Assange claimed that various institutions and corporations had hit the site with a financial blockage.
Claimed? It’s not a claim, it’s a fact. How much it cost Wikileaks might be a claim, but that’s not what Ms. Fantz wrote.
This is one reason why we can’t have good democracies, because reporters mislead the public
Greg T
Ian-
Ashley Fantz is likely doing what is expected of her by her editors at CNN. Assange is to be given no quarter. The facts are clear: Wikileaks has experienced a financial blockade over the past 12-15 months, instigated by the US Government. Julian Assange himself is sought by the US Govt because his organization has the temerity to publish facts about US foreign policy.
A good reporter can’t exist in the current propaganda system euphemistically called ‘broadcast media.’ Reporters who actually want to uncover truth are discarded.
jcapan
Shocking isn’t it. A corporate media disseminating propaganda on behalf of a corporate state. Sport, entertainment, universities, there is no quarter of American culture that isn’t saturated with oligarch coin.
Phil Perspective
And wouldn’t you know!! This goof of a CNN reporter isn’t on Twitter. So she can’t be corrected. That’s the one good thing about Twitter. A lot of reporters and TV personalities are on there. So you can point out their stupidity.
Celsius 233
Greg T
July 4, 2012
Ian-
…A good reporter can’t exist in the current propaganda system euphemistically called ‘broadcast media.’
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
TRNN (Paul Jay), Democracy Now Amy Goodman), Rolling Stone (Matt Taibbi), Mother Jones, Trouthout, and Counterspin to name a few.
One should know the difference between News and Entertainment…
StewartM
MSM “news” = entertainment and propaganda to served up to reinforce ideological and cultural memes. That can be extended to art forms as well; the myth is that Hollywood is “liberal” but given the spree of crime films which portray mastermind villains who are only stopped by a hero who dispenses with the restraints imposed by legalisms, plus gung-ho rah-rah-rah war movies, the truth is that Hollywood too largely serves a conservative purpose. This shouldn’t be a surprise, for the traditional role of art has been to serve conservative ends by repeating its talking points via a method that delivers it via an emotionally-charged medium.
With MSM “news”, a common complaint is even if you were a reporter that did want to do real journalism, you must struggle with smaller staffs that make it far easier to be lazy and report politics as “he said/she said” stories with the same tired old interviewees. Digging for truth takes more time and effort than these guys have.
-StewartM
Morocco Bama
This woman’s tone is marginalizing and dismissive. It’s arrogant and trivializing. And most of all, it’s taunting.
Assange is an example, for all to see, of what the Establishment can, and will, do to you if you strike a deep nerve. If the “opposition” cannot keep Assange out of jail, and keep him safe, the message is clear. There is no opposition, and in that sense, mere reporting of the “news” will not get the job done. Many of us here know the real score. More real “news” to that effect will not enlighten us further. It’s time to become actionable on the real “news” thus rendering the real “news” actionable intelligence in this “war” we don’t want to call a war. We have to move past the real “news” as our daily outrage fix if we want to have any chance of mitigating any of this. And I just don’t see it happening. Many of us still are in the same position as this so-called “reporter.” In order to eat and put a roof over our heads, we have to sell our souls to the very same Beast that wants to neutralize Assange, and in so doing, we isolate ourselves from others pain, and others isolate themselves from our pain. This System works like a charm in factionalizing any opposition into a eight billion pieces and thus precluding synergies from solidarity. We must overcome this somehow….but how?
Assange has to feel, like Bradley Manning, like the loneliest person in the world right about now. And all of us sit here impotently, unable to intervene on his behalf, but knowing that we should, and must, because what the Establishment does to him, and the legions of others who came before him, and will certainly come after, it does to all of us.
Greg T
Yes, Celsius excellent reporters, all of them. Amy Goodman is a first rate newscaster and reporter.
However, Ian’s basic point stands; most mainstream broadcast media are propaganda streams, woefully misleading the public when they should be informing them. A citizen has to actively seek out broadcasts like Democracy Now. They are not readily available. Your point is well taken, there ARE outlets where good reporting occurs, but these are the exceptions, not the rule.
Greg T
On that note, Wikileaks is scheduled to release documents pertaining to Syria today. Their work may have slowed, but it hasn’t stopped.
Z
Not a real big fan of Pitt at truthout. I used to like him when Bush was in office, but then he turned out to be a demo-zombie obamabot when the pope of hope came into being president and made excuses for Obama doing the same shit he had justifiably attacked Bush for. I stopped reading him so maybe he’s changed … I hope so, he’s a pretty good writer though a little melodramatic at times … but when I read him, even at his most objective moments, he’d always pull up short of denouncing the democratic party no matter what they did. And when I say he won’t denounce the democratic party I mean he’s unwilling to propose and/or support any alternatives to his precious party … such as third parties. There was always a ‘yeah, but they’re better than the alternative’ when it came to the democrats. With him, it’s always about forcing the party to follow the will of its supporters … ‘make them do it’ … when in reality the party is an active opponent to almost everything their supporters purport to want.
But again, maybe Pitt’s changed. I hope so. He’s too smart to be so stupid.
Z
groo
…This is one reason why we can’t have good democracies, because reporters mislead the public…
Well. Ofcourse. Somehow.
But why?
The traditional definition of ‘media’ is, they should be the ‘fourth force’, right?
But mainly it is not institutionalized and thus prone to ‘market’-influences.
In Europe a signiificant part of the media is publicly sponsored
From my perspective this results from
a) owner-affiliation to the powerful (owners subtly define the general thrust)
b) advertiser-pressure (main source of income of the media)
c) pressure on reporters -the scissor in the head- which leads to self-censoring via (a), (b).
(c) is the interesting one, which has as one of its main components increasingly poor payment in the media business.
In Germany most reporters are barely above subsistence-level, say 1300 Euros. The stars earn 10times as much. Be a star, or aspire being one.
Be an idealist or a cynic. Not much in between.
To keep up and earn your living, you have to align with the herd, or quit the job, because it does not match your ethics.
The typical percentage is 90:10, which is sufficient to keep the crowd and its associated meme-pool together.
No clever dogs necessary, to keep the herd of sheeple-reporters together. They do it themselves.
No barking necessary.
Mindreading on the side of the sheeple-reporters suffices.
This is a nifty system which results in the self-censorship we are confronted with.
Arte, AlJazeera, parts of BBC and some radio programs wrt audio-visula media being an exception.
About PBS, I do not know.
groo
btw,
on a global scale I communicate with -well- about 10 likeminded people.
Is it worth the effort?
Yes it is.
The difficulty is, to expand the base, without giving up anything.
Logic is universal, right?
What makes us so fragmented?
Just asking.
groo
Archie Shepp:
Who controls America?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pO8crqIag4I
What more to say?
Rage morphing into some sort of beauty.
Amen.
S Brennan
This “corporate lackey” disease is also part of the blog world…
Today we have a blogger by the name of Josh[let’s invade Iraq]Marshall making fun of Romney for have a shindig in the Hamptons.
Well, why not you say?
Well, because Josh[let’s invade Iraq] Marshall ALSO had a big shindig out in the Hamptons and there is no mention that Josh runs in the same [if aspiring] circles…and I think that’s a pretty relevant data point.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2012/07/it_must_have_been_grand.php
Phil Perspective
S Brennan:
What you claim about Marshall also applies to people like Big Media Matt(aka Matt Yglesias) and Ezra “I want to be the new David Broder” Klein, does it not?
S Brennan
Yes Phil,
Both Matt and Ezra are just as sleazy and let’s not forget Drum…as being in the [I’m “liberal”, but think invading Iraq would be fun…and is there anything else I can do for the ruling elite?] club.
The reason I used Marshall is that in this case, Marshall had his wedding up in the Hamptons, so for him to say Romney is scum for having a party in the Hamptons is pegging the hypocrisy meter.
S Brennan
This article points out some other sleazoids selling generational war to distract us from the real CLASS WAR.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rj-eskow/the-younger-games-phony-a_b_1643787.html
m carmody
Yeah, this is America. By now the news manipulators have realized that if they don’t know enough to call bullshit, the people who believe in and rely on their product sure as hell don’t remember the truth or care to expend any energy in looking for it.
No wonder encouraging critical thinking has never been popular with our thieving rulers.