The usual Establishment rhetoric against government critics is used throughout the production, derogatory terms like "conspiracy theorist", "crazy", and "racist" are frequently used. Instead of examining the rational reasons for why people on the right are furious, such as the government's dictatorial laws since 9/11, its dismal economic and foreign policies, and the overall failure in the leadership of the political class to halt the federal debt, Matthews and company seek emotional and tribal causes for the popularity of the Tea Party. It takes a bogus slant of the raison d'être for the Tea Party, and one that doesn't enlighten anyone in the public.
The documentary's most critical mistake is that it singularly concentrates on the rising anger from the right, specifically, the recent electoral victories by Tea Party figures like Rand Paul, but fails to mention that there is a general popular anger against the status quo in Washington D.C., which manifests itself in the growing voter dissatisfaction with the two main political parties. Dylan Ratigan, whose show on MSNBC debuted last summer, is probably the only individual on MSNBC who hasn't used his platform as a democratic swinging bat to target government critics as "racists" and "crazies." Olbermann, Maddow, and Matthews have all taken this particular line against Tea Party participants.
Indeed, true bipartisan outrage against Barack Obama, and the Republicrat leadership is never heard on MSNBC, the supposed representative of the "liberal" media. So the common disposition between Fox News and MSNBC is not correct. The two networks are not competitors, but equals. Both represent elitist interests, and protect the legitimacy and credibility of the current government in Washington, where dominant corporations from every industry, along with the Military Industrial Complex, and Wall St. banks have unlimited access to the public purse.
Not one mainstream network is accurately documenting the split between the American people and the American elite. Populist critiques of the Democrats and Republicans are never given air time. But democratic loyalists still have the audacity to say that since Fox News spotlights Tea Party protests it is the spokesmen of the right. What they fail to point out is that Fox News doesn't authentically express popular rage from the right, rather, it presents the corporate spin of people's frustrations. And the same is true for republican loyalists when they speak about the oppression of the "liberal" media.
What both groups of loyalists have trouble grasping is that there isn't a right-wing media, and there isn't a liberal media. There is only the corporate, elitist media, with two sides who are allowed to criticize each other, but must not breach the boundaries of what's considered legitimate talking points. Noam Chomsky and Edward S. Herman analyzed this reality in the media long ago.
There is zero media coverage given to the views of the "silenced majority" as Amy Goodman says. This majority is not made up of liberals, or conservatives, but political independents, and rational citizens who strongly believe in the principle that government is ruled by the consent of the governed. What they believe and think is almost never highlighted by the pro-Establishment mainstream media.
They consider the separation between church and state as one of the most important elements in a free country, they are critical of the Empire and its corrupt beneficiaries, they're fed up with Wall St. and corporate influence in politics, and they want the reversal of laws like the the Patriot Act, as well as the prosecution of American leaders for illegal torture, spying, and war crimes. You'll be hard-pressed to hear Chris Matthews give voice to any of these ideas in his highly unpopular broadcasts. In fact, you'll hear support for the exact opposite of such ideas. As Paul Joseph Watson writes:
The establishment press anoints itself as some kind of trusted guardian of the safe and serene status quo and a bulwark against dangerous political extremists intent on violence and bloodshed. In reality, the corporate media, and particularly MSNBC, which is owned by General Electric, a military-industrial complex giant that makes obscene profits from developing weapons that kill millions of innocent people around the world, routinely promotes the most barbaric lies and propaganda which directly lead to violence on a mass scale.The same corporate media that lied to the American people about the concocted story of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction is now lying about the danger posed by the Islamic Republic of Iran to the Mighty and Powerful American Military. MSNBC's coverage of U.S. and Iran relations is full of rumors, and baseless fears, much of them taken from the mouths of leading neocons, and other spokesmen for Israel and America's empire. And their cowardice, and lack of journalistic integrity was shown once again after Israel's criminal raid of a humanitarian aid ship earlier this month.
It was corporate media outlets like MSNBC who sold the lie of weapons of mass destruction that led to the slaughter of over a million Iraqis.
It was corporate media outlets like MSNBC who sold Americans on the acceptance of torture, leading to the Abu Ghraib abuse scandal and similar black sites all over the world that still exist in which innocent men, women and children are brutalized on a daily basis.
So the real story in American politics is not "The Rise of The New Right" but the "The Fall of The Old Paradigm." "The Internet and Independent Press vs. The Corporate Media." "Anger/Truth/Courage vs. Complacency/Cowardice/Complicity." "Patriots vs. Loyalists." "The Truth-Minded Citizens of America And The World vs. The Liars and Deniers of Reality." And those in the latter will find themselves on the fringe as economic conditions get worse, and as the lying, two-faced President lies some more. Paul Joseph Watson reported on this trend in a July 2009 article called "MSNBC Implies People Skeptical Of Government Are Psychologically Insane":
In addition, a 2006 Zogby poll revealed that “less than half of the American public trusts the official 9/11 story or believes the attacks were adequately investigated."
Just two years ago, at the Democratic National Convention in Denver, Chris Matthews could have gotten away with demonizing truth-telling figures like Alex Jones, and other concerned citizens who are deeply critical of the U.S. Establishment, but in today's political climate the corporate media is not viewed with any respect or reverence. People know that corporate newsrooms are filled with lame duck cowards, and official propagandists. And they are beginning to realize that their economic plight partly stems from the fact that the press has repeatedly lied to them, and continually covered up the highest crimes of our age, both by the U.S. government and the biggest U.S. banks and corporations.Does more than half of the population of America constitute a “fringe” element? It seems that Matthews, Vogel and Fineman aren’t as “mainstream” as they apparently thought they were – they are in fact the minority.
II.
"There are a group of screwballs out here, and I mean truly screwballs, who believe that we were not attacked on 9/11 by terrorists. . . that those people really weren't killed by terrorists, that that's not what happened. And in fact George W. Bush was sitting somewhere in the White House basement with one of these plungers, and he blew up those buildings. That's what these people believe, they are truly crazy people, just so you know, we're not muffling intelligent dissent here." - Chris Matthews at the DNC in Denver in 2008I'm not sure whether Chris Matthews is a first-rate propagandist, or just an ignorant and clueless blowhard, who is too intellectually lazy, and brainwashed, to accurately depict the growing significance of the truth movement led by Alex Jones, Richard Gage, David Ray Griffin, and others, as well as the larger liberty movement led by Rand Paul, Ron Paul, and the more authentic elements of the Tea Party. Judging from what he said to MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell on June 9 about the rising opposition to the federal government as being "serious business," it appears Matthews is more of an ignorant full-of-himself Washington pundit than a corrupt Establishment paid propagandist.
Matthews falsely believes that the new American patriots are potential domestic terrorists rather than potential heroes who are intent on saving the Republic from full-blown tyranny. The concerns of many of these American patriots about an authoritarian global government, the 9/11 deception, and the Wall Street theft are shared by patriots in England, Canada, Greece, Iceland, and other countries in the West. They are not "crazy" or "racist." As the film "The Fall of America and the Western World" documents, the destruction of Western liberties are not far, far, away, but a nightmare that we wake up to every day. The trend towards decline and despotism has been years in the making, and the critical hour to save America and the West is now.
Matthews can continue to suck his thumb, and thumb his nose, but he will regret later on that he wasn't on the right side of history. The American empire is bleeding and dying, and the foundations of the Republic need to be restored by the American people. America is still the greatest hope for the world, so for the sake of all Mankind, its system of constitutional government must be recovered, and America's press can play an instrumental role in this recovery or a destructive one. Chris Matthews can either contribute his talents and charisma to helping Americans better understand why the country crumbled to pieces under the reign of the secret government in Washington, which began in the post-WWII era under the cover of "National Security", or he stand by sheepishly as America dies, and ignorantly declare that voices like Alex Jones are "radical" and "extremist." I hope he chooses the former course.
And if the press in America wishes to stay relevant in the remaining decades of the 21st century, it must courageously face the dark side of the American empire, and collectively bring the many dirty deeds of the U.S. government to light, most critically, the deception about 9/11. As I wrote in "Facing The Dark Side: Bipartisan Accountability For The Empire's Crimes":
People who are kept in constant fear are less secure, and less willing to defend themselves because they believe that they require protectors to get out of any dangerous situation. And the corruption of violence by the country's ungrateful leaders trickles down to potential revolutionaries who view the path of violence as the only path to correct government abuse and overthrow a tyranny.Commentators on the Left fear that right-wing militias could resort to violence to overthrow such corrupt leaders, but rarely do they take a step further, and critique the full-blown police state, that has been masked with a young and liberal face. They are forgetting a key lesson from Martin Luther King Jr. How can you object against violence by the oppressed, and say nothing of the violence by the government oppressors? Dark deeds are not being advanced in foreign lands alone, but in places all across America, in Waco, LA, New York, and every other city. It's not just the CIA who acts on the dark side, but many government agencies do.The influence of networks like MSNBC, and the "minor" media on American public opinion is not as powerful as it was a mere decade ago. If war is declared against Iran at this time, and the media parrots the U.S. government as it did during the early stages of the Iraq invasion, then there will surely be riots in the streets, and growing calls for a new revolution. What the producers of MSNBC ignore in their new documentary is that influential figures like Alex Jones, Stewart Rhodes, Ron Paul, and Rand Paul are using their voice and appeal to direct the revolution towards a peaceful and bipartisan direction. Matthews should take a hard look in the mirror, and decide if it is wise to smear these brave men, and their efforts to save America.
