The comments in this thread are also interesting and include one from Jonathan Cook.

http://members5.boardhost.com/medialens/thread/1265965450.html

CMM Alert: Benighted Journalists Assail Haiti

http://canuckmediamonitor.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=350&st=0#entry499

The topic of the aftermath of the earthquake has died completely in the UK MSM apart from linking Clinton’s cardiac troubles to the heroic work he has been doing in Haiti and how the strain has affected him! A fashion designer’s suicide is being given top billing with Sky News’s helicopter following the passage across London of the private ambulance bearing the body.

I appreciated William Blum’s comments. Very much. Haiti, and all victims of US imperialism, need all the defending we can give them. Basically, When it comes to corporatocracy and imperialists, It’s them, it’s that minority against us, the people, namely the majority. That doesn’t make the majority righteous. But it does say something about ‘democracy’. We all use the word and believe in it. Clearly, The majority does not mean the same thing when it talks about democracy. Chomsky has clearly explained this. Elites who some time ago steered elite, intellectual culture in a certain direction with their views and prescriptions were very frank in their elucidation of what ‘democracy’ is and should be. We are the rabble, the bewildered herd, etc..

This, from Blum’s article, is a keeper:

“There are numerous examples of terrorists citing American policies as the prime motivation behind their acts,14 so many that American officials, when discussing the newest terrorist attack, have to tread carefully to avoid mentioning the role of US foreign policy; and journalists typically fail to bring this point home to their reader’s consciousness.”

So, In some ways (hindersome rights and rules that we’ve won, in some places) the elites and (capitalist) special interests have to work harder to make trouble. In other ways, because they have become powerful, they don’t have to work so hard to cause trouble.

I would only add one thing, however. I take Blum’s point about the peace dividend that could await the US, and world, should it disarm. However, How can one nation – let alone one that has made an enemy out of most of the world – disarm in this godless, violent world?

RIP Howard Zinn

In America you can say anything you want — it doesn’t have any effect.

From his first citation of Paul Goodman’s delicious irony, through his comments on the venerable Zinn’s insights, to his final counter-challenge to Mr. Obama, William Blum proves himself yet again a master of the short essay that illuminates our political and social current events and history.

I was channel-surfing a couple of weeks ago, alighted on that preposterous McLaughlin Report (sp?) and heard that silly Palin manque journalist on there allude to Aristide making off with 900 million dollars when he left Haiti! Pat Buchanan smiled at his protege and nobody else among the group of 5 bothered to challenge the slander. They let it slide. And this is how, through sins of omission and commission, our corrupt corporate media shape our psyches, turn us into good consumers of the latest electronic gizmos, dollar burgers and fast-food non-news.

Blum’s article above would shame Fareed Zakariah–if he had a conscience and professional standards to shame.

We need more persnickety types like Helen Thomas and William Blum. Stalwarts to carry on the indefatigable efforts of Howard Zinn, George Orwell, Aldous Huxley: those who have lived and studied history, see the handwriting on the wall and have the guts, perseverance and conscience to interpret and forewarn.