One of the great reporters of the 21 century, I.F Stone said: “All Governments Lie”….

PLEASE WATCH THE VIDEO

On April 3rd, Bill Moyers interviewed Glenn Greenwald and Amy Goodman about the state of the cooperate media in the US. I utterly enjoyed watching these 3 great journalists discussing the history of journalism and what it means to the public today. If you have about 5 minutes to spare, please watch their eloquent analysis of how corrupt and embedded journalism has become over the last decade. They are all pretty much outside of the planet Fox, CNN or MSNBC. They are never invited to speak in any of these TV stations, we never hear what they have to say about issues that are important to us and we never read their op-ed in newspapers like New York Times, or Boston Globe.

In Turkey, journalists or writers who oppose the political elite are unfortunately silenced either by death, prison or exile. Here in the US, it’s done in a much more sneaky and a smarter way. Not on your face like Turkey, so to speak. The system silences journalists by not including them into the main street media. They are never invited to the Democratic or Republican conventions, they are never invited to speak on issues such as Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, health care and many other issues Americans care about. Simply because, they go against the herd, their voice criticizes the status quo and the establishment. This is where I am going to say the cliché of “George Orwell rolls in his grave”.

Amy Goodman said it wonderfully: “The way the current media works is that, they show the spectrum between the Democrats and the Republicans, often that is a very narrow point of view. As journalists it is our job to bring you, the public, various points of view, which fall outside of that particular spectrum. Our job is to open up the issues that the American people care about, like wars, health care, bailouts etc… For example, the corporate media is failing the American people again, by not asking the right questions about the expansion of the war in Afghanistan, just like they failed the public during the lead up to the war in Iraq.”

We must inform ourselves and be equipped to question the rhetoric as soon as we see it in our TV screens or Newspapers. Please watch the video when you have the time. It is well worth it!