Yesterday (3/10/10) there was a House floor debate on Rep. Dennis Kucinich‘s push to withdraw troops from Afghanistan. Kucinich’s bill–which is based on the War Powers Act–was defeated, but it sparked hours of rare discussion of the White House’s war policy (in spite of the Washington Post‘s efforts to minimize the discussion as left-wing “venting”).
The most dramatic moment came when Rep. Patrick Kennedy chastised the press corps for skipping out on the discussion: “There’s two press people in this gallery…. We’re talking about Eric Massa 24-7 on the TV, we’re talking about war and peace, $3 billion, 1,000 lives and no press? No press.”
He added: “The press of the United States is not covering the most significant issue of national importance and that’s the laying of lives down in the nation for the service of our country. It’s despicable, the national press corps right now.”
Watch the video:
Do you think Patrick Kennedy’s criticizing of the news will make news?
It should be noted that the press did cover the Glorious Battle of Marja, a megalopolis sprawling over 125 square miles in western Afghanistan with upwards of 80,000 people most of whom are Taliban (except for those able to flee). I heard several reports on NPR of the intensive fighting.
Objections to the Empire’s wars, however, are dismissed.
It’s very sad what’s happening in our GREAT COUNTRY today & he’s right !
MSM/The National Enquirer, which is which??
Mr. Kennedy is absolutely right. The media covers just what its CEOs want covered. Journalistic integrity is hard to find. Most of what we get on mainstream TV is “views” rather than “news.”
Rep. Patrick Kennedy’s tirade about the press corp covering salacious gossip instead of the much needed debate on withdrawing troops from Afghanistan is heroic in my eyes. He’s absolutely correct! No one should be surprised to learn that most Americans are low-information voters because the ‘despicable’ corporate media has controlled what we’ve seen and heard for at least the past 25 years.
It’s been going on since BEFORE television. Read anything by Jerry Mander. Here’s a brief clip from WikiPedia:
Television is advertising. It is a medium whose purpose is to sell, to promote capitalism. In 1977, Jerry Mander, a former advertising executive in San Francisco, published Four Arguments For The Elimination Of Television. In the book, Mander reveals how the television networks and advertisers use this pervasive video medium for sales.
Four Arguments talks about a lot more than just advertising. Mander attacks not only the contents of the television images, but the effects television has on the human mind and body. His discussion includes: The induction of alpha waves, a hypnotizing effect that a motionless mind enters. How viewers often regard what they see on television as real even though the programs are filled with quick camera switches, rapid image movement, computer generated objects, computer generated morphing and other technical events. The placement of artificial images into our mind’s eye. And the effects that large amounts of television viewing have on children and the onset of attention deficit disorder.
However, at the heart of Mander’s arguments, lies advertising. In the words of writer Charles Bukowski: “[America is] not a free country — everything is bought and sold and owned.”
Sales, by definition, is the process of convincing someone to purchase what they don’t need. Advertising tries to convince someone that the solution to a problem or the fulfillment of a desire can only be achieved through the purchase of a product. (My note: War is America’s number one industry. In his farewell address, Pres. Eisenhower warned us to beware of the military-industrial-complex. He actually wanted to warn us about the media as well, but it was considered too extreme for television.)