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IS ANYONE OUT THERE LISTENING?![]()
A DISTURBING INQUIRY
By Contributing Editor - TvNewsLIES.org - June 2005
Maybe that’s the wrong question. Maybe I should ask if anyone out there is SCREAMING! I know I am, and I’m ready to blow.
The corporate media are the common enemy of the American people and they have to be treated as such. They have to be made to feel the anger of the public. They have to be made to feel ashamed of what they are doing.
The man holding the news conference used that phrase again, the one about our winning in Iraq, and they let him get away with it. The pseudo journalists at the White House news conference let him get away with it and I came that close to smashing my TV with a baseball bat. It’s gotten that bad.
The man went on to say, “I believe we're making really good progress in Iraq,” and I had a really wild knee-jerk reaction: I stood up and screamed. ”NO,” I actually yelled out loud, “NO, you liar….it’s not true!” I had screamed those words at a defenseless television screen that was coming closer and closer to annihilation by the moment. But I felt better for having done that.
“We didn't pass sovereignty but about 10 months ago,” the man continued, “and since that time a lot of progress has been made. And we'll continue to make progress for the good of the region and for the good of our country.” Hearing those words, the faux journalists in the room seemed pleased. Iraq was fine and dandy. How nice, they seemed to say, so now let’s talk about the filibuster.
And that’s when I totally lost it.
That’s when I entered my parallel universe – the one in which I believed I could actually make them hear me. The one in which I could vent my disbelief directly at the cadre of ersatz press folks who were seated on the screen. HEY YOU, I shouted at them, HEY YOU….
DIDN’T YOU PEOPLE HEAR WHAT HE JUST SAID? IS THERE NO ONE OUT THERE WHO HEARD WHAT I DID? WHY ARE YOU JUST SITTING THERE? WHY ARE YOU LETTING HIM GET AWAY WITH THE LIES? WHERE IS THE OUTRAGE? For Heaven’s sake, WHY AM I THE ONLY ONE WHO’S SCREAMING?
I was screaming, all right, and I knew exactly why. I was screaming because I had reached the moment when I simply couldn’t take the lies any more. More than two years had passed, and I was watching the same docile acceptance of the same old propaganda. I was screaming at the surrealist scenario being played out at a meaningless presidential press conference. And most of all I was screaming because I knew what was really happening out there.
I knew because TvNewsLIES posts news of the carnage day after day after day. We link to stories of death and destruction In Iraq that show the nonstop violence. Did the man tell you about the LACK of progress in his war? Did he tell you about the kidnappings and the constant fear? Did he tell you about the birth defects from his DU shells? Did he tell you about the civil war he’s fomented? Did he bother to tell you that in the past 18 months, bombings, ambushes and other deadly attacks have claimed the lives of TWELVE THOUSAND Iraqis?
That’s TWELVE THOUSAND human beings who would be alive today but for the man who tells us we’re winning. That’s TWELVE THOUSAND over and above the HUNDRED THOUSAND he killed during his so-called surgical assault on a non threatening country. That’s an awesome number of dead people on his head. Did he happen to mention them? DAMMIT, ARE YOU SCREAMING YET?
And did the man at the podium happen to mention the soldiers? Did he mention a word about American casualties having reached 1,670 – and growing at a rate of more than 2 per day? Did the man ever, ever say anything about the 185 deaths among coalition forces? And of course, there was no mention of the thousands and thousands of wounded – the limbless, the blind, the burned, and the scarred for life. WERE YOU LISTENING AT ALL TO THE SHAMEFUL SILENCE?
But I was listening to yours. I was listening to your appalling silence. I was listening to your refusal to ask follow-up questions or challenge the mantra you’ve heard for all these years. I was listening. And that’s why I’m screaming now.
You heard him answer a question about more attacks and more people dying in Iraq. DID YOU HEAR WHAT HE SAID? The man looked you square in the face and said, “We will stay on the offense. We'll be relentless, we'll be smart about how we go after the terrorists, we'll use our friends and allies to go after the terrorists, we will find them where they hid and bring them to justice.”
DID YOU REALLY HEAR THAT? The man said that it’s not going to stop. He said that. He repeated the lie that the war in Iraq is about fighting terrorists. He said he was going to be smart, - did you get that? Did you ask him what that meant? Did you ask him about the friends and allies that are pulling out of Iraq? Did you ask him anything at all? WAS ANYONE LISTENING TO, OR QUESTIONING THE GARBAGE THAT WAS BEING SPEWED?
But wait, at some point someone asked a really good question. The reporter wanted the man to explain why more people were dying in terrorist attacks on his watch than ever before. DID ANYONE HEAR WHAT HE SAID IN RESPONSE? This is too much. The man stood there and calmly told the nation “…we are making good progress. The Al Qaida network that attacked the United States has been severely diminished. We are slowly but surely dismantling that organization.”
We are making good progress. THAT’S WHY MORE PEOPLE ARE DYING THAN EVER BEFORE! WAS ANYONE LISTENING TO THE HOGWASH? I was. And I was screaming through clenched teeth so no one would think I was simply out of my mind.
They later asked the man about sending detainees to other countries, and the man said, “We operate within the law, and we send people to countries where they say they're not going to torture the people.” DID YOU HEAR THAT? Does he send them to places like Cairo, Tashkent and Kabul on secret flights for their health?
“It's in our country's interests to find those who would do harm to us,” said the man at the helm, “and get them out of harm's way.” WHAT IN HELL DID THAT MEAN? We send them to countries known for their torture tactics to get prisoners out of harms’ way?
Are we all mad? I’m beginning to believe we are. But at the very least, I’m screaming about it. ARE YOU EVEN LISTENING TO WHAT THE MAN IS SAYING? WILL YOU REPORT THE LIES TO YOUR READERS AND YOUR VIEWERS?
No. The answer to both questions is NO. The Washington Post editors praised the man this week for having more press conferences than in his first term. No matter that the man lied and squirmed and repeated his malicious mantras, it’s the quantity of press conferences that is commendable. What can I say? It would take pages and pages to respond to all the lies and distortions that were allowed to go unchallenged. It’s beyond my comprehension at this point, and I’ve got to know: IS ANYONE OUT THERE LISTENING TO THIS? Is anyone out there screaming with me?
And yes, I mean YOU. I’m addressing the readers of this article as well. The time has come for the head shaking to end. It’s not enough. The time has come for the whining and complaining about the lies and the deceptions of this government has to end. IT IS NOT ENOUGH! IT IS TIME TO SCREAM IN UNISON!
The corporate media will not challenge the man about anything he does or says. They will continue to give him a free pass at every turn. THEY WILL NOT EVEN ASK THE MOST SIMPLE OR MOST LOGICAL QUESTIONS! THEY SIMPLY WILL NOT!
It is time to recognize that the CORPORATE MEDIA HAS BECOME THE ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE! And it’s time to mobilize and take the battle to the enemy.
TvNewsLIES has said it before, and we’ll say it again. The Peace Movement has to be mobilized and redirected to march on the collaborators who support and promote and disseminate the lies and propaganda that comes out of the White House. Those who are aware of the crimes of this administration number in the tens of millions. WHERE ARE THEY?
The corporate media are the common enemy of the American people and they have to be treated as such. They have to be made to feel the anger of the public. They have to be made to feel ashamed of what they are doing.
Fragmented and silent, they accomplish nothing. United and focused, much can be done. THAT IS WHY I AM SCREAMING. IS ANYONE OUT THERE LISTENING? PLEASE, PLEASE, LET ME KNOW!!!!
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