Friday, January 28, 2011

Mainstream Media (MSM) censorship

Mainstream Media (MSM) censorship and self-censorship are appalling realities in the Western Democracies, political systems that have been described as Murdochracies by outstanding expatriate Australian journalist John Pilger because of the domination of Western media, public perceptions and politics by the Murdoch News empire.

The Western Democracies have also been described as Lobbyocracies because vast amounts of money are spent by corporations on advertising and lobbying to pervert media, politician and public perceptions. This is particularly blatant in relation to man-made climate change. Thus while an overwhelming international scientific consensus accepts that man-made climate change is real, damaging and a major threat to humanity requiring urgent action, corporations with a vested interest in fossil fuel burning have successfully persuaded many politicians and journalists otherwise with the consequence of disastrous inaction that may kill 10 billion people this century in an already worsening Climate Genocide . [1, 2, 3].

A further major area of mainstream media censorship censorship and self-censorship is the US Alliance War on Terror that has so far been associated with about 8 million violent deaths or war-associated non-violent avoidable deaths. Yet Mainstream media have a resolute policy of not reporting the horrendous human cost of this 21st century Muslim Holocaust and Muslim Genocide. [4, 5, 6, 7]

With the actual or adumbrated publication by WikiLeaks of hundreds of thousands of secret US cables, the Western Mainstream media have apparently discarded their usual timidity in reportage of the activities of neoconservative America. However the eagerness of Mainstream media to selectively report WikiLeaks leaks should be immediate grounds for deep suspicion by long-suffering members of the reading, listening and viewing public, a scepticism that is borne out by the Awful Truth.

Thus the 2 major realities of the WikiLeaks saga are (1) that the leaked US documents simply confirm what sensible people had surmised about US Alliance malfeasance from a wealth of other evidence and (2) that the real scandal of WikiLeaks is that neither Wikileaks nor the Mainstream media will report the biggest horror of the 21st century so far, specifically the 8 million deaths so far in the US Alliance War on Terror. However Mainstream Media will neither report the carnage nor report the WikiLeaks and MSM non-reportage of the carnage. [8].

The real scandal of WikiLeaks and the general problem of Mainstream Media censorship is illustrated by extraordinary censorship by a leading Australian newspaper of reader comments about WikiLeaks. The Age newspaper (Melbourne, Australia; part of the Fairfax media empire) is arguably Australia’s most “liberal” mainstream medium. The Age has an on-line version which in turn has a National Times section (linked to other Fairfax newspapers) with op-ed pieces by selected writers (in-house journalists, academics, politicians and other commentators). The Age invites readers to make comments. However The Age has remorselessly censored out my comments (made under my own name, Dr Gideon Polya) about WikiLeaks and the WikiLeaks and MSM non-reportage of the 8 million victim, Elephant in the Room, US War on Terror carnage.

Thus The Age recently published an article by Australian media academic Hamish Ford entitled “WikiLeaks gives old media a shot in the arm”, about renewal of journalism through WikiLeaks. (The Age, 16 December 2010). [9]. http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/contributors/wikileaks-gives-old-media-a-shot-in-the-arm-20101216-18yt7.html ). The Age published 26 comments from readers (all but 1 anonymous) but evidently did not want its readers to read my submitted but not published comment:

“Good article that nevertheless, like WikiLeaks, media and politicians, fails to note the real scandal of the WikiLeaks saga, specifically that while WikiLeaks is properly lauded for publishing hundreds of thousands of US-linked diplomatic opinions, this obscures the outrageous non-reportage by the Mainstream media of the actual horrendous human consequences of US imperialism. Violent deaths and non-violent avoidable deaths in the US War on Terror now total 8 million, the breakdown being 2.5 million in Iraq, 4.9 million in Afghanistan and 0.8 million (3,000 Australian) from US restoration of the Taliban-destroyed Afghan opium industry.

In her important novel "The Lacuna" (lacuna meaning a gap or absence) Barbara Kingsolver has Russian Communist revolutionary Leon Trotsky (Lev) and his assistant Van have the following discussion about media (part 3, p159, Faber & Faber, London, 2009 edition) [10]: ""But newspapers have a duty to truth", Van said. Lev [Trotsky] clicked his tongue. "They tell the truth only as the exception. Zola [French novelist of "J'accuse" fame] wrote that the mendacity of the press could be could be divided into two groups: the yellow press lies every day without hesitating. But others, like the Times, speak the truth on all inconsequential occasions, so they can deceive the public with the requisite authority when it becomes necessary." Van got up from his chair to gather the cast-off newspapers. Lev took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes. " I don't mean to offend the journalists; they aren't any different from other people. They're merely the megaphones of other people" (Google "media ignoring horrendous US crimes").

Silence kills and silence is complicity.” [10, 11].

This site is dedicated to documenting Mainstream Media censorship.

For previous compendia of mainstream media censorship see "Mainstream Media Censorship": link and "Mainstream media lying": link (as of late January 2011 seem to have lost the ability to edit these particular websites).

[1]. Climate Emergency: : What Top World Scientific Experts Say: https://sites.google.com/site/yarravalleyclimateactiongroup/climate-emergency-what-top-world-scientific-experts-say .

[2]. Climate Genocide”: https://sites.google.com/site/climategenocide/ .

[3]. James Hansen, “Storms of my Grandchildren” (Bloomsbury, London, 2009).

[4]. Palestinian Genocide: http://sites.google.com/site/palestiniangenocide/ .

[5]. Iraqi Holocaust, Iraqi Genocide: http://sites.google.com/site/iraqiholocaustiraqigenocide/ .

[6]. Afghan Holocaust, Afghan Genocide: http://sites.google.com/site/afghanholocaustafghangenocide/ .

[7]. Muslim Holocaust, Muslim Genocide: https://sites.google.com/site/muslimholocaustmuslimgenocide/ .

[8]. Gideon Polya, "WikiLeaks scandals and media ignoring horrendous US crimes", Countercurrents, 4 December 2010: http://www.countercurrents.org/polya041210.htm .

[9]. Hamish Ford, “WikiLeaks gives old media a shot in the arm”, The Age, 16 December 2010: http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/contributors/wikileaks-gives-old-media-a-shot-in-the-arm-20101216-18yt7.html .

[10]. Barbara Kingsolver, "The Lacuna" (Faber & Faber, London, 2009).

[11]. Gideon Polya, “Censorship and genocide ignoring by Australian mainstream media and WikiLeaks”, Countercurrents, 17 December 2010: http://www.countercurrents.org/polya171210.htm .

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