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TVNL’S 2004 END-OF-YEAR MEMORIAL
TO NEWS STORIES THAT ARE
MISSING
AND PRESUMED DEAD!
Let’s give them a round of applause for consistency! Another year is coming to an end, and the corporate media have played the game without a single error. The stories that were glossed over, omitted or covered up in 2003 remain untold. And the stories that were ignored, under-reported, or distorted in 2004 have resulted in the most unformed electorate in American history. By all means, let’s recognize the national news networks for another year of dishonor!
It’s not that we didn’t warn you. From its inception, TvNewsLIES.org has frantically waved a whole series of red flags: In our widely read editorials we offered readers a guide to interpreting the news. We analyzed CNN to disclose its minimal news content. We chastised the White House Press Corps(e) for its shameful surrender to intimidation. We showed how FOX News was truly a FOXymoron. We called for email campaigns directed to the major news anchors. We ran an open letter of accusation to news networks. We demanded that the NY Times recognize the time for truth. And we wrote a blistering epitaph to the TV news at the end of 2003.
So, here we are again, because nothing has changed. And here they are again, because we still need to know.
SOME OF THE MAJOR NEWS STORIES THAT ARE STILL MISSING
AND ARE NOW PRESUMED DEAD
The Voting Machine Scandal: a relentless effort by the GOP to implement a bug ridden, easily tampered with voting machine system, eliminating a paper trail or any way of verifying an election’s outcome, the promise by owner of a voting machine company to help deliver the 2004 election to George W. Bush... The Project for a New American Century: the players now in government, motive for permitting the events of 9/11, the Iraqi war plans of 1997, their influence on the Bush Doctrine of preemption and military domination of the globe…. The Office of Homeland Security: Bush’s six month opposition to a cabinet post of Homeland Security, coming under pressure, then taking the credit, then doing nothing to make America safer….. The 9/11 Investigation: the year and a half opposition, the stonewalling, the lies about having no idea planes could be weapons, the cover-up, the blacked out pages…. The Terrorization of America: The repeated references to terror and terrorist by Bush and his entire entourage as a tool to gain support for war in Iraq and justify the invasion of a sovereign nation… The Civilian Casualties: the real numbers of dead Iraqi civilians; the wounded; the maimed; - the order to stop counting civilian deaths given to the Iraqi Ministry of Health…. Ahmed Chalabi – the Real Story: his not having lived in Iraq since the 1950’s, the tens of millions given to him to foment internal revolution, his connection to Paul Wolfowitz, the armed thugs he brought to Iraq, his goals to be in charge….. Staging the Saddam Statue Drama: the staging of this PR event, using Chalabi’s armed thugs to pose as elated Iraqi’s. The Women of Iraq: How Iraqi women were the most liberated of any in the Moslem world, how they are now under Shia rule which has taken their freedoms away, the rapes, the kidnaps, their fear to walk freely without male escorts.... The Ongoing Chaos and Horror of Iraq: the nonstop carnage, the corruption, the outrageous aftermath of an unplanned occupation in an illegal an immoral war…. The Puppet Regimes: First we had Chalabi, then Allawi, a CIA operative set up by the US, who has no support from the people of Iraq. Negroponte and the Death Squads: the total blackout on the sleazy, murderous background of the new Ambassador to Iraq from the US. The Debacle in Afghanistan: The failure to win the war against the Taliban once Iraq diverted our military and our funds, return of the warlords, the revival of record breaking heroin production, the Taliban revival, the lack of democracy despite a staged election….. The Coalition of the Billing: the ridiculously small numbers of military personnel from the touted 60 nation ‘coalition of the willing,’ their rewards in contracts, in loans, in aid, in favoritism….. Halliburton and Friends: the granting of unbid contracts, the ‘deferred’ payments yearly to Dick Cheney, the failure of school rebuilding, the profiteering, the lost millions….. The Military Dead and Wounded: the real numbers, those dying in hospitals, the numbers of injured and severity of wounds; the suicides, the non hostile gunshot deaths, the accidents; the blackout on daily deaths, the disappearance of totals… Grounds for Impeachment: distorting intelligence information as grounds for impeachment, the statements of John Dean of Watergate notoriety, petitions calling for impeachment of George Bush….. Bush and the World Community: how he has to travel with hundreds to protect him in every country of the world, how he has to be kept away from the people, the protests against Bush wherever he travels, how he could not even visit with the people of the country he claimed to liberate The Wilson Leak: the criminal outing of a CIA operative by someone in the White House, the Novak connection, the six week silence by the President… The Bush Bulges: the story buried by the NY Times about the obvious bulges underneath George Bush’s jacket during the debates… US Withdrawal from the International Criminal Court: Bush and company cannot be brought to justice for any violations of International Law…. Abu Ghraib and Prisoner Abuse: Who is responsible? Who will be punished? Who permitted and planned the widespread outrages at prisons in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo? The Influence of Christian Fundamentalism: the Bush war against women’s reproductive rights, gay rights, and the disregard for separation of Church and State…. Bipartisan Groups of Statesmen and Women, Nobel Prize Winners, and Military Experts Warned Against a Bush Election: their warnings and pleadings, their evidence of mismanagement and wrongdoing by the President and his administration…. The Swift Boat Veterans’ Lies: their creation by Nixon during the Vietnam era; the stories of US atrocities investigated by Pulitzer winners that corroborated John Kerry’s testimony…. The Military Record of George W. Bush: the missing year, the refusal to take a medical exam, the absence of a single witness to his service……
These stories represent the tip of the iceberg. Their absence from the headlines is a dire warning to Americans that there no longer is a free press in this country.
Investigative journalism in the US bottomed out during the Clinton years when the Monica story consumed every media outlet with embarrassing abandon. With very few exceptions in the print media, the profession never again rose above that level. In the past four years, television news networks have uniformly morphed into competitors for tabloid coverage and for Bush administration favor.
We are all the less for their betrayal.
But we will not be silent. TvNewsLIES will continue its fight against corporate media deception. In this end-of-year editorial, we sincerely thank all our readers for their wonderful support, their generous donations and their much appreciated words of encouragement.
We also want to publicly thank the editors of WhatReallyHappened, Buzzflash, OpEdNews, and all the other alternative news sites and bloggers who have shared our editorials with their readers. Through continued cooperation and unity we may convince those who are uninformed and unclued that a true democracy cannot exist without a free press. Or, we may not.
These are frightening and discouraging times. We have only two choices: to accept without question what we are being told by the corporate media, or somehow, access the truth. Only by knowing what has been hidden can we understand the enormity of the problem that faces us now, and promises to get worse.
Actually, we only have one choice if we are to survive the secrecy of this administration and the complicity of the news media in suppressing the stories that should have been reported. That choice involves rejecting the TV News Networks as sources of real news, and understanding that the print media is beholden to its corporate owners.
The solution lies in cyberspace. The truth is here. The information is available. Access it, read it, and share it. Maybe, just maybe, we will one day reclaim the media as reliable sources of factual news. For now, keep in mind that the corporate media have conspired to keep us uniformed and pliable. Reject those who would keep us informed. Join those who believe that we have a right to know.
TvNewsLIES.org hopes to make the New Year one of resistance and renewal. We wish you all a year of greater truth in these deceptive times. In 2005, our fight against media deception will go on, and we invite you all to share it with us.
Please accept our wishes for a more peaceful year to you all. And Resist….
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