Chimps in a Zoo Cage - scathing indictment of the media (great read)

[Ugnmoose]

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article17045.htm

Journalism is not a profession or a trade. It is a cheap catch-all for fuckoffs and misfits - a false doorway to the backside of life, a filthy piss-ridden little hole nailed off by the building inspector, but just deep enough for a wino to curl up from the sidewalk and masturbate like a chimp in a zoo-cage."~~Hunter Thompson, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

(snip)

If the Bush administration and the US mainstream media are united on any one issue, it's an absolute refusal to rock the political boat as they sail mercilessly through the seas of corporate profit on the good ship Terrorbush. For the most part, each group is an incurious lot -- undead creatures who neither care, nor dare, to glance over the side of the ship at the bloated, swirling bodies in the blood-red water below. From the beginning, their mission has been to perform so fantastically against a backdrop of such violent, explosive madness on so many fronts that we watch hypnotically but do not see -- listen intently but do not hear.

What more can anyone say?

[CrazyOrangeCat]

1. k&r

. . . for the bloody truth.

(And I'm not at all certain I believe that Thompson shot himself . . . he was in the process of writing some very revealing shit about the Chimperor . . .)

[saigon68]

2. Brilliant

Kicked and recommended

[Gabi Hayes]

3. AMEN! KR to the max. Shades of The Hunting of the President:

''Attorney General Alberto Gonzales suddenly fired seven US attorneys and replaced them with Republican insiders. One of them, Tomothy Griffin, who previously worked for Karl Rove and for the Republican National Committee, will head to Arkansas -- just as the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign heats up.''

I knew about the 'resignations/firings', but that second little tidbit is interesting, yes?

[CrazyOrangeCat]

5. yes it sure is.

(Sheila Samples is going to make Molly proud. She's been writing some great stuff.)

[ProgressiveFool]

11. She used to write here!

I wonder what happened. Along with Plaid Adder, her stuff was what brought me to DU in the first place way back when.

[Bhaisahab]

14. Ms Samples is my favourite DUer

More power to her! I recommend ALL her articles because she really writes well.

[chimpymustgo]

4. K and R.

:loveya:

[Quakerfriend]

6. Best piece of journalism I've read in awhile!

:kick:

[Jacobin]

7. Holy crap

undead creatures who neither care, nor dare, to glance over the side of the ship at the bloated, swirling bodies in the blood-red water below
:wow:

the man had power in his pen.

If he were alive today, he would be accusing himself of understatement

[seafan]

8. This corporate media is indeed beneath contempt.

The conclusion:

.....

You'd think that the mainstream media would bump into each other in their haste to cover one or all of the above. But no. While C-Span alone carried the interminably long Senate debate-about-the-debate on at least three toothless, nonbinding resolutions addressing Bush's ongoing ejaculation in Iraq -- while six US helicopters were brought down by enemy fire -- while the Bush neocons were back at their old game of manipulating intelligence to justify a war on Iran -- the silly, somnolent scriveners chose instead to overdose on the "Air Pelosi" scandal.

Reporters clambered aboard the Swift Boat with their Republican "unnamed sources," and went full throttle at House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for daring to request a plane large enough to fly from Washington to California without refueling. The story quickly went from "Air Pelosi" to "Pelosi One." It went from, "The new Speaker of the House is apparently asking for a big travel upgrade" to "the San Francisco Democrat is abusing the perks of power by attempting to commandeer a fancy jumbo-size military jet with a 'distinguished visitor compartment with sleep accommodations.'"

The reporters-cum-repeaters rounded out the jam-packed 10-day news period either shouting that all destructive weapons in Iraq come from Iran -- or curled up on the nation's sidewalks shrieking in ecstasy about Anna Nicole Smith.

The U.S. media is beneath contempt, and can never redeem itself for the damage it has wrought on this republic by its fawning allegience to a band of crooked, war-mongering fools. By sinking to reading scrubbed-clean White House press releases, by relinquishing all pretences of honesty, values and integrity in order to ingratiate itself to the ravenous corporate beast, its members are little more than "enablers" who cannot remember why they became journalists in the first place.

W.C. Fields once said, "There comes a time in the affairs of man when he must take the bull by the tail and face the situation." That time is now. Molly Ivins was right -- it's time we hit the streets, beating on pots and pans and take our country back. Our first stop should be at the source of our country's problems -- the shallow and destructive corporate media.

Here's a wrenching reminder of its stinking failure.

<<<<<And Gore wore earth tones, invented the internet, and he damn near stole the election.>>>>>


January, 20, 2001
Washington, DC

Source

[upi402]

9. k/r to stop the insanity n/t

[Canuckistanian]

10. That's some fine journalisming

K&R....

I really must read some more of Sheila Samples...

[symbolman]

12. It is now the time to IMPEACH the MEDIA

and I mean NOW, TODAY.

We need to spread the word, create a grass roots coalition and DEMAND CONGRESSIONAL HEARINGS on MEDIA Complicity and the WAR.

THey are PROFITTING FROM THIS, as they SHILL for it, brain washing, Propaganda, and now they are doing it again, against IRAN.

I want to see all of the Major Owners of the Media in front of CONGRESS Explaining UNDER OATH, why they are screaming FIRE in a Movie house, and then Charging EXIT FEES.

Imagine the Media EATING ITSELF as these Hearings go on, and how suddenly a LIE will be followed by a Jail TERM.

Spread the word, put on your blog, IMPEACH THE MEDIA.



PS. My two year old son's middle name is "Hunter" :)

[EVDebs]

13. Our liberty cannot be guarded but by the freedom of the press, nor that be limited without danger of

of losing it." --Thomas Jefferson to John Jay, 1786.

http://etext.virginia.edu/jefferson/quotations/jeff1600.htm

[OneBlueSky]

15. "The U.S. media is beneath contempt, and can never redeem itself . . .

for the damage it has wrought on this republic by its fawning allegience to a band of crooked, war-mongering fools. By sinking to reading scrubbed-clean White House press releases, by relinquishing all pretences of honesty, values and integrity in order to ingratiate itself to the ravenous corporate beast, its members are little more than 'enablers' who cannot remember why they became journalists in the first place."
now THAT, my friends, really sums it up . . . :applause:

[malaise]

16. Wow!

Fabulous read. The truth and nothing but the truth.

[Doondoo]

17. K&R

[Ugnmoose]

18. Worth a kick

:kick:

[blm]

19. The complicity of the corpmedia with the fascist agenda has been evident since 1998

and has only worsened in the last 8 years.

They even get Democrats to turn on each other and blame their standard bearers while they skip away unscathed for all their LIES and other devices employed to protect BushInc.

It took a category 5 hurricane, fer chrissakes...........

[Venus Dog]

20. How can we call the masses ignorant

when they are fed lies everyday - every hour! Many people I know decry that newspaper readership is down and see the end of that medium - I say - Goodriddance! It has been the tool of the elite for too long to manipulate the masses. What major newspaper in this country is not owned by some rich bastard or corporation? Zero.

And now I only pray the same will happen to the so-called "cable news networks" - what a load of crap! How much different is Bill O'Reilly than Anna Nicole Smith? Both are made up, corporate-driven contrivances for the masses. I only wish Bill could be put under a microscope like Anna has been. What a phony! Teacher, my ass. Has anyone even tried to interview one of his ex-students?