically seen). So there's not only need for a revitalisation of the journalistic culture (this way i do understand the text), but even more need for a change of the structure of the public. As long as journalism is commercial, it will be too dependent from power (and power will be too dependent from journalism) for journalism to be free. @alfredo even if sydney's gonna be president, is he supposed to say "everyone report the truth now" and then some wonder will happen and all truth will come out? I also wonder why the silence about 9/11 in such a text - while it is directly in the middle of the controversy. Journalism can never be free, the media can not be open when such fundamental suspicions as the theory that 9/11 was an inside job or the theory that the planes we saw on tv that day and thousand times after that where video fakes are not discussed. The corporate media is accused of crimes and it will not take part in it's own conviction.

alfredo.bremont on "Walter Lippmann and American journalism today"

alfredo.bremont — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 00:57:56 +0000

well Sydney as i said before you are set to become president of the Americas. and it is an offer you cannot refuse. moreover beside Noah Chomsky there is no fit men at the moment to take the nation back to its own roots. rebuild it and reshaped fitted to the new century. courage and a firm mind and you will see that you have always being the men that the nation once needed and now more than ever demands.

jk.rinciari on "Walter Lippmann and American journalism today"

jk.rinciari — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 05:31:55 +0000

As usual, Sidney Blumenthal edifes albeit, perhaps a bit too wordy. But, his compass is large and all encompassing. I try not to miss him. His analysis of how journalism thinks it is being objective by simply presenting polar opposite views no matter how loony, is insightful and apparently accurate, and a disaster for learning anything useful. And, just the terms used - Liberal, Conservative masks over the true identity of issues that actualy contain catagories of more human emotional consideration - compassion, reactionary, life enhancing, fear, - the real issues we are always facing. But, they are easy handles for the bull throwers. Sidney Blumenthal is one very bright light in the darkness. The real American popular literature is written in the jingoism of advertising, our native tongue. Thus goes the 5th column. It might be more honest to just show photographs and video with no words whatsoever in our media. But that too would be manipulated.

SamEllison on "Walter Lippmann and American journalism today"

SamEllison — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 17:10:19 +0000

To answer the commenter; Google searches give one the most popular or clicked upon News list, not the most truthful. The reporting done on cable news of the Duke lacrosse team rape case was a symptom of trying to catch the magic of Fox News's popularity. Europe should be familiar with this type of coverage from Sky News, a sister network to Fox News. As I was reading this piece, the day after the Washington Post published some of former Secy of Defense Donald Rumsfeld's "Snowflake Memos", I was reminded of the story of the Lincoln Group. The Lincoln Group, recipient of hundreds of millions of dollars from Rummy's Pentagon to print propaganda overseas. Also a series of articles by James Bamford starting with "The Man Who Sold the War" http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/8798997/the_man_who_sold_the_war And the chilling final sentence of the link above, "'We lost control of the context," Rendon warned. "That has to be fixed for the next war.'"

jdubow on "Walter Lippmann and American journalism today"

jdubow — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 19:49:10 +0000

Blumenthal's argument is a well written and researched brief against, who else, George Bush and his administration in particular and conservatives in general. Yet his arguments of bias are more testimonial than analytical. When about 90% of the media staffers making political donations donate to liberals and 95% of college professors do likewise, we don't have a problem with too much conservative influence on the news. The problem is with a media monoculture. To whit, Google News lists a news item and hyperlinks to all other articles available to them, typically hundreds. When I go through them I see what amounts to a single American story, typically Politically Correct liberal and typically making the same points and often the same words. Why do we need so many people saying the same thing. The monoculture has a simplistic world model, namely that the more suffering ones group had under white European colonialism, the more politically correct that group is and the less one is allowed to criticize them. Concurrently, the group at the bottom, white males, is either to be made invisible or criticized at every turn. Unfortunately the groups in the correct class have a record of violence, genocide and intolerance that is worse than the West and that is far from morally correct. Thus when an Arab group commits an atrocity the degree of atrocity is mirrored in the degree and intensity of criticism of George Bush and the US. As I recall the coverage at the beginning of the Iraq war the mainstream media opposed it and encouraged the US to withdraw and virtually sue for peace. Look it up. The liberal media has reached a point where it coopts the future. I recall sitting at a restaurant in Boston and hearing an interview for the Boston Globe where the interviewer was glad the interviewee was liberal because they don't like conservatives there. There are hundreds of examples. A study of the media by either the PEW or other foundation relative to the Israel -Hezbollah war of 2006 concluded that the media was a major influence in the war in turning public opinion against Israel and protecting Hezbollah. Media coverage of Gender and Family issues reads as if it is vetted and controlled out of NOW headquarters. Young males are in a developmental black hole but the media are still in denial and refuse to publish anything that suggests attention to them is warranted. A good friend of mine was a ranking official in the US patent office and told me he secretly recorded his interviews in order to assure himself that he wasn't suffering from Alzheimers since he had no memory of what the reporter presented in the media. The coverage of the Duke Lacrosse team was a symptom of the disease, and to my knowledge nothing has been done to either the perpetrators or to the editors to make sure something like this doesn't happen again. In essence, the media has a ranking of politically good and politically bad groups and uplifts those favored and trashes or ignores the unfavored. This is a spin on the old formula "show me the person and I'll show you the coverage". The paragraph you quote by Lippman, beginning ""Just as the most poisonous form of disorder is the mob incited from high places, the most immoral act the immorality of a government, so the most destructive form of untruth is sophistry and propaganda by those whose profession it is to report the news...... is dispositive here. The media publishes too much counterfactual material, is too uniform and predictable in its coverage and too self-righteous to recognize that the quality of the product has been degraded over the past thirty years. Perhaps we ought to encourage Toyota to open up a newspaper in Washington DC remind us what quality in journalism is all about.

SamEllison on "Taxi to the Dark Side: an open letter"

SamEllison — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 05:41:48 +0100

Well I guess if Bill Maher has to put up with 9-11 conspiracy hecklers we do too. Please don't blame the 49.9 percent of Americans that never voted for Bush/Cheney. Sidney Blumenthal has been speaking truth to power through-out the Bush43 admin when few people would. His words rang true and carried with them the weight of a former White House official under Clinton42. I would hope there is a position with-in the Executive Branch for him under Clinton44. Another open letter; Madame Ambassador, One of my favorite White House reporters once called you the Ambassador of Propaganda, he now reports from Rome, Italy. Did you have anything to do with Mr Dinmore's reassignment? Do you think weakening the power of the press has made America stronger or weaker? Our government has in the past benefited by having four strong pillars, Congress, Executive, Judicial and a free press. Presently three of the four pillars have been weakened by the admin that you are a member of. Would you please explain how this could make America stronger?