"A televisual fairyland"

[mr blur]

Piece in todays Guardian on the US media:

"On Thursday, the fairy king of fairyland will be recrowned. He was elected on a platform suspended in midair by the power of imagination. He is the leader of a band of men who walk through ghostly realms unvisited by reality. And he remains the most powerful person on earth."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1392797,00.html

[passy]

1. I found this bit rather frightening...

" The role of the media corporations in the US is similar to that of repressive state regimes elsewhere: they decide what the public will and won't be allowed to hear, and either punish or recruit the social deviants who insist on telling a different story. "

[RBHam]

2. Particularly poignant...

"The role of the media corporations in the US is similar to that of repressive state regimes elsewhere: they decide what the public will and won't be allowed to hear, and either punish or recruit the social deviants who insist on telling a different story. The journalists they employ do what almost all journalists working under repressive regimes do: they internalize the demands of the censor, and understand, before anyone has told them, what is permissible and what is not.

So, when they are faced with a choice between a fable which helps the Republicans, and a reality which hurts them, they choose the fable. As their fantasies accumulate, the story they tell about the world veers further and further from reality. Anyone who tries to bring the people back down to earth is denounced as a traitor and a fantasist. And anyone who seeks to become president must first learn to live in fairyland."

[pa28]

3. What can you say really?

You'll never see a piece such as this appearing in the U.S. mass media for the very reasons discussed.

[passy]

4. kick

everyone on DU should read this

[passy]

5. kick some more

I will feel silly if there is a dupe out there but this needs our attention