Posts Tagged Media
Ralph Nader Acknowledges He’s Been Muzzled
Posted by Roldo Bartimole in Media, People on April 7, 2010
April 7, 2010… This is a striking report on the silencing of Ralph Nader by the American Press. I’ve often said that Nader was the best journalist of our era. Now Nader acknowledges that Corporate America silences him. And us.
It’s an important piece on American journalism of our times. To our shame. To the shame of every journalist.
Here is how the article starts:
Ralph Nader’s descent from being one of the most respected and powerful men in the country to being a pariah illustrates the totality of the corporate coup. Nader’s marginalization was not accidental. It was orchestrated to thwart the legislation that Nader and his allies—who once consisted of many in the Democratic Party—enacted to prevent corporate abuse, fraud and control. He was targeted to be destroyed. And by the time he was shut out of the political process with the election of Ronald Reagan, the government was in the hands of corporations. Nader’s fate mirrors our own.
The entire article from Truthdig can be found here:
We have all paid the price for this successful corporate war on truth.
Kevin O’Brien… Isn’t the Tea Party Your Cup? Why Are You Still Here?
Posted by Roldo Bartimole in Media on March 29, 2010
March 29, 2010… Why does The Plain Dealer print Kevin O’Brien? That was the headline atop Sunday’s letters page in the morning newspaper.
So why does the newspaper put up with his nonsense?
There were eight letters all taking O’Brien, a PD editorial page editor and columnist, to task for – even for him – an unusually strident, stupid and ignorant column on the recently passed health care measure.
The column cited screamed out for such a response.
Kevin is upset.
But he is upset in a mean-spirited and dishonest way.
O’Brien’s most onerous paragraph, cited by the first letter writer Philip Pellett, tells it all.
“The Democrats in Congress and the White House have forced upon the United States of America (music please) a federal health care plan designed for people who are too stupid, incompetent and weak to managed their own affairs.”
Anyone who has lived even a little should take offense to that.
Anyone who has lived even a little knows that there are bumps, if not crashes, in almost everyone’s life. You don’t have to be stupid, incompetent or weak to know this. You just have to live.
I think Editor Susan Goldberg and Editorial Page Editor Elizabeth Sullivan should give this some thought.
They need to ask themselves, “Why do we print Kevin O’Brien?”
Lots of people really want to know. Why?