If I were Brian Williams, I'd spend the next 6 months updating my
resume and looking into a career change. I'd suggest trying out as a
Carnival Barker.
Long ago I stopped pretending to get the "news" from the evening TV
shows. In fact, while I used to faithfully tune in to 60 Minutes,
it's been so long that I wasn't sure if I knew who Bob Simon was. I
think they announced he had been with 60 Minutes for 17 years.
As I've said before, when I want to be entertained, I tune into
Everybody Loves Raymond reruns. Golden Girls still tickles my funny
bone, although I have seen reruns so often I can almost repeat their
lines before they say them.
But for most of my leisure time entertainment, I turn to Talking Books
and a good Adventure/Mystery.
For actual news I turn to Democracy Now, Alternative Radio, TCU, The
Week's Under reported News, Bioneers, Thom Hartman and a limited
number of other moderate and Progressive Talk Shows.
This list, Blind Democracy, also provides many articles that are not
reported, or under reported in the Corporate Media.
In all cases, regardless of where we are gathering our news, we need
to keep an open mind. Just because Thom Hartman or Amy Goodman or
even Chris Hedges do the reporting, we need to think about it in
balance of all else we know, and draw our own conclusions. Each one
of us, exercising our brain, is the greatest defense of our freedom.
Carl Jarvis
On 2/14/15, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@optonline.net> wrote:
>
> Published on Alternet (http://www.alternet.org)
> Home > The Real TV Scandal Isn't Brian Williams, but the Perpetual Wars
> Lies
> Spun Every Day
> ________________________________________
> The Real TV Scandal Isn't Brian Williams, but the Perpetual Wars Lies Spun
> Every Day
> By Amy Goodman, Nermeen Shaikh [1] / Democracy Now! [2]
> February 12, 2015
> NBC News has suspended anchor Brian Williams for six months without pay for
> making false statements about a 2003 incident in Iraq. Williams apologized
> last week after it emerged he had wrongly claimed he was on board a U.S.
> helicopter downed by rocket fire. American soldiers publicly challenged
> Williams' account, saying he was nowhere near the aircraft that came under
> attack. Williams has blamed the "fog of memory" for his mistake. But in a
> statement, NBC said Williams' claims were "wrong and completely
> inappropriate for someone in Brian's position." We are joined by Norman
> Solomon, author of "War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning
> Us to Death."
> Below is an interview with Solomon, followed by a transcript.
> AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace
> Report. I'm Amy Goodman, with Nermeen Shaikh.
> NERMEEN SHAIKH: We're speaking to media critic Norman Solomon. I want to
> ask
> you about NBC News's suspension of anchor Brian Williams for making false
> statements after he wrongly claimed he was on board a U.S. helicopter
> downed
> by rocket fire in Iraq in 2003. Norman Solomon, you wrote the book, War
> Made
> Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death. Can you talk
> about Brian Williams and the other lies around the Iraq War?
> NORMAN SOLOMON: Well, Brian Williams was, of course, one of the many mass
> media spinners, not only for the invasion of Iraq, but later catastrophic
> interventions in Libya and elsewhere. This suspension story, the falsehood
> told by Brian Williams, is the kind of story that the mass corporate media
> absolutely love, because it's about an individual personality, it's not
> about structural power; it's about a personal flaw or a misstatement or
> deception or lie, if you will, but not about constant streams of lies
> coming
> from institutions such as NBC News and many others that have billions of
> dollars of capital behind them.
> And I think it's important for us to remember that Brian Williams has run
> afoul of his fabulations, his lie that was told repeatedly to puff himself
> up in the context of glorifying the very kind of militarism that he was
> part
> of promoting in the first place. And if you look at his career-as of,
> unfortunately, many of his colleagues-we have to understand, or I think
> it's
> important for us to understand, that the real tragedies, the real
> transgressions against truth, are virtually never challenged, almost never
> challenged, by those folks' colleagues. And I would just sum it up this
> way:
> The Wall Street Journal front page yesterday described what Williams had
> done as telling a false war story, but in fact Williams and his colleagues
> are in the business of telling false war stories every day to, in effect,
> justify U.S. military interventions.
> AMY GOODMAN: Interestingly, Norm, on Tuesday, Williams' former boss at
> NBCUniversal, Bob Wright, defended Williams by pointing to his favorable
> coverage of the military, saying, quote, "He has been the strongest
> supporter of the military of any of the news players. He never comes back
> with negative stories, he wouldn't question if we're spending too much."
> Your response to this?
> NORMAN SOLOMON: Yeah, well, in the corridors of power, being a suck-up to
> the U.S. military is a high praise and qualification. And, in fact, those
> journalists who have challenged the escalation, the automatic support for
> whatever the president wants in terms of going to war, those folks hit a
> glass ceiling pretty quickly within the media establishment.
> Share on Facebook Share
> Share on Twitter Tweet
> Report typos and corrections to 'corrections@alternet.org'. [3]
> [4]
> ________________________________________
> Source URL:
> http://www.alternet.org/media/real-tv-scandal-isnt-brian-williams-perpetual-
> wars-lies-spun-every-day
> Links:
> [1] http://www.alternet.org/authors/amy-goodman-nermeen-shaikh
> [2] http://www.democracynow.org/
> [3] mailto:corrections@alternet.org?Subject=Typo on The Real TV Scandal
> Isn't Brian Williams, but the Perpetual Wars Lies Spun Every Day
> [4] http://www.alternet.org/
> [5] http://www.alternet.org/%2Bnew_src%2B
>
> Published on Alternet (http://www.alternet.org)
> Home > The Real TV Scandal Isn't Brian Williams, but the Perpetual Wars
> Lies
> Spun Every Day
>
> The Real TV Scandal Isn't Brian Williams, but the Perpetual Wars Lies Spun
> Every Day
> By Amy Goodman, Nermeen Shaikh [1] / Democracy Now! [2]
> February 12, 2015
> NBC News has suspended anchor Brian Williams for six months without pay for
> making false statements about a 2003 incident in Iraq. Williams apologized
> last week after it emerged he had wrongly claimed he was on board a U.S.
> helicopter downed by rocket fire. American soldiers publicly challenged
> Williams' account, saying he was nowhere near the aircraft that came under
> attack. Williams has blamed the "fog of memory" for his mistake. But in a
> statement, NBC said Williams' claims were "wrong and completely
> inappropriate for someone in Brian's position." We are joined by Norman
> Solomon, author of "War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning
> Us to Death."
> Below is an interview with Solomon, followed by a transcript.
> AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace
> Report. I'm Amy Goodman, with Nermeen Shaikh.
> NERMEEN SHAIKH: We're speaking to media critic Norman Solomon. I want to
> ask
> you about NBC News's suspension of anchor Brian Williams for making false
> statements after he wrongly claimed he was on board a U.S. helicopter
> downed
> by rocket fire in Iraq in 2003. Norman Solomon, you wrote the book, War
> Made
> Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death. Can you talk
> about Brian Williams and the other lies around the Iraq War?
> NORMAN SOLOMON: Well, Brian Williams was, of course, one of the many mass
> media spinners, not only for the invasion of Iraq, but later catastrophic
> interventions in Libya and elsewhere. This suspension story, the falsehood
> told by Brian Williams, is the kind of story that the mass corporate media
> absolutely love, because it's about an individual personality, it's not
> about structural power; it's about a personal flaw or a misstatement or
> deception or lie, if you will, but not about constant streams of lies
> coming
> from institutions such as NBC News and many others that have billions of
> dollars of capital behind them.
> And I think it's important for us to remember that Brian Williams has run
> afoul of his fabulations, his lie that was told repeatedly to puff himself
> up in the context of glorifying the very kind of militarism that he was
> part
> of promoting in the first place. And if you look at his career-as of,
> unfortunately, many of his colleagues-we have to understand, or I think
> it's
> important for us to understand, that the real tragedies, the real
> transgressions against truth, are virtually never challenged, almost never
> challenged, by those folks' colleagues. And I would just sum it up this
> way:
> The Wall Street Journal front page yesterday described what Williams had
> done as telling a false war story, but in fact Williams and his colleagues
> are in the business of telling false war stories every day to, in effect,
> justify U.S. military interventions.
> AMY GOODMAN: Interestingly, Norm, on Tuesday, Williams' former boss at
> NBCUniversal, Bob Wright, defended Williams by pointing to his favorable
> coverage of the military, saying, quote, "He has been the strongest
> supporter of the military of any of the news players. He never comes back
> with negative stories, he wouldn't question if we're spending too much."
> Your response to this?
> NORMAN SOLOMON: Yeah, well, in the corridors of power, being a suck-up to
> the U.S. military is a high praise and qualification. And, in fact, those
> journalists who have challenged the escalation, the automatic support for
> whatever the president wants in terms of going to war, those folks hit a
> glass ceiling pretty quickly within the media establishment.
> Error! Hyperlink reference not valid.
> Error! Hyperlink reference not valid.
> Report typos and corrections to 'corrections@alternet.org'. [3]
> Error! Hyperlink reference not valid.[4]
>
> Source URL:
> http://www.alternet.org/media/real-tv-scandal-isnt-brian-williams-perpetual-
> wars-lies-spun-every-day
> Links:
> [1] http://www.alternet.org/authors/amy-goodman-nermeen-shaikh
> [2] http://www.democracynow.org/
> [3] mailto:corrections@alternet.org?Subject=Typo on The Real TV Scandal
> Isn't Brian Williams, but the Perpetual Wars Lies Spun Every Day
> [4] http://www.alternet.org/
> [5] http://www.alternet.org/%2Bnew_src%2B
>
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> Blind-Democracy@octothorp.org
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