Mainstream media, pay attention?! Good luck with that, Thom. Here's an article I wrote two years ago for a local publication (The Advocate), titled "Toxic Media". It might not divulge anything most of you folks don't already know, but I'm sharing it anyway since it relates to the topic.

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Over the past few months our so-called national “debt crisis” has filled the airwaves, ad nauseam. Manufactured by America’s Almighty Plutocrats and their transnational corporate buddies, it’s a bogus crisis. The real crisis stems from policies favoring billionaires at the expense of everyone else, making it much harder for most people to earn a decent living, while our social safety net is pilfered by plutocrats and our infrastructure crumbles.

This tripe gets served to us not by investigative journalists, but by the pundit talking heads of a consolidated corporate “media”, dishing out propaganda not news, all designed to keep us ignorant, angry and scared, lashing out at everything but the source of our discontent.

Propaganda from America’s ruling class is packaged nice and slick. But no matter how you slice it or dice it, the message behind it is toxic and dangerous. Their rhetoric is designed not only to keep us divided, but to provoke the loose cannons among us. It masquerades behind euphemistic little mantras like “Individual responsibility” (as opposed to tax-supported infrastructure, or the commons). “Freedom isn‘t free” is another one, as if these endless wars had anything to do with freedom. They keep harping about “political correctness” as if to trivialize and demonize anything they disagree with, that doesn’t serve their agenda.

Look at the ugly divisive rhetoric fueling the “debate”. Corporate fascism thrives on that stuff. “Divide and Conquer” is the oldest trick in the book. Whatever it takes to keep us paranoid, distracted and clueless. Designed to dig at the basest of human emotions, these tactics work splendidly for the power elite. We fall for it, we fools, bickering & fighting each other into oblivion over silly culture wars invented by media hacks, all to exploit our primitive xenophobic impulses. Wedge issues like immigration, abortion and same-sex marriage fill the “debate”, brought to you courtesy of FOX “News”, CNN and the like. In the 21st Century, this is what passes for “news”: a rogue’s gallery of airbrushed pundits giving us the corporate spin, flapping their gums in virtual unison with this nonsense.

We see and hear it every day, filling inquiring minds with garbage.

Unwittingly, people take the bait. Keeps us conveniently distracted while these corporate thieves, along with their pet pundits and puppet politicians, continue robbing us blind with impunity. It’s one method they use to mislead and manipulate the “masses”. Helps to uphold a status quo that, in the end, benefits the idle rich at everyone else’s expense.

Predictably, now that the bill comes due for Baby Bush’s wars, plutocrats and their pundits are howling about a “debt crisis” while those deadbeats in Congress keep refusing to pay debts incurred over the past thirty years by three Republican presidents. By threatening to stick our country with default (for the first time in United States history.), these clowns hold us hostage, putting the entire world economy at dire risk.

Of course the problem isn’t nearly as complicated as the power elite would like us to think. Roll back the Bush & Reagan tax cuts so that rich folks and corporations pay their fair share, and establish a universal nonprofit health care system, and kick the war habit, and bingo. No more deficit. It’s really that simple. Only problem is, while pundits and politicians scream about our national budget and the so-called debt “crisis”, our deadbeat congress refuses to address the cause of the problem. Name any remedy that could actually help fix our economy or the deficit, and it’s “off the table”. Meanwhile their corporate “media” keeps us handily preoccupied with culture wars, tabloid “news” and infotainment.

To disguise the evil being done in our name, pundits and politicians use bland language like “extraordinary rendition” for example, or “enhanced interrogation”. We all know what that translates to: kidnapping and torture.

Then there’s the name calling. With so little substance to their side of the debate, talk show celebrities and pundits often resort to insults, character assassinations and other smear tactics. Gets the least informed among us, those “low-information voters”, whipped into a frenzy, ready to blame Muslims, Mexicans, homosexuals, “illegal aliens”, “socialists”, environmentalists, school teachers and pregnant women for all our problems.

Without a well-informed electorate, we have no democracy. One cannot exist without the other. As the next presidential election looms near and we are bombarded with more corporate-funded political ads, the only appropriate response is to turn a deaf ear to it all. For those genuinely interested in making informed choices at the polls, there is Project Vote Smart, an organization whose sole purpose is to reveal the voting records of everyone in Congress, on every issue imaginable. There also exists an alternative media not beholden to corporate interests, for those craving real news.

It’s time to wake up and get de-programmed. The stakes have never been higher.

- Aliceinwonderland

Dannemarc, I think the main point is major media; CBS, NBC, abc; all the ones that reported in lock step with Fox News during occupy. Which of course revealed them to be fascist style propaganda and not news at all.

Quote CNBC article: Demonstrating their Pentagon-funded work at the global "DefCon" hackers conference in Las Vegas in August, Charlie Miller and Chris Valasek showed global security experts in attendance how they could take control of a 2010 Toyota Prius and Ford Escape model using just a laptop.

They were able to remotely take control of the cars' electronic smart steering, braking, displays, acceleration, engines, horns and lights. They could even make the fuel tanks show a full tank of gas when there wasn't. To top it all, they did all this using an old Nintendo handset.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/101123279
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Here's a YouTube video called "Digital Carjackers Show Off New Attacks" of Charlie Miller and Chris Valasek showing a guest how a vehicle can be controlled...albeit...in this case they ripped out the dash to get to the car's computer unit and they had their laptop connected to the computer. While this video doesn't show a "remote" or "wireless" control of the car...it shows that many of the car's functions can be controlled "hijacked" and control taken away from the driver.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqe6S6m73Zw
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And here is one of the comments to this video that I thought was appropriate:

"It has already been demonstrated that a physical connection or close proximity is not necessary. See the DARPA video on the topic. The researcher explains there have been exploits using something as infected audio/music that when put in a car CD player will execute whatever it was programmed to do. With ODB3 and all of it's wireless features there will be even more vectors of attack available. Right now you have OnStar, radio, Bluetooth, CD Players, and others."
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And this is probably the DARPA video that was being referenced:
"Car Hacking DARPA"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zurrQiETDHA
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Keep in mind that Hastings' neighbor had been asked, by Hastings, to borrow her car because he believed his car had been tampered with.

The media is owned by 6 big companies. Companies that are interested only in profit. They are not interested in public service and use the airwaves, that belong to US, for free to propagate whatever they want--and believe me--these companies are not interested in any left-wing action (like the demonstration) or even in accuracy if it doesn't fit in with their capitalist world view. They are all about protecting themselves.

Perhaps you could provide some evidence--statistical and factual--and not just your opinion about the left-wing media bias. I never read the facts in these wild (and yes, delusional) comments.

Thom,

The event was covered in Europe. My friends in England and Spain saw it live, they were telling me. I had planned to be there, but couldn't be. I was glad to see the throngs. CNN covered it live ... I saw it in a Greyhound bus station in Baltimore where I was captive at the time, early Saturday afternoon.

For once an event that was being broadcast worldwide couldn'be brushed aside,

Mark are you trying to tell me that most of your media isn't left thinking, come on.

Palindromedary ~ I'm no auto mechanic, but I have been active in and around everything from rebuilding engines to refurbishing cars, and I'm familiar with how computers work. I know for a fact that without some kind of an interface with a mechanical device installed there is no way you can steer or brake a vehicle via any computer. Not possible. Michael Hastings's Mercedes was an exception because of all the bells and whistles the car had. I can see that. But say a Honda Civic or a Ford F-150 Truck? Where are the motors and sensors attached to the tie rods? Where is the ability to disengage the emergency brake or the brake pedal? How do you prevent the ignition from being turned off? To gain such control over a non luxury vehicle would require extensive mechanical "non-factory" modifications. Controlling the accelerator by computer I might see happening; but, the rest, no way Jose. The parts just aren't there. These extra "enhancements", if they were really added to all modern vehicles, would significantly increase the selling price. How would such enhancements be marketed to justify their expense? Moreover, why the hell would anyone buy a car that can be remotely steered and have it's brakes disengaged? What is this alleged technology and what is its selling point? Any car? It's going to take a lot more than anyone's testimony for me to swallow that one. I want to know the technology. If indeed, it is true, it should also be true that nullifying it should not be too involved. I would imagine that all it would take is to disconnect a connector or two; or, remove the right fuse from the fuse box. Auto mechanics isn't rocket science. What industry is going to risk its livelihood by designing a death machine that you can't easily remove the dangerous options? After all, isn't safety one of the key selling points when buying a car?

Quote article at occupy.com:The story that Hastings was working on at the time of his death centered around CIA Director John Brennan, the chief architect of President Obama’s foreign drone program. It related specifically to Brennan’s role as the administration’s point man tracking investigative journalists and their sources in Washington.

According to L.A. Weekly, just hours before the deadly crash Hastings had asked to borrow his neighbor's Volvo because he suspected his own car's computer system had been hacked.

According to Stefan Savage, a computer science professor at the University of California, San Diego, any modern vehicle’s computer system made by any manufacturer can be hacked.

In a phone interview with Occupy.com, Savage described a series of experiments that he and his team conducted, in which they remotely hacked a car’s computer systems.

"We could listen to conversations in the car, and could take over everything in the drivetrain, like acceleration and brakes, through a cellular network.”

“We found vulnerabilities from 1,000 miles away."

Hastings’s last article, published on BuzzFeed, exposed Democratic Party leaders including President Obama, Secretary of State John Kerry and Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin for their support of the same domestic spying programs they had criticized during the Bush years, but which they worked to expand under the Obama administration.

http://www.occupy.com/article/exclusive-who-killed-michael-hastings

Sandlewould: Thanks a bunch for that information on the Abby Martin Breaking the Set reporting on Hastings car crash. I like to keep up with that information.

DAnneMarc: Real Doll/Arduino technology merged...what a great idea! Any negative feedback can be easily tuned out. Just have to keep those batteries charged. How about Solar powered RDA technology?

You're delirious Kend. We had theVERY SAME problem and MUCH MORE SO with the Bush administration. Journalists were fired, their TV programs cancelled when they criticized Bush. We couldn't get anyone to even QUESTION the invasion of Iraq and a great number of other odious policies.

Later, after Bush went from being the most popular president to the least popular president in history, the media began to turn against him somewhat as well but, in general, the big business media promotes and protects its own vested interests as a unit of big business and has to journalistically and editorially take care of its customers which are not their readers and viewers - not you and me - but their big business advertisers. That is why I don't have faiththat we will ever reform the mainstream media. We simply have to disabuse the public of their blind faith in it.

You will not find truth in the mainstream media publications and broadcasts. It's like in the U.S.S.R., "There's no news in Pravda and no truth in Izvestia." We have a capitalist version of the same thing.

Palindromedary ~ Thanks so much for that advice. Hydroponics is lots of fun and a wonderful hobby. So is Arduino. I'll have to put that idea on the back burner though. Ever since you've introduced me to the Arduino micro-controller and it's abilities I'm afraid I have tied all my time and resources into merging it's potential capabilities with real doll technology. Of course the prototype is still a ways off. I still have much research and development ahead of me. Its very hard work. The results of my preliminary experiments have proven to be most promising. It's quite amazing the results that you get with a few motors and a couple of solenoids. I can't wait till the hydraulics can be incorporated. Oh well, its about time to play with Arduino and "hit the sack" so to speak. Good night! Sweet dreams all.