Tag: Free the Press

In the perhaps quixotic quest to Free The Press of some of the worst features of  corporate hegemony over the very information we live and breathe, The Maddow Movement was born. With no illusions of anything but a starting point in fighting the influence of those who would narrow our perceptions through the presentation of Military Analyst Propaganda…or allow themselves to be cowed and complicit stenographers (alternately: “deferential, complicit enablers” ) of and for the lies that led us to Iraq and the death of perhaps a million people…or did NOT choose to investigate torture…or treason….a campaign was launched to throw out the old guard and hail and herald the new.

1229 good souls have signed The Maddow Movement Petition. Untold numbers of E-mails have been sent. Today…you too can help!

Now! (please?)

Not only will you be helping to get a fresh honest perspective inserted into the stale and stilted puditry that has helped to lead our country to ad over the brink of …really bad stuff…you will be flexing your muscle as a news and information consumer! You will be showing the corporate heads and the programmers that there is a demand for better reporting, analysis and just plain  intelligence (Ms Maddow = Rhodes Scholar) in their “industry.”

“People get the government they deserve,” de Tocqueville said…the same goes for information! In our world today, we consumers (formerly know as ‘citizens) will only get what we demand from those who would be our corporate masters…Yell Louder!

And get thee hither to signeth yon petition and send ye your e-mails!

[email protected]

As per Keith’s explicit instructions and broad wink indicating that The Maddow Movement had already succeeded before we even started it. (are we powerful or what???)

The Maddow Movement is pretty much over/redundant. I plan on making one last little push in the next few days for signatures on the petition, and then sending it to the PTB at NBC, just to make sure they know how much we support them in giving Rachel her own show. Thanks for all your help, that was fun! And now we can move on to the next steps of the Free The Press campaign.

Which got a big boost today (as brobin posts about here) from none other than former Bush Press Deceiver little Scotty McClellan! The Pillsbury Lie Boy has a new book out and the Politico has excerpts, wherein the star of the Scotty Show comes right out and says what we all know. That the WH Pess Corps was “too easy on the administration during the run-up to the war.” (as Politico phrased it) Greenwald has another devastating semi-quote “deferential, complicit enablers” of Bush administration “propaganda.” Btw, if you haven’t yet, read Greenwald!

In other words…the WH Press Corp are not much more (with the exception of St Helen Of Thomas) than lap dog stenographers without the necessary brains or gumption to really challenge the daily damburst of lies, evasions, and spun half truths spewing forth from the halls of tyranny.

If you haven’t sent an e-mail or signed the petition for the Maddow Movement yet….well….I’ll let this guy say it!

Whereas; The Press, the Fourth Estate, is the gatekeeper of Truth in our country. If the Press does not report it, it effectively never happened as far as the all important reaction of the citizenry is concerned. Where the Press shines it’s light, freedom follows.

Whereas; The Press during the Bush Administration has not only blinded its own light in regards to scandalous crimes, it has on far too many occasions, such as the lead up to the Iraq Occupation and on Domestic Spying, and in the latest instance of the Military Analysts scandal, actually aided and abetted in the criminal acts and despicable propaganda activities of the Bush Administration.

We have determined that in order to take our country back from those who have usurped our democracy, in order to bring to light their crimes, in order to expose their methods, and most importantly..in order to make sure that these crimes and outrages can never occur again, the first necessary step on the log road back to America is to reform and retake the Fourth Estate, to Free The Press.

Realizing that this monumental task cannot be accomplished in one fell swoop, but must be approached incrementally, in a series of small but achievable steps, we have determined that the first step is getting a fresh, objective  progressive voice that has not been tainted by the past eight years on the air.

Rachel Maddow.

To this end we are starting an E-mail and Petition drive to urge MSNBC to give Ms. Maddow her own show…we have named this effort, The Maddow Movement

Rachel Maddow says:

The real issue is story selection, is editorial control. I can only control what it is that I get asked to speak about in a very blunt way. That said, the way that I handle that is that I, I am gunning to get my own show. I would really like to be hosting a show on cable television, rather than guesting because I would like to exert more control over what gets discussed, over what counts as important.

The Press, the Fourth Estate, is the gatekeeper of Truth in our country. If the Press does not report it, it effectively never happened as far as the all important reaction of the citizenry is concerned. Where the Press shines it’s light, freedom follows.

Where the press is free and every man able to read, all is safe.

Thomas Jefferson

Information is the currency of democracy.

Thomas Jefferson

This has never been better demonstrated than during the reign of George Bush. The Press has not only blinded its own light in regards to scandalous crimes, it has on far too many occasions, such as the lead up to the Iraq Occupation and domestic spying, and in the latest iteration of the military analysts, actually aided and abetted in the criminal acts and despicable propaganda activities of the Worst President Ever. The Bush Administration has corrupted both the Press and the Justice Department to such an extent that is has literally, in the case of its Torture activities, gotten away with murder. It is up to us as citizens to do what we can to stop this. To take back our government and to restore a Free Press.