Media Bias Helps Promote Suffering / Suffering Promotes Profits and Seldom Solves or Resolves Social Problems

Media Bias Helps Promote Suffering

by James Hoover / January 27th, 2016

CBS’s 60 Minutes often provides important information about vulnerable and suffering Americans. Last Sunday, the program centered on billionaires sharing their wealth with the needy and forgotten people in some states deprived of health care, though the 60 Minutes segment doesn’t use the word deprived.

Where 60 Minutes fails in the health care segment involves not informing the audience about the real circumstances leading to the exclusion of health care services we all have a right to enjoy.

The 60 Minutes segment focuses on two registered nurses who drive the Health Wagon through six counties in the Appalachian area, providing free health care service to anyone in need. The Health Wagon’s clients are the sick and uninsured, people not able to afford health care, but still covered in 30 other states under Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion.

The episode doesn’t mention why the expansion is refused in the 20 states, including those in the Appalachian area, only that those states claim to fear the future cost. It is people who cannot afford to purchase Obamacare, even with a subsidy, who seek help. The Obamacare Medicaid expansion actually provides for these people in all states, and includes those who earn 138% of the federal poverty level (FPL) or less, the FPL being $15,856 for individuals.

The 60 Minutes segment only categorized them as falling in the unintended gap of lost coverage, as though their exclusion is an unintentional accident wrought by 20 states fearful of the expense. In actuality, those 20 Republican-controlled states would save money by instituting Medicaid expansion coverage under Obamacare. With no apparent rationale for those states to refuse coverage, one could only conclude that rejection of the coverage is only political.

When Scott Pelley first aired this segment in April of 2014 there were 20 Republican states rejecting over 3 million people qualified for coverage. He only said that the federal government covered the expense for 3 years. Not mentioned was that Obamacare would cover 90% of the cost in all the years thereafter. Also a disingenuous exclusion was the fact that the Medicaid expansion coverage actually saved money when considering the cost of alternative expenses (without the coverage) for the uninsured sick, expenses like emergency room care.

Furthermore, since 2014, Indiana has opted into coverage while Alabama and South Dakota are considering it. A bitter fight between newly elected Democrat, Governor McAuliffe, who seeks to expand Medicaid, and the Republican legislature, which rejects expansion, is still expected to shut out entitled Virginia residents. Last Sunday’s 60 Minutes, which repeated this April, 2014, segment, did not mention these updates, including the GOP’s exclusion in most states they control.

The point can easily be made that mainstream media fails to cover the truth about important issues and how those issues affect us and our more vulnerable fellow citizens. Such issues must contribute to what and whom we vote for. Withholding these truths only helps to contribute to misinformed voting or to an inclination not to vote.

Even life or death situations like the poisoned water in Flint, Michigan did not warrant informative reporting until MSNBC exposed Republican governor Rick Snyder for his reckless disregard for life and health, approving a new corrosive water source to save money. His action or inaction had a direct connection to lead poisoning of children, even ignoring for several months unsafe lead counts in their bloodstreams.

Though skirting the blame, the 60 Minutes segment did show that policies have impacts on lives. For example, the one patient treated by the Health Wagon, featured and interviewed by Scott Pelley, died three months after the interview. It was pointed out that Linda Moore, the patient, would probably still be alive if she had had health coverage when Obamacare was implemented the first day of 2014. Pointed out too were the neglected health risks such as cancer, diabetes, and heart disease, including how accompanying pain and death could have and should have been avoided.

We could well ask how many more will die as a result of dangerous partisan games played by Republican-controlled states. There are still 17 Republican-controlled states that are responsible for this suffering, even death. Standing in marked contrast to such heartless treatment are the kind and dedicated people who assist these forgotten Americans.

Not speaking the truth about the political party that is to blame and — what we can only conclude — are petty, spiteful, and partisan reasons for not providing coverage to which Americans are entitled is wretched and irresponsible.

This doesn’t just apply to CBS, but to all mainstream media. One can expect bias and vitriol to emanate from Fox News and right-wing media, but the corporate media has diffused blame for GOP obstruction for too long over both parties.

Such treatment only encourages more of the same. For as Republicans see no price is paid for their government shutdowns, budget blackmail options, loan default threats, and crisis legislating, they are only encouraged to do more of the same.

Since President Obama took office in January of 2009, the Republican Party began its Machiavellian policies in earnest. Let me review just a few of the most flagrant actions and lies, many bordering on traitorous. Unbiased reporting would have rendered them ineffective:

• Before Obama’s first Inaugural Address in 2009, senior GOP members of Congress had already met with conservative movement leaders and Republican strategists and agreed to ignore the electoral mandate and commit the party to a course of absolute obstruction, including spending bills to dig us out of the recession.

• Mitch McConnell publically announced his number one priority to make Obama a one-term president on October 23, 2010.

• Lies perpetrated by Republicans, and these are just a few: Obama doubled the deficit; Man-made climate change is a hoax; Tax cuts stimulate the economy; Voter fraud is a serious issue; Obama not born in US; Obamacare has ‘death panels.’

• Speaker of the House John Boehner violated a 216 year-old federal law by “joining with the leader of a foreign nation, Benjamin Netanyahu, against his own president.” Forty-eight GOP Senators undermined Obama nuclear treaty with Iran.

• Republicans waste millions by voting to repeal Obamacare over 60 times since it was passed.

• List of things Republicans demanded under threat of a government shutdown or default: balanced budget amendment; approved Keystone XL; cut funding for Planned Parenthood; Medicare privatization; Paul Ryan tax reform; defunding Obamacare (shutdown15 days in October, 2013); Trillions in budget cuts (2012 near default and resulting credit downgrade); accepting 10,000 Syrian refugees.

Such policies and actions should have been reported honestly and without any bias. Right-wing media function as allies for the right-wing cause. Mainstream media’s bias is more corporate in the vein of profit, propriety or entertainment.

But the reasons are incidental. Right-wing and mainstream media in their own way do damage. Right wing sources just cement the polarization that conservatives must maintain to stay in power. Mainstream media is a second punch that helps to promote a self-indulgent culture that feeds on the material and philosophical goods of a crony capitalist system.

James Hoover is a recently retired systems engineer. He has advanced degrees in Economics and English. Prior to his aerospace career, he taught high school, and he has also taught college courses. He recently published a science fiction novel called Extraordinary Visitors and writes political columns on several websites. Read other articles by James.

This article was posted on Wednesday, January 27th, 2016 at 10:15am and is filed under Capitalism, Culture, Democrats, Health/Medical, Media, Obama, Right Wing Jerks.

Corporate Media Won’t Tell You Hillary Clinton is a Lying Fascist

Corporate Media Won’t Tell You Hillary Clinton is a Lying Fascist

by Jack Balkwill / October 22nd, 2015

She was practiced at the art of deception
I could tell by her blood-stained hands

— Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, “You Can’t Always Get What You Want,” from the Rolling Stones’ 1969 album Let it Bleed

Right now, you’re probably asking yourself, “What does Jack think of Hillary Clinton?”  Well, I’m glad you asked.

In fact, Madam Hillary, the leading candidate for CEO of the United States of Corporate Empire, is being buried in money by environmental polluters, defense cheats, banksters, and other oligarchs and plutocrats because she’s shown unwavering loyalty to these scum of the earth all her life.  Shall we go back to the beginning?

In one of her older, smoldering lies, Hillary claimed to have been named after Sir Edmund Hillary, famous for climbing Mount Everest.  The problem with this is that Sir Edmund didn’t climb Mount Everest and become famous until six years after Hillary Rodham was born.

During the October 13th debate she began her comments with “I have been very consistent over my entire life, I have always fought for the same values and principles.”  She often fabricates that she has always been a progressive, but her “values and principles” are not progressive.

Even in her teens, when Hillary worked on the Nixon campaign, and later became a Goldwater Girl, in support of two of the most right wing Republican politicians in US history.  In college, she was president of Wellesley Republican Youth.  Does this sound like “always been progressive?”

When she became a Democrat she joined husband Bill in the leadership of the Democratic Leadership Council, a corporate-funded group whose goals were clearly to clone a second Republican Party of the Democrats, so that their brand of fascism would not be distinguishable from that of the former.

Bill and Hillary have always presented themselves as a team, and you won’t hear Hillary disagreeing with Bill’s free trade accomplishments, which destroyed millions of good factory jobs for America’s working class.  Or Bill’s deregulation of media, which allowed the giants to merge and extend corporate power by keeping the masses ignorant. Or deregulation of banking, eventually leading to the massive 2008 recession resulting in millions losing jobs and more millions losing homes, as bankers, no longer restricted, became reckless with the extended economy.

In her last run for the presidency, in 2008, none other than Rupert Murdoch held a fundraiser for Hillary.  Should one ask why the king of right wing media would support a “progressive” candidate?  Murdoch is not known for wasting money.  He knew she would represent his “values.”

Even the Clinton family friends appear to be Republican.  During the 2008 race, Bill Clinton remarked that he didn’t know how Hillary would be able to run against their friend John McCain.  It’s been reported that when Obama got the nomination, Bill Clinton advised John McCain during the 2008 campaign.

Former First Lady Barbara Bush praised family friend Bill Clinton “I think that he thinks of George a little bit like the father he didn’t have, and he’s very loving to him. And I really appreciate that.”  If the Clintons are progressive, why do they have right wing friends?

Even daughter Chelsea, who married a Wall Street banker, is a friend of Ivanka Trump, daughter of The Donald who leads Republican candidates at this time.  Bill and Hillary attended Trump’s last wedding.  One almost expects to hear the déjà vu of Bill whining that he doesn’t know how Hillary can run against her friend Trump.

In fact, in his current election campaign, Trump is running a video highlighting praisefrom Bill Clinton, ending with “Thank you Bill.”  The Trump campaign opens the video with a suggestive question: “An endorsement from Bill Clinton?”

When in the Senate, Hillary voted for the Bush agenda — the Patriot Act, Iraq War, the fascist line.  She co-sponsored a bill that would make it a crime to burn the American flag, long a favorite of Republicans, and she supports the death penalty, which is opposed by nearly all progressives.

After Hillary pushed for war with Libya and President Obama obliged by bombing that suffering nation (which has not recovered to a functioning government), she was delighted that President Gaddaffi was savagely tortured to death, after having been shot several times, remarking: “We came, we saw, he died,” followed by a maniacal laugh.

On the campaign trail, Hillary often cites her time on the board of the Children’s Defense Fund in an attempt to show that she is progressive, but she doesn’t talk about her husband’s “Welfare Reform,” which threw poor children into the streets (two-thirds of those on welfare were children).  The founder of the Children’s Defense Fund, Marion Wright Edelman, said of that move by Bill Clinton, “His signature on this pernicious bill makes a mockery of his pledge not to hurt children.”  Edelman’s husband resigned from the Clinton Administration over Clinton’s cruelty toward these disadvantaged children.

Selling out the American people pays handsomely.  Bill Clinton left the White House falling into immense wealth, as his corporate friends paid him off for his service to them, with $200 thousand a night speeches.  It’s been reported that he’s made over $100 million from speeches alone since leaving the White House.  Simply putting the money into his bank account would have looked too much like the payoff of bribes.

Hillary brings in similar loot from speech fees, book deals and other sources, capitalizing on what she calls “public service,” as though she cared a wit about the public interest.  Hillary tells us, in another of her lies, that she and Bill left the White House “dead broke.” But we we find that “In 1999, they bought a five-bedroom home in Chappaqua, N.Y., for $1.7 million.  In December 2000, just as they were leaving the White House, they bought a seven-bedroom house near Embassy Row in Washington, D.C. The price was $2.85 million.”

Hillary Clinton is not a progressive, but the opposite, a classic fascist.  She is currently running her campaign on a platform of lies, and if she is elected president, will reverse her faux progressive positions on anything of importance and sell out the American people, together with the people of the planet, in order to please those whom she’s always served, the wealthy and their corporations, at any cost to the public interest.

The majority of voters who vote Democrat say they are voting “lesser evil,” and if they don’t, the evil Republicans will get in.  No Republican could have gotten away with what President Obama did, when George Bush was so despised by the public and Obama increased his hated agenda, starting his presidency by finishing the bailout of banksters and increasing troop strength in Afghanistan by 30,000.

No Republican could have gotten away with Bill Clinton’s “free trade” deals, “welfare reform,” deregulation of banking and media.  The system encourages people to vote for great evil.  There is nothing lesser about the evil of Democrats other than their rhetoric.

Jill Stein is running for president with no coverage by corporate media, because they fear her like none of the others.  She would actually represent the public interest and democracy, the two things the establishment fear more than anything.  They will cover anyone before Jill Stein, or anything she represents, which is all censored out of the mainstream press.

But the mainstream press have been pushing Hillary for years, long before she announced her decision to run for President.  Hillary represents the same thing as corporate media—rule by plutocratic oligarchy, so the disgusting corporate “journalists” are kneeling and kissing her butt to find favor with their establishment bosses.

Jack Balkwill is an activist in Virginia. He can be reached atlibertyuv@hotmail.com Read other articles by Jack.

This article was posted on Thursday, October 22nd, 2015 at 2:17am and is filed under Democrats, Elections, Fascism, Media, Right Wing Jerks.

Do Not Let The Establishment Divide Us – We Are All Americans

End Of The American Dream The American Dream Is Becoming A Nightmare And Life As We Know It Is About To Change

Do Not Let The Establishment Divide Us – We Are All Americans

 By Michael Snyder, on January 26th, 2011

Have you ever noticed how almost all the mainstream news stories carried on the major news networks are slanted in a way that is intended to divide Americans?  The truth is that the “establishment” is constantly trying to divide us and get us fighting with one another.  They pit the Republicans against the Democrats (even as though control both sides).  They pit one race against another.  They pit one gender against another.  We are told that the rich are against the poor, the north is against the south, urban is against rural and that there are even “generational battles” going on.  Frustration and hate are rapidly growing in the United States today, and a lot of that frustration and hate is unfortunately aimed at the targets that the mainstream media has programmed all of us to hate.  Meanwhile, those at the top of the pyramid who are controlling the whole game love it when we are divided because we can never become united and challenge their control.

But the truth is that we are all Americans.  If this country goes down, it is going to take all of us down with it.  A house that is divided can never stand.

Unfortunately, America is more divided today than ever.  Many Democrats have an absolutely explosive hatred for the Republican Party.  Many Republicans can’t stop thinking about how much they hate Barack Obama and the Democrats.  Meanwhile, those that control both parties at the highest levels are loving it.

Why do you think they call them “establishment Republicans” and “establishment Democrats”?  It is because the “establishment” controls them both.

So just who is the “establishment”?

Well, they are headed by the ultra-wealthy international banking elite.  They fund the campaigns of “establishment” candidates from both political parties.  The shadowy “think tank” organizations that they have founded have provided the vast majority of the personnel for all presidential administrations since World War 2.

If you don’t believe this, just check it out for yourself.  Do some research on past presidential administrations and take a look at just how many cabinet members belonged to organizations such as The Bilderberg Group, The Trilateral Commission and The Council on Foreign Relations.  You will be absolutely astounded.

You see, the truth is that the “Republican Party” and the “Democratic Party” are simply two franchises that are controlled by the exact same owners.

For much more on who “the establishment” is, the following are a few good points to start….

*Bilderberg Owned Publication The Economist: Yes, Powerful “Globocrat” Elites Are Running Things, It’s Not A Conspiracy

*The Rise of the New Global Elite

*Only 23 Percent Of Americans Believe That The Federal Government Has The Consent Of The Governed

But you never hear much about the “anti-Bilderberg” movement or the “anti-Federal Reserve” movement on the nightly news.

Instead, we are constantly being programmed that the real “fight” is the Republicans vs. the Democrats.

The vast majority of Americans are imprisoned within this artificial left/right paradigm and they can’t seem to break out of it.

But even when the establishment does not have us fighting about politics they are dividing us in other ways.

For example, it seems like almost every issue becomes about “race” these days.  The mainstream media loves to play up tensions between the races.

And so what are we seeing in America today?  Sadly, our country is becoming more divided among racial lines than ever before.

Take the issue of illegal immigration.  The media portrays those that are against illegal immigration as a bunch of “anti-Mexican” racists and those that are in favor of illegal immigration as “pro-Mexican” human rights activists.

But the truth is that many of those that are most against illegal immigration are Americans of Mexican descent that came to America legally and that have worked hard to build a great life in the United States.  They resent all of the cheaters that are just hopping over the border and taking advantage of the system.

The other day I wrote an article entitled “Is Illegal Immigration Destroying The Southwest United States? 19 Immigration Facts That Very Few People Are Talking About“, and I quickly received some comments claiming that I was a racist and that I was full of hate.

Well, nothing could be further from the truth.  I believe that all people are of equal value and deserve to be loved and respected.  People on one side of a border are not more “valuable” than people on the other side of a border.  I simply want everyone to come through the “front door” so that we can stop the endless parade of gang members and drug dealers that are constantly pouring into the United States unchecked.

So is wanting all immigrants to go through the same legal process an irrational demand?

Of course not.

But the establishment media wants to make every issue about hate and about division.

And if there are some voices that the establishment media does not control that makes them even more nervous.

Take the Tea Party movement for example.  Now there are a lot of things about the Tea Party movement that are far from perfect, but in that movement there is just a hint of independence from the establishment.

So how has the mainstream media reacted to the Tea Party movement?

Well, they mock and demonize those in the movement every time they can.

Tea Party activists are called “crazy”, “loco”, “insane”, “wacky”, “kooky” and “extremists”.  They are laughed at by network anchors while they are being interviewed.  There were even several very highly publicized law enforcement documents that circulated around the Internet last year that referred to Tea Party activists as potential terrorists.

So why are Tea Party activists vilified by the mainstream media so much?  Well, it is because that movement represents a sliver of a chance that the American people may take back control of the political process in this country.

The establishment cannot let that happen, because their whole system depends on control.

When this country was originally founded, we were not a divided nation.  It was the founding fathers vs. the monarchy and the financial establishment of England.  Our founders were mocked and ridiculed and very few people gave them any chance of succeeding.  Fortunately our founding fathers won and they were able to establish this great nation.

Well, once again today those fighting against the “financial establishment” are being mocked and ridiculed.  Politicians such as Ron Paul that point out that ultra-wealthy international bankers use the Federal Reserve to manipulate and control our financial system are marginalized by the mainstream media. But fortunately the American people are starting to wake up.

You just can’t keep truth down forever.  Eventually it will rise.  The following is a brief 5 minute speech by Ron Paul on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives.  Let it be a reminder to all of us that we need to be united if we want to have any hope of turning America back around….