Another public affairs program carried on NPR – “The World,” almost invariably presents a feature that posits Jewry in a favorable light. It was just this Tuesday that it covered a Tel Aviv rock band (which they reminded us you could listen to on ‘The World’ website). While they need not have gone into the occupation of Palestine in this report, the net effect of such cultural puff pieces is that Israelis are presented as *like us.* Reports on Arab and Muslim culture usually have a decided political edge to them, very rarely, if ever, are there just ‘feel good’ stories about these cultures.

Of course, NPR depends heavily on listener support – and middle and upper class Jews purportedly contribute heavily to NPR – and so the story selection reflects this fact rather than reflecting the broad demographic structure of the nation or world. That’s wrong, of course.

Generally speaking, however, Jews are on the left of the political spectrum (but for the elephant in the room). So the US media might even be more rightwing were it not for the ‘liberalism’ that its reporters bring to the media business. However, if a reporter goes to the liberal well too many times on one issue or another, s/he will find herself on the receiving end of advice from the editor – who in turn wants to please the publisher (who by definition is likely to be more conservative than his underlings). So unless a reporter wants to be relegated to covering Little Italy Day or the 4-H club festivities, she will soon vary her reporting accordingly. Thus, the reportage trends rightward.

The issue of Israel is of course, the Rubicon. Basically, we have two parties in the thrall of the Israel lobby. (The Goldstone Report’s almost complete congressional condemnation is but one recent example.) Until that lobby can be broken – or at least cracked – both parties will march lock step with Israel – Likud Israel, no less. And if both parties march lock step, so too will the corporate media. The media will NOT beg to differ with congress on ANY issue that both political parties agree upon. For whatever the J-street lobby is worth, only if they can wedge a spot in the Israel/Palestine conversation, will any corporate media start reporting that view with any favor.

So to sum things up – for reporting in general, the preponderance of Jews in the media is largely a diversity issue – both from the stand point of what is published and with regard to who gets hired. On the issue of Israel, however, it goes far beyond a diversity issue or subject matter selection. It goes to the heart and soul of the mandate and obligation of the fifth Estate in America. It will either serve democracy and justice, or it will serve the elite.

Great Point which seems easy to make

teaching the world critical thinking would be an important step, eh? ad-hominem is so often commited (and too by the folks continously misusing it as a smart-speak replacement for name calling) that it’s actually taught as reason. Thinking hypocrisy by itself is illogical is a giant act of it.

Good book out there called, “Aristotle and an Aardvark Go to Washington” which could help some folks get an intro while being entertained—but on second thought, it may have been written by people calling themselves Jews! If that’s the case, there’s nothing to learn and I’m sorry for bringing it up.

Great Point which seems easy to make

teaching the world critical thinking would be an important step, eh? ad-hominem is so often commited (and too by the folks continously misusing it as a smart-speak replacement for name calling) that it’s actually taught as reason. Thinking hypocrisy by itself is illogical is a giant act of it.

Good book out there called, “Aristotle and an Aardvark Go to Washington” which could help some folks get an intro while being entertained—but on second thought, it may have been written by people calling themselves Jews! If that’s the case, there’s nothing to learn and I’m sorry for bringing it up.

And i solemnly proclaim and holler that i am person1 or earthling1 and person reading this is person2. Genetically i might be 000001 apache, yehudi, aramean, zulu, rom, czech; i% german, cymmerian, cree, mongol, hun, uighur, turkic, italian; 2% russian, azeri, mede, and so on.
In spirit, thinking i try to be first of all human1. tnx

‘Celebrity’ has had a negative influence on TV broadcasters by making them appear more credible than they are.

The US, and maybe the whole planet, will be destroyed by junk journalism. (Reminds me of a T-shirt I recently saw. It said, “Save the Earth. It is the only planet with beer.”)

While “bearing in mind” that Mike’s proposition re S. Lendman is a complete nonsequitur in that he fails to establish a single fact, then goes on to insult everybody’s intelligence by claiming that impact of the “traditional media” is “minimal”.

It might be obvious to me that Mike K is with a distorted view of reality, but I don’t think it would nec. follow that such would also be obvious to “millions”.

But this kind of reasoning is not really relevant to Mike’s project, which is “not trying to change anyone’s mind, but to reinforce existing prejudices in an entertaining way”:)

Chief factor commanding-lauding lying is the constitution;followed by the governance of which media and thus journalists are a part.
Both warfare and lying or lying-warfare being two aspects of one reality are waged in order to defend US interests.
And in fact, that is true and a constitutional demand. It just too bad that mostly rich people’s interests are defended by lying and warfare.

Such interests [whatever they actually may be] are also called “enhancing US security and defense of our greatness”. It is just another lie.
We cld also note that rich americans say exact same lies. It cld be clooney, gates, leno, bush, obama, cheney, ‘celebs’, artists, ceos, george will, falwell and another mn people like that and you’ll hear or read the same lies.
tnx