Media Scoundrels on the Wrong Side of History
Famed journalist George Seldes (1890 - 1995) called them "prostitutes of the press." Paul Craig Roberts calls them "presstitutes." They're that and much more. They're propagandists, not journalists. They're charlatans. They're scam artists. They're blackguards. They're scoundrels in the worst sense of the term. They make street whores look respectable by comparison. They're paid to lie, distort, misinform, and blame imperial victims for horrendous crimes committed against them. They support powerful monied interests. They ignore popular ones. They march in lockstep with imperial lawlessness.
AJ Liebling (1904 - 1963) once said: "Freedom of the press is guaranteed only to those who own one." He added: "People everywhere confuse what they read in newspapers with news."
Western television is worst of all. It's a wasteland. Educator/media critic Neil Postman (1931 - 2003) called Americans "the most entertained and least informed people in the world." In 1950, Boston University President Daniel Marsh said: "If the (television) craze continues...we are destined to have a nation of morons." Comedian Ernie Kovacks (1919 - 1962) once said he knew why television is called a medium - "because it's neither rare or well done."
Media critic George Gerbner said mainstream media "have everything to sell and nothing to tell." Investigative journalist IF Stone (1907 - 1989) once said: "All governments are run by liars and nothing they say should be believed." The same holds for media scoundrels. Integrity isn't their long suit. Media scholar/critic Robert McChesney said "the corporate media system...generates a depoliticized society."
People are misinformed. They deliberately deceived. They're told what powerful interests want them to believe. They're fed a pack of lies, distortion and falsified rubbish. "The corruption of journalistic integrity is always bad," McChesney added. Today it's "obscene under conditions of extreme media concentration..."
When America seeks another imperial trophy, it's worst of all. Media scoundrels march in lockstep with lawlessness. They carpet bomb readers and viewers with managed news misinformation garbage.