Brushfire of Freedom
Ram Rants
First, my deepest thanks to all those who take time to read our blogs each week. Your growing support has made it possible for us to make some improvements, and we will continue to do so as time passes. Secondly, I hope you had a joyous Christmas, and I wish all of you a happy and prosperous New Year.
As is customary this time of year, I’d like to take a look back on 2009, reflect on things past and prepare for 2010. Let’s focus on one of my favorite topics, shall we? Let’s talk about the media, specifically the “main stream” media, otherwise known as the “state run” media. The media monolith of ABC, NBC, CBS, AP, CNN, NYT, etc. You know, the gang protected by our first amendment to make it possible for them to be the watchdogs of our government.
This past year has not been a good year for our friends in the media. It has been a year of epic failures. Now I’m not referring to the closures of newspapers, the plummeting ratings, the sinking ad revenues, or the disappearing circulation. Yes, it’s true, those are all bad things, and they all happened in 2009. Yet they are only related issues to the real media failures of 2009, issues that should be reflected on by every “journalist”. The real failures by the media in 2009 are their failures to cover key stories, real news stories, that will be seen as key events in our history.
No, I’m not referring to Tiger Woods.
Let’s begin with “climategate”. We have several universities investigating various credentialed “scientists” for potential academic fraud, or worse, yet we see nothing in the “major” press outlets. For those who may have missed it, hundreds of emails have been released to the general public that clearly indicate that key climate “scientists” have been cooking the data. On purpose. They’ve bullied other scientists with opposing views, prevented publication of contradictory studies, and attempted to discredit others who had not subscribed to their beliefs. Three research facilities are involved; in the UK, Russia, and the US. The East Anglia University Climate Research Unit (CRU) is the source for much of the “science” used by the United Nations to define and drive their climate policies. The leader of that UN group shared his Nobel Prize for work on the climate with none other than Al Gore. This is big news.
The CRU is not some one-off little group that made a mistake in a single calculation just last month. These are some of the key voices in climate science today. Their work has been driving the research for the UN, and has been doing so for over a decade. The media’s refusal to report on any of this is one of their more recent epic failures. The whole “global warming” thing has been going on for more time than Al Gore gave our planet to survive. This is a significant news story because of its source, the organization involved, the impact of the revelation, and the changes it has already created in our history. If you think this event had nothing to do with the failures in Copenhagen, I have some excellent swamp land in Florida that may be just right for you.
Climategate - Media Epic Fail
This past summer, the health care debate took to the streets as literally millions of Americans in nearly every state held rallies, attended town halls, and visited the offices of their “representatives”. They adopted the “Tea Party” concept from our founding days, and were immediately attacked by the Liberals, and some “moderates” in Congress. Yes, the very people who are supposed to work for The People were insulting and dismissing their bosses. In other lines of work, they would have been fired for insubordination.
This is another story that the media completely missed, or mis-reported. Such an extensive outcry from the public, no matter their viewpoint, is newsworthy in every other nation on earth. But for some reason the media missed this story. They missed the message, they did not show up for coverage, or in some cases they attacked the people they were supposed to be covering. CNN in particular had reporters inserting themselves in the story by purposely skewing questions in an effort to discredit the subjects of their story. There was little “objective journalism” from the “main stream” media. How could you miss a story of this magnitude when you could pick any state in the nation and drive to the coverage?
Tea Parties - Media Epic Fail
The TARP money was supposed to buy toxic assets (Toxic Asset Relief Program) from banks, reducing their bad debt and providing stability to the financial markets. Instead money was used to buy insurance companies and bribe or browbeat banks. The government has used their position since to dictate salaries for bank executives.
Misuse of TARP Funds - Media Epic Fail
Nearly 80% of the “Stimulus” package money has not been spent. This massive spending package had to be passed immediately to save our economy. Now nearly all of the money is still sitting in a secret Obama piggy bank to be used for heaven knows what. Further, the money spent to “create jobs” has been spent to create jobs that apparently don’t exist. Even Obama’s own web site contains the fictional jobs numbers, such as jobs created in non-existent Congressional districts, or jobs that exceed the number of people in the reported city.
Stimulus Fraud - Media Epic Fail
Our deficit is now at record levels and climbing. Our grandchildren will be over one half a million dollars in debt the day they are born. We are so broke, China is telling us they can’t afford to buy any more of our debt.
Skyrocketing Deficit - Media Epic Fail
Unemployment has hit levels not seen in 25 years. More people are out of work now than have been since “The Mullet” was a “cool” haircut. The associated Misery Index is now higher than it’s been since 2006, and is climbing steadily. Obama’s policies were supposed to prevent this, or at least lesson its impact. Now economists are estimating further job losses and more economic struggles into Q2 of 2010.
Horrid Economic Policies - Media Epic Fail
We’ve had scandals involving the CIA and the Speaker of the House (She lied).
Pelosigate - Media Epic Fail
The failed closing of Gitmo - MEF
The delay of military decisions by our Commander in Chief - MEF
The New York flyover by Air Force One - MEF
Mary Landrieu’s $300M vote - MEF
Charlie Rangel’s failure to pay taxes, twice (he writes our tax policy) - MEF
The head of the IRS is a tax cheat - MEF
An admitted racist / sexist is nominated and confirmed to the US Supreme Court - MEF
I’m sure at this point you can name several other stories missed by “the media” that would be considered significant news stories. In most cases you can find these stories in the foreign media (I hit the British press), but you will find little if any mention in the US press. It’s for these reasons, for these stories, and for many, many more missed by the “main stream” media, that I think we can call 2009 the Year of Media Failures.
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