This webpage is dedicated to the late NBC News presenter Tim Russert (1950 – 2008). He was a conservative pundit for NBC and MSNBC. Tim Russert was the Managing Editor and Moderator of "Meet the Press" and political analyst for "NBC Nightly News" and the "Today Program." He anchored "The Tim Russert Show," a weekly interview program on CNBC and was a contributing anchor for MSNBC. Tim Russert also served as senior vice president and Washington bureau chief of NBC News. Tim Russert was not a journalist, he was a neo-conservative political pundit. Bush White House official Cathie Martin testified in a court of law that the Republicans used Tim Russert to control their message. Tim Russert was selling homage to his father books that promote him as being a wholesome, traditional, sentimental, mainstream-values "good American", but he was indifferent to the fathers and sons who've been crippled, maimed, disfigured, and killed in Iraq as a result of his disinformation and the disinformation his right-wing guests shilled. Tim Russert claims to be doing God's work in his article "Am I Doing God's Work?" Before Russert became a "journalist", Russert first became famous for his dirty tricks campaigns which were whispering campaigns to other reporters that maligned opposing candidates. Candidates who were attacked by Russert were said to be "Russerted." During his first job in politics working for New York's Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, he teamed up with his cohort the neoconservative William Kristol. See the link to the article below where Tim Russert said "Integrity is for paupers!". His other famous quote is "line between security and freedom will have to be redefined."
On the day Tim Russert died, these were the deaths from the Iraq war: 129 journalists killed in Iraq, 4099 American soliders had died in Iraq, 30333 American soliders were wounded in Iraq, and over 1,222,013 Iraqi civilians had been killed in the Iraq war. None of those deaths were reported in the news. Tim Russert never talked about American casualties on his shows, for him, that was not an issue.
He only allowed right-wing commentators, journalists, pundits, lobbyists, politicos, and shills to speak in his "roundtable discussions." He let them say outrageously false statements without any question. He framed the debates in terms of right-wing talking points. Tim Russert pretended to be a working class hero, but he admantly refused to allow any issues that effect working class people to be discussed; Tim Russert wouldn't have union people on his shows, just corporate pundits, spokesmen, and lobbyists. These are guests that he never allowed to speak on his show and rountable discussions: Keith Olbermann, Amy Goodman, Noam Chomsky, Greg Palast, Scott Ritter, Arundhati Roy, Cynthia Tucker, Richard Reeves, Ted Rall, Linda Chavez, Arianna Huffington, Bill Moyers, David Brancaccio, Larry Abramson, Juan Gonzalez, Jeff Cohen, Jim Naureckas, Steve Rendall, Seth Ackerman, Howard Zinn, Daniel Ellsberg, Paul Krassner, Ron Paul, Dennis Kucinich, and anybody else who asked real questions.
Tim Russert was famous for asking "softball" questions to Republicans and "hardball" questions to Democrats.
He failed to ask Republicans about contradictions in their statements and policies.
He consistently failed to ask the most painfully obvious follow up questions to Republicans leaving many viewers frustrated that he had someone in power on his show but left so many important questions unasked.
He delivered "softball" questions to Republicans and never asked the most obvious follow up questions to them. Well, he played the media game well and had his own show, but he acted like Fox News's Bill O'Reilly more and more every day.
Tim Russert was famous for grilling powerless newcomers yet being obsequious to authority.
Tim Russert frequently had commentators from right-wing think-tanks while he never has progressive political activists.
He pandered to the authority in power and bashes the powerless.
He pandered to Republicans in authority and plays "gotcha" with Democrats.
Tim Russert frequently asked "loaded questions" to Democrats and critics of Republicans.
Tim Russert used subtle language in his questions that imply that anyone who is a Democrat or progressive is temperamental, insane, mentally unballanced, irrational, and just wrong.
Whenever he played "gotcha" to a Democrat, he used "facts" given to him from Republicans and right-wing think-tanks; that was his "research".
He ambushed Democrats with obscure facts given to him by Republicans, used obscure quotes, quotes from right-wing newspapers (he quoted from Republican political opinion op-ed commentaries as if those op-eds were regular reports), and he used right-wing think-tank talking-points. Some of the Republican political opinion op-ed commentaries Russert quotes come from very extremist right-wing publications.
Tim Russert was also a fast-talker and he sometimes puts "mistakes" in his interviews that the interviewee sometimes doesn't always catch.
He pressed Democrats on factually incorrect statements until he could get a sound bite answer out of them that he and other right-wing pundits could loop out of context to embarrass them later.
But when Democrat Bill Clinton was President, he gave "softball" interviews to Hillary Clinton which hinted that he sometimes just kowtows to whoever happens to be in authority.
I've looked up dozens of websites on Tim Russert and they all pretty much say the same thing.
Tim Russert kept saying that his show featured the "people in power", but he keeps having "political analysts" from right-wing think-tanks who did not have any official position in government on his show while he never had progressive political activists.
He let the right-wing think-tank pundits use his show as a forum to shill the same kinds of right-wing rhetoric the radio conservatives and Fox News pundits shill, and Tim Russert just sat there smiling and nodding his head to everything they said without question.
That's what he was about.
He cared about getting his "media access" to the powerful people in government and upper crust elite society.
Tim Russert routinely downplayed, ignored, and apologized for Republican controversies that make the Republicans look bad.
Every time there was a "hot" controversy in the news with Republicans, he had the Republicans who are in the controversy on his show and he gives them weak "softball" nominal questions. That way the Republicans pretended they've responded to the controversy when in actuality, they used Russert's show as a PR ploy to placate their constituents and have actually said nothing.
Instead of being a real journalist and reporting the facts as they are, he kept "reframing" the debate by using his famous red herring argument "... but the question is ...".
Every time he says "... but the question is ..." he's changing the argument to one where Republicans have talking points that could rationalize and justify whatever controversy is happening.
That is a classic right-wing Republican argument technique called "reframing the debate" or also called "bait and switch."
By doing that, Tim Russert showed that he was an apologist for right-wing Republicans. Tim Russert once said that the "line between security and freedom will have to be redefined."
For Democrats and progressives, Tim Russert was a ruthless hatchet man who does "hit pieces" on Democrats and progressives.
Tim Russert once had Fox News right-wing pundit Bill O'Reilly on his MSNBC show to plug his book. Tim Russert handed his show over to Bill O'Reilly who went on to lambast his critics; Tim Russert nodded in agreement to everything Bill O'Reilly said, refused to point out the painfully obvious contradictions in O'Reilly's statements, failed to ask the most obvious follow up questions, and proved once and for all that Tim Russert and Bill O'Reilly are of the same ilk. Tim Russert also associated with Don Imus who has said many bigoted statements. Tim Russert's favoritism revealed he was a neo-conservative Republican.
Before the last general election, Tim Russert had been saying for weeks that the upcoming presidential election would be decided by 10% of the voters in 18 "swing states." He was also saying that all the other people in the other states are irrelevant. He kept citing polls as proof without mentioning his polls' wide margins of error. He ignored polls that did not support his agendas. He blatantly discouraged/disenfranched people who are not in the "swing-states" from voting. He preemptively "called the election" over.
Tim Russert did not have quite the disingenuous self-righteous hypocrisy that sanctimonious racist neo-conservative Republican news pundit CBS Face The Nation's Bob Schieffer has, but he was getting there. Tim Russert still wasn't been accepted into the elite social circles as lackey Bob Schieffer has, so Tim Russert sometimes bends to non-Republicans who are in power. Tim Russert's coworker Andrea Mitchell is a worse neo-con pundit who is probably going to take over Tim Russert's job.
Tim Russert thought he was famous for his use of a small white dry eraserboard on election night 2000, but the truth is that was the NBC show's producer's idea. Tim Russert took credit for something that wasn't his idea and then pretends that gimmick is indicative of his character.
PLAMEGATE:Tim Russert was under investigation by the US government for his involvement in the CIA leak case where someone inside the Bush White House revealed to right-wing pundits the identity of a CIA agent in a covert operation. Tim Russert's friend and frequent guest on his shows, Bob Novak, printed the name of that CIA agent, Valerie Plame, as a political retaliation against her husband. Bush White House officials Karl Rove and Lewis "Scooter" Libby said Tim Russert told them that Valerie Plame was a CIA agent. A lot of people want to know how Tim Russert knew such information. U.S. District Chief Judge Thomas Hogan ordered a reporter held for civil contempt and ruled that Tim Russert must testify in the investigation into whether the Bush administration illegally leaked a covert CIA officer's name to the media. The subpoenas, issued by special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald, required that Tim Russert appear before a federal grand jury to testify about conversations with an unidentified government official who was a confidential source. Tim Russert, facing potential jail time and fines, negotiated an agreement with the prosecutor and submitted to questioning in August. NBC said Tim Russert offered to be interviewed by Fitzgerald if it would be done under oath but not before a grand jury, and if he would not be asked questions that would have required him to disclose information provided in confidence. Tim Russert bashes progressives and hosts many right-wing guests who call progressives "traitors", but at the same time Tim Russert was involved in a serious breach of national security. Tim Russert and his buddy Bob Novak put that CIA agent's life at risk and wasted millions of dollars that the CIA had spent in their investigations with that agent. Of course NBC has been giving Tim Russert and his buddy Bob Novak a "free pass" for their despicable acts. Arianna Huffington and Eric Boehlert have been writing extensively on Tim Russert's involvement in the CIA leak. See the link to CNN article below "CIA leak: Sources point to Rove-Libby contacts" on Tim Russert's involvement in the CIA leak.
Tim Russert had been selling his book about his father, trying to portray himself as being some kind of rags to riches success story, but his father Big Russ said something funny about his lackey son, "I still can't get over that they pay you all that money to BS on television." (that's Tim Russert quoting his father, Charlie Rose Show, 5/10/04). That's Big Russ's opinion of his son. Apparently Tim Russert grew up in a lower income caste and he did whatever it took to get rich. See below the link to the article that has the quote where Tim Russert said "Integrity is for paupers!"
Russert missed Vietnam because of the deferment available to college kids, Russert was not the poor kid he describes himself as, not the rags to riches story, only the privileged get deferments. Those same rich kids who dodged the draft are also the fortunate ones who are gung ho about sending the poor off to war
This was how you can BUY Tim Russert, you book him to speak at your event and pay him tens of thousands of dollars. Russert usually receives his standard $50,000-$60,000 fee along with first-class airfare for two - although "according to [Russert's lecture agent] ... private planes are strongly preferred."
Tim Russert's death
On the day Tim Russert died, these were the deaths from the Iraq war: 4099 American soliders had died in Iraq, 30333 American soliders were wounded in Iraq, and over 1,222,013 Iraqi civilians had been killed in the Iraq war. None of those deaths were reported in the news.
Russert expounded on how being employed by GE had brought him to the realization that things functioned better when Republicans were in charge. "I still believe," Russert said, leaning across the table. "I believe in everything I ever did. But I also know that I never would have become moderator on Meet The Press if my employers were uncomfortable with me. And, given the amount of money at stake, millions of dollars, I don’t blame them. This is business. ... Integrity is for paupers!"
Tim Russert is fast becoming journalism’s answer to the "E-ZPass," those electronic tags that allow drivers to go through toll booths without having to stop. On the show today, Mehlman was allowed to distort, twist, manipulate, obfuscate and "disassemble" his way through every stop on the disinformation highway.
Tim Russert was fresh out of law school when he signed on with Daniel Patrick Moynihan and later Mario Cuomo as a Democratic operative whose media skills were so effective it was said that opponents had been "Russerted."
it's still a fact that Meet The Press provided a national platform for the Bush administration to push its war
Videos on Tim Russert
Right-wing spammers post comments falsely claiming that Tim Russert was a liberal. Tim Russert frames the debates in terms of right-wing talking points and then he and his guests recite the talking points and bash Democrats.
RIP MSM bag of lies. Russert's show is where we first got the to hear the lies about the "mushromm clound smoking guns" and he was also the "journalist" chosen by Libby to leak Valarie Plame's name. Russert never covered not once the story of the Niger foreries or anything against the Neocons. Nothing.
Russert passes for a "tough" interviewer by adopting a confrontational pose rather than asking genuinely challenging questions. Which is why he's a terrible moderator for our presidential debates.... The two parties' nominees will be decided three months from now, and we can be sure that in that time, at least one or two candidates will have their campaigns upended by the answer they gave to an absurd question, delivered by Tim Russert or someone like him, about what their favorite Bible verse is, or whom they want to win the Super Bowl, or what kind of beer they like. "Aha!" the reporters will shout, as though they actually unearthed something revealing on which the race for the presidency of the most powerful nation on earth should be decided. The one whose tiny little mind devised the question will be praised to the stars for his journalistic acumen. ... And they’ll continue to wonder why so many Americans are so cynical about our electoral process.
"The bravery of the first responders who went up the stairs of burning buildings. The heroic selfless souls on United flight #93. The patience of tens of thousands of drivers who left the devastated areas in an orderly way. I have not honked my car horn since September 11 as a gesture of respect to all of them."
Arianna takes on one of the Beltway’s major media players, Meet the Press' Tim Russert. Every Friday she offers a sneak peek at the guest list for the upcoming show and suggests a few of the hard-hitting questions Russert should-but probably won't-ask. Then, on Sunday, after the show, she counts the bodies… and the missed opportunities., search for "Russert" to find more articles. Tim Russert started a smear campaign against Arianna Huffington by claiming she hired private detectives - this was another example of Tim Russert's flat out lies. The smear campaign was also was carried out by Republican political consultant Ed Rollins thereby further proving Tim Russert was a Republican shill.
Scooter Libby, chief of staff for Vice President Dick Cheney, told special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald that Russert was the first to tell him of the identity of Central Intelligence Agency officer Valerie Plame (Mrs. Joseph C. Wilson). Russert testified previously and again in United States v. I. Lewis Libby that he did not tell Libby of Mrs. Wilson's CIA identity. Russert testified again in the trial on Wednesday, February 7, 2007. During the trial, another witness, former Cheney communications director Cathie Martin, testified that she "suggested we put the vice president on 'Meet the Press,'" hosted by Russert on NBC, and that it was "a tactic we often used....It's our best format."
In testimony shown to Rove, Libby stated that numerous journalists appeared to have learned about Plame's identity in the period before her name was published and that he and Rove talked to each other about their contacts with reporters. Libby's testimony stated that Rove had told him about his contact with Novak and that Libby had told Rove about information he had gotten about Wilson's wife from NBC's Tim Russert, according to a person familiar with the information shown to Rove.
Tim Russert, eager to peddle his own feel-good book, was peddling a ludicrous legend. Russert wished away the most basic facts. But so what? The grinning entertainer was building a legend. Result? He misled you again.
he simply makes up facts to get his guests to make statements that will embarrass them later on, but Russert never fesses up that he makes up his facts
... In the aftermath of the session, Russert was praised by other pundits for the way he grilled his guest. Russert "brilliantly pummel[ed] this guy all morning," Bill Sammon said on Special Report. In the Washington Post, Mary McGrory said that Gore "had the look of someone in the midst of a root canal," and "never got a break" from his host. In the Boston Herald, Wayne Woodlief lauded Russert’s "brilliant and persistent questioning." Russert was "so sharp, so knowledgeable on the issues, so well-prepared that I’m darned near ready to vote for the first candidate who picks Russert as a running mate." In the Post, Marjorie Williams called Russert "famously gladiatorial." The only problem in his performance, she said, was that he was "too well prepared." As usual, fawning pundits stood in line to praise their high-profile colleague. But no one lauded Russert more than Time’s Margaret Carlson-and no one heaped more scorn on Gore. "Russert chopped him up in little pieces," she said on the July 20 Imus in the Morning.
he simply makes up facts to get his guests to make statements that will embarrass them later on, but Russert never fesses up that he makes up his facts
Here, an independent news organization went to a sitting administration, asked it to work up numbers for its benefit, and then used those numbers to launch what amounted to a rhetorical sting operation on a candidate of the other party. Tim Russert of MTP actually called the White House to get his talking points when he interviewed Howard Dean, wasn't this was the real story of the interview?
This bad performance could have proved calamitous had faux tough guy Tim Russert, famous for grilling powerless newcomers yet obsequious to authority, asked the proper follow-up questions
During the 2000 Presidential Election, Tim Russert repeatedly used right-wing talking-points and kept calling Vice President Al Gore "dishonest" and repeatedly accused Gore of "repeated lying." Tim Russert's accusations were unsubstantiated, but he kept doing it and still repeats his accusations.
(Russert’s father) himself functions less as a vivid character in a book than as an enhancer of his son’s mystique. Big Russ, it turns out, is a name conferred by Tim Russert on his father, not something that his friends called him. ...Big Russ fades out somewhat as the book goes on, but every appearance, while presented as being illustrative of his good qualities (no filial ambivalence here!), literarily performs the function of making Tim look good, by reassuring us that he’s permanently connected to a father lode of realness.
You have to understand conservative philosophy to understand many of the right-wing talk show hosts. Conservatives believe that "Srong equals Moral" and "Weak equals Immoral". These concepts can be even used metaphorically. That is why their talk show hosts act the way they do. They have to appear "Stong" (because they are on the side of the "moral") and they have to make there guest appear "weak" (because they are on the side of the "immoral".) This is also why they are usually physically large. To always appear stronger. Take something else from this, you will never see pictures of George Bush and John Kerry together, why? because Kerry would appear the "Sronger" of the two. That would be a conservatives worst nightmare.
you make examples of certain people. Tim Russert, for example, pleases you. He calls the Bush campaign’s "opposition research" team every few days to find out what dirt they have invented about Al Gore lately. And he reports their lies as fact. You publicly praise Russert. You make certain that everyone knows you have personally rewarded him with a multi-million dollar contract.. He is a daily reminder to his colleagues of the benefits of being an obedient employee.
Karl Rove, senior adviser to President Bush, and Tim Russert are good friends who socialize with each other, hang out with the same elite social circles, and often make public speaking appearances together at elite private colleges
Russert's interview with Colin Powell became a news event when Powell's aide tried to end the interview. Russert hyped himself in the weeks afterward over this non-event and bashed Powell's aide as a "taxpayer-paid employee", but the truth is that Russert went 5 minutes over the time he agreed to and was cutting into ABC's George Stephanopoulos' interview time and the aide ended the interview after 5 minutes of pleading with Russert to end the interview. Russert stages events like this to provoke reactions, then pretends to be surprised at the reactions, then plays up on the non-news event to promote himself. The aide was a former NBC employee of Russert.
First you must differentiate the news medias. There are three kinds of news medias relative to each country. There is independent news media which is independent from corporate ownership. There is foreign news media which is less susceptible to control from domestic politics. And there is corporate news media which is owned by wealthy individuals and large corporations and are used by their owners to push their corporate agendas. The corporate news media defines the issues, frames the debates, and shills the agendas of the wealthy establishment and corporate cartels. The corporate news media is fomenting a society where the only people who are entitled to the benefits of the society's wealth are the owners of corporations. The corporate news media reduces civic discourse to the superficiality of personality politics. The corporate news media wants to "control the narrative", control the "mass culture zeitgeist", control the "political landscape", rewrite history, and control "popular opinion" and they do so by "framing the debate" thereby creating "false dichotomies."
The corporate news media does not believe in the concept "the truth." Believing in "the truth" and the concept of "the truth" are enlightened "Liberal" ideals which the corporate elite and their corporate lackeys woefully disdain. The corporate masters believe in wealth, authority and power above all else, facts notwithstanding. The corporate masters do not believe in the concepts of "the real world", "reality" and "facts." They believe their world consists of the people that matter to them, themselves and their friends they socialize with, and everybody else is peasant labor or surplus population. They believe that "the truth" is nothing more than popular opinion which they can control by controlling "the narrative".
The corporate masters' ultimate goal is to create a "corporate state" world just like they have in third world countries, just one big Plantation State. For them, they do not belive in the commonwealth or mankind. They want to live in the big luxury houses on the hills, safe behind gated communities, and everybody else to live in shanty towns downstream from the industrial waste plants. They will fight ruthlessly against anything that benefits the public like better education, cleaner environment, living wages, free speech, peace, unions, and open political discourse. The corporate masters will use the best marketing techniques to engineer false arguments to control and manipulate the public. They don't have to fool all the people all the time, just enough people to sway elections to their "made men." The corporate masters use their mouthpeices, the corporate news media and politico pundits, to control the swing voters' perception of reality. They want the public to live in a perpetual state of "passive resignation" to accept whatever the corporate news media and politico pundits tell them to think.
Examine all the links below this commentary and quotes. The real news websites listed below tell you the news that the tabloid corporate-media refuses to report. Bookmark the links to the real news websites below and check them frequently. Tell your friends about the BBC, Air America Radio, PBS NOW show, and these other news websites because they tell you the real news, not the corporate-media think-tank paid-pundit spun-propaganda "faux news" the USA based news networks spew. Even though the BBC News has been neutered somewhat after the former heads of the BBC, Gavyn Davies and Greg Dyke, refused to apologize for telling the truth and were forced to resign, the BBC is still better than USA based corporate news. It is up to you to decide to find the truth about the world for yourself. I don't list the names of these websites so you can find out what they are as you search for the truth. USA based corporate-news-media-networks have been so increasingly deceptive and manipulative that the more educated people in this country and many people in the rest of the world think of USA based news networks as illegitimate and not credible. The amount of unsavory deceit, duplicity, complicity, and manipulation by USA based corporate-news-networks is abominable. As soon as you go on the internet to read how foreign journalists cover the same events, you immediately become aware of the fact that USA based news networks have a "unique" spin on the world (to put it mildly). The majority of Americans get their news from the network news services and they have been making choices based on the USA based news networks' duplicitous propaganda. Americans who live in "the Midwest" don't have access to alternative news sources and have been manipulated by the corporate-media to believe in lies that would shock Americans who live in the big cities. American "mainstream" news media is owned by a small group of wealthy individuals who use the news media to promote their corporate agendas. These wealthy individuals socialize with their peers who have the same backgrounds (same neighborhoods, colleges, fraternities, prep schools, private schools, etc.,) at their elite social institutions (rich white Anglo-Saxon Protestant men only clubs) and set the political agendas for the rest of society. In the business world these businessmen are at each others' throats, but in politics, they form cartels to work for their class' interests. Through their subsidized think-tanks, they funnel huge campaign contributions to the political parties to control the politicians. Through their media outlets, these wealthy individuals frame the national dialogue. The media cartel serves their masters. The TV news medias support only politicians who can raise the most money from the corporate-think-tanks who will in turn use that money to buy TV advertising. The TV news medias only cover politicians who can afford to buy lots of expensive TV advertising. The "mainstream" news medias shun all politicians who cannot buy lots of expensive advertising. The wealthy individuals control the journalists by employing them at their media outlets and by bribing them through their think-tanks; think-tanks bribe journalists with hundreds of thousands of dollars for private speaking engagements (some of these speaking engagements are actually junkets - expensive paid vacations where the journalists don't actually have to speak). Corporate-mainstream-network journalists who don't "play ball" and tow the party line get cut off from the trough, get demoted, or just fired and blackballed. For the corporate-mainstream-network journalists who do "play ball" with the corporate-think-tanks, there is a revolving door of employment between corporate-mainstream-network news outlets, think-tanks, kickback jobs as "image consultants" and "message consultants", and even official political-patronage "advisement" appointments in government. For the politicians that "play ball" with the corporate-think-tanks, there is a revolving door of employment between political offices (won in elections or gained via partisan appointments, political-patronage), think-tanks, and seats on board of directors for front/shell corporations that exist from government contracts. The issues that concern the publics' interests are shut out of the mainstream political dialogue. Some of these wealthy individuals not only have the interests of their corporations ahead of the publics' interests, they have the interests of foreign countries ahead of the publics' interests. This cabalistic society is like a mythical Chimera (mythical creature that had one body and many heads) for those dissenters who speak up against the cabal will be shouted down and smeared by surrogate paid-media-pundits superficially coming from many separate media channels but all saying the same think-tank-prescribed "talking points". The cabal's paid-pundits in the media never substantiate their claims, they just harass dissenters with ad hominem attacks and straw man arguments (see the logical fallacies links below). The political parties work to socialize corporations' costs, risks, and cleanup while privatizing profits. The public subsidizes big business' research and development, pays for big business' liability, and pays for cleaning up the messes caused by big business' byproducts, pollution, and environmental degradation. Coporations use the media and politicians to shift the burden of economic risk from corporations and the government onto the backs of the average citizen. Partisan politics is a means in itself, a business that functions as a clearing house for corporate interests. Political party conventions are farces designed to patronize the ideologues, but the candidates themselves are oblivious to their own parties' "platforms" and are sometimes outright contemptuous of their hard core members. The corporate-mainstream-news-media is the mouthpiece of the corporations. The corporate-news-mainstream-media fools as many people (as necessary to "decide" elections) into believing that their anointed political parties' candidates have the publics' interests. The political parties hire pollsters and political consultants who can measure what the public cares about, and then semantically modify their pitch to manipulate the public into believing that the politicians are going to do what the people want when the politicians are going to do exactly the opposite. The most manipulated and lied to citizens live in the Midwest and "swing states" that "decide" elections; the media gives them different news from the rest of America.
The corporate-news-mainstream-media are liars, professional liars at that who are contemptuous to democracy, democratic ideals, and the publics' interests. The newscasters who've risen to the top got there by being the most backstabbing manipulative players who screwed over everyone else who competed against them. The people in the news business are quintessential kiss-up, kick-down sort of people. The only reason why they keep their jobs is their ability to lie, manipulate, and appear sincere when they are lying. Corporate-news-mainstream-media newsreaders wear poker faces and lie without any qualms, compunction, and penitence. Corporate-news-mainstream-media newsreaders are pretentious sanctimonious disingenuous people who put on airs of superiority and infallibility and are able to feign indignation, feign sincerity, and pretend to care. Foreign news sources and domestic independent USA news sources frequently use verifiable facts to contradict almost everything shilled by USA based news networks. USA based "mainstream" corporate-news have lost so much credibility that it has become a joke. In American news media, the punditocracy's pack journalism is the standard norm. Instead of giving the public real news, USA based "mainstream" corporate-news shills tabloid news that panders to the media "market bias" of the day. The media cartel tries to turn the public into passive consumers instead of active citizens. The media is full of partisan hacks/pundits, who push corporate mythology, push corporate talking points, frame the debates in terms the corporate politicos want, and shut out all political dissent from the national dialogue. The partisan hacks act as opinion molders by being surrogates for the political parties and lobbyists; the politicians themselves will remain "clean" from making attacks because the surrogate partisan hacks/pundits in the corporate media will do that dirty campaign work for them.
Corporate politicos can never convince people to vote against their own economic self-interests, so instead they campaign to trick the people. Since corporate politicos can't offer logical rational arguments to people, they go for irrational illogical arguments. Corporate politicos poll the people to find out what are the most decisive "hot button"/wedge issues and then create vitriolic aggressive campaigns using false information to unfairly smear their opponents. The corporate news media goes along with the corporate politicos by shilling disinformation to the public, not refuting blatantly false disinformation, and shutting out all dissenting voices, all the while disingenuously pretending to be unbiased news.
People in foreign countries look at Americans with dismay, like we've been brainwashed by corporate PR. Most Americans are totally oblivious to the geopolitical consequences of their actions because the corporate media doesn't want the public to know what geopolitics is. The American public is sheltered from the truth about the world that foreign people are aware of. Ignorance is bliss and the real news you'll read below is disturbing. I've met people who never read the news and they live perfectly happy, and I've met people who care about humanity and the truth and are frustrated and depressed; but the former are dupes while the latter are the wiser. You can go on believing the disinformation the USA based news networks shill and live in ignorance, or you can read these websites to start finding out the truth. The choice is yours.
Although tens of thousands of working people came to protest George Bush and his suspiciously-named "free trade" economic policies; they were invariably smeared by the corporate media as "Leftists" or "radicals"; eliminating the possibility that they were simply concerned citizens participating in the democratic process. This is the familiar tactic of the media to marginalize ordinary people whose interests don't correspond to those of the ruling elite.
"The trouble is that once you see it, you can't unsee it. And once you've seen it, keeping quiet, saying nothing, becomes as political an act as speaking out. There is no innocence. Either way, you're accountable."
- Arundhati Roy
"Throughout the annals of political science -- or at least the annals of Internet history -- there's been an unwritten law: Elections are won by whomever devises the best way to cheat."
- Lou Cabron
"The press isn't quite as biased and liberal. They're actually conservative sometimes"
- William Kristol, Fox News neocon pundit, CNN's "Reliable Sources", 2000
"I admit it, The whole idea of the 'liberal media' was often used as an excuse by conservatives for conservative failures."
- William Kristol, Fox News neocon pundit, The New Yorker, 5/22/95
"Every great cause evolves into a movement, then into a business, and then it degenerates into a racket."
- Eric Hoffer, (I've seen many different arrangements of this quote)
"A defining attribute of a government is that it has a monopoly on the legitimate exercise of violence."
- George Will, right-wing columnist, "Realistic words would be welcome on Iraq", 3/3/06
"War is a racket. It always has been. It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives. A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of the people. Only a small 'inside' group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few, at the expense of the very many. Out of war a few people make huge fortunes."
- Maj. General Smedly Butler
"Terrorism is the war of the poor, and war is the terrorism of the rich."
- Sir Peter Alexander Ustinov
"The very powerful and the very stupid have one thing in common. Instead of altering their views to fit the facts, they alter the facts to fit their views... which can be very uncomfortable if you happen to be one of the facts that needs altering."
- Doctor Who, fictional character, "Face of Evil"
"These are globetrotting sorts who are world citizens, and see the USA as merely a state within the world collective. Don't let those ... accents and folksy mannerisms fool you, they do not have an allegiance to this country; they live in the BIG picture, and are not fettered by borders, boundaries or oceanic barriers."
- anonymous web poster
"A conservative is one who admires radicals centuries after they're dead."
- Leo Rosten, Leo Rosten's Treasury of Jewish Quotations
"The fact is, there is no other way to strip a population of it's liberties than to make them fear living without a certain level of protection. Anyone calling us Truth seekers crack pots, or tin foil hats are either too lazy to research, look and listen to what is plainly presented in front of them, or two, are so caught up in the fake reality we are pushed to believe that anything outside of that is just too uncomfortable for them. Reality is always darker than fiction. You also have to understand, we aren't dealing with groups of people like you or myself. We are dealing with people who think and feel differently than we do. The powerful elite don't look at the rest of us the same way we view eachother. We aren't equals to them. We don't all deserve the same liberties or benefits of life. To them, we are pawns in their game for further growth of their power and wealth. Too many people in this country have their Eyes Wide Shut."
- Jason Appleton
"You got a lotta nerve / To say you are my friend / When I was down / You just stood there grinning /
You got a lotta nerve / To say you got a helping hand to lend / You just want to be on / The side that's winning"
- Bob Dylan: Positively 4th Street
"Those who cast the votes decide nothing. Those who count the votes decide everything."
- Communist Tyrant Josef Stalin
"Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism, and exposing the country to greater danger."
- Herman Goering at the Nuremberg trials
"Mankind cannot take too much reality."
- TS Eliot
"Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities."
- Voltaire, French author, humanist, rationalist, & satirist (1694 - 1778)
"Once you accept another person's authority, you become a different person. You are concerned with how well you follow out your orders, rather than whether it is right or wrong."
- Dr. Thomas Blass
"News is what somebody somewhere wants to suppress. Everything else is publicity."
- Lord Northcliffe
"There is no good and evil; there is only power and those too weak to seek it."
- JK Rowling, "Harry Potter", character Quirrell
"Man seizes, abandons, but then commits again the errors that flatter him."
- Antoine Lavoisier
"People willing to trade their freedom for temporary security deserve neither and will lose both."
- Benjamin Franklin or Thomas Jefferson
"None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free."
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
"In dictatorships we are more fortunate than you in the West in one respect. We believe nothing of what we read in the newspapers and nothing of what we watch on television, because we know it's propaganda and lies. Unlike you in the West. We've learned to look behind the propaganda and to read between the lines, and unlike you, we know that the real truth is always subversive."
- dissident Czech novelist Zdener Urbanek
"Politics is about getting outside of yourself and your own problems for a little while and fully immersing yourself in the lies and deceit of others."
- Stephen Elliott, "Happy Baby"
"You could get a journalist cheaper than a good call girl, for a couple hundred dollars a month."
- CIA operative discussing with Philip Graham, editor Washington Post, on the availability and prices of journalists willing to peddle CIA propaganda and cover stories. "Katherine The Great," by Deborah Davis (New York: Sheridan Square Press, 1991)
"What a man believes upon grossly insufficient evidence is an index into his desires -- desires of which he himself is often unconscious. If a man is offered a fact which goes against his instincts, he will scrutinize it closely, and unless the evidence is overwhelming, he will refuse to believe it. If, on the other hand, he is offered something which affords a reason for acting in accordance to his instincts, he will accept it even on the slightest evidence. The origin of myths is explained in this way."
- Bertrand Russell
"When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross."
- Sinclair Lewis
"If they can get you asking the wrong questions, they don't have to worry about answers"
- Thomas Pynchon said (in Gravity's Rainbow)
"I am a firm believer in the people. If given the truth, they can be depended upon to meet any national crises. The great point is to bring them the real facts."
- Abraham Lincoln, 16th president of US (1809 - 1865)
Daily News
Air America Radio - listen to real news radio and real talk radio instead of corporate media propaganda
What Makes Mainstream Media Mainstream - read Noam Chomsky for real political commentary, not that spin doctor BS you see on tv and hear on hate-talk-radio
The News No One Dares to Cover - It's no secret that journalism in America has become more slipshod and reckless, at times promiscuous-and as a result less credible
Weapons of Mass Distraction - Part of the disaster of the new FCC ruling about media ownership is that it puts control of the news in fewer and fewer hands.
"As the conservative-message machine geared up in the 1970s, its strategy was to make the political landscape more emotional and less factual - galvanizing a new base of conservative support around hot-button issues. That's why Fox tries to replace news with opinion."
It's a root belief that the media shape the masses. Their shared assumption is that the press promotes a consensus in the name of entrenched power. But both agree that a false media consensus keeps people from knowing the truth.
The level that lies beneath the distractions and gossip, however, is where the truth resides. Within this second layer of the media machine is contained the actual direction the current political establishment wishes to take America.
Rise of Pseudo Fascism by David Neiwert is a seven-part essay that attempts to define Fascism in the context of modern American society and the American conservative movement. Search the internet for mirror websites.
extreme rich-poor divides this is the future of mankind is right-wing Republicans, by whatever name they call themselves in whatever host country they infest, have their way. This is the logical endgame of their agenda.
PBS Now - watch real news instead of tabloid crap, check your local listings
PBS Wide Angle - watch real news instead of tabloid crap, check your local listings
FreeSpeech TV - watch real news instead of tabloid crap, check your local listings
World Link TV - watch real news instead of tabloid crap, check your local listings
Radio: Media Worth Listening To
Air America Radio - listen to real news radio and real talk radio instead of corporate media propaganda
KCRW 89.9 FM - listen to real news radio and real talk radio instead of corporate media propaganda, check site for schedule for "Morning Edition", "The World", "Fresh Air", and other shows; this is real talk radio, not that corporate-funded think-tank spun-propaganda that clogs commercial radio
Michael Rivero on KTKK - listen to real news radio and real talk radio instead of corporate media propaganda, live every Monday on the Jim Dexter Show on KTKK-AM 630 Radio in Salt Lake City from 11:05am to 11:20am Mountain Time
Michael Rivero on KKCR - listen to real news radio and real talk radio instead of corporate media propaganda, every Thursday "Out Of The Box" on KKCR Radio 90.9 FM and 91.9 FM on Kauai during the noon hour. Call the show on 1-866-275-1112
collaborative project of the Center for Media and Democracy to produce a directory of the people, organizations and issues shaping the public agenda. SourceWatch's primary focus is on documenting public relations firms, think tanks, industry-funded organizations and industry-friendly experts that work to influence public opinion and public policy on behalf of corporations, governments and special interests. Over time, SourceWatch has broadened to include others involved in public debates including media outlets, journalists and government agencies. Unlike some other wikis, SourceWatch has a policy of strict referencing, and is overseen by a paid editor
Washington Monument Syndrome, Washington Monument Defense
Among self-perpetuating government bureaucracies, it's known as the Washington Monument Syndrome: When a department - say, the National Park Service - is told it must trim its budget, it immediately slashes its most visible public amenity - in this case, shuttering the Washington Monument to tourists. Whenever it comes time for budget cuts, politicians always start with popular attractions. That rouses public opposition and softens the way for tax increases.
Disclaimer: I have nothing to do with any of those websites listed above. After reading articles from those websites you may find out the truth, but the truth is not the accepted mainstream mythology shilled by the corporate-news-mainstream-media. If you try to talk about what you've found to your friends who only know the accepted mainstream mythology, you will be treated like a fool. Those who accept the corporate-news-mainstream-media's manufactured reality will counter you with simpleton talking-points, and when their arguments fail, with insults. They will talk about politics as if it were a chess match, while you'll talk about the agendas of those who own the chess board; those who set the boundaries and move the pieces. They will talk about politics as if it were only a match between ideologies, political parties, personalities, while you'll talk about the realpolitic/realpolitik. They accept the corporate-news-mainstream-media mythology because "it works" for them now. Reality doesn't hit them until they lose their jobs, need medical care, or lose a relative in some oversees war. All you can do is just tell your friends about websites with links to real news articles and maybe they will search for the truth. Maybe people allow themselves to be blind sighted so they won't have to deal with things they can't do anything about. The truth will set you free, but it won't make you happy. The only satisfaction you'll get in pulling the wool off your eyes is the knowledge that you are no longer a dupe. People in foreign countries know more about what is going on here than average citizens here. The corporate-news-mainstream-media is deceitful, manipulative, disingenuous, and wholly unapologetic.Pundit Gallery |
Andrea Mitchell |
Brit Hume |
Chris Wallace |
Katty Kay |
Lizzie Grubman |
Maria Quiban |
Martine Dennis |
Mishal Husain |
Shepard Smith |
Tavis Smiley |
Tim Russert |
Tony Snow |
Young Republicans |
Zeinab Badawi |
Bookmark this webpage. Add a link to this webpage from your website. Tell your friends.
I will be updating it with more info, pictures, and links. Disclaimer: I have nothing to do with the advertisements at the top and bottom of this webpage.
CHOCOLATES AND NYLONS, SIR? Tim Russert - "Integrity is for paupers!"
Pundit Gallery |
Andrea Mitchell |
Brit Hume |
Chris Wallace |
Katty Kay |
Lizzie Grubman |
Maria Quiban |
Martine Dennis |
Mishal Husain |
Shepard Smith |
Tavis Smiley |
Tim Russert |
Tony Snow |
Young Republicans |
Zeinab Badawi |
