Newsvandal

Listen Up!

Posted on | January 9, 2012 | No Comments

On this week’s Inside the Headlines w/ the Newsvandal:
I riff on the Military-Industrial Complex, follow the money on war with Iran, suggest suing Monsanto and hit my artificial scarcity meme re: the oil business.

Category: Elba TV

Chris Matthews is a Callow Shill

Posted on | January 6, 2012 | 1 Comment

Chris Matthews is a servant of the power elite who willingly trades in establishment tripe to enrich and aggrandize himself. He shills, loudly and all-too-predictably, about the mechanisms of power while profiting from its output.

And his shrill shill is propped up by an ever-more callow culture of celebrity that typifies contemporary politics and journalism.

His latest shill job is a book titled “Jack Kennedy: Elusive Hero.” He married its release to the anniversary of JFK’s murder and made certain that he not only profited from that unholy marriage, but he also used it to burnish his credentials as a latter-day PR man for the Warren Commission.

There is a great deal of media job security in propping up that fiction…which is an important fact that historian and JFK researcher James DiEugenio points out in his carefully constructed and painstakingly researched counterpoint to Matthews’ flaccid paean to his own self-interest.

In a piece titled “Why Mr. Hardball Found JFK Elusive,” DiEugenio writes: “Clearly, the fast-talking and opinionated TV host did not master the latest scholarship about Kennedy’s views and actions on a variety of topics, from the Bay of Pigs to Vietnam.”

Although not nearly to the extent of Mr. DiEugenio, I have also spent many hours on JFK, his post-Missile Crisis transformation, his murder and have formulated an operating “theory” that he was the “Last President.”

No president since JFK has operated independently from the Military-Industrial Complex and the National Security superstructure that controls the US. JFK not only operated independently, but he began to challenge that superstructure. His murder was, in fact, a coup d’état.

Nixon tried a bit. Carter thought about it. But they were clamped down…immediately.

DiEugenio does a great job with those themes and with the callow self-interest of Matthews, who, like clockwork, takes time each Nov 22nd to cling to the paper-thin fiction that Oswald was the lone gunman.

His service to power has made him very wealthy.

-the newsvandal

Category: Burn the Media
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Joe Paterno in Tokyo

Posted on | November 11, 2011 | No Comments

If Joe Paterno was Japanese…he’d have resigned immediately, accepted responsibility and proclaimed the disgracing of his honor, his family’s honor and the honor of Penn St. But he’s American. So he blithely goes to practice, gripes about being fired and then a bunch of idiot kids rampage their own school because a de facto co-conspirator in child molestation lost his job as football coach.

Is America a twisted place, or what?

The people at the top of business fail and collect big bonuses on their way out if, indeed, they even have to leave their jobs. The people at the top of government direct a policy of torture and the soldiers dangling at the last link in the chain of command take the fall. Everywhere the people at the bottom pay the price for the “mistakes’ and malfeasance of the people at the top.

Is America twisted? Or what?

If nothing else, the American Way has been twisted and the current goal is to rise to the place where the buck stops so you can then collect it and, if anything unfortunate happens, pass it.

Category: Read My Mind
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Boldly Going Where Only Drones Have Gone Before

Posted on | October 18, 2011 | No Comments

I’ve been droning on about drone warfare. And about the current explosion in war-making technologies. I say “explosion” because I refuse to call them “advances.”

War-planning tablet computers. Kamikaze Drones. Merge those with new developments in facial recognition. Hunter-killers.

The Neo-Con dream of nano-tech killer-bots. Death delivery systems by remote control. A far-flung array of bases.

And a generation of future soldiers who’ve cut their canines on one shockingly graphic war simulator after another. Just sitting there on a couch, pushing a button and killing one CGI enemy after another. Forget the push-ups, a ready-made army of push-button pilots awaits a near-future filled with ultra-quick assassinations, all-too-easy bombing runs and the ominous and omnipresent patrolling of the skies.

By taking humans away from the immediate impact of the killing, we are taking the humanity out of the decision to kill. We are, in fact, boldly going where no man has gone before.

Except for…Star Trek.

In an episode titled “A Taste of Armageddon,” computer technology has taken the messy complications of war out of the equation. This “advanced” technology allows people to kill each other cleanly, methodically and without the stain of blood on their hands or the stain of remorse in their hearts. In fact, war can go on without any real incentive to stop it. The cities remain. The people live, until their deaths are registered by computer simulation and they must report to a disintegration chamber. Then their deaths are counted.

Remove the blood from the hands and remove the reason to stop killing.

Shatner gives one of his best, over-the-top performances when he delivers a monologue to Anan Seven, the leader of the methodically-structured planet who must suddenly face the harsh reality of war. To save his ship, of course, Kirk has destroyed the computer in question and unleashed the all-too-real dogs of war upon Anan’s planet.

Captain James T. Kirk:
“Death. Destruction. Disease. Horror. That’s what war is all about, Anan. That’s what makes it a thing to be avoided. You’ve made it neat and painless, so neat and painless that you’ve had no reason to stop it.”

Will we, in light of a never-ending war against a world filled with potential enemies both real and invisible, simply relent to the same impulse if there are no coffins coming home, no disabled veterans or PTSD or loved ones who can reflect back the horrors of war simply by looking you in the eye?

Captain James T. Kirk:
“We’re human beings with the blood of a million savage years on our hands. But we can stop it. We can admit that we’re killers, but we’re not going to kill today. That’s all it takes, knowing that we’re not going to kill today.”

Will we lose that connection to our past and ourselves by inserting a technological interface between us and the darkness? The aversion to war comes from the reality of it. But, if it simply becomes a reality show and our soldiers merely joystick operators toiling away in air conditioned bunkers, what impetus will there be to stop? And rest assured, other nations are busily working on drones of their own.

Captain James T. Kirk:
“Yes, Counselor, you have a real war on your hands. You can either wage it with real weapons, or you might consider, an alternative. Put an end to it, make peace….”

We find ourselves at a crossroads. This is the moment to reflect back upon the time when “A Taste of Armageddon” was made, set against a backdrop of escalation in Vietnam and the Cold War’s looming specter of nuclear holocaust. But take a moment also to understand the prescience of it’s warning and to decide whether or not you want to boldly to go where no man has gone before.

Alas, waiting for Captain Kirk is not an option.

Category: Read My Mind
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The Political-Industrial Complex

Posted on | October 10, 2011 | No Comments

HEADLINE: Television advertising in 2012 election could top $3 billion

Voting between the lesser of two evils.

Gridlock. Partisanship. Split-screens filled with the same old faces yelling, name-calling and spin-spin-spinning.

Two wings of the same ruling party and the elusive dream – or unrealistic fantasy – of a “Third Party” that will…finally…shake up the system.

The sneering cynicism that comes with the evil of two lessers.

And money. Lotsa money.

You see, we don’t really have a democracy or, for those who like to be precise, a functioning democratic republic. And it isn’t really governance. Rather, we have a political industry that launders money. Tax dollars pay the salaries of Senators and Representatives and provide for their small armies of staffers. We pay for their “fact-finding” junkets. They also get great healthcare, a gym and security. The political appointees of the Executive Branch do pretty well, too. And, by and large, the same thing happens at the state level.

But that’s just the tip of a titanic financial iceberg. The really big money comes from trying to get those pols elected. And re-elected. And re-elected again.

That’s where the partisan laundry service really takes the shirts off of all our backs.

Political contributions get cycled through PACs and SuperPACs and lobbying firms and advertising firms and polling firms and law firms. As the money comes into campaigns, it pays for staff and also ends up lining the pockets of all those political professionals who keep the “wheels of progress” turning or, more often, not turning. Frankly, less progress extends the life of issues and the candidates who run on them.

Billions of dollars go through this vast laundry service.

Think of all the money made over the years on both sides of abortion. And gay marriage. And think of all the candidates whose suits would be even emptier if they weren’t running on some hyper-contentious issue. Hot issues equal big money. Other issues get ignored. Where is the ad money in ending wars? Or bringing troops home from around the globe? If you want the issue to get into the cycle, you have to put change into the machine. And we ain’t talking chump change. Or mythical change. We’re talking cold, hard bundles of cash. Millions and millions of it.

That isn’t politics. That’s a Political-Industrial Complex.

And the news media is, perhaps, the key cog in that grinding machine. The more contentious the election, the more dichotomous the debate and the more heated the rhetoric…the more enriching the whole process becomes to the seedy squatters currently occupying the Fourth Estate. By generating more heat than light, the news media generates more revenue than facts. How? By filling all those nifty commercial breaks with lucrative political advertising.

You see, the dirty little secret of the broadcasting industry is that they depend upon the political advertising that comes during the two and four-year election cycles to turn a profit. A big one.

Those predictable windfalls are good for business. Very, very good. Don’t expect the media to do anything other than feed that egg-laying goose.

So, highlight the personalities. Knock one down, lift the other one up. Stoke the competition. Forget reporting on facts and turn it into an ongoing soap opera. Draw it out and draw us in. Jabber on about polls. Red versus blue equals green. Ka-ching, ka-ching, ka-ching.

The media loves it. Wants it. Needs it.

And what do we see more and more? The permanent campaign. Forget governing. How many times have you heard some blathering head talk about “campaign mode” or heard some faint voice of sanity lamenting the election starting earlier and earlier with each passing year? The reason is simple – a rising tide lifts all their boats and sculls and yachts and nifty little sloops.

The sorta boats that cruise around Martha’s Vineyard or the azure waters of the Caribbean, far away from the iceberg they are crashing us all into.

Media professionals and advertising agencies and consultants all make money off of “us versus them.” They all make money off of the status quo. So do the ad buyers and local station executives and owners. And, as national and statewide campaigns become more and more expensive, the cable networks and broadcasting’s big four – ABC, CBS, NBC and FOX – all rake in the cash. Your donations are more likely to end up in the pocket of some cigar-chomping chump than into the needy hands of some eager, motivated canvasser.

When you wonder why nothing gets done, or why problems only seem to get worse amidst the din of hyperbole and bickering, think of it all as a daily drama. It is a soap opera. And why were they called “soap operas?” Because those quickly-crafted melodramas were designed to hold your attention just long enough to sell you soap. Dish soap and laundry detergent and hand-repairing cleansers. That’s the point of all the drama and tension. It sells soap. And that’s the point of the Political-Industrial Complex. All that drama and hyperbole…it sells soap.

For the media professionals who sell it to us all, it’s money in the bank.

Literally.

Category: Burn the Media
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Who are “They?”

Posted on | October 6, 2011 | 2 Comments

Someone asked me, quite rightly, who the “they” are…so, here it goes:

It’s the money.
The top 1%.
They’ve been there since the Gilded Age.
They crashed the economy in 1929.
They fought FDR tooth and nail.
They’ve been trying to restore the Gilded Age since the end of WWII.
Right now, there are 400 families who control half of America’s wealth.
We can name some…the Waltons, the Kochs, the Dimons.
We can point to corporations and their executives at Goldman-Sachs, The Carlyle Group, Chevron, Monsanto.
They profit on the repeated inflation of the market, and then on the predicable crashes of the market.
I have waded through their backwaters, particularly in D.C.
They vacation at St. Barts and Martha’s Vineyard.
They go to Harvard and Yale and Brown and private prep schools.
They go to the same dinner parties.
They employ politicians as intermediaries between us and them.
They have the best healthcare and eat the best food.
They live in an alternate America.

Category: Extreme America
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Obama Takes a Stand on Child Soldiers

Posted on | October 5, 2011 | 2 Comments

HEADLINE: Obama waives penalties on countries that employ child soldiers – again!

Every president since Nov. 22, 1963 has been vetted by “the system.” You cannot be president unless you’ve been determined to be “a sound man.”

In other words, you will service elite power, foster the ongoing money transfer from taxpayers to corporations via the Pentagon and steadfastly refuse to forestall a far-reaching imperial agenda. You will use military power and military aid to preserve access to profitable natural resources. You will protect the national security state and its secrets. You will not investigate, indict or punish those who vetted you, or those who came to “power” before you.

And you will sustain the two-party system by shifting the public’s attention away from all of these responsibilities and, instead, focus their attention on the never-ending public relations battle between you and your opponents who, by and large, have been vetted by the self-same system.

Jimmy Carter was the only loose cannon allowed on deck, and we know how that turned out…it led to the October Surprise and Iran-Contra.

Obama was vetted. Take it to the bank…that is, if you can still afford to keep an account in a bank.

Category: The Three Taboos
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Persons Declare Corporatehood

Posted on | September 15, 2011 | 2 Comments

The GOP now has a proposal floating around the Congressional toilet…and this stroke of genius will eliminate corporate taxes. Gone. Why not? The way lawyers, lobbyists and lawmakers have rigged the tax code, and the way corporations are allowed to hide their profits overseas, the effective corporate tax rate is falling faster than Sarah Palin’s pants at an NBA shoot-around.

But…if corporations are “people,” and I, too, fall into the general category of “people,” does that mean I will not have to pay taxes?

Does that mean my precious, God-given tax dollars will finally stop being redistributed to the wealthiest Americans?

I won’t have to pay for the roads and bridges they use to truck their plastic consumer crap to their giant, caustic big-box stores? Or for the Navy and Coast Guard and Customs Service teats they’ve been sucking at for the better part of a century?

I won’t have to pay to deploy weapons and soldiers around the world to protect their investments in repressive regimes, access to oil and cheap labor and copper and just about anything that can be dug out of the ground?

I won’t have to subsidize arms deals to nefarious characters who we will eventually end up paying billions of dollars to kill off, anyway?

I won’t have to pay for the Department of Commerce or the State Department and their welfare programs that help corporations sell hamburgers to Asia and secure job-killing trade deals that ship entire factories overseas?

And I won’t have to pay for all the agribusiness subsidies and various other corporate kick-backs doled out during the frenzy of legalized bribery we call budget bill negotiations?

I’m in!

Heck, we are about to cut almost anything that will assist the swelling ranks of the poor, the working poor, the sick and chronically infirm…along with cutting off all those socialist children who must not associate freedom with a full belly and an education.

They need to learn, and learn quickly, that poverty is no excuse to be sick, hungry or uneducated.

So, let’s cut the rest of it. Let the corporations pay for all those government services they now feel so entitled to…as they lounge around the Cayman Islands like bloated welfare queens, expecting taxpayers to do it all for them.

And if corporations are persons, then persons are corporations. Right?

It’s time “we the people” began demanding the same rights as those corporate people. And it’s time those corporate people started paying their own way and stopped depending on government handouts.

Fair’s fair, after all.

Category: Extreme America
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Tea Wasn’t Served at the Last Supper

Posted on | September 13, 2011 | 1 Comment

American Christianity is in crisis.

What struck me about the “Great Tea Bag Debate” was how vociferously the candidates proclaim their Christianity and, at the same time, how far their ideas are from the teachings of Jesus.

Have any of them read The Book of Matthew? The Beatitudes? The Sermon on the Mount or on the Plain? Or, for that matter, any of The Gospels?

And where are protests from the Christians who have read the red words in the New Testament?

For some of us who have, it is troubling to see this dichotomy. How would the audience, which cheered loudly for ideas much closer to Social Darwinism than to New Testament Christianity, receive Jesus’ parables or admonitions if he himself were on the stage?

Alas, I doubt that he would be a candidate for anything other than the fate he received once before.

Category: Extreme America
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First Impressions, Ten Years Later

Posted on | September 11, 2011 | 2 Comments

Sept. 11…watched the smoke rise off the Pentagon as I drove to work.

Sept. 12…my dear friend, Ray Farkas (the man who taught me producing), and I arrived in Manhattan. 10pm in Times Square, not a single car on the street. And the smell. I’ll never forget the smell.

Sept. 13…twelve hours of shooting around NY. This piece was the result.

With searing precision and emotional honesty, New York Reacts places us right in Manhattan, two days after the Twin Towers fell. We hear as New Yorkers try to make sense of their anger and understand the unimaginable. See the project at http://mediastorm.com/publication/new-york-reacts

Missing you today, Ray.

Category: Read My Mind
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    The newsvandal is an exile from the mainstream media, a former news producer and devout believer in not believing anything that flows out of the surging revenue streams we call broadcast news. The newsvandal is a Luddite with a fiberoptic connection. The newsvandal says, “When in Rome, do as the Vandals did!” See the news? Vandalize it.

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