Ever since Head Crook Richard Nixon and his Even-More-Criminal Vice President Spiro Agnew went to war against the media for reporting honestly about the crimes the two were committing in office and the media recoiled at being called “liberal” for telling the truth, it has become increasingly clear that the elite political media flinches when the conservative beast twitches.
The irony of the criminals now in charge trying to "De-Zuckerfy" the network is that Zucker did more than any other media figure--I would argue more than the Murdochs--to elect Orange Hitler. Which is another reason that talking about CNN as even a moderate network is just so much bushwah.
Yep. When asked why CNN was giving Trump all the free airtime, covering the rallies live without commercials, ZuckTheFuck said "He gives us great ratings!"
And if I'm rich, ZuckTheFuck also helped him with "The Apprentice," on which Orange Hitler played a competent businessman, and never won an Emmy because he still wasn't believable, except to the treasonous and terminally stupid.
Fern: Zuker "normalized" Trump with the broadcasts the way Murdoch and Fox couldn't. People who didn't watch Fox saw him who might not have at all with CNN doing that, and an unexpected number of them got turned on by what they saw, which led to what we got. If Trump had only been on Fox, he could have been dismissed as the wingnut nutjob he was. The "normalization" gave him his edge. That and Anderson Cooper not calling him out for stalking HRC and asking some questions with follow-up that might have exposed him for he moron he is.
Jim Comey’s inappropriate comments which violated FBI protocol was not HRC’s doing! Yes, she did not work the blue states as she should. However, since slick Willy became President she was attacked and vilified by the right ! I don’t know of your lists but I use my own common sense to decide on what was the cause of her defeat!
Too many ‘talking heads’ in the media, both print and on air/internet!
The media created trump and gave him free publicity. He was the perfect candidate for the ‘scab picking! Political operators whose job is to maintain white supremacy in our country!
What are you on about? Is Zucker a friend of yours? The guy was a well-known Piece of Shit in Hollywood the 20 years before he landed at CNN. I can think of three women I know who could have told you stories that would curl your toes about him as an exec at ABC.
The fact that during 2015 and 2016, CNN basically gave unlimited coverage to Orange Hitler's rallies--even spending time showing on the screen that he would soon be doing a rally. Did they do that for Hillary? Hardly. Throw in their other examples of alleged journalism, but that was a lot of free air time.
Do you have data with reference to audience sizes of each platform? I believe that a good deal more evidence is necessary to make a case. What if there was no CNN, do believe that Hillary would then have been elected? Have you considered James Comey's contribution and serious flaws with Clinton's campaign?
Note that I said "media figure." While Comey is a media figure in certain ways, that certainly is not how we would see him. I also think it would be interesting to consider--it can't be proved--whether Comey's desire to defeat Clinton would have succeeded without CNN having done so much to normalize Orange Hitler.
'"De-Zuckerfy" the network is that Zucker did more than any other media figure--I would argue more than the Murdochs--to elect Orange Hitler.'
My rebuttals to yours and TC's arguments that 'Zuckerfy' did more than any other in control of a media outlet to elect DJT do not excuse CNN's role in promoting DJT, but, frankly, you are lacking in concrete data to make your case You blame the media for HRC loss, without considering her inability to rally the Black vote and a lot more. The difficulty of candidates and some of their strong supporters to accept that the major reasons for the candidate's loss has most to do with candidate and his or her campaign is a old story and a current one, under a different guise. Gore is a recent example to the contrary and there are others, but I do not know of any convincing information that would put HRC in that category.
Your arguments were unconvincing to me, and I must move on to our current problems and the US Tennis Open.
The CNN clusterfuck hurts. I've always looked at them cynically, I used to drive by a few times a day to see who died, what natural or man made disaster is killing people...
I've deleted them from every device ( MSNBC and the guardian for me)
(Forgive me if I'm repeating my self, I have written this so often the past couple of weeks)
The kick in the tits is Chris Licht. Bastard ran Late Night with Stephen Colbert for 7 years, the most anti trump, magats, pro liberal, a beacon of progressiveness of all late night talk shows ( love me Seth meyers). WTF happened?
Oh and a slight correction to your list of "media" who front fallacies not facts, that dried up good and dead William Randolph Hearst. May he rest in hell.
The ‘news media’ is one of the easiest targets to assault. Trump wasn’t the first president to loudly decry unfair treatment at its hands. As in other areas, DJT, may have been the best at calling the press ‘the enemies of the people’. He seems to have won that one as many Americans agree with him.
In today’s piece, BAD NEWS FOR ALL OF US AT THE CRETIN NEWS NETWORK, TC goes beyond noting changes at CNN. He wrote,
‘When major news organizations are owned by big public corporations, all the incentives are to cater to Republicans to maximize the potential audience.’
Which news organizations owned which ‘big public corporations, I ask?
‘Paddy Chayevsky, who wrote “Network,” was once asked if he had written a “prediction” of where the news media was headed. He replied, “No, I was writing about today.” That was 44 years ago. “We’re as mad as hell, and we’re not going to take it anymore!” is now the battle cry of the Thousand Year MAGA.’ (TC)
If TC ever revealed the meaning of his slogan the ‘Thousand Year MAGA’, I missed it, so I looked up a “Thousand Year” and came up with this ‘Definition of millennium
1a: the thousand years mentioned in Revelation (see REVELATION SENSE 3) 20 during which holiness is to prevail and Christ is to reign on earth
b: a period of great happiness or human perfection’
I’m sure that there are other meanings, such as TC’s.
This piece raises issues about journalism or as TC puts it the quality of ‘the news media's’ product at this time in America.
‘… it has become increasingly clear that the elite political media flinches when the conservative beast twitches.’
‘This makes it hard to report political news unlike any political news ever needing coverage before in the country’s history.’(TC)
Shall we take TC’s point here at face value? There are other problems with getting political news or any type of news based on journalistic standards to the American people, and it is one of the biggest threats to our democracy
‘More than eight-in-ten Americans get news from digital devices.’
‘The transition of news from print, television and radio to digital spaces has caused huge disruptions in the traditional news industry, especially the print news industry. It is also reflected in the ways individual Americans say they are getting their news. A large majority of Americans get news at least sometimes from digital devices, according to a Pew Research Center survey conducted Aug. 31-Sept. 7, 2020.’
‘More than eight-in-ten U.S. adults (86%) say they get news from a smartphone, computer or tablet “often” or “sometimes,” including 60% who say they do so often. This is higher than the portion who get news from television, though 68% get news from TV at least sometimes and 40% do so often. Americans turn to radio and print publications for news far less frequently, with half saying they turn to radio at least sometimes (16% do so often) and about a third (32%) saying the same of print (10% get news from print publications often).’ (PEWResearchCenter)
‘Some 79.3 percent said social media has a mostly negative impact on the journalism industry, and an overwhelming 94.3 percent of respondents blamed social media for spreading inaccurate news. The survey was the subject of a discussion at a Medill Centennial panel on Feb.Feb 9, 2022’
‘Western Washington University Journalism Senior Instructor Joan Connell, who teaches classes on media ethics, chatted with Western Today about the social media landscape as it pertains to journalistic ethics, corporate responsibility and accountability, and political agendas.’
Connell said the ability of social media to spread disinformation – and the willingness of people to believe almost any story as long as it fits their worldview, means society no longer works from the same unified system of facts for its decision making, with the last election being a prime example.'
“We have different segments of the population who have very different ideas about what the truth is. The election was stolen. The election was valid. Two very strongly held beliefs by different segments of society. So how does that get reported? One key question to me is how journalists can avoid being manipulated into promoting false versions of truth,” she said. Connell explained that the problem has less to do with politics and everything to do with social media.'
“Our information landscape, our media landscape, has significantly changed over the past 20 years and the determinant is not presidential administrations. It's the rise of social media and the segmenting of our public life into silos. Separating people into like-minded groups as Facebook and other social media companies do, it has divided us rather than united us,” she said.
She went on to say that 30 years ago, everyone tuned into the same news broadcasts and the information landscape was fairly unified, but social media combined with the rise of tabloid news changed everything.'
“The reality is, emotion drives engagement, and online content is designed to get an emotional response - so that further polarizes people. We no longer have that shared public square. We have our little bubbles of ‘like mindedness’ where we get our news.’ (WesternWashingtonU) See link below.
That is my nickel on this subject – for the time being because there’s a lot more to this major deficit in the type of news the American people are following today.
I am new to this discussion group. I am an Irish Canadian. I follow American politics as what happens in the US affects the entire planet. In attempting to understand what has gone wrong in the course of my life-time I have recently learned of the influence of the elitist and very secretive Mont Pelerin Society founded in 1947 in a Swiss. village. I first heard of this society, when I read this article..https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/transformation/five-real-conspiracies-you-need-know-about/ I will be interested to know what people in this group think about the influence of members of the Mont Pelerin Society? How much have members led to the revival of American Nazism or Fascism ? I wonder how many of the people that Tom and others describe as leaders of the far right were and are members ? Do any of you follow the MPS , who the members are, who the funders are etc? I suffered through the reign of former Prime Minister Thatcher in the UK and had no idea that she was a member and that many of her top advisors were members. Now it makes sense to me how much she supported former President Augusto Pinochet. I recently learned that Frederick Hayek founder of the MPS travelled twice to Chile as a special advisor to help write a new constitution for the monster Pinochet.
I have to say, if you find an article on any conspiracy on the internet, you can safely put it in the same pile you put Qanon. Maybe not as dangerous, but bullshit is bullshit. The big problem with huge conspiracies is - how do they keep everybody from not talking? That is impossible, and is the proof that this bullshit is bullshit. You can safely go back to living your life without worrying about capitalist zombies from Planet 9 showing up to garrote you in your sleep. :-)
Unfortunately the Mont Pelerin Society does exist . The next International meeting is being held in Oslo in November. Mostly members are economists. Many have won Nobel Prizes in economics and have pushed right wing theories at top Universities world wide.
Ideas are powerful especially when they are repeated ad nauseum. They influence how the world is run when their members are elected to high office as was the case for President Ronald Reagan and Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and when their supporters fund alt right think tanks. The Atlas Society, not to be confused with the Atlas Network, also includes individuals with affiliations to MPS. According to DeSmog research, Mont Pelerin members have ties to a wide range of conservative think tanks, many which have consistently denied the human influence on climate change. Some of the top groups tied to MPS through affiliations of its members include the Cato Institute, The Hoover Institution, the Heritage Foundation, the Reason Foundation, the Foundation for Economic Education, the American Enterprise Institute, the Centre for the New Europe, George Mason University, Fraser Institute, Mercatus Center (George Mason University), and the Heartland Institute. they claim that Charles Koch has invested one hundred million in affiliated organizations. Some argue that they are the intellectual powerhouses behind " neoliberalism " and libertarianism. Ideas matter a lot. It is not good news that Ayn Rand is now part of a political curriculum for students in the UK . https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/apr/10/new-age-ayn-rand-conquered-trump-white-house-silicon-valley
whew, Tom. I've said it before: your eloquence gets considerably more eloquent with a nice head of rage. I suspect mine does too. but all of this is incredibly important, since most viewers are just there to VIEW and haven't ever been encouraged to look behind what they're used to viewing. it's all true, although I've been rattled for a long time by the kind of people CNN has "hired" in order to seem "balanced" for quite awhile now. but yes, it's already gotten a lot worse and will certainly get worse than that. and has anyone else noticed that the number of commercials on EVERY cable news outlet has pretty much doubled in this last half-year or so? on programs I've recorded, I get to count the commercials as I fast-forward and it's very often about NINE, with every show signing off almost five minutes earlier than, say, last year. but at least I've developed some expertise about the names of expensive drugs for troublesome auto-immune conditions and, occasionally for chemotherapy drugs which non-physicians don't need to know about.
“What CNN and Facebook - as well as ABC, CBS, NBC and the rest - fail to get is that the Thousand Year MAGA doesn’t want “fair and balanced” treatment.
From Wiki: "Malone's political beliefs have been described as libertarian.[38] He is on the board of directors for the Cato Institute. He donated US$250,000 to Donald Trump's inauguration in 2017, with colleague Greg Maffei, Liberty Media, and Liberty Interactive each donating a further US$250,000."
I encourage your readers to do their own research on John Malone. He is known as the "Darth Vader" of media. He is also the largest landowner in the US - owning acreage twice the size of Rhode Island.
TC, you have explained this well. Harwoods last words are excellent further emphasis. And what most of America doesn't grasp - just doesn't accept - is that this Republican MAGA party does literally want to eliminate us - it wants us to die. And yes, after that, they want to "dance on our graves."
For these folks, old fashioned democracy doesn't work. Diversity is a damnation. All the "others" are a threat to their narrow bigoted selfish ass fascist existence. The irony that they think "God" is on their side is not lost on anyone who really believes in true Christian values. Or most other faiths that teach tolerance and love. Anyone else remember when "church goers" would send missionaries to help develop water supplies and enhance farming techniques? Now they see the "foreigners" as the Earth's excess baggage to be tossed over the side. I am sure there are still some very fine "Christians". But most have gone silent.
The idea that there are two sides to democracy now is just as horrific and ignorant as the statement: "There were good people on both sides" (TFG referring to the Nazis in SC).
This is indeed a war for the soul of America. Joe is speaking up. I hope he inspires.
A couple dozen years ago I knew Ted Turner, I even had a family relationship with him, all of that is long gone, the Ted Turner I knew was a tough business man and a visionary. Probably more than anything Ted loved the land, he truly believed in being a steward of it, and that's what he did with his vast wealth, he bought land, lots of it, hundreds of thousands of acres. At one point he owned more land than anyone else in America, then John Malone who had been his nemesis for decades decided to start buying the things that Ted liked, he now owns the Braves, Hawks, TBS, CNN, everything that Ted had owned having to do with broadcasting including the buildings that Ted built, Malone now owns. Liberty Media is his company and he runs it probably much the way Ted ran his, his stamp is all over it, that's a shame because John Malone is no Ted Turner, and we really need the people that control our media outlets to have integrity, and a love of this land, not just the bottom line, just look at the mess that Rupert Murdock has made of our democracy if you need an example. Nothing that I hear coming out of TBS from the inside is in any way good, it's a shame really. Ted may not have been a saint but compared to the malovelnce personified by John Malone, he sure seems like one.
Great piece, TC. I glanced at it and thought; I know this; I don’t need to read it. But thankfully I did. You have peeled back the different layers of the disease to show the full dynamic that’s at work… much better than many media reform activists (no names necessary).
I think you are correct. There is no way to include the Nazis in a liberal democracy. Conservatives, yes, but the Nazis can only be defeated, never included. If their outlook becomes sufficiently antithetical to mainstream thought, they will deny their beliefs, just as the German Nazis did in 1946, but their numbers are too close to half of the population for that to happen today.
The irony of the criminals now in charge trying to "De-Zuckerfy" the network is that Zucker did more than any other media figure--I would argue more than the Murdochs--to elect Orange Hitler. Which is another reason that talking about CNN as even a moderate network is just so much bushwah.
Yep. When asked why CNN was giving Trump all the free airtime, covering the rallies live without commercials, ZuckTheFuck said "He gives us great ratings!"
And if I'm rich, ZuckTheFuck also helped him with "The Apprentice," on which Orange Hitler played a competent businessman, and never won an Emmy because he still wasn't believable, except to the treasonous and terminally stupid.
Forgot that one.
Paddy Chayevsky was right.
As was Mencken, as you said.
What is the basis for your claim that Jeff Zucker did more than the Murdochs, and Mark Zuckerberg to elect DJT.
Fern: Zuker "normalized" Trump with the broadcasts the way Murdoch and Fox couldn't. People who didn't watch Fox saw him who might not have at all with CNN doing that, and an unexpected number of them got turned on by what they saw, which led to what we got. If Trump had only been on Fox, he could have been dismissed as the wingnut nutjob he was. The "normalization" gave him his edge. That and Anderson Cooper not calling him out for stalking HRC and asking some questions with follow-up that might have exposed him for he moron he is.
👍🏻
TC, I think that it is time for me to delete my response to what transpired with regard to this subject and your various responses to me. Shalom.
Jim Comey’s inappropriate comments which violated FBI protocol was not HRC’s doing! Yes, she did not work the blue states as she should. However, since slick Willy became President she was attacked and vilified by the right ! I don’t know of your lists but I use my own common sense to decide on what was the cause of her defeat!
Too many ‘talking heads’ in the media, both print and on air/internet!
The media created trump and gave him free publicity. He was the perfect candidate for the ‘scab picking! Political operators whose job is to maintain white supremacy in our country!
Louis , I deleted my final response to TC. I hope he saw it. It is time from my point of view to move on. Thank you.
Agreed
He normalized Trump with the rallies - showing them uncut and wi5thout commercials and no commentary.
What are you on about? Is Zucker a friend of yours? The guy was a well-known Piece of Shit in Hollywood the 20 years before he landed at CNN. I can think of three women I know who could have told you stories that would curl your toes about him as an exec at ABC.
The fact that during 2015 and 2016, CNN basically gave unlimited coverage to Orange Hitler's rallies--even spending time showing on the screen that he would soon be doing a rally. Did they do that for Hillary? Hardly. Throw in their other examples of alleged journalism, but that was a lot of free air time.
Do you have data with reference to audience sizes of each platform? I believe that a good deal more evidence is necessary to make a case. What if there was no CNN, do believe that Hillary would then have been elected? Have you considered James Comey's contribution and serious flaws with Clinton's campaign?
Note that I said "media figure." While Comey is a media figure in certain ways, that certainly is not how we would see him. I also think it would be interesting to consider--it can't be proved--whether Comey's desire to defeat Clinton would have succeeded without CNN having done so much to normalize Orange Hitler.
'"De-Zuckerfy" the network is that Zucker did more than any other media figure--I would argue more than the Murdochs--to elect Orange Hitler.'
My rebuttals to yours and TC's arguments that 'Zuckerfy' did more than any other in control of a media outlet to elect DJT do not excuse CNN's role in promoting DJT, but, frankly, you are lacking in concrete data to make your case You blame the media for HRC loss, without considering her inability to rally the Black vote and a lot more. The difficulty of candidates and some of their strong supporters to accept that the major reasons for the candidate's loss has most to do with candidate and his or her campaign is a old story and a current one, under a different guise. Gore is a recent example to the contrary and there are others, but I do not know of any convincing information that would put HRC in that category.
Your arguments were unconvincing to me, and I must move on to our current problems and the US Tennis Open.
I'm so sorry that I couldn't convince you.
The CNN clusterfuck hurts. I've always looked at them cynically, I used to drive by a few times a day to see who died, what natural or man made disaster is killing people...
I've deleted them from every device ( MSNBC and the guardian for me)
(Forgive me if I'm repeating my self, I have written this so often the past couple of weeks)
The kick in the tits is Chris Licht. Bastard ran Late Night with Stephen Colbert for 7 years, the most anti trump, magats, pro liberal, a beacon of progressiveness of all late night talk shows ( love me Seth meyers). WTF happened?
Oh and a slight correction to your list of "media" who front fallacies not facts, that dried up good and dead William Randolph Hearst. May he rest in hell.
I forgot which thing Licht did before. That makes him even more of a corporate whore.
All Malone had to negotiate was the price.
Yep
I think it might have been for Scarborough. I didn't know until a couple weeks ago, someone mentioned it
The ‘news media’ is one of the easiest targets to assault. Trump wasn’t the first president to loudly decry unfair treatment at its hands. As in other areas, DJT, may have been the best at calling the press ‘the enemies of the people’. He seems to have won that one as many Americans agree with him.
In today’s piece, BAD NEWS FOR ALL OF US AT THE CRETIN NEWS NETWORK, TC goes beyond noting changes at CNN. He wrote,
‘When major news organizations are owned by big public corporations, all the incentives are to cater to Republicans to maximize the potential audience.’
Which news organizations owned which ‘big public corporations, I ask?
‘Paddy Chayevsky, who wrote “Network,” was once asked if he had written a “prediction” of where the news media was headed. He replied, “No, I was writing about today.” That was 44 years ago. “We’re as mad as hell, and we’re not going to take it anymore!” is now the battle cry of the Thousand Year MAGA.’ (TC)
If TC ever revealed the meaning of his slogan the ‘Thousand Year MAGA’, I missed it, so I looked up a “Thousand Year” and came up with this ‘Definition of millennium
1a: the thousand years mentioned in Revelation (see REVELATION SENSE 3) 20 during which holiness is to prevail and Christ is to reign on earth
b: a period of great happiness or human perfection’
I’m sure that there are other meanings, such as TC’s.
This piece raises issues about journalism or as TC puts it the quality of ‘the news media's’ product at this time in America.
‘… it has become increasingly clear that the elite political media flinches when the conservative beast twitches.’
‘This makes it hard to report political news unlike any political news ever needing coverage before in the country’s history.’(TC)
Shall we take TC’s point here at face value? There are other problems with getting political news or any type of news based on journalistic standards to the American people, and it is one of the biggest threats to our democracy
‘More than eight-in-ten Americans get news from digital devices.’
‘The transition of news from print, television and radio to digital spaces has caused huge disruptions in the traditional news industry, especially the print news industry. It is also reflected in the ways individual Americans say they are getting their news. A large majority of Americans get news at least sometimes from digital devices, according to a Pew Research Center survey conducted Aug. 31-Sept. 7, 2020.’
‘More than eight-in-ten U.S. adults (86%) say they get news from a smartphone, computer or tablet “often” or “sometimes,” including 60% who say they do so often. This is higher than the portion who get news from television, though 68% get news from TV at least sometimes and 40% do so often. Americans turn to radio and print publications for news far less frequently, with half saying they turn to radio at least sometimes (16% do so often) and about a third (32%) saying the same of print (10% get news from print publications often).’ (PEWResearchCenter)
‘Some 79.3 percent said social media has a mostly negative impact on the journalism industry, and an overwhelming 94.3 percent of respondents blamed social media for spreading inaccurate news. The survey was the subject of a discussion at a Medill Centennial panel on Feb.Feb 9, 2022’
‘Western Washington University Journalism Senior Instructor Joan Connell, who teaches classes on media ethics, chatted with Western Today about the social media landscape as it pertains to journalistic ethics, corporate responsibility and accountability, and political agendas.’
Connell said the ability of social media to spread disinformation – and the willingness of people to believe almost any story as long as it fits their worldview, means society no longer works from the same unified system of facts for its decision making, with the last election being a prime example.'
“We have different segments of the population who have very different ideas about what the truth is. The election was stolen. The election was valid. Two very strongly held beliefs by different segments of society. So how does that get reported? One key question to me is how journalists can avoid being manipulated into promoting false versions of truth,” she said. Connell explained that the problem has less to do with politics and everything to do with social media.'
“Our information landscape, our media landscape, has significantly changed over the past 20 years and the determinant is not presidential administrations. It's the rise of social media and the segmenting of our public life into silos. Separating people into like-minded groups as Facebook and other social media companies do, it has divided us rather than united us,” she said.
She went on to say that 30 years ago, everyone tuned into the same news broadcasts and the information landscape was fairly unified, but social media combined with the rise of tabloid news changed everything.'
“The reality is, emotion drives engagement, and online content is designed to get an emotional response - so that further polarizes people. We no longer have that shared public square. We have our little bubbles of ‘like mindedness’ where we get our news.’ (WesternWashingtonU) See link below.
That is my nickel on this subject – for the time being because there’s a lot more to this major deficit in the type of news the American people are following today.
https://westerntoday.wwu.edu/features/social-media-and-journalistic-ethics-in-the-age-of-disinformation
Hitler & company were aiming for a Thousand Year Reich.
I love the phrase “1000 Year MAGATs.” It is true; they just want to burn it all down.
I remember when the news wasn't expected to be a profit center. 24 hour "news" channels have done us no favor.
Hi there,
I am new to this discussion group. I am an Irish Canadian. I follow American politics as what happens in the US affects the entire planet. In attempting to understand what has gone wrong in the course of my life-time I have recently learned of the influence of the elitist and very secretive Mont Pelerin Society founded in 1947 in a Swiss. village. I first heard of this society, when I read this article..https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/transformation/five-real-conspiracies-you-need-know-about/ I will be interested to know what people in this group think about the influence of members of the Mont Pelerin Society? How much have members led to the revival of American Nazism or Fascism ? I wonder how many of the people that Tom and others describe as leaders of the far right were and are members ? Do any of you follow the MPS , who the members are, who the funders are etc? I suffered through the reign of former Prime Minister Thatcher in the UK and had no idea that she was a member and that many of her top advisors were members. Now it makes sense to me how much she supported former President Augusto Pinochet. I recently learned that Frederick Hayek founder of the MPS travelled twice to Chile as a special advisor to help write a new constitution for the monster Pinochet.
I have to say, if you find an article on any conspiracy on the internet, you can safely put it in the same pile you put Qanon. Maybe not as dangerous, but bullshit is bullshit. The big problem with huge conspiracies is - how do they keep everybody from not talking? That is impossible, and is the proof that this bullshit is bullshit. You can safely go back to living your life without worrying about capitalist zombies from Planet 9 showing up to garrote you in your sleep. :-)
Unfortunately the Mont Pelerin Society does exist . The next International meeting is being held in Oslo in November. Mostly members are economists. Many have won Nobel Prizes in economics and have pushed right wing theories at top Universities world wide.
https://www.montpelerin.org/event/429dba23-fc64-4838-aea3-b847011022a4/websitePage:8c359a31-dde3-405f-8c2b-671e92e52892
They may do all of that, and sometimes their ideas may be adopted, but no society of a bunch of economists runs the world.
Ideas are powerful especially when they are repeated ad nauseum. They influence how the world is run when their members are elected to high office as was the case for President Ronald Reagan and Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and when their supporters fund alt right think tanks. The Atlas Society, not to be confused with the Atlas Network, also includes individuals with affiliations to MPS. According to DeSmog research, Mont Pelerin members have ties to a wide range of conservative think tanks, many which have consistently denied the human influence on climate change. Some of the top groups tied to MPS through affiliations of its members include the Cato Institute, The Hoover Institution, the Heritage Foundation, the Reason Foundation, the Foundation for Economic Education, the American Enterprise Institute, the Centre for the New Europe, George Mason University, Fraser Institute, Mercatus Center (George Mason University), and the Heartland Institute. they claim that Charles Koch has invested one hundred million in affiliated organizations. Some argue that they are the intellectual powerhouses behind " neoliberalism " and libertarianism. Ideas matter a lot. It is not good news that Ayn Rand is now part of a political curriculum for students in the UK . https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/apr/10/new-age-ayn-rand-conquered-trump-white-house-silicon-valley
whew, Tom. I've said it before: your eloquence gets considerably more eloquent with a nice head of rage. I suspect mine does too. but all of this is incredibly important, since most viewers are just there to VIEW and haven't ever been encouraged to look behind what they're used to viewing. it's all true, although I've been rattled for a long time by the kind of people CNN has "hired" in order to seem "balanced" for quite awhile now. but yes, it's already gotten a lot worse and will certainly get worse than that. and has anyone else noticed that the number of commercials on EVERY cable news outlet has pretty much doubled in this last half-year or so? on programs I've recorded, I get to count the commercials as I fast-forward and it's very often about NINE, with every show signing off almost five minutes earlier than, say, last year. but at least I've developed some expertise about the names of expensive drugs for troublesome auto-immune conditions and, occasionally for chemotherapy drugs which non-physicians don't need to know about.
“What CNN and Facebook - as well as ABC, CBS, NBC and the rest - fail to get is that the Thousand Year MAGA doesn’t want “fair and balanced” treatment.
They want to dance on these people’s graves.”
Truth.
From Wiki: "Malone's political beliefs have been described as libertarian.[38] He is on the board of directors for the Cato Institute. He donated US$250,000 to Donald Trump's inauguration in 2017, with colleague Greg Maffei, Liberty Media, and Liberty Interactive each donating a further US$250,000."
I encourage your readers to do their own research on John Malone. He is known as the "Darth Vader" of media. He is also the largest landowner in the US - owning acreage twice the size of Rhode Island.
TC, you have explained this well. Harwoods last words are excellent further emphasis. And what most of America doesn't grasp - just doesn't accept - is that this Republican MAGA party does literally want to eliminate us - it wants us to die. And yes, after that, they want to "dance on our graves."
For these folks, old fashioned democracy doesn't work. Diversity is a damnation. All the "others" are a threat to their narrow bigoted selfish ass fascist existence. The irony that they think "God" is on their side is not lost on anyone who really believes in true Christian values. Or most other faiths that teach tolerance and love. Anyone else remember when "church goers" would send missionaries to help develop water supplies and enhance farming techniques? Now they see the "foreigners" as the Earth's excess baggage to be tossed over the side. I am sure there are still some very fine "Christians". But most have gone silent.
The idea that there are two sides to democracy now is just as horrific and ignorant as the statement: "There were good people on both sides" (TFG referring to the Nazis in SC).
This is indeed a war for the soul of America. Joe is speaking up. I hope he inspires.
Well said, sir.
A couple dozen years ago I knew Ted Turner, I even had a family relationship with him, all of that is long gone, the Ted Turner I knew was a tough business man and a visionary. Probably more than anything Ted loved the land, he truly believed in being a steward of it, and that's what he did with his vast wealth, he bought land, lots of it, hundreds of thousands of acres. At one point he owned more land than anyone else in America, then John Malone who had been his nemesis for decades decided to start buying the things that Ted liked, he now owns the Braves, Hawks, TBS, CNN, everything that Ted had owned having to do with broadcasting including the buildings that Ted built, Malone now owns. Liberty Media is his company and he runs it probably much the way Ted ran his, his stamp is all over it, that's a shame because John Malone is no Ted Turner, and we really need the people that control our media outlets to have integrity, and a love of this land, not just the bottom line, just look at the mess that Rupert Murdock has made of our democracy if you need an example. Nothing that I hear coming out of TBS from the inside is in any way good, it's a shame really. Ted may not have been a saint but compared to the malovelnce personified by John Malone, he sure seems like one.
Great piece, TC. I glanced at it and thought; I know this; I don’t need to read it. But thankfully I did. You have peeled back the different layers of the disease to show the full dynamic that’s at work… much better than many media reform activists (no names necessary).
I think you are correct. There is no way to include the Nazis in a liberal democracy. Conservatives, yes, but the Nazis can only be defeated, never included. If their outlook becomes sufficiently antithetical to mainstream thought, they will deny their beliefs, just as the German Nazis did in 1946, but their numbers are too close to half of the population for that to happen today.
All of this has me thinking I will be watching CNN with a different view
point. Anderson 360 usually the only one I enjoy.