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Recent
Stories
June
2, 2003
Arundhati
Roy
Day of the Jackals
Norman
Madarasz
Behind the Neo-Con Curtain: Plato,
Leo Strauss and Allan Bloom
Alain
Frachon and Daniel Vernet
The Strategist and the Philosopher: Strauss and Wohlstetter
Anthony
Gancarski
Anti-Imperialism, Then & Now
Standard
Schaefer
Wasted at the Pentagon
Jason
Leopold
Rocky's Advice to the Dems
Guthrie
& Albert
HUAC 58 Years Letter
Steve
Perry
The Politics of Terror Alerts
May
31, 2003
Alexander
Cockburn
A Whiner Called Horowitz
Gary Leupp
The Frauds of War
Dave
Lindorff
Clinton, Bush, Lies and Impeachment
Tom Stephens
Does It Matter that the Bush Administration Lied?
Sasan
Fayazmanesh
Who Is Next?
Joanne
Mariner
Trivializing Terrorism
Wayne
Madsen
Ayatollah Rumseld's Busy Week
Larry Magnuson
Is a Television a Radio or a Billboard?
Elaine
Cassel
Wake Up, America!
Gila Svirsky
Waiting for the Lament to End
Susan
Davis
Kitchen Dreams
Chris Clarke
Barbra Streisand: Environmental Hypocrite
Chris
Floyd
Bush Locates Source of World Evil: God
Adam Engel
Gravity's End Zone
Poets'
Basement
Reiss, Guthrie, Orloski, Albert
May
30, 2003
Ben
Tripp
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Agenda
Neve
Gordon
The Bad Fence
Todd
Steiner
Endangered Ocean
Robert
Freeman
Bush's Tax Cuts: a Form of National Insanity
Sean
Carter
Utah Gets Fired Up for Executions
Daniel
Bacher
How Bush's War Violated International Laws
Tariq
Ali
Re-Colonizing Iraq
Steve
Perry
Bush Wars
Web Log
May
29, 2003
CounterPunch
Wire
WMD: Who Said What When
Jason
Leopold
Despite Thin Intelligence Reports,
US Plans Overthrow of Iran Regime
Ron
Jacobs
Popular Uprising, Inc.
Michelle
Ciaccorra
Bush's Nuclear Policy: Do As I Say, Not As I Do
Yves Engler
The Economics of Health Care in
America: Pay More to Die Sooner
Kimberly
Blaker
Vouchers for Jesus
Harry
Browne
Stakeknife: Britain's Army Spy at
the Top of the IRA
Stew
Albert
Cops of the World
Steve Perry
Greens 04: In or Out?
May
28, 2003
David
Vest
DubyaCo.: It's Not So Funny Any More
Dave
Lindorff
My Grandfather's Medal
John
Stanton
America's Dying: Arts and Philosophy Hold the Key
Bernard
Weiner
A PNAC Primer
Robert
Jensen
Texas Dems Set a Standard for the Rest of the Party
Ahmad Faruqui
The Oil Business of Regime Change:
the CIA and Iran
Hammond
Guthrie
Disarming Conundrums
Steve Perry
What If There's No Such Thing as Al-Qaeda?
May
27, 2003
Kurt
Nimmo
Condoleezza Rice: Huckstress for Israeli
Myths
Anthony
Gancarski
Hillary: a Dem the NeoCons Could Love?
Patrick
Cockburn
Terror, Bush and Joseph Conrad
John Chuckman
an Interpretation of Bush's Character
Kathleen
Christison
What Sharon Wants, Sharon Gets
Jeffrey
Blankfort
AIPAC Hijacks the Roadmap
Steve
Perry
Trouble in the Hinterlands
May
26, 2003
Franklin
C. Spinney
Test Anxiety: Star Wars, Punctuated
Epistimology and the Triumph of Medievalism
Elaine
Cassel
Supreme Sacrifice
Sam
Hamod
When Trained Killers Return Home
Stew Albert
The Final Conflict
May
24 / 25, 2003
Gary
Leupp
The Philosopher Kings: Leo Strauss
and the Neo-Cons
Uri Avnery
The Hannibal Procedure
Diane
Christian
Who's the Real Enemy?
"Just Cause" or "Kill the Bastards"
Alexander
Cockburn
Derrida's Double Life
William
S. Lind
Is Saddam Really Out of the Game?
William
Cook
Road to Nowhere
David Krieger
Bush's War on the Poor: Economic Justice
Ilan
Pappe
Academic Freedom Under Assault in Israel
Wayne Madsen
American Idle
Noah
Leavitt
Slowing Sowing Justice in the Killing Fields
Walt Brasch
Americans are Liars
Lenni
Brenner
John Brown and Dutch Bill
Mickey
Z.
Hope, Crosby & Al Qaeda
Michael
Ortiz Hill
Grievous Harm Here and Abroad
Adam Engel
Towers of Babel
Poets'
Basement
Albert, Guthrie, Alam, Orloski
May
23, 2003
Standard
Schaefer
Lifting the Sanctions: Who Benefits?
Ron
Jacobs
Long Live People's Park!
Michael
Greger, MD
Return of Mad Cow: US Beef Supply
at Risk
Elaine
Cassel
Tigar to Ashcroft: "Secrecy is the Enemy of Democratic Govt."
Sam
Hamod
The Shi'a of Iraq
Christopher
Greeder
After the Layoffs (poem)
Steve
Perry
Bush's Wars Weblog 5/23
Hot Stories
CounterPunch
Wire
WMD: Who Said What When
Cindy
Corrie
A Mother's Day Talk: the Daughter
I Can't Hear From
Elaine
Cassel
Civil Liberties
Watch
Michel
Guerrin
Embedded Photographer Says: "I
Saw Marines Kill Civilians"
Uzma
Aslam Khan
The Unbearably Grim Aftermath of War:
What America Says Does Not Go
Paul de Rooij
Arrogant
Propaganda
Gore Vidal
The
Erosion of the American Dream
Francis Boyle
Impeach
Bush: A Draft Resolution
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June
3, 2003
The Final Brick in
the Wall
FCC, Bush, Ashcroft
and the Control of the US Media
By SAM HAMOD
Having just returned from Washington, DC, I was
shocked by the insularity of the "inside the beltway"
crowd that runs America today. I had been there from 1980 through
1995, and had seen an insularity then, but nothing like that
of today. This insularity, and closed situation is complimented
these days by armed troops, police and plain clothes operatives
near every major landmark, barricades, street closings and the
general gloom of a police state under siege. In fact, it reminded
me more of a Third World country than the D.C. I lived in; also,
a little like Tel Aviv or Jerusalem--with all the trappings of
patriotism and power, guarded by security because the alleged
democracy had failed.
At this time, I feel our democracy has
failed and is going to go even further into the tank. As of today,
all the bricks of the wall will be in place for total domination
of the American public--and even, perhaps much of the world.
I say the "world" because these news allowances for
an oligopoly in media will allow Rupert "Faux News"
Murdoch, control over all the satellite news and sports transmissions
in the world with the other "major networks" getting
the chance to gobble up all other competition that still exists
in TV and radio. This will all be courtesy of the FCC, which
is led by Michael Powell and two other very right wing commissioners
who have tried to keep their work secret--though it was supposed
to be open with major public hearings throughout the USA.
Today, the Bush controlled FCC is going
to put the final brick in place for fascistic control of the
American people. Up to now, it has been Bush, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz
and their war policies and their endless wars against "terrorism",
with Ashcroft and his minions attacking civil and human rights
unseen since the days of the Nazi's in Germany, and now Michael
Powell, the son of the servile Colin Powell, is handing unlimited
media power to a small few who will continue supporting the Bush
fascistic causes.
The sad thing about all of this is that
at this point, Murdock, Clear Channel, Eisner, Faux, GM, CNN
and the NY Times, the Washington Post are all on the same page--supporting
everything and anything Bush does. Many felt the NY Times might
continue to be a more objective paper; unfortunately, with the
recent writings of Judith Miller and her scurrilous stories about
WMD and other matters in the Middle East and Iraq, plus the stories
that have come from Rick Bragg and Jayson Blair about the inside
workings of the Times, it appears that it has gone the way of
other former bastions of the Fourth Estate--into the same trash
pit as the major TV and radio outlets. What is important is that
most of the news is now controlled by a few--now even those few
independent outposts are going to have a harder time surviving
in the commercial realm because the FCC will allow the giants
to gobble up more of the media outlets as of today's ruling.
Few realize that Murdoch already controls all but one major satellite
information system--for the entire WORLD, not just for the U.S.
And yet, this politicized FCC in the US, will affect the entire
world with its decision today.
As it is, the American people have been
put to sleep about the truth by the constant barrage of "stories"
about Bush's war on terrorism, so too will other nations suffer
the same fate. The nightly, showing of pseudo-events by Bush
or other "leaders", his speech to a group in St. Louis,
his speech here or there, or Rumsfeld speaking here or there--not
making policy, but using the speaking situations for photo ops,
and the media pretending like it is really news and not just
a furtherance of the Bush propaganda machine! Now, the sleeping
masses, will believe in these falsehoods even more, and when
they get bored with that there will always be another "major
sporting" event to watch, a tournament of college or professional
teams, or another X Man or sit com or reality TV show they just
"can't miss"--or another form of "must see"
TV.
The publics will do this until they are
so bored by the lack of quality they have come to expect, that
they nod off and lumber off to bed so they can sleep before getting
up in the morning to get into the traffic jam on the way to a
job that is paying less and less and where the benefits (like
insurance, leave time, etc.) are being cut on a daily basis as
their real costs of living (taxes, insurance, utilities) are
soaring, not just in America, but in th4 world.
But back to America itself. At this time,
according to polls (which I question), Bush continues being hugely
popular--even while people's rights, salaries, jobs, sanity are
being taken, inch by inch, moment by moment, with a totally weird
Supreme Court allowing these abuses of rights, working conditions
and all else to deteriorate. Of course, the Congress, both houses,
are no better. They seem to be in another country. They have
lost touch, whether by design or by carelessness, with the people
they allegedly represent.
But another factor, which is even more
pernicious, is that many of these alleged "people's representatives"
, who are primarily looking for re-election rather than helping
their constituents, may be taken in by the media and these false
polls, and thus follow and allow the Bush team to do what it
wants because they falsely believe that the public loves what
Bush and his team are doing.
So, as of today, though you will not
notice it with a jolt, the news walls that wall in fortress America
will be higher and harder to see over, to see outside for other
news of and from the world. Also, in the world, the control of
the satellite transmissions will shift according to the whims
of the Murdoch team, with no international body to protest to.
We shall all be the poorer for these
developments, but there will be little we can do about it unless
we turn off our TV sets and radios--but most people can't live
in that vacuum because we've all been conditioned to have that
hit of TV every night or day and to have that radio on in our
cars as we wait in the traffic jams or even cross the country
on interstates, or even with the news flashes furnished by NBC
for aircraft as they ply the heavens.
As I said, we shall all be losers, not
only in terms of media, but in terms of our humanity, our civil
and human rights that will be even more controlled by a regime
whose fascism has already been evident over the past two years.
What the future may hold, only God and the devil know.
Sam Hamod
is an expert on world affairs, especially the Arab and Muslim
worlds, former editor of THIRD WORLD NEWS (in Wash, DC), a former
professor at Princeton University, former Director of The National
Islamic Center of Washington, DC, an advisor to the US State
Department and author of ISLAM IN THE WORLD TODAY. He is the
editor of www.todaysalternativenews.com,
and may be reached at shamod@cox.net
Today's
Features
Arundhati
Roy
Day of the Jackals
Norman
Madarasz
Behind the Neo-Con Curtain: Plato,
Leo Strauss and Allan Bloom
Alain
Frachon and Daniel Vernet
The Strategist and the Philosopher: Strauss and Wohlstetter
Anthony
Gancarski
Anti-Imperialism, Then & Now
Standard
Schaefer
Wasted at the Pentagon
Jason
Leopold
Rocky's Advice to the Dems
Guthrie
& Albert
HUAC 58 Years Letter
Steve
Perry
The Politics of Terror Alerts
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