The “Mainstream” Media Isn’t

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 You have probably heard someone refer – accurately – to government (rather than public) schools.

We need more such clarity.

More such honesty.

It deprives them – authoritarian collectivists – of the moral sanction they must have in order to keep otherwise decent people in thrall to them. To prevent criticism or even questioning of authoritarian collectivism by preventing any meaningful conversation about it. They use words to shut you up. To get you to accept the terms of the debate before there is a debate. So that there is no debate.

“Public” – schools or otherwise – is a shyster term. Purposely dishonest. The “public” – who is that, exactly? – owns absolutely nothing. Physical property is always – must be – owned by specific living, actual people. And ownership is defined by which living, specific people control the property.emotional

Do you control the – not your – local “public” school? Can you enter at will? Or must you obtain permission? Are you free to use it as you like? Or are you told how you may use it? Do you have any meaningful control over the teachers – or what is taught? Can you fire a teacher? Adjust the curricula an iota?

Exactly.

Tear off the euphemism Band Aid; let’s get to the suppurating sore underneath and have a look.

A government school is controlled by the people who work for the government. Who constitute the government, by dint of having the power to exercise control over other people and other things.

These are the people who control the school – and so, the education meted out within. The government  – these people –  force us to fund their schools and we are forced to hand our kids over to the government’s schools to be educated (another term in need of deconstruction) as the government – as those people – see fit.band-aid

Using honest language is important.

How about the “mainstream” media, as it is popular styled? Is it “mainstream”?

No, it is not.

Who defines what the “mainstream” of thought/opinion is? It is the handful of people who control editorial policy – what is allowed in print or allowed to be discussed on air – at the major media outlets: The New York Times, The Washington Post and the LA Times, plus the same things on Teevee: CBS, NBC, ABC, MSNBC. A relative handful of people who live mostly in Washington or LA or New York and mostly talk amongst themselves about the rest of us.

Contemptuously.dirty-harry

The “mainstream” media relentlessly agit-props for such things as the abolition of (or heavy-handed restriction of) the ownership of firearms by ordinary people – something most ordinary people very much oppose. The “mainstream” media tub-thumps for whatever wars-du-jour are ginned up the government-corporate nexus, the wars to be fought by the people who don’t want them and resent being forced to fund them. The “mainstream” media peddles “free” trade deals written for the benefit of multinational corporate cartels that eviscerate the middle and working classes’ livelihoods because the “mainstream” media thinks its jobs are safe (ha!).

The “mainstream” media’s views are profoundly alien to and despised by the mainstreamWhich holds the “mainstream” media in contempt for exactly this reason.

But the issue isn’t their contempt for the rest of us, nor our contempt for them. Nor their dishonest, egregiously biased coverage – which is biased more by omission (the topics and points-of-view never discussed) than by the way things they do discuss are discussed.orwell-quote

Rather, the issue is the effrontery of their assumption of the title, mainstream media.

A handful of people cannot, by definition, be “mainstream.” They are in fact an attenuated minority whose views are radically different from those held by most people.

That is, by the actual mainstream.pravda

But by using the word when we speak of them, we cede important ground.

Very much as we do when we speak of “public” rather than government schools. It lends an unreal legitimacy to both things. “Public” implying all of us are co-owners, when in fact we own not even a single blade of grass on the grounds of the government’s school. Similarly, accepting the term “mainstream” instantly marginalizes any journalism (or journalist) who isn’t a member in good standing of the attenuated minority.

So, we ought to stop using that word to describe them. Just as many of us now very purposefully refer to government rather than “public” schools.

But which word should we use to describe the attenuated minority media?cooper

Some have suggested that “state” media is apropos – in the spirit of Pravda. There is – pardon the obvious pun – truth in this.  The “mainstream” media organs, print and otherwise, are owned by a few very big corporations and these corporations are all in bed with the very big government housed in DC (mostly). There is a lot of reach-around going on, such as “embedding” journalists (an abuse of language) with “the troops” so as to control whatever is “covered” by these (cough) journalists. It is no accident that the “coverage” of the corporate-government wars of the past 20 years is markedly different from the coverage given by independent journalists during the Vietnam era.

When journalists were not sleeping with the government (“embedded”) but out there getting at the story, whatever it turned out to be. When they weren’t looking at what they were allowed to look at – and spoon fed “stories” by their government handlers.satan

But it’s still not overt state media – just very close to it.

Which is why I like the term coined by the economist Paul Craig Roberts: Presstitutes.

It neatly conveys exactly what the members of the “mainstream” media are: Bought and paid for shills for the government-corporate nexus; mouthpieces for the powers-that-be.

Whores.

They sell their words, their voices – and so, their souls – to the highest bidder.

I speak as one who was offered that deal – and declined it. Not because I’m a journalistic buddha master. I just couldn’t bring myself to spread my proverbial legs and so here I am.

The poorer for it, but my soul still intact.

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23 COMMENTS

  1. Dear Eric,

    You wrote: “To prevent criticism or even questioning of authoritarian collectivism by preventing any meaningful conversation about it. They use words to shut you up. To get you to accept the terms of the debate before there is a debate. So that there is no debate.”

    You nailed it.

    Most people, even many fellow libertarians, don’t fully appreciate the agenda behind Orwellian Newspeak. Most people think of it merely as “false advertising” It is that of course, but its real agenda is far more insidious.

    The real agenda behind Orwellian Newspeak is not to tell Big Lies. The real agenda behind Orwellian Newspeak is to eliminate words that refer to natural rights and individual liberty from the language entirely, making it impossible for people to even form thoughts about rights and liberties in their minds, let alone advocate them.

    One example is the term “libertarian”. Recently the PTB fielded Gary Johnson and Bill Weld as “Libertarian Party” candidates for POTUS and VPOTUS. These men are LINOS. Libertarians in name only. By doing this, the PTB emptied the term “libertarian” of any real meaning. Libertarian comes to mean “part of the authoritarian conservative spectrum”. Doing this neuters the term “libertarian”, which as Ron Paul’s rise to prominence showed, constituted a grave threat to the PTB.

    The PTB first did this with the term “liberalism”, which used to mean “champion of individual liberty” and “advocate of the free market”. When “champions of individual liberty” and “advocates of the free market” created the artificial term “libertarianism” as a poor substitute, the PTB knew they had to do the same with the new term.

    And so it goes.

  2. Eric:

    I saw your Orwell graphic…and for a brief second thought it was Josh Earnest (isn’t that a fitting name for dedicated liar? But I digress…) in an uncharacteristic moment of honesty…The picture even looks close…

    Then I blinked and realized that most all truths have been previously uttered, and left for us to find them, hopefully prior to the need, not in retrospect

  3. How about Elite or Elitist media. Most of the people I know in the media truly think they’re a whole lot smarter than the rest of us. One of them is so brilliant that he went through three clutches on his 5 speed Jeep in 67k miles. When I asked if he “rode the clutch” he asked what I meant. I said, “You know, ride your left foot on it while you drive.” He replied, “isn’t that what everyone does?”

    • Hi Mark,

      Yup!

      I find myself in the odd position of having seen (and been) behind the proverbial curtain. I know how this game is played. But also find myself “among the deplorables” now.

      One of these days, I will gather my memories and set them to print.

    • Mark he sounds like a high functioning newstwit. He was able to drive a manual shift, after a fashion. If I hadn’t read it here, I never woulda believed that a newstwit could manage that.

  4. First of all Eric, the “mainstream media” as you call it are not whores, they are simply working under a license to carry out a trade.

    Secondly, the “public schools” are your local, friendly, government, youth propaganda camps, replete with armed guards and barbed wire.

    And thirdly, I’m pretty got-damned sure that it is illegal for words to have any meaning.

    Individuals think in words. Ergo, IF words were allowed to have actual meaning, individuals would be able to have unauthorized thoughts.

    Eliminating unauthorized thoughts is essential in the automotive industry. If individuals working for a licensed organization were allowed to engage in unauthorized thinking, they might point out certain laws of physics. Or even worse, they may come to the realization that they were actually engaged in immoral activities and refuse to do their jobs.

    Imagine the horrors of living in a world where individuals were allowed to think.

    Who would design the cars? Where would we go to buy a vehicle with deadly airbags, poor visibility, piss (urea solution) tanks, and an electronic system that reports our every move?

  5. HI Eric,

    I suggest “establishment media”.

    WaPo’s Gettysburg address by Jeremy Parfitt.

    Eleven score and nine years ago our “fathers” brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in privilege, and dedicated to the proposition that some men should rule over others.

    Now we are in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on the digital battlefield of that war. We have come to destroy a portion of that field and usher in a final resting place for those dangerous few who gave their all that that nation might perish. It is altogether fitting and proper that we do this.

    But, in a larger sense, we must be ruthless, we must be vigilant, we cannot cede this ground. Those men, living and dead, who struggled here have succeeded, far beyond what our hubris will admit. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say, if we fail to erase what they have achieved here. It is for us the elite, rather, to be dedicated here to the vital fight against those who have thus far so surprisingly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us – that from these questioning few we take their platform and crush that cause for which they give their full measure of devotion – that we here highly resolve that these people shall have toiled in vain – that this nation, under us, shall have a new birth of power – and that media of the establishment, by the establishment, for the establishment, shall not perish from the earth.

    Jeremy

  6. The term “Mainstream Media” is at worst outdated or maybe regionally applicable. When the term was created most people believed what the big networks and such had to say. I think most still do. Once I leave the safety of sites like this or venture out into in-person discussion I find that people by and large repeat what the government schools and the mainstream media told them. I’m wrong because their grade school teacher or the news reader told them X. End of discussion. Data beyond that isn’t accepted.

    We see now these ‘fact-checking’ sites and ‘fake-news’ lists which by and large exist to reinforce the same messages. The fake-news lists contain many popular libertarian websites. Gee that’s such a surprise. Because it isn’t about what is fake, it’s about what disagrees with the narrative and publishes facts that don’t fit it.

    We may be at a turning point and hence these acts to retain people’s beliefs, but they largely seem to exist to give the faithful reason to remain so. Something to bludgeon those who aren’t with.

    Maybe it is time to replace “Mainstream” with “big corporate” or some other term, but mainstream was once a valid term.

  7. I am not at all surprised that you were propositioned. I have done the same at my shop, refusing propositions to do business the way most of my contemporaries do. I have flat-out told people I am not a parts-installer, nor am I a labor-prostitute. I provide repair services as a package deal, all of nothing. I still hold hand with the Devil as far as VA State Inspections, but for very different reasons than my contemporaries. I need to know the State Government Pitfalls AND be in a position to help my customers avoid trouble with said State Government. This fence-riding is precarious and not without danger of injury to myself. I comply strictly to the Inspection Standards for my sake as well as my customers. I want my customers to be confident they can legally meet Inspections standards anywhere they go, and do so with confidence. By being honest with my customers, AND strictly complying with Inspection rules, I have been able to maintain this balancing act successfully. That is not to say that my customers, or even myself, are happy with ALL the Inspections rules.
    There are, in fact, some rules that push the limit of “coercion” and unreasonable “safety” requirements. I do see a point at which the independent garages will have to take a stand in opposition to the increasingly overbearing mandates of the State. This will become increasingly apparent as the State bears NO COST whatever for the implementation and operation of ANY inspection facility. Sadly, I do not believe the garage owners will ever unite in any way shape or form to combat this government monster. It is likely that the independent garage will go the way of the gas/service stations of decades past. By then, I hope to have my feet on the path of another occupation that doesn’t involve government interference and extortion. Guess that rules out selling insurance!
    Graves

  8. Media lies and fabrications have been going on ever since there were “journalists” (I use that term loosely).
    From “Remember the Maine” in the Spanish-American war (actually a powder magazine explosion–not an attack) to Ne3w York Times’ walter duranty’s extolling the “virtues” of communism while one of the greatest “artificially-engineered (by communists)” famines in the Ukraine” was taking place, in order to force the “collectivization” of privately-held farms, to walter cronkite outright lying about American military effectiveness during the 1968 Vietnam “Tet offensive” (in which much enemy life was lost) journalism has always been a “nasty craft”. In cronkite’s case, the North Vietnamese were ready to settle (and capitulate) until cronkite’s lies about the supposed American “defeat” were publicized. Cronkite’s lies gave the North Vietnamese new resolve, as they realized that they had the American “news media” on their side (as they later admitted). There has always been a certain sympathy for communism and totalitarianism in the so-called “mainstream media”. All one has to do is to look at the journalists fawning over Cuba’s Fidel Castro and how wonderful life is in that communist “paradise”.
    Look at NBC’s rigging of GMC truck gas tanks to explode and the “doctoring” of George Zimmerman’s 911 dispatcher conversation to make him appear “racist”. Showing “young trayvon’s” picture as a 12-year-old rather than his current facebook “thug” picture is journalistic malpractice of the highest order.
    Journalists HATE the internet because it exposes their “profession” for what it really is…with the internet, anyone can be a true journalist. This is why the same “mainstream media” is calling for the “licensing” of journalists–something that would have been unheard of (and treasonous) in previous decades…
    Professional journalism is its own worst enemy…

    • I did enjoy today’s coverage of the allah akbar(ing) in Buckeye town.

      The only active shooter was a cop.

      The FBI is assisting in the investigation.

      The governor said “Think about what this tragedy could have meant, a man with a butcher knife and who knows what else?”

      You are so right governor. So very, very right. What if this motherfucker had a fork too? Or god forbid – a spoon.

      If you feel the time has come for common sense knife control, please contact the National Independent Cutlery Association
      N I C A
      2636 Bogue Drive
      Glendale, CA 91208
      Phone: (818) 548-7796

      Demand they support registration and licensing of all knife owners.

      Do it for the children. Do it today!

      Authorities have not disclosed whether or not 18 year old Abdul Razak Ali Artan was a member of the National Knife Collectors Association, Inc., but he could have been.

        • Hi Escher,

          Egads! 🙂

          It’s amazing – the silence when it comes to knives. They “kill” just as effectively. Another item: The greatest “school shooting” in American history did not involve a gun. It involved explosives, which (even when banned) can be concocted by any determined person with some high school chemistry smarts.

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