Corporate Media: Cowards, Weasels, and Propagandists

To work and prosper in the corporate media, whether print or television, you have to be a person; a) with little courage, b) with a small intellect, and generally ignorant about history, politics, and the tradition of muckraking journalism, c) who has low morals, and d) who is a play-it-safe careerist with a family to support, or a lifestyle to maintain. Out of all four types I respect the type "d" person the most because it's reasonable to place the safety and well-being of your family before the safety and well-being of the rest of society. Almost everybody inherits the value that supporting and protecting your family is number one in your life, it is more important than speaking the truth, or getting in the face of power.

Most of our problems that occupy us today would go away if more moral individuals were in the media business, individuals who follow the facts wherever they lead, instead of cowards, propagandists, and intelligence spies who have a private agenda of their own. Hopefully the current trend of people building their own media empires will grow, and an era will dawn when Fox News, CBS, ABC, NBC, and CNN will be forgotten, replaced, or reformed.

II.

In his new article Glenn Greenwald shows how Jon Meacham, the editor of Newsweek, is too afraid to go after government officials when they commit mistakes and horrible crimes, but jumps at the oppurtunity to stamp his moral superiority when somebody like Pastor Jones comes along. From Greenwald's article, "The pastor and cheap, selective concern for "blood-spilling":

A month before the 2004 presidential election, Meacham appeared on CBS' Early Show to discuss the final report from David Kay proving that Saddam had no WMD before we invaded, and here is what he said:

The President is convinced that Iraq was, as he put it, a grave and gathering threat, and that's not an unreasonable proposition. . . . Let's remember, [Saddam] sent mixed signals about his own WMD to his own people. . . . He was not saying, "I don't have anything at all " -- we now know he didn't -- but he was not exactly helping his own cause. . . . Whether you like it or not, the War on Terror is a war.

He then went on to praise Dick Cheney's argument as "very effective" that Democrats -- unlike the GOP -- would be unable to confront "state sponsors of terrorism." Noticeably absent was any condemnation from Meacham of Bush and Cheney for spilling huge amounts of innocent blood in violation of the mandates from Jesus. Like most establishment journalists, his moral outrage is reserved exclusively for those who have no power in the royal court he serves. Blood-spilling by American officials is always legitimate and reasonable, by definition.

These weasels like Meacham who scream 'truth to the powerless' and justify mass killing shouldn't even be called journalists. We know what they are. Every society has a version of them. They are weasels who hump the leg of power, and then bust their load on less-important people. Ancient Rome had this breed of followers. So did the Middle Ages. In every society there are individuals who don't mind getting close to power, and selling their humanity and dignity in the process. It's not a sign of meaness to call them weasels, and cowards. Their whole existence is dedicated to serving power, and protecting its death-dealing enterprises from public light. They don't have any honor left. What media propagandists like Meacham do all day, every day is defend the indefensible wars, and unjust economic policies of the United States plutocracy. Truth is nowhere in their horizon. If they valued the truth, or considered the interests of the American people as more important than the dictates of power, then there wouldn't be any wars nine years after 9/11.