Hypocrites and Liars -- By Cindy Sheehan

fiddleronvermouth · Post by **fiddleronvermouth** » Mon Aug 22, 2005 10:16 am

s1m0n wrote:Something about "The media are wrong" as a thesis statement that makes me stop reading, despite my appreciation for Sheehan's understanding that "media" is plural.

"The media" isn't any single thing--wrong, right, biased, liberal, conservative, whatever. The media is all of these things, and more. Any argument which attributes monolithic unity to the media can only be false.

I don't know, Simon - I've heard some pretty convincing arguments that "the media" behaves in a fairly predictable and somewhat uniform way, attaining monolithic unity purely by accident rather than by design.

I also find it tough to ignore the concentration of ownership of all our sources of daily news in the hands of two major corporations. In fact, the two competing daily papers in Vancouver share the same office space and the same human resources personnel. They also print the same stories, sometimes verbatim. Maintaining the illusion that they are two seperate papers is a rather cynical marketing strategy.

I also find it tough to ignore the compelling evidence that the former owner of most of our daily news sources is a criminal and a fraud.

That said, I doubt that was her point. If you read the rest, you'll notice that's not her "thesis", it's more of a passing reference to her reason for writing everything that follows. She feels "the media" she's been in contact with haven't done justice to her message.

s1m0n · Post by **s1m0n** » Mon Aug 22, 2005 10:25 am

We're the media, right here. The internet is a medium. The media is larger than just newspapers, or newspapers and TV stations.

But yeah, the Sun and the Province operating as one is scandalous here in Vancouver. Without competition, they're each as bad as the other, and they charge top dollar. THe same chain owns the bulk of the local weeklies, as well. If it wasn't for the Straight, plenty of things wouldn't get covered at all.

jGilder · Post by **jGilder** » Mon Aug 22, 2005 10:41 am

s1m0n wrote:We're the media, right here. The internet is a medium. The media is larger than just newspapers, or newspapers and TV stations.

I'm sure that Cindy would agree with you on your point, Simon, but I do believe she was referring to corporate media when she wrote that statement. When I refer to "the media" I usually include "mainstream" or "corporate" to be more specific. I listen to Democracy Now every day and it is definitely part of the media. They report what Cindy is doing very fairly and comprehensively. But even though it's part of the "media" it's not "mainstream" or "corporate" so obviously, in all aspects, it's not what Cindy was referring to.

fiddleronvermouth · Post by **fiddleronvermouth** » Mon Aug 22, 2005 11:27 am

s1m0n wrote:We're the media, right here. The internet is a medium. The media is larger than just newspapers, or newspapers and TV stations.

But yeah, the Sun and the Province operating as one is scandalous here in Vancouver. Without competition, they're each as bad as the other, and they charge top dollar. THe same chain owns the bulk of the local weeklies, as well. If it wasn't for the Straight, plenty of things wouldn't get covered at all.

I see what you're saying, but there's an issue of credibility, you have to admit. How seriously do you take someone who tells you "I read it on the internet"? Personally, I take them only slightly less seriously that someone who says "I saw it on the news", because at least a journalist has a professional obligation to at least TRY to be SOMEWHAT truthful sometimes, but I think I might be in the minority. I get the impression the most north americans have a huge amount of faith that what they see in the news is mostly true, and that what they see on the internet is mostly false.

anniemcu · Post by **anniemcu** » Mon Aug 22, 2005 11:57 am

Interesting, isn't it, that a letter, carried in person by two of the mothers in the Camp Casey group, had to be left on the pavement because the Secret Service officer they were confronted by *refused* to take the letter, or to allow anyone else to take it, but a little later, when the Bush Supporters group brought a pile of sheets to be delivered to the president, the sheets were accepted with no problem.

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl? ... 22/1433237
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl? ... 22/1433240

Watching that Secret Service officer back away from these two lone mothers of soldiers - one fallen, and one about to deploy, was like watching a man avoiding a filthy child... he looked like he was afraid they would contaminate him. Funny, how a man who can qualify to serve in that position can't be entrusted to take possession of a letter to be delivered to the president. And please don't start in on 'if he accepts one, he's gonna have to take them all'... If the president of this nation cannot be expected to deal with this, he has no business being president. He'd best find a way to deal positively with it soon, as the crowd of people taking up the torch is growing.

edited to add the second link

jGilder · Post by **jGilder** » Mon Aug 22, 2005 12:45 pm

anniemcu wrote:Interesting, isn't it, that a letter, carried in person by two of the mothers in the Camp Casey group, had to be left on the pavement because the Secret Service officer they were confronted by *refused* to take the letter, or to allow anyone else to take it, but a little later, when the Bush Supporters group brought a pile of sheets to be delivered to the president, the sheets were accepted with no problem.

That's because they're drinking the right koolaide. I listened to Democracy Now today and heard that same report -- amazing. There's another caravan of Bush supporters headed towards Cindy from Sacramento CA as well. The leader declared that what Cindy is doing "has to stop." Do I smell fascism? It will be interesting to see how Bush and Co receives them compared to the despicable way they received Cindy and those two ladies yesterday.

I would love to see a debate between Cindy and your one that's on her way from Sacramento. Cindy will lay out the facts and the other will say, "SHUT UP!"

(I guess we can expect Weekenders to come on now and say I'm arrogant, pompous, hypocritical and disrespectful for using a whack-o emoticon.)

susnfx · Post by **susnfx** » Mon Aug 22, 2005 1:23 pm

I was happy to see some anti-war protest at Bush's speech to the VFW here in Salt Lake City today. I actually planned to go, but somehow had it in my head that he was here tomorrow, not today, and didn't make arrangements about work. I was pleased to hear from co-workers derogatory comments about the war and Bush's speech--usually there's almost no politics discussed in our office--and one woman attended an anti-war protest on her lunch hour. I was proud of them all! The mayor of Salt Lake (a Democrat) openly called for anti-war protests before Bush's speech and has been roundly criticized for calling for protests during a VFW convention currently shelling out big bucks here. I was just glad to see any protest at all.

Susan

Teri-K · Post by **Teri-K** » Mon Aug 22, 2005 1:40 pm

I saw in the news this morning that SLC local station, KTVX, refused to air a Sheehan anti-war ad (other stations aired it) claiming it would be offensive to the community.

susnfx · Post by **susnfx** » Mon Aug 22, 2005 1:59 pm

Teri-K wrote:I saw in the news this morning that SLC local station, KTVX, refused to air a Sheehan anti-war ad (other stations aired it) claiming it would be offensive to the community.

I'm not surprised. *sigh* Some of these people are so rabid about "fighting for our freedoms" (notice how they always personalize it to America - not "fighting for Iraq's freedom"), yet they'd deny other Americans those same freedoms. I did read a quote in yesterday's paper from one of the VFW attendees that he didn't agree with what Sheehan was doing or saying, but that was her right. Much better perspective, in my opinion.

Susan

Tyler · Post by **Tyler** » Tue Aug 23, 2005 5:54 am

jGilder wrote: The leader declared that what Cindy is doing "has to stop." Do I smell fascism?

Almost sounds as though they want to "do somthing" about her....
I wonder what they plan on doing, knocking her off? :roll:

Tyler · Post by **Tyler** » Tue Aug 23, 2005 6:02 am

susnfx wrote:
Teri-K wrote:I saw in the news this morning that SLC local station, KTVX, refused to air a Sheehan anti-war ad (other stations aired it) claiming it would be offensive to the community.
I'm not surprised. *sigh* Some of these people are so rabid about "fighting for our freedoms"......

Most of the people here wouldn't know "freedom" if it came up and bit them in the butt. :roll:

OnTheMoor · Post by **OnTheMoor** » Tue Aug 23, 2005 6:19 am

Tyler Morris wrote:
Most of the people here wouldn't know "freedom" if it came up and bit them in the butt. :roll:

That's not freedom is it!?

Tyler · Post by **Tyler** » Tue Aug 23, 2005 6:26 am

OnTheMoor wrote:
Tyler Morris wrote:
Most of the people here wouldn't know "freedom" if it came up and bit them in the butt. :roll:

That's not freedom is it!?

No, that's Barney

http://www.whitehouse.gov/barney/

fiddleronvermouth · Post by **fiddleronvermouth** » Tue Aug 23, 2005 7:24 am

I love Mr. Fish.

spittin_in_the_wind · Post by **spittin_in_the_wind** » Tue Aug 23, 2005 8:29 am

Tyler Morris wrote:
jGilder wrote: The leader declared that what Cindy is doing "has to stop." Do I smell fascism?
Almost sounds as though they want to "do somthing" about her....
I wonder what they plan on doing, knocking her off? :roll:

I think that's what her neighbor was implying when he said he was getting ready for "dove season".

Robin