"Let the people know the facts..."

While watching the evening news I was compelled to recall a famous quote attributed to Thomas Jefferson, "An informed citizenry is the bulwark of a democracy…" It seems obvious that a free press would be the best way to inform the citizenry. It seems equally obvious that when 40% of Americans believe that Iraq was involved in 9/11 that translates into nearly half of our country expressing an ignorance that threatens the protections of, indeed the very survival of democracy.

During last evening’s news I posted my perceptions of a fourth estate which is no longer the watchdog of government rather it appears to be more of a big business responsible for repeating the message of a government controlled by special business interests with unlimited financial resources. Informing the public beyond the half truth/half lie would threaten the power of those who prefer tyranny to democracy.

I was so outraged by the way NBC packaged reality I also sent the following to MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell’s blog:

I saw Brian Williams report this on the evening news and he actually stated the hostages were released on inauguration day to prevent president carter from taking credit for their release. Andréa’s post was nothing more than another denial of reality. Isn’t the press supposed to "inform" the public? Wasn’t the release of the hostages on Reagan’s inauguration day more a result of a promise by Reagan to "terrorists" before he was even elected in return for weapons? Have neither Andréa nor Brian any shame in perpetuating another lie???

This evening I thought I would check out her blog to see if my comment was posted. Between the first and the last of the comments mine was among the missing and then I noticed the following on her blog cite:

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PLEASE READ: We will only approve comments that are directly related to this blog post, use appropriate language and are not attacking the comments of others

And then I realized my comment wouldn’t be posted. Sure it was directly related to the blog post and appropriate language was used. Nor was I “attacking” the comments of others I was merely asking if those two pop stars of modern journalism had any shame in their participation in and/or perpetuation of the lie.

It seems that the MSNBC blog cite can’t accept reality without giving it some spin. You see when Ronald Reagan’s advisors went to Teheran prior to the 1980 election in this country to make a deal that the Iranian Mullahs couldn’t refuse they were engaging in foreign policy where they had no constitutional right to do so and interfering in the foreign policy of the Carter Administration. Indeed a case can be made for treason. That Reagan was elected twice confirms my suspicion that “ignorance” is no stranger to most Americans. It was no different than when Nixon violated federal law by offering South Vietnam a better deal.

Don’t count on Williams or Mitchell to ever report that George Bush lied about the reasons for war in Iraq. Mendacity has become second nature for them. They receive multi million dollar salaries to read teleprompters and convince the public to support the actions of a government corrupted by greed.

Recently, our self proclaimed “war president” toured the country, telling those with tickets that his job is to protect the country, protect the people, and he is going to do his job. For five years as president, indeed perhaps most of his adult life George W Bush has failed in every venture in which he played a key role yet in every failure he and few else were safe, everyone else lost. The American invasion and occupation of Iraq will be no different.

George Bush will get a good pension indeed will profit handsomely in retirement and with round the clock protection at that while those that fought his dirty war won’t have adequate if any health care when they return, they’ll be lucky to get and keep a job with a living wage, and they won’t be protected by anyone when the safety net is removed in order to pay the cost of waging war.

Mitchell and Williams and the rest of the media darlings would be wise to remember Lincoln’s words: "Let the people know the facts, and the country will be safe." and start reporting that based on the deceit and deception used to invade a sovereign nation George Bush won’t make this country safe because his faith based disaster in Iraq served only to increase, often with good reason, the ranks of those who take up arms against America creating a world of perpetual war with huge profits for the few and abject suffering for most.