Digby did a wonderful post this afernoon which he entitled "Lancing the Boil". I strongly recommend you read it. His post resonated well with me tonight because of the short blurb of Schieffer on Face the Nation this morning. I was fuming over his gratituous commentary on the Libby verdict and thought about how in step it was with the Washington establishment journalists who are no longer reporting public opinion but manipulating it. Okay ....a recap is in order...
What Schieffer said in the commentary consisted of these Republican/Conservative talking points:
Fitzgerald was out of control
Libby wasn't convicted for outing a CIA Agent, just Lying about it...
There was no underlying crime.
This came from a journalist who is supposed to be one of the last few men of integrity in American journalism, but in fact is just another shill for the Bush administration. Not only did he not recognize the fact that Libby's lies were obviously covers for a crime that was committed, but also tried his damnest to OBSTRUCT the investigation. Obstruction of justice was one of the counts Libby was found guilty on ....he was found guilty on four other counts. Shaeffer never mentioned those.
But the larger point is a Digby said.....the independent media no longer exists...they are shills of the administration, willing to repeat their lies and spin without question....
So
Who is left to tell the people?
Who is left to tell the truth?
My guess is that the only place where truth can be found these days is the blogosphere. The web has made each of us a journalist ...each of us a truth teller...each of us a watchdog on the media.
I say this only because I can't believe that there is any way to reform the media. I think they're beyond help.
A friend of mine once told me that I must always remember this truth:
A NEWSPAPER IS A BUSINESS. NOTHING MORE. NOTHING LESS.
The media does not exist to be a public service. They do not exist to tell the truth. They do not exist to insure the proper working of Democracy. They exist to make money and therein lies the unholy alliance. As long as the media and the power brokers make make money for each other they will continue to do each others bidding. Somehow, somewhere the cycle of money and power has to be broken.
I don't know how.
do you?
