Media probe has precedent

If you think I'm being too much of a hard-ass on the dinosaur media for what other commenters here have correctly labeled as in-kind contributions to the GOP, my stance has a precedent.

In April, David Barstow of the New York Times did a massive piece detailing the media's participation in the Bush regime's secret propaganda war to sell its failed Iraq policy. This was about the only coverage of this effort, because the rest of the media has participated extensively in this campaign all along! Thus, the Times' groundbreaking expose was largely ignored.

But The Nation's Katrina vanden Heuvel said Congress should investigate this military-media-industrial complex. I agree. This also shows I'm not the only one who wants the media probed.

It's antithetical to democracy for the "mainstream" media to be the government-linked partisan organ that it is while pretending to be neutral. The major media is also America's biggest censor.

Except during sad chapters of pain imposed on me by those who didn't respect nonsuburban ways, I've clearly recognized that real wisdom doesn't come from media big shots in their ivory towers but from nature itself. As a populist, I see nothing wrong with looking into what makes today's media such an unresponsive institution.

(Source: http://www.thenation.com/blogs/notion/313313;
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/20/washington/20generals.html)