EMMYdiocracy
Mediocracy is a situation which can occur in a democracy in which mediocre people prevail. The society is then subordinated to a quasi-egalitarian ideology in which words and ideas are redefined by mediocre people, to be convenient for mediocre people. Russian novelist Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn was a frequent critic of mediocracy in contemporary Western countries. || This where the tag cloud goes if the tag cloud loads:
The New York Times this morning is prominently featuring a long article documenting the Terroristic aggression of Iran, as evidenced by that country’s attempts to exert influence and foment unrest in Afghanistan: because, as all decent people know, only tyrannical fanatics would attempt to interfere in Afghanistan (similarly, a couple months ago, President Obama and Secretary Clinton both sternly warned the rest of the world, particularly Iran, not to “interfere” or “meddle” in Iraq; they did so as Clinton simultaneously announced that the U.S. “will have a robust continuing presence throughout the region”). The International Community knows that interfering in those countries is the exclusive prerogative of the U.S. and its allies, and Iran’s attempt to assert influence — in countries that directly border it — is clear evidence of its status as a rogue, Terror nation.
Here are the first three paragraphs of this morning’s big NYT report:
Just hours after it was revealed that American soldiers had burned Korans seized at an Afghan detention center in late February, Iran secretly ordered its agents operating inside Afghanistan to exploit the anticipated public outrage by trying to instigate violent protests in the capital, Kabul, and across the western part of the country, according to American officials.
For the most part, the efforts by Iranian agents and local surrogates failed to provoke widespread or lasting unrest, the officials said. Yet with NATO governments preparing for the possibility of retaliation by Iran in the event of an Israeli attack on its nuclear facilities, the issue of Iran’s willingness and ability to foment violence in Afghanistan and elsewhere has taken on added urgency.
With Iran’s motives and operational intentions a subject of intense interest, American officials have closely studied the episodes. A mixed picture of Iranian capabilities has emerged, according to interviews with more than a dozen government officials, most of whom discussed the risks on the condition of anonymity because their comments were based on intelligence reports.
The article is basically written by “American officials,” all of whom are granted anonymity with no real justification, given that they’re all reciting the official government line about Iran in unison. The first three paragraphs of the story consist of literally nothing other than the unchallenged pronouncements of these officials. And it all leads to this:
Those activities also reflect a broader campaign that includes what American officials say was a failed plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to the United States in October, and what appears to have been a coordinated effort by Iran to attack Israeli diplomats in India and Georgia this year… .The plots have also prompted American and other intelligence agencies to renew their focus on state-sponsored terrorism after a decade dominated by Al Qaeda, its regional affiliates and other shadowy terrorist networks. American officials say they never took their eye off state-sponsored threats, but rising tensions with Iran have caused these organizations to re-emerge in the public eye.
All of that is virtually identical to the NPR report in every single respect. That’s because it is written exactly the same way and with exactly the same agenda: we now turn over our media outlet to the pronouncements of anonymous government officials, who will explain — under the guise of a “news report” – why the U.S. is being victimized by an increasingly aggressive and Terroristic Iran. Both in methodology and conclusion, it is pure state-run media propaganda, by definition: shaped exclusively by official government assertions, amplified without skepticism or challenge. It’s not even hidden: Iranians are the Terrorists and its menacing aggression is proven by its attempt to “stir unrest” in Afghanistan. And then there’s this:
Iran appears to have increased its political outreach and arms shipments to rebels and other political figures in Yemen, and it is arming and advising the embattled government of President Bashar al-Assad of Syria.
So Iran is supporting rebels fighting a dictatorship in one country (Yemen) and supporting the dictatorship in another (Syria). In those two countries, the U.S. is doing exactly the reverse: propping up the Yemeni dictatorship while arming the Syrian rebels. Why is one better than the other or a greater sign of aggression and threats? One would think this way only if one is a U.S. government national security official, or — obviously — if one is a New York Times reporter and editor purporting to publish “news reports.” That the mentality of those two groups is indistinguishable — even though one is supposed to be “adversarial” to the other — is the point. I actually think the methods that led to the Iraq War journalism debacle have intensified and worsened since then, not improved. The uncritical relationship and overlapping functions of government officials and establishment media organs are more severe than ever.
This is what I get for making a snarky comment about all the comparatively well-paid East Coast reporters writing about San Francisco and Oakland like they live here. Made me laugh, because I still have a sense of humor, but I’m not sure Oakland does. People here just don’t have enough weed!
A press release sent out Wednesday said police would arrest journalists who attempt to make contact with city employees during non-working hours. They asked to not approach, call or email the city employees at home.
Some city staffers have been “followed or approached at their home or in settings outside of working hours,” the release said.
“Law enforcement officials will not hesitate to make an arrest for stalking.”
However, the Florida statute on stalking does not include language that would provide special protection to city officials or prevent media from asking questions.“Law enforcement officials will not hesitate to make an arrest for stalking.”
But they will apparently hesitate to make an arrest for stalking and murdering a minor for no reason.
Iran is on “the offensive.” There is no mention in this NPR story — literally none whatsoever — of the string of serious attacks on Iran, from multiple explosions on their soil to the training and arming of a designated Terror group devoted to its government’s overthrow to the bombardment of its nuclear facilities with sophisticated cyber attacks to the multiple murders of its civilian nuclear scientists. These attacks on Iran — widely reported to be the work of some combination of the U.S. and Israel — literally do not exist in the world that NPR presented. Iran is simply sponsoring and launching “Terror attacks” out of the blue against the U.S. and Israel: presumably because they’re Evil Terrorists. Meanwhile, we learn from Temple-Raston that “what worked so well dismantling Al Qaeda” — like drone attacks [it ‘worked so well’ doing things like this] – won’t work on this kind of Terrorism.” Fortunately, though, the U.S. has vast powers of eavesdropping and banking surveillance that it can and must use against this “old adversary”: Iran. Imagine Bill Kristol delivering this “report” on Iran and try to identify how it would have been any different.
There’s one prime reason why Americans are so uninformed about what their government does in their name around the world (Why do they hate us?). It’s because “news stories” from “even liberal media outlets” like NPR systematically obscure those facts, disseminating pure propaganda from America’s National Security State masquerading as high-minded, Serious news.
Nancy Grace Ignores Trayvon Martin Case
Why has HLN host Nancy Grace basically ignored talking about the Trayvon Martin (the 17-year-old unarmed teen shot by the yet to be arrested George Zimmerman) case on her show? Ana Kasparian and Cenk Uygur discuss on The Young Turks.
*Why Has Nancy Grace Been Silent About Trayvon Martin On HLN?
I know that we’re talking about Nancy Grace here (and who really cares about that woman?) but her extreme lack of coverage in the murder of Trayvon Martin is reflective of something I talked about earlier: how we treat non-white, especially Black, victims and that is something that’s important to talk about. The amount of media coverage that Trayvon’s case is currently receiving is a fluke. I’m not sure I can even recall a single case involving a non-white child that received more than a 15 second mention in our media, which seems to always be consumed with missing white girl syndrome. How long did we hear about JonBenét Ramsey, Chandra Levy, Laci Peterson, Elizabeth Smart, Natalee Holloway, Caylee Anthony, etc.? How many individuals have even heard the names Brisenia Flores, Phoenix Coldon, Stacey English, Bianca Jones, Jahessye Shockley, or Lluvia McCraw?
Crimes such as what happened to Elizabeth Smart are much less rare than the violence which is committed against minorities, especially non-white women, but they still receive a disproportionate amount of coverage and attention, which often increases the levels of fear among white women. When it comes to missing children’s cases, Black children make up over 40% of the cases while only composing 13% of the U.S. population and boys make up a little over half of all cases, yet they don’t even receive a third of the media coverage. We focus on white victims far more than we do non-white victims and our media continues to demonize minorities as criminals instead.
The National Association of Hispanic Journalists found that, of 12,000 evening news stories aired annually by the 3 major American Networks, only 1% are about Latin@s or issues concerning Latin@s. When Latin@s are featured in news stories, they are portrayed negatively 80% of the time. Latin@s, especially Latin@ immigrants, are much more likely to be included in stories about crime even though immigrants are less likely to commit a crime than U.S. citizens. Because of the way our media demonizes immigrants, we think of them as criminals when, in actuality, they’re nothing of the sort and this unfair image is reflected by our domestic policies, which lead victims to be afraid of the police, unable to go to law enforcement for help, and the crimes committed against them go ignored.
Visible minorities are more likely to be victims of a violent crime than non-visible minorities and far more likely than non-minorities. Over 70% of racially-motivated hate crimes are committed against Black individuals. The disproportionate news coverage has a profound impact on the way we think about minorities and journalists tell us who is important, who isn’t, and who is creating the mess. Journalists write our villains for us and the fact that they almost always happen to be minorities isn’t exactly a coincidence when news organizations are vastly white. When a minority falls victim to a crime, they’re still partially written off as a villain and some of the responsibility is nearly always placed on them. This isn’t true when a white person is a victim. Minorities are devalued as human-beings and this is reflected in nearly every aspect of our society. It’s why perpetrators who committed crimes against white victims receive harsher and longer sentences than those who committed crimes against non-white victims. It’s why our media, except in rare circumstances, doesn’t pick up stories about minority victims despite minorities making up a disproportionate percentage of victims of crimes. It’s why Geraldo Rivera said Trayvon Martin’s hoodie was just as much to blame for Trayvon’s death as George Zimmerman and it’s why Nancy Grace doesn’t even care enough to pick up this explosive story.
no surprise. hate that bitch. she normally goes on and on about cases like this too..
ana kasparian i love you…always.
From the Oakland Police Department’s operations plan for January 28, the day six professional journalists were detained, and one was jailed and processed. While in cuffs, I asked several times if there was a PIO on hand — there wasn’t.
via Geoff King.
Video taken from when the protests were just picking up 5 days ago capturing police abducting activists, attempting to repress journalists and quell the protests (with very large sticks).
The whole world is watching.
Daaaaaaaaaaamn. Some gems here.
In our Saturday post about the California Democratic Party’s ad attacking Meg Whitman but masquerading as an “issues ad,” we described the abrupt ending to our conversation with CDP Chairman John Burton. Through his spokesman, Burton on Monday complained that he had been misquoted. Burton says he didn’t say “Fuck you.” His actual words were, “Go fuck yourself.” Calbuzz regrets the error.
(Source: bluepeets)
