American complicity in cleaning out other countries'
vaults has occurred on plenty of occasions and must be recognized
as an integral aspect of American foreign policy!!
The wealth removals that occurred when General Ky left
South Vietnam, when Baby Doc left Haiti, and when Ferdinand Marcos
left the Philippines, ...are just a few more of the recent examples.
America also helped Chiang Kai-shek to "remove" much
of China's art treasures and to clean out the China's Central
Bank Reserves when the Communists came to power in 1949.
Unfortunately, robbing foreign countrys' treasuries is just
another of the many tactics the American elite uses to hobble
the economies of governments newly formed by grass roots citizens
who have banded together to depose their dictators.
Possible Corrective Actions
The bottom 90 percent must first of all concentrate their
lobbying efforts to get rid of consolidated ownership and control
of the media, ...especially of TV and newspapers.
- 1) Legislation must be enacted to ensure that moneyed interests
do not control the content or dissemination of information. Their
ownership of the communications media involves a "conflict
of interest" of the highest order. No other reform compares
in any way with the importance of this prerequisite.
Increasingly, the quality and content of programming chosen by the profit-oriented
media owners has been so poor that it drove desperate citizens to privately
fund their own network (the Public Broadcasting System). Unfortunately,
the high cost of running stations has driven certain PBS stations
to seek a portion of the needed funding support from basically the same sources that
have corrupted the integrity of our elected politicians(i.e. large
corporations). Regrettably, the programming occasionally and increasingly
bears the stamp of the elite's influence.
As long as the elite hold a virtual monopolistic control over the media, only short-term,
illusive control can be obtained. As long as it is legal for individuals
like Rupert Murdoch to single-handedly own as many newspapers,
magazines, TV stations, radio stations, and satellite communications
networks as they wish, the economic elite will continue to use
their influence to support and elect those who show willingness
to vote for policy that maintains the status quo.
Begin by restricting any single person, family, or corporation
from owning more than one media entity, ...in other words only
one newspaper, or one TV station, or one radio station, coordinated
and synchronized manipulation would become all that more difficult,
if not impossible. Not only should the sources of news information
be stated, harsh penalties should be introduced to act as disincentives
for spreading misinformation. Individuals should be jailed for knowingly spreading misinformation.
THE PERMANENCE OF ALL OTHER REFORMS HINGES ON THE DEGREE
TO WHICH FREEDOM AND INTEGRITY OF THE MEDIA IS ACHIEVED.
- 2) Periodically, individual investigative reporters such as Neil
Sheehan (The Pentagon Papers), or Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein
(Watergate), achieve the recognition they so justly deserve for
the critical social role they play. However, this is unfortunately
the exception rather than the rule.
To encourage, and promote the efforts of investigative reporters,
and to counteract the effects of consolidated ownership of the
media, namely editorial control over the content and coloration
of media information, I advocate the creation of an organization
devoted to the promotion of media integrity.
The organization could also monitor the objectivity of the
media, and perhaps give out non-monetary recognition awards to
individual newspapers, or current affairs TV shows like 60
Minutes, which show obvious integrity with regard to acting
as social watchdogs.
Another of its functions would be to hand out grants each
year as rewards to investigative journalists, freelance or otherwise,
who had contributed to the exposure of social corruption or injustice.
With damage suits for single car accidents exceeding one million
dollars, an annual operating budget of from two to five million
dollars would seem a very small price to pay for social integrity
insurance for an entire nation.
- 3) Corporations, governments, and the media have all cooperated
to do everything in their power to discourage whistle blowers.
A careful review of former case histories will attest to the lengths
to which the elite are willing to go to keep employees from exposing
the unethical or corrupt activities of society's kingpins. Media
censorship continues in part because individuals who have made
their careers in the media cannot afford to jeopardize their family's
security, or their own career development to speak out against
those that employ them.
For the most part, reporters are told what stories to
cover and usually even how to cover them. The stories
are biased before the reporter even leaves his desk. In any event,
editors have plenty of opportunities to influence the emphasis
or coloration of a news item before it hits the news anchorperson's
desk.
Democracy becomes a government of
bullies tempered by editors.
RALPH WALDO EMERSON
As long as the American public see nothing unusual with ex-(national
security advisers) and ex-Presidents exercising their power and
influence within Hollywood movie studio boardrooms, and ex-(CIA
agents) operating as newspaper editors, American Feudalism and
Neocolonialism will certainly flourish.
Big Brother is operating quite satisfactorily, thank you.