I hope I'm not boring you with my diaries

Anyway, I have a general question for the audience here. Do any of you read FAIR? Anyway, if you want to learn about how the American media put out crap and bless it as solemn truth, or if you are merely fishing for a reason for why whole legions of journalists ought to exchange places with the residents of homeless camps in Oakland, read FAIR.

This important sample of FAIR journalism popped up on my Facebook feed: "Sanders’ Plan to Fight Global Climate Disaster Too Ambitious, Says NYT," by Julie Hollar and Jim Naureckas. The authors of this FAIR article critique a piece in the New York Times. The writers of the FAIR piece do a little digging, and then discover that the "experts" cited by the New York Times as disputing the practicality of Bernie Sanders' climate change plan include a lot of "experts" who actually like Sanders plan -- along with one who actually works for the Pete Buttigieg campaign! Here's an interesting quote from Hollar and Naureckas' piece:

The Times did mention Victor’s connection to Buttigieg, but didn’t note that he runs UCSD’s Laboratory on International Law and Regulation, funded by BP and the electricity industry’s Electric Power Research Institute. (His earlier project at Sanford was bankrolled by more than $9 million from BP.) The non-“expert” Payne, in addition to being a “Democratic strategist,” is a PR consultant who has worked for General Motors, South Jersey Gas and the American Chemistry Council.

Maybe a more accurate headline for the NYT piece would be: "Special Interest Employees Dispute Bernie Sanders' Climate Change Plan In Various Ways."

My previous post for Caucus99percent here, Some Thoughts on a Profound Article, highlighted the same problem: our mass media put out freakin' GARBAGE! I miss the old days of the Fairness Doctrine.

End of Rant Two.

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thanatokephaloides's picture

My previous post for Caucus99percent here, Some Thoughts on a Profound Article, highlighted the same problem: our mass media put out freakin' GARBAGE! I miss the old days of the Fairness Doctrine.

The Fairness Doctrine and a working, enforced Sherman Anti-Trust Act.

Yeah, I miss those days too!

Bad

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"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar

"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides

I recently started receiving emails from FAIR. Very interesting.
We would be completely lost without alternative media.
I have a close friend who equates alt-media with Brietbart. So, she gives no legitimacy to RT, Jimmy Dore, The Gray Zone...
She gives no credence to Chris Hedges because he isn't invited on Maddow's show. Brietbart was the beginning and end for her to look elsewhere for news and information. And nothing I show her changes her attitude.
She is a big Bernie fan. Yet, still listens to Maddow, who never misses a chance to bash Bernie or any progressive.
She considers the source in every wrong way, just as right wingers have dismissed all sources except Fox news.
The end of the Fairness Doctrine was the end of truth.

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

ppnortney's picture

@on the cusp

like that, who still tune into media sources that have long since been discredited. I forward clips and articles but never hear anything back. I don't think it's because they don't trust these other sources, though. I think they like the convenience of one-stop shopping, somewhere they can go where someone they like will tell them what they should be outraged about today because it takes too much time and effort to go and inform themselves.

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The smaller the mind the greater the conceit. --Aesop

@ppnortney And NPR, which is now funded by Koch Brothers.
It was just so easy to hate Brietbart and Fox, and to really appreciate Keith Olberman and Rachel back in the day. I was there.
It took some years for me to see all of this from a different perspective.

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

snoopydawg's picture

@on the cusp

I agreed with what they were saying. Face it Bush was low hanging fruit and everything they said about him was true. But they sure changed their tune when Obama picked up right where Bush left off. And now they are back to ragging on Trump even though he's doing the same things that Obama and Bush did. I get thoroughly disgusted with the things Trump is doing, but I don't have the same outrage I did during Bush's tenure because now I see that it's not just one person doing bad things. The government is rotten to the core and both parties are just as corrupt as the other. Besides I can't change it. So now it's like watching reality tv and knowing that the game is rigged against us.

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Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

snoopydawg's picture

@snoopydawg

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Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@snoopydawg

Why, sure we can!

Ignoring those structural defects is what Donald Trump's for.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@snoopydawg @snoopydawg

He attacked BS where he saw it. He was not a partisan in the sense he is now.

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2smj9n

Watch out, guys--this video is being taken down. I used to be able to find it on YouTube. Three places I looked said "video unavailable."

If anybody knows how to download and archive this, please consider doing so as a public service. I would not be surprised to find out that this moment is being erased.

Unfortunately, the dailymotion video is a bit expurgated, but not in such a way that one misses the gist of Olbermann's critique.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

snoopydawg's picture

@Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal

The video from your link was audio only. I of course have tweeted it out to remind people she said that just in case they think Bernie should drop out any time soon. I've decided that I love Twitter after all. My latest tweet got over 30 recs for an all time record.

Smile

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Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

snoopydawg's picture

@snoopydawg

I'm not bored either. Keep them coming.

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Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

@snoopydawg I really need to send that one to my friends who still think Her lost only due to misogyny, he certainly lays out all Her ugliness, doesn't he? Perhaps she was signaling to the CIA to take Obama out and they too disappointed Her...

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Only a fool lets someone else tell him who his enemy is. Assata Shakur

ppnortney's picture

Long been a fan and supporter of FAIR (Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting), I get their mailer plus their regular email updates.

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The smaller the mind the greater the conceit. --Aesop

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@ppnortney

Good organization.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

I'm sure it's too depressing.
Love your diaries, though. Keep 'em coming, please!

P.S.
Newbies check out these: https://cassiodorusblog.wordpress.com/about/

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I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.

Azazello's picture

not every day, but when joe links 'em in the EB. Like tonight.
I used to listen them too, my local community radio station used to carry their podcast.

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We wanted decent healthcare, a living wage and free college.
The Democrats gave us Biden and war instead.

IMHO the best podcast in the business (in terms of I probably shouldn't miss them) is Nima Shirazi's and Adam Johnson's "Citations needed". I think most of their main articles are also published to FAIR. Given our fucked up media (highlighted by FAIR, Caitlyn Johnstone et al.), I'm always searching for truth.
If you want truth, you have to listen to the critics. Not the "critics" that are paid for it, but the ones that criticize from their heart. These two have hearts that are extra-large (though they pretend to be cynical grinches).

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edg's picture

what ... I'm awake!

Just kidding. Your diaries are not boring and FAIR is a great read. Keep up the good work of creating informative diaries. (Actually, I think they're called essays here in order to distinguish ourselves from an orangish place that has diatribes diaries.)

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Read it on a regular basis. Glad to have some reliable sources to turn to for carefully reported news. And no, this and your earlier post were right on target.
Spent last week with relatives in Bay area that have swallowed parts of the MSM propaganda and hold it as truths. Some enlightening discussions.

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Life is what you make it, so make it something worthwhile.

This ain't no dress rehearsal!

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

I can't recall a time you have ever bored me.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

I look forward to these posts, it's why C99 exists.

When it comes to truth and the MSM, the depressing part is how little of it is presented un spun, with a good helping of added vagueness to blend in enough doubt to render it almost meaningless. That lulls people into not panicking. Usually the truth is so disturbing, and so much of it not what they were told, people turn away from it. At least the partisans do.

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Lookout's picture

https://fair.org/
The grayzone has also become a favorite of mine
https://thegrayzone.com/

...and there's often crossover between those two sources and https://consortiumnews.com/ as well as https://www.truthdig.com/

These days I think I write as much for myself as others. It helps me to clarify my thoughts and collect evidence and stories as well. So you are not boring, but even if you were, if you get something out of writing you're doing okay.

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“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

I am not on twitter, but I do look up Adam Johnsons tweets. Absolutely disassembles main stream propaganda. He is a writer for FAIR.

https://twitter.com/adamjohnsonNYC

For example:

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