HOOF IN MOUTH DISEASE

Rachel: Prop or Not?

Some background:

A Court Ruled Rachel Maddow's Viewers Know She Offers Exaggeration and Opinion, Not Facts
Maddow’s show is different than a typical news segment where anchors inform viewers about the daily news," an Obama-appointed judge ruled.

(Glenn Greenwald)
June 22, 2021

Excerpt:

“In an oddly overlooked ruling, an Obama-appointed federal judge, Cynthia Bashant, dismissed the lawsuit on the ground that even Maddow's own audience understands that her show consists of exaggeration, hyperbole, and pure opinion, and therefore would not assume that such outlandish accusations are factually true even when she uses the language of certainty and truth when presenting them (“literally is paid Russian propaganda”).

In concluding that Maddow's statement would be understood even by her own viewers as non-factual, the judge emphasized that what Maddow does in general is not present news but rather hyperbole and exploitation of actual news to serve her liberal activism…”

_________

Democracy in Peril: Twenty Years of Media Consolidation Under the Telecommunications Act
In 1996, President Clinton signed the bill into law. Today, the media industry is donating big to Hillary Clinton’s campaign.

(Michael Corcoran at Truthout)
February 11, 2016

Excerpt:

“Wall Street’s sinister influence on the political process has, rightly, been a major topic during this presidential campaign. But, history has taught us that the role that the media industry plays in Washington poses a comparable threat to our democracy. Yet, this is a topic rarely discussed by the dominant media, or on the campaign trail.”

* * * * *

Some context:

Mainstream media world wide is owned by about a half dozen major corporations, so basically a few sociopathic billionaires have a strangle hold on almost everything the average person reads, watches, or hears. The American Duopoly, and oddly especially the corporately captured Democratic Party, support censorship of views outside their narrow world view. They are suppressing dissent in the streets and on the web.

Fears of fascism under another Trump administration abound among "Blue No Matter Who" voters but for many outside the party it seems they want to close the barn door after the donkeys and elephants have already burned it down.

America has been waging wars around the world for a long time, almost for its entire existence. What passes for foreign policy for the U.S.A. is perhaps best described in this way: impose crippling and deadly economic sanctions on regular citizens to encourage them to topple governments that the U.S. doesn't control. It always causes devastation, almost never works, and the U.S. unfailingly claims to be the good guys. Add to that brilliant strategy the notion that assassinations as a means of state craft is now considered… a Tuesday?

These crimes against humanity are regularly applauded by mainstream media and especially Rachel Maddow.

Consider the following facts as a thought experiment if you respect Rachel Maddow’s reporting:

Edward Snowden in fulfilling his oath to defend The U.S. Constitution is in exile because he exposed violations of said document by his Security State employers.

Julian Assange revealed U.S. war crimes. There were no consequences for the perpetrators but Assange spent over a decade under arrest and despite his recent release, his life has been destroyed by both Republican and Democratic administrations, ostensibly due to violations of the American Espionage Act despite the fact that he’s an Australian citizen.

Seymour Hersh, who exposed the My Lai massacre, the Watergate scandal, the Abu Ghraib torture, and much much more, is begging for scraps these days from individual donors on Substack.

Chris Hedges, a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist and Middle East expert was fired from the New Your Times for voicing opposition to the disastrous and illegal Iraq war that was based on lies and killed over a million people.

In conclusion:

Rachel Maddow gets paid millions of dollars simply for stating opinions as facts on a major network.

Prop or Not?