12.29.2012

The Collaboration of the Fourth Estate

Democracy depends on an independent, investigative, even "adversarial" press.  Without the disinfectant of sunshine, corruption runs rampant in the halls of power.

We've discussed ad nauseum on this blog the corrupt elite in Washington and New York who are enriching themselves while crushing the middle class and destroying the American ideals of liberty and free enterprise.  For a refresher, see this excellent post by Charles Hugh Smith.
Politically, a Tyranny of the Majority comprised of those who draw direct transfers/benefits from the Federal government, is ruled by the top ½ of 1% financial aristocracy who own the majority of income-generating assets. The minority, who pay most of the taxes (the 24.5% between the majority and aristocracy), will see their taxes rise as the aristocracy buys loopholes and exclusions [WCV note: not just loopholes and exclusions, but immensely profitable  government contracts and bailouts!] while the bottom 50% pay no income tax.

Financially, the Federal government’s spending has outrun the tax revenues being collected. Structurally, Federal expenditures for entitlements (Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, Veterans Administration, etc.) will rise as Baby Boomers retire en masse over the next 15 years, while tax revenues will stagnate along with earned income.

There is no way to square these circles.

The political foundation of America is starkly unjust. An entrenched financial Aristocracy buys the complicity of the bottom 50% and retirees with Federal transfers – a Tyranny of the Majority. The 24.5% below the Aristocracy who pay most of the Federal taxes are dominated by this alliance. This may be legal, but is it just? Even more critically, is it sustainable?
It is obviously not sustainable and will end very badly, but that is a discussion for another day.

While the trend toward corrupt, self-dealing statists buying a permanent voting majority with other people's money has been in place a long time, the collaboration of America's once proud press is stunning and new.

The print and broadcast media still dominate the national dialogue, and have succeeded in downplaying to outright non-coverage of everything damning to the Obama regime.  It's as if Woodward and Bernstein helped Nixon cover up Watergate, and outed and smeared Deep Throat as a subversive crank.

Consider the economy.  Remember the relentless drumbeat of "recession," "hardship," and "struggling families" stories during the George Bush I re-election campaign?  We got none of that during the Obama re-election, despite the economy being much worse now than in 1992.

How about Benghazi?  The incompetence, utter disregard for American lives, and cover-up should have been the final nail in Obama's re-election campaign, a Jimmy Carter foreign policy disaster after four years of a Jimmy Carter economy.  But the media were more interested in criticizing Romney's statement on Benghazi than covering what actually happened.

Fast and furious, Black Panthers, warrantless wiretapping, drone strikes... the list goes on and on.  How much did you hear about those in the mainstream media and how much would you have heard if a Republican were in office?

Journalists have always been left-leaning as a group and overwhelmingly always vote Democrat.  But even when Journolist-ing, though they were using unethical tactics to manipulate an election, they could at least rationalize it by the notion that they were opposing those currently in power, i.e. a truly "adversarial" press.  Now that their guy is entrenched in power, they no longer have that fig leaf.

Journalism didn't just die.  It went to work for the enemy.

5 comments:

Shane Atwell said...

was the press ever good? seem to have been fawning towards every Democrat since at least FDR and critical only towards republicans. now we know because of the new media.

K T Cat said...

Great post. I deeply share your frustration.

So why is this the case? How is it possible that the industry which makes its livelihood sharing information seems to have the least understanding of the world around it? Is it that they leave J-school as good, little indoctrinated progressives and the newsroom bubble keeps reinforcing it?

If one of their driving forces is to aid the less fortunate and discomfort the powerful, how is it possible that they don't see that their progressive policies have failed so badly?

Since many of these folks are on Twitter, it might be interesting to engage them and find out.

Dean said...

Great post. Frustration shared. Link forthcoming.

K T Cat said...

Linked!

K T Cat said...

Linked again!

Happy Super Tuesday!