Volume 7 Issue 22…Dedicated to the Dialogue on Race…June 4, 2004

By John Burl Smith

Increasing consciousness, knowledge unlocks the power of imagination. Prompted by new information, perceptions congruent with existing knowledge become part of redundant memory structures. If the message is perceived as dissonant, but not extreme, the mind assimilates it as contradictory but believable. Dissonant information too extreme to be assimilated into current beliefs is retained as miscellany or rejected and repressed through avoidance mechanisms that maintain denial. Dispelling darkness, knowledge, a form of light, can alter one's mind-set entirely and create a new perspective.

Case in point: Mainstream media disparage online information providers, like The DISH, as incompetent, inaccurate and unreliable. Moreover, they imply online research lacks credibility because sources are not properly documented. Further, they complain that such services are nothing more than "people with axes to grind." Denial and secrecy are the edges of darkness, hiding ugly truths from a benighted public.

Election 2000 and the Supreme Court decision in Bush v Gore are clear examples that beyond the Internet, there is no discussion of this tragedy. Never before under any circumstances has a US court "stopped the counting of legally cast ballots," to change the outcome of an election. Whether that action was a coup d´etat or the proper functioning of a democracy is still debated online, but mainstream media have turned blind eyes and deaf ears to questions regarding Bush v Gore.

Months before 9-11, the Internet buzzed with neocon "chatter" regarding the need to redraw the political map of the Middle East. Labeled "conspiracy theorists," online services could not keep the dialogue regarding the Florida fiasco going as the conversation changed to questions about what really happened and who was really responsible for the 9-11 tragedy? With all their resources, mainstream media's research has not revealed any more, if as much, as online services published just weeks after the Twin Towers collapsed.

Cursing darkness, media talking heads would have the world believe George W. Bush's rush to war and illegal occupation of Iraq can be justified with promises of democracy and the "sovereignty" hand-over facade. After screwing Iraq with sanctions, no fly zones, oil for food and inspections, the US and UN have installed people that fled the country and lived safely in the West to govern. Opposed to anyone who stayed and fought to hold their nation together, they are forcing Iraqis to accept as leaders those who abandoned them to the darkness of Saddam Hussein. Stories of Iraqis who stayed and died or survived Saddam's tyranny, like Bush v Gore, are only illuminated online.

In the real world things, like people, are rarely black or white. Denial is the edge of the vast void of ignorance that appears as dark hues. As nothing is truly white, the glare of whiteness we think we see results from the sun reflecting the earth's atmosphere. Predominantly visual beings, it is not only what we see, it is our impression of it that perception paints as reality. Likewise, information, as people, is neither good nor bad. It is the use to which it is put that characterizes it. Knowledge is the torch that ignites the mental processes, which burns away denial and dispels ignorance. In the current environment, online voices become candles illuminating the world, rather than cursing darkness.

The Dark Knight-Batman/White Ninja/Zorro is cruising through summer vacation. He recently partied at a birthday bash, and his favorite uncle treated him to the summer blockbuster movie "Shrek II." When queried for comments, the Dark One/Ninja/Zorro enthused, "It's a riot! It has comedy, horror and action!"

Joseph Pulitzer (1847-1911)

"Our Republic and its press will rise or fall together. An able, disinterested, public-spirited press, with trained intelligence to know the right and courage to do it, can preserve that public virtue without which popular government is a sham and a mockery. A cynical, mercenary, demagogic press will produce in time a people as base as itself. The power to mould the future of the Republic will be in the hands of the journalists of future generations." (Joseph Pulitzer -- May 1904)

Born on April 10, 1847 in Mako, Hungary to a wealthy Jewish merchant, Joseph Pulitzer grew up in Budapest. In 1864, his attempts to enlist in the military were rebuffed due to weak eyesight and poor health, which plagued him throughout his life. He emigrated to the United States and joined the Union Army.

After the Civil War, he went west to make his fortune. Settling in St. Louis, Missouri, Pulitzer worked odd jobs, participated in politics and studied English and the law. In 1868, Carl Schurz recruited Pulitzer for his German-language daily, the Westliche Post. Pulitzer was elected to the Missouri legislature in 1869 and, like other radicals, supported Horace Greeley in 1872 against Ulysses S. Grant, the official Republican Party candidate.

After purchasing the St. Louis Post and the St. Louis Dispatch, Pulitzer combined the newspapers, Post-Dispatch, and launched crusades against corruption and fraud. Admitted to the Washington, D.C. bar, he worked briefly in law and wrote for the New York Sun. He married Kate Davis (1877), niece of Jefferson Davis.

The populist appeal of Pulitzer's paper increased circulation. In 1883, Pulitzer purchased the New York World and promised to "expose all fraud and sham, fight all public evils and abuses, and to battle for the people with earnest sincerity." In 1885, he was elected to Congress from New York, but resigned within months and found the Evening World in New York (1887).

Pulitzer recruited journalist Nellie Bly, who pioneered investigative reporting. Her undercover work and critical reports led to much-needed reforms from labor working conditions to mental institutions.

Virtually blind, Pulitzer ended his editorship of the New York World in 1890. He continued to manage the editorial and business direction of his newspapers.

From 1896 to 1898, Pulitzer was drawn into a circulation battle with William Randolph Hearst's Journal. Both papers called for war against Spain after the U.S. battleship Maine blew up and sank in Havana harbor in February 1898 based on a fictitious document. Their use of promotional schemes and sensational stories became known as "yellow journalism."

Pulitzer died October 29, 1911. Through his will, he established the Columbia University School of Journalism and Pulitzer Prizes. (See: www.pulitzer.org and www.onlineconcepts.com/pulitzer/yellow.htm)

By Yohannes Sharriff

Watch the muppets cast an illusion before your eyes.

As comatose couch cushions pin senses to soaps,

Sensors wash commonsense with seductive corruption,

Spawning controlled consumer surrender.

We stab our open wounds with currency.

Secretly, pimps pray prostituting will sates the need.

Like infants, the masses suckle the phallic superficial.

Impaled upon the crucifix of debt,

We sacrifice live dreams for dead presidents.

As they strive,

Even children shudder with unearthly pleasure,

Pushing pass pennies from parents

Put into collection plates,

Panting for the devil's almighty dollar power.

Crucified! Why? For lifeless wooden promises?

The spirit of will dies,

While industrialized primates feen for better visual highs.

Assimilated lobes open wide like parted thighs

With sighs and penetrating cries

Creaming for the evening news, pushing lies deeper.

Journalism is delivering billions

Of subliminal violent multiple-orgasmic editorials.

Pornographic bent reality drips from thin pink lips,

Advertised with no life found in empty eyes.

Realize "the top story," is woven

From the fabric of politics and Nielsen's opinion,

To paint a pessimistic picture, reflecting society's apathy.

But, please, read between the lines to see the true signs

Of how hopeless the media want you to be,

So commercials can program you mentality.

Times' Lies and Media Blind-Sides

In late May 2004, the New York Times admitted that in the run-up to the war in Iraq its editors and journalists, most notably Judy Miller, ran the lies fed to the newspaper by Bush administration officials without question. Routinely, the newspaper's editors and journalists dismissed or relegated to its back page any contradictory information.

A far more damning and lethal revelation than the fabrications of ex-Times reporter Jayson Blair, the fictitious case for war has resulted in the loss of thousands of innocent Iraqi lives. No one knows for certain how many, because US war policy does not record collateral damage. More than 800 US soldiers and coalition troops have died; thousands more have been damaged for life. And, the war and reconstruction efforts have cost billions of dollars that must be paid by future generations, since the Bush administration has chosen to run deficits to finance his war of choice.

Ironically, the Blair affair received far more news coverage in the Times and other media outlets. With so little done to correct the record, many Americans still believe, as Vice President Dick Cheney continues to assert, that Iraq had WMDs that posed an imminent threat to US security. More important, too many still think there is a link between Iraq and the "terrorists responsible for the 9-11 suicide hijacking," which would justify an otherwise unprovoked attack.

Even before becoming the Republican Party's presidential nominee in 2000, George W. Bush received a media bye. His youthful indiscretions, which continued past age forty, were swept under the rug never to be exposed to the light of day. Only Margie Schoedinger's hometown newspaper covered her allegation of rape, her lawsuit against Bush and her subsequent "suicide." With 24-7 news stations and plenty of newspapers, one would think this story would have been the subject of more press than Monica Lewinsky's blue dress and the Paula Jones grope and kiss. Alas, it did not. So, beyond the Internet, few know Bush once dated this black woman.

Schoedinger's story is not the only mainstream media blind-side that has served to keep the American public in the dark. No light has been shed on the anthrax deaths, which were not caused by Saddam; this WMD was concocted in a US laboratory. The identity of the anthrax culprit remains unknown, while the US can identify with pinpoint precision, a terrorist in a foreign country. Other newsworthy subjects that receive little coverage include Alzheimer's and other forms of mad cow, the link between milk and ear infections in children, growth hormones used in meat and dairy production and obesity, the overuse of antibiotics in food production and new more-resistant strains of infections in humans, the outing of a CIA agent, the faulty intelligence used to justify the war against Iraq, not to mention the multitude of unanswered questions surrounding the 9-11 tragedy.

Seven Jews and Media Ownership Rules

On June 2, 2003, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), which is charged with regulating media in the public interest, voted 3-2 to change the ownership rules, which limit the number TV stations one corporation can own and banning cross-ownership of TV stations and newspaper in the same market. Critics of the change argue that relaxing the rules will lead to consolidation and media monopoly in local communities.

Rule change opponents see media concentration as anti-competitive and mockery of the notion of a free press. They argue that conglomerates will rule journalism, culture and to a large extent, public opinion. Media control will give these conglomerates the power to influence politics more than ever before. As they say, "You control the news, you control the views."

Currently, seven Jewish Americans run the vast majority of US television networks, the printed press, movie, book publishing and recording industries. These industries are bundled into conglomerates run by Gerald Levin (AOL Time Warner), Michael Eisner (Walt Disney); Edgar Bronfman, Sr. (Seagram), Edgar Bronfman, Jr. (Seagram and Universal Studios), Sumner Redstone (Viacom), Dennis Dammerman (General Electric) and Peter Chernin (News Corp.). Collectively, these seven men control ABC, NBC, CBS, TBS, CNN, MTV, Universal, MCA Records, Geffen Records, DGC Records, GRP Records, Rising Tide Records, Curb/Universal Records and Interscope Records.

In response to the public outcry over the change in ownership rules, FCC Chairman Michael Powell called for "Localism and Diversity" public hearings at which he has been a "no-show." Visit www.freepress.net/rules, sign the petition demanding public hearings in every state. Pass this message on to everyone who wants local, skeptical, diverse and competitive media.

Disgruntled says: US blacks did not get upset over the Iraqi prisoner abuse. Blacks are abused daily in prisons all across this nation. Nobody is arrested; abuse it is par for the course of everyday black life in this society. Moreover, abused prisoners are not compensated, that would be too much like reparations.

Disgruntled wants to know: Dr. Katherine van Wormer, who has conducted research on addiction, wrote an essay on George W. Bush and the "dry drunk" syndrome. Dry drunk is a slang term used by substance abuse counselors to describe the recovering alcoholic. A dry drunk tends to go to extremes. The syndrome's characteristics include exaggerated self-importance and pomposity, grandiosity, a rigid, judgmental outlook, impatience, childish and irresponsible behavior, irrational rationalization, projection and overreaction. As frightening as the thought may be, we must ask the question. Could Dubya be a dry drunk?

Disgruntled feels: Manipulated! Ahmad Chalabi, formerly the US favorite Iraqi in exile and the presumed puppet leader of the occupied nation, has been exposed as the source of the faulty intelligence on Saddam's weapons of mass destruction. An indicted criminal, Chalabi is now cast as a double agent that fed US secrets to Iran, a member of Bush's "axis of evil." The US paid Chalabi millions of dollars for his deception. Everyone except those courting him in Washington knew he was a crook; it was all over the Internet. Outing him now is mere expedience. Bush and the neocons need a fall guy to perfect their manipulation of public perception.

Global 9-11 Truth Movement

Paul Lannoye, European Union Parliamentarian, has written a letter urging world leaders and world citizens to join in the call for the creation of a global commission to examine 9-11. As he points out, there have been two wars as a consequence of 9-11. Iraq had nothing to do with it, but it was attacked in the name of the 9-11 tragedy. Worldwide, people have suffered reduced civil liberties and intelligence surveillance of ordinary citizens has increased exponentially.

Citing groups, which include the USA Green Party and 9-11 Family Steering Committee that have requested an open independent investigation and expressed growing frustration with the lack of hard questions for witnesses before the 9-11 Commission, Lannoye and others are calling for a Global 9-11 Truth Movement. His letter proposing an international inquiry asked three questions. (1) Who made the insider stock trades against United and American Airlines? (2) Why were no interceptor jets dispatched on 9-11? (3) Why did the CIA Station Chief in Dubai meet with bin Laden weeks before 9-11 at a US Army Hospital?

For more, visit www.911Visibility.org and www.911Truth.org. These organizations have worked with 9-11 family members and citizens worldwide to lobby government, media and the 9-11 Commission to demand the truth and to hold public actions to educate the world about the apparent 9-11 cover-up.

Email KickBush@yahoogroups.com: Note to CNN's Kelli Arena. "Your comment on May 27 that "there is some speculation that al-Qaeda believes it has a better chance of winning in Iraq if John Kerry is in the White House" is not only pathetic, but is yellow journalism at its worst. Where is the speculation coming from? Sources from Bush's Justice Department? Bush's campaign officials? White House aides? Beyond this shabby statement, I think you are obligated to tell us who is "speculating" and whether you are being used as a pawn to spread Bush campaign scare tactics designed to drive down John Kerry's totals. I demand that you publicly and on the air retract the statement unless you are willing to disclose WHO is doing the speculating."

Email Iraq_Today@yahoogroups.com "The corporate grip on opinion in the United States is one of the wonders of the Western world. No First World country has ever managed to eliminate so entirely from its media all objectivity -much less dissent."-- Gore Vidal

According to media ownership sources, Jewish interests own most of the independent newspapers. Media mogul Samuel Newhouse owns two dozen newspapers from New York to Oregon, the Sunday supplement Parade; the Conde Nast magazine collection, which include Vogue, The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, Allure, GQ, and Self, publishing firms Random House, Knopf, Crown and Ballantine, and cable franchises with over one million subscribers. US media giant Disney is in the hands of Shamrock Holdings, whose principal office is located in Israel. One wonders, how would Americans feel if Muslims owned so much US media?

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