Opinions of Peter Belmont
Speaking Truth to Power
| America spirals into a failed Democracy—I |
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by Peter A. Belmont / 2010-09-08
Real democracy depends on the ability of voters to identify issues, identify the positions of candidates, identify the “rascals” they would wish throw out and the (hopefully) better candidates that they might prefer. To assess what our elected and appointed officials are doing we must know what they are doing. And what they do in secret may be far more important to us than what they do “in the light” of reportage. Secretary Clinton once again failed, today, in her speech on the Middle East Peace Process, to say that Israel’s 550,000 settlers living today in the territories Israel occupied in 1967, live there illegally, in violation (by Israel) of the Fourth Geneva Convention, as the UN Security Council and (UN’s) International Court of Justice have both said. In fact, she has never said (as Secretary of State) that the settlers are present illegally and has never called for their removal, as the law would require. This could have been part of the NYT’s coverage of many speeches by Secretary Clinton (and her many predecessors in office). But wasn’t. And is very unlikely to be. Why? What is it about blatant and long-standing violations of international law that is not “fit to print”? Or, put otherwise, why does NYT hide international law and its violations from its readers (at least when the violator is Israel)? When the US Congress gives Israel $3B of American taxpayers’ money every year (as it has since 1967), it doesn’t need to justify giving this money to a blatant law-breaker—because the MSM has never told the American public about the law-breaking. Perhaps Americans would object to US support for such lawbreaking, but we’ll never know, because the US public will always be denied the essential information. By MSM. America’s MSM fails to perform its office—honorable and necessary (to democracy, at least)—of providing necessary information to the American public. A principal reason is that the several organs of the MSM are controlled by wealthy individuals whose private “agendas” call for distortion of news and opinion. The advertisers of MSM also apply distorting pressures. The politicians with which MSM reporters seek to remain on good terms also apply distorting pressures. There is little countervailing pressure on MSM to tell truths (or publish opinions) which are distasteful to the pressure groups I’ve identified (and to others which I’ve missed). The internet provides some counter-balance but individual web-sites publishing facts and opinions ignored (or contradicted) by MSM do not begin to compete with MSM for audience. A good example of the failures of our news media may be found here: Put another way, the American media, whipped into an artificial frenzy by anti-Muslim bigots like New York gubernatorial candidate Rick Lazio and GOP hatemonger Newt Gingrich, were far more interested in the possible construction of a Muslim-owned interfaith community center two long blocks from the old World Trade Center site than in the sight of millions of hapless Pakistani flood victims. (mentioning that the US news media had virtually ignored both the enormous flood in Pakistan and the effect of the flood on the supply-routes by which supplies are largely delivered to US troops in Afghanistan). Another reason America’s MSM fails to deliver essential information is that politicians refuse to speak truth which conflicts with “received wisdom” (sic), “conventional wisdom” (sic), “political correctness” (very sic), etc. If the politicians will not say truth, they cannot be quoted saying truth, and MSM largely limits its reportage to what “important” people say—generally ignoring context, history, grotesque omissions, etc. Can you imagine a story in NYT saying something like (as we displayed above), Secretary Clinton once again failed, today, in her speech on Middle East Peace Making, to say that Israel’s 550,000 settlers living today in the territories Israel occupied in 1967, live there illegally, in violation (by Israel) of the Fourth Geneva Convention, as the UN Security Council and (UN’s) International Court of Justice have both said. In fact, she has never said (as Secretary of State) that the settlers are present illegally and has never called for their removal, as the law would require. This would not be published, first, because the MSM opposes the publication of that sort of information in regard to Israel, and, second, because MSM will be very unlikely to publish what was NOT said, rather than what WAS said. Americans would object violently to any corporate effort to require us to wear blindfolds into the voting booth. The American MSM’s distortions of the news is little different from that blindfold. The first step to removing that blindfold is for Americans to realize that they are wearing it. And that the MSM is providing it. |
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