Thom,

So GLad to hear your comments about the media...I'm in the begginning stages of organizing a boycott of major corp media to starve raings. I wrote the following last september:

Where’s the Outrage? Carefully scripted, controlled, then eliminated.Posted on September 17, 2012by kontempl8

by Sophia Schooley schooleyssc@aol.com

Every time I hear someone musing; “Where’s the outrage?” I can’t help but muse back; “Where do you think? As many know, almost all commercial media is owned by a handful of global corporations. If the media does not cover a movement or protest at all or distorts the facts by focussing on the fringe elements of violence, as large and decentralized as our nation is very few will know the truth. Protests, no matter how many, how organized or peaceful can effect little change in government without the voice that national media gives when educating the public. True, most get their news online, but still from the corporate controlled news industry. Independent media was not even represented by Pew in their study with regard to who gets news where. (See http://www.people-press.org/files/legacy-pdf/2012%20News%20Consumption%20Report.pdf)

It seems to me that unless every social justice and environmental activist, every non-profit concerned with human rights, climate change, honest rule of law etc. unites to focus on one issue above all else; taking back the FCC and all media, we as a nation and perhaps a planet are in serious trouble. Together, we can restore the Fairness Doctrine and rules prohibiting media monopolies; perhaps go further to force the FCC to make all media free, open, and public and not-for-profit. The first amendment guarantees free speech. Is speech free if you have to pay to have your voice heard by comparatively few? Is speech free if you get payed millions while being granted tightly controlled access to a bully pulpit granting you an audience of millions? With the revolving doors between Capital Hill and huge lobbyist money, there will never be incentive to amend the constitution to take money out of politics without huge public pressure and debate nurtured in national media. An uneducated public will never bring enough pressure. With corporations in control of the media , there will never be an educated public since most people only know what their local news affiliate tells them, or what headlines jump out at them from the barrage of corporate media headlines displayed by ISPs and Aps. News in the public interest is drowned out all but completely. The sad truth is, most Americans are too preoccupied with survival to seek out the truth.

If the British had control of present day media and our legal system, what might modern coverage of Paul Revere be like? Would we be gawking slack-jawed at helicopter coverage of vapid play-by-play? “This just breaking…there seems to be something going on in Boston. There’s a man on horse-back galloping around and shouting. Oh! He’s armed! He’s been fired on by police! He seems to have been taken out…” The next thing we know, we’d be over-run by the British in much the same way we are being over-run by the richest .01% who now control almost every facet of the media and government. Forbes in March of 2012 reported; “Those people have incomes of over $27 million, or roughly 540 times the national average income. Altogether, the top 1 percent control 43 percent of the wealth in the nation; the next 4 percent control an additional 29 percent”.

Today, Dr. King would never have been allowed a microphone or even a bullhorn. While deploying the “peoples mic” in Zuccotti Park, he may have been a victim of NYPD’s “stop-and-frisk” and possibly arrested. If the media covered Martin Luther King as well as they cover the Occupiers, they would be fumbling with their carefully crafted corporate scripts, ignoring the crowds being beaten as they crossed the bridge in Selma. We never would have seen the beatings or heard the exuberance and cheering as Dr. King shouted “I have a DREAM…” No one would ever have known of Dr. King’s dream, let alone the dreams of countless thousands. The corporate right-wing that has seized control of the MSM would crushed any hope of civil rights for African Americans, women, and minorities. We might even have descended back into an era of slavery. Indeed we may yet…this time, some poor will be owned by rich, the rest left to live in the squalor of decaying infrastructure, poverty and pollution.

Media has the power to shape history. What kind of history will we look back on? In regards to an article by Miranda Leitsinger of NBC regarding “whatever happened” to the Occupy Movement, she refers to the Occupiers as having been “shuttered”. Really? They came out in droves to occupy Sandy and help those afflicted, yet I don’t recall hearing a word about it in corporate media. Is this because those employed within that system have been so dumbed down by their colleagues that they literally believe that what they are reporting is all there is, or is it pressure from corporate owners who manage their puppet producers…both? Of course there’s the money. So does Ms. Leitsinger think this is what it means to be “shuttered”? Zuccotti Park was bulldozed, belongings, computers, books etc. discarded and trashed and people jailed. The few media who had the courage to try to cover it honestly were in some cases roughed up or beaten and in most, forbidden to do so. The Occupiers are still trying to do what decaying libraries and schools can not. They are trying to provide for each other what those controlling the larger society will not. They are even being kept from doing the very thing the corporate media constantly chastises them for not doing. They are trying to help themselves and each other. With books, make-shift health clinics staffed by volunteer professionals, kitchens where the hungry- and indeed anyone could get a meal, teaching circles, tents and occupied foreclosed homes they persist. Wouldn’t it be nice to see Rachel Maddow or Ed Schultz interviewing Occupiers trying to help someone stay in their foreclosed home? The Occupiers continue to be portrayed by corporate media as nonexistent or violent, lazy, and disorganized, when in reality they are asking quite clearly for 2 things to start with; indict wall street crooks who committed fraud leading to the collapse of the economy and millions losing their homes and jobs, and reverse the “citizens united” ruling with a constitutional amendment declaring money as property- not speech and corporations as legal entities, not persons. Over and over again this drum beat sounds, but the press, being controlled by the corrupt corporations the Occupiers are protesting in the first place, will not do their job. So Media, are you content to let the richest 5% control 72% of all the wealth in this country? Don’t kid yourselves. When the curtain falls, you will be as disenfranchised as the poorest among us. You have the power to shape dialogue and with it, history. Is it worth selling out? Educate us for a change instead of filling the space between our ears with divisive ear candy and half truths or outright lies at worst, and pleasant, well researched but comparatively insignificant anecdotes at best. The Occupiers are in the streets for all of us, including you. Lets go Occupiers. Lets Occupy the FCC! Lets take back the media and give it back to the people. What say you, Anonymous, can you help us take back the airwaves? In the mean time I recommend democracynow.org and http://rt.com/shows/breaking-set-summary/ Also,http://www.truthdig.com (Chris Hedges is awesome!), free speech.org and linktv.org. Boycott the MSM, especially the “news”.

Every congressman knows that the fairness doctrine needs to be reinstated if we are to see real news. What motivation would they need to make it happen? We need to initiate a primary threat to every existing elected official. Never re-elect.

It was the same thing during occupy; I don't recall the numbers, but i believe there were hundreds of thousands of orotesters across America, and not a peep from the corporate media (mainstream news), until the cat was already out of the bag on FB. And I remember the same thing back then; where a couple bus loads of tea party protesters got major news coverage as a breaking story. This not only blows a hole in the lie that the media is liberal; it also clearly shows the media gas an "agenda" beyond sin pie disinterest for ratings reasons.. Because once the cat was out of the bag the media started reporting only negative things about occupy (pissing in the streets, and no one knows what they are protesting about). MSNBC skipped the pudding in the streets (political ad hominum directed at occupy), and simply read a clear easy to understand statement from an occupy spokesperson.

What about the News that Louisiana Senator David Vetter was able to get ALL THE DOORMAT DEMOCRATS to vote that Violent Felons released from prison or just having a hard time finding employment ""CAN NOT"" get FOOD STAMPS. This is why I stepped away from THE DOORMAT DEMOCRAT PARTY, THEY ARE ""COWARDS"". Let us take a good look at The Republican Christian Child Molester Louisiana Senator David Vetter, he had sex with underage girls and maybe boys, David paid WHORSES with Tax Payer money to spank his ASS, and maybe FUCK him in the ASS, dress him in panties like a mother does her baby, and the DOORMAT DEMOCRATS take this man serious enough to vote 100% with him to let AMERICAN CITIZENS, Men/Women who have done their time for their crime, were released and who are trying to make it right this time, go hungry when they need the help. YA RIGHT!!! All the Muslim Countries ""HATE"" The United States of America for it's FREEDOMS AND CHRISTIANITY. THE MUSLIMS would NEVER do this to thier CITIZENS in a Muslim Country. The Muslims worship the TRUE GOD, THE GOD OF ""LOVE"". 1 John 4:8

Good point. Sadly, the nature of anonymoty lends itself to anonomous corruption. What Anon. is, is not necessarilly what Anon. was.

I'm printing below the entire text of a communication with the NYT this weekend re Monsanto and no-news. This is the most progressive liberal-leaning paper in the country?

help@nytimes.com9:05 AM (6 hours ago) to me Thank you for taking the time to write The New York Times.

We value your readership and welcome any feedback that we can use to enhance our customer experience, products or service features.

Sincerely,

Brittany Blocker
Online Customer Service
www.nytimes.com/help

-----Original Message-----

From:
Sent: 5/27/2013 12:02:08 AM
To: emediacs
Subject: HELP Other Question

Email:
URL: Monsanto
Comments:Two million people protested around the globe this weekend against GMO contaminated foods. And not a word in the NYT except for a short paragraph embedded in the second page of an article about GMO labeling which came to readers' attention about 24 hours after the world stood up and said NO! to Monsanto. Does this company have the United States by the throat? Are you afraid of Monsanto? It certainly looks that way. And the afore-mentioned article makes it all seem so simple. We have GMO today and five years down the line...??? How long do you think it will take to clean up the Agent Orange mess Monsanto left in Vietnam? Forty years and running... And that is only a small portion of the havoc they have wrought on this planet. We need legal experts to explain the contracts that allow Monsanto to sue farmers for being downwind of their GMO concoctions and yet never allow the reverse, rights to people who are organic and want to stay that way. The list goes on and on and on. It seems you have a lot of work to do... you're doing a great disservice to your readership and to this country by avoiding it.

****************************

Monsanto is clearly a fascist organization; there is no room for both democracy and Monsanto in America. I respect the protest leader's resolve and beg her to keep us all informed re the next five or ten million needed to stand up and put this company out of business once and for all.

Too many people think it is imposible to wake up and make a difference in this. It is possible. It is possible to make our government lable this poison and make our food safe. It is possible for us to go into even Walmart and look on the label and know what is modified and what is not. It is possible for us to make a decission for ourselves and not have a corporation make it for us. It is possible for us to do all these things if we make it possible. I am so sick of food roulette and wondering if what I am feeding a three and a five year old is going to hurt them now or in the future. Can they eat the corn from the can that taste so good that makes them want to eat till they are full or should I stop them. I am sick of the worry. I do worry. It won't even make the paper and people around the world are able to walk into their market and know what they are eating. We here in the US can't find out if we wanted to. Because our government has sold us out to corporate America and let us eat cake.

In the past, Ken Ware has criticized me for being so negative about our country. In times like this that is an easy path to take. However, good news is as infectious as bad news. Today I received an email from President Obama himself reaching out to everyone on his mailing list for donations and volunteers to help out in Oklahoma and other areas recently ravaged by nature. He appealed to the horrible effect these disasters had on the victims. He directs us to this site:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/oklahoma

It deeply touched me and I must say that if given the same need for help and dire straits, there is no other place in the world I would rather be than the good old USA.

That being said--lets fix this country ASAP!! The problems here deserve more from us than apathy and neglect!

The problems in our media, trade policy, legislation and military are all problems that can be easily fixed by enacting comprehensive Campaign Finance Reform!

DANNEMARC wrote; "Great idea! But the 1% are prepairing for such actions."

What you say "is" true...But that SHOULD NOT in anyway discurage anyone from taking a stand and commiting acts of Civil Disobedience and Non Violent Action/Resistence for the sake of taking back a Democratic System that has been hijacked by Wall St. and the 1%. This countries government is one that was founded as being; Of, For, and By the People, and Stands to ensure Independence, and the Equal Right to; Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness...We the People must live up to our duty to alter and/or abolish a government that becomes destructive of the formentioned principles that are clearly stated in the Declaration of Independence, and protected by the U.S. Constitution (Law).

So to everyone that agrees our country has been hijacked by Wall St. and wants to overturn the Supreme Court ruleing on Corporate Personhood...Get out there and occupy something.

Now that being said; The hostle and violent manner in which Police are now instructed to respond to protesters, and demonstrations is very concerning. However, the U.S. paramilitary police force is really no different than the Brittish Police and Military that once enforced Bittish Policies in India...They beat and killed innocent Men, Women, and Children for their refusal to coopperate and follow Brittish Policy which oppressed and enpoverished the "99%" of India...But in the end it was the Brittish that had innocent blood on their hands and surrendered Independence back to India.

Since I have a few family members and friends in the military, as well as two friends who are police officers...I can say with some releef - from conversations - that the majority of those serving in the Military and/or on the Police Force WOULD NOT follow orders that at the least infringed on a persons right to protest, especially through the use of violent measures that would cause injury or fatality to an individual/group.

One thing for sure...There are waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay more 99%ers than there are 1%ers. So lets cut the bullshit...It is actually very simple to tackle Wall St...STOP BEING A CONSUMER! (At least to the best of your abilities). Corporations CANNOT survive without consumers. Corporations consider money to be a voice...Send your message loud and clear to any/all Corporations that are an Enemy of the State, and a threat to Humanity, act irresponsabley/destructively towards the enviroment.
Hit these assholes were it hurts...Their Pockets! Then they will be all ears and more willing to cater to the needs of the common American...Which covers a vast variety of greivences and solutions.

One thing WE ALL can do is encourage farming on a local and State level. Local community farms are more in tune with the people in their communities and are willing to meet the standards of healthy and sustainable farming practices, i.e. Non-GMO seeds, No spray fruits and veggies, and more affordable product.

Here in my town we have several Farmer Markets that have a large variety of locally grown fruits and veggies that are NonGMO and No Spray. And the cost...I cut my produce bill in half; I use to spend about $30-$35 a week on produce at the big chain grocer; now I get the same things I like for half the money and they are "certified 100% organic".

The corporate control of our news media is unacceptable

Watching C-span the other night was interesting, the college professions spent time explaining “The MOOC” approach to education, Massive Open Online Course just in the last twenty years.

My reason to introduce this is to connect the education system honestly to the modern electromagnetic journalist system we call the internet news medium. MOOC is making a quantum jump. These professionals left anyone, to what appears is, the academics do not understand what will happen in the future.

But they know what is going on in society is lopsided, the education and economic American dream, needs to be corrected. New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman in a cynical way said that what is happening is not sustainable. The MOOC will blow up. I say he is wrong.

What needs to be understood plain and simple human education is the news media; they are one in the same. Sheesh, will we all understand that since the time of the press, and we can go back to the clay tablets, many things are between the time the news is made and the time the person reads the news.

Everyone can have the Eureka moment but the way that basic pedagogy is framed in education today in America breads sin. Only the few who can pay for it, the special, the selective, understand the real art of life, and human interest, that Gaussian loan that needs to be paid off spirals to raging corruption.

Today it is very mixed sophisticated and most of all very, very selective. I am trying to avoid the word discriminate, even though the academics they themselves use discriminants in most all mathematical reasoning from patching together a polynomial to focus in with Venn diagrams or a Gaussian mean which is the calculus of the central value theorem which now seems to be faith based or hate based.

They make a big deal about MOOC, yet for thirty five bucks a high school student bright enough could buy a thirty five dollar book from an English professor and have online audio couple with completely worked out problems that describe Maxwell’s equations. That is a real deal. The logic and reasoning gained by such math shows all the way to basic existence.

Even today sifting through the truth is exhilarating as the sense of honesty tunnels forward that is offered by an anonymous author as in this blog however many are defiled because of persecution by the corporatize media blogs. But these media persons are people like you and me but in a social structure that is way different distanced shielded, obnoxiously exploiting legal constitutional reasoning, loaded with legions of lawyers for the advantage of money and power. All of “they” are the same as the citizen, very unordinary, unbalanced, awkward; plain wrong for cultural progress. Some would say very unethical way to lean forward especially in time of a so called war.

From my view as simple person just wanting to make it through life finding our current media/ education system unusual divisive greedy possibly loaded with a human nature that is a bad stroke needing to be changed because persons are victimized rather than news being reported. America we have dirty water that needs to be cleaned, or not to make war with people who do not know how to read or write.

For a basic Republic/ Democratic culture to exist it has to have a population that is literate. America needs to send computers not guns to Syria. The culture of news media like this is modern cable, especially Fox news, or stupid Republicans like McCain to escalate wars, he is a cultural klutz. These are college graduates the fine products of America’s educational system. America when you listen to cable like MSNBC we are not leaning forward we are working ass backwards.

I am a baby-boomer...tried to live and love life to the fullest, and always will. Became a Sp.Ed. teacher and am now retiring. I look at my students almost with pity for having to live the next 60 years. I know many older people lament the ills of the new generation. But this time it seems so real. Technology so infiltrated into the human system that effective, face-to-face communication is being eliminated; a ruling class that controls the fortunes and thinking of a whole country. They will throw us a bone every now and again - to calm us down (hey, go out and demonstrate for 2 hours!) - but the goal is to control the population's mind and the body in a capitalistic system that eats everything in its way. And thus, the consumer is consumed.

Republicans have been successful by spreading lies and half-truths to their base. They are attempting to do the same to the mainstream by controlling the media. Our salvation is the Internet and radio such as Thom Hartmann. The truth wants to be free. Those who are convinced by the lies told by Republicans will not respond well to the truth about anything. You see how they are confused about climate change and gun control issues. In climate change Republicans are willing to dismiss the work of scientists all over the world because their local politician tells them this is a political issue. The last time science became political it was because religious leaders did not like the findings of scientists. Republicans in Congress have learned that it does not cost them to go against the folks who elected them when it comes to guns. This has emboldened them to tell even greater lies knowing they will not have to pay a price.

Thom Hartmann, keep speaking the truth . . . the truth will win out. If that is not true, then all is lost. By my nature I am positive. I expect the truth will finally crush the Republican Party when the rank and file finally discover the lies their leaders have told them for decades.

The Republicans and the corporate media are outraged by the ap investigation "scandal" as if the hard core Republicans care about freedom of the press. It seems to me that it was a minor infringement of the freedom of the press in an atmosphere of stopping national security leaks called for by the same people who are now holding hearings to make the Obama administration look bad. Meanwhile as you point out the press is shirking its duty to the public in favor of their corporate masters.

You are so right, that is correct, Nancy O. Also consider not buying their products. After all consumers are financing their operation.