Hundreds of Newspaper Editors Defend Press Freedom They Abhor
by Stephen Lendman (stephenlendman.org - Home - Stephen Lendman)
On August 16, over 300 US newspaper editorials responded to the Boston Globe’s call for broadsheets to “make a powerful statement by standing together in the common defense of their profession and the vital role it plays in government for and by the people.”
If only it was so! It isn’t! Major US and other Western media are deplorable, a national disgrace where they operate - deceiving the public, not informing readers and viewers responsibly.
They’re mouthpieces for wealth, power, and privilege, operating in nations where democracy is pure fantasy, not the real thing - what they never have the courage to explain.
On major domestic and geopolitical issues mattering most, they cheerlead what demands denunciation, including wars of aggression, neoliberal harshness, and police state crackdowns on legitimate dissent.
They support governance of, by and for the privileged few alone, not equity and justice for all - not equal protection for everyone under international, constitutional and statute laws, not world peace and stability over endless wars of aggression against invented enemies because real ones don’t exist, not nations safe and fit to live in for everyone.
The Boston Globe is dead wrong claiming: “Journalists are not the enemy.” There’s nothing free about America’s so-called free press - other than independent sources of news, information and analysis, mainly online.
They’re increasingly threatened for truth-telling, for reporting views conflicting with the official falsified narrative - propaganda dark forces in America and other Western societies want featured to the exclusion of journalism the way it’s supposed to be.
Below are some August 16 editorial headlines by deplorable US broadsheets:
The NYT: “A FREE PRESS NEEDS YOU,” falsely claiming its fake news is the real thing, that fantasy democracy in America is real, ludicrously saying:
“We’re all in this together.” The Times and other media scoundrels support what harms ordinary people at home and abroad. They’re hostile to upholding what journalistic principles are all about.
Chicago Tribune: “Mr. President: We aren’t enemies of the people. We’re a check on government” - bald-faced lies.
Philadelphia Inquirer: “Stop the war on a free press.” It’s waged solely on alternative views, conflicting with the official narrative.
After outrageously banishing Alex Jones’ Infowars from Facebook, Twitter and other social media platforms, Trump’s FCC shut down his flagship Liberty Radio station, calling it a pirate operation, replacing it with religious broadcasting - flagrant First Amendment violations.
Houston Chronicle: “The real enemy of the people? It’s not the press.” Sadly, it very much is, failing to “comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable” - their obligation explained by Chicago Evening Post journalist Finley Peter Dunne in 1893.
Miami Herald: “The real enemy of the people? It’s not the press.” Trump’s war is on fake news they produce, the same as my war - the only issue he and I agree on. On virtually all others, I’m one of his fiercest critics.
The Los Angeles Times and San Francisco Chronicle decided against editorializing for press freedom on August 16.
The LA Times said it values its independence. It’s “editorial board does not speak for the New York Times or for the Boston Globe or the Chicago Tribune or the Denver Post” - explaining it criticized Trump’s media bashing earlier.
The Chronicle also declined to join Thursday’s “editorial crowd” for so-called press freedom, citing its independence to go its own way.
Since Trump announced his candidacy for president in June 2016, US media scoundrels overwhelmingly opposed him, supporting unindicted war criminal, racketeer, perjurer Hillary instead, ignoring her high crimes.
If print and electronic media served their readers and viewers responsibly, if they featured truth-telling on major issues instead of managed news misinformation rubbish, Thursday’s editorial onslaught for press freedom likely never would have been called for - what America’s dominant fourth estate abhors, lacking courage to admit it.
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