I watch Hardball everyday after work. For awhile now I've kind of lost my love for Chris Matthews. I've often times found myself screaming at him for letting people spew bullshit. < > < > But lately, as Huffington's latest post lays out, he's been hammering home a very important point. < > < > Some Hardball quotes from her post:< > < > Quote:MATTHEWS: One of the things we learned in this long investigation regarding the CIA leak was the way in which the Vice President’s office, Scooter Libby, in particular, was able to use the press. He leaked to the New York Times the story that there were aluminum tubes; there was, in fact, a case for a nuclear weapons program by Saddam Hussein.< > < > And then the three major figures in the administration, the Vice President, Secretaries of State and Defense, went on Sunday television, all pointed to that story that had been planted there by Scooter Libby.< > < > Quote:One of the stories that struck me was the way in which we all learned about the WMD. We learned it through the New York Times, and we find out now that it was the Vice President’s office that had fed the story to the Times.< > < > Quote:What I suspect here Frank, is an alley-oop play like in the NBA, where one player throws the ball near the net and the other puts it in. So someone from the Vice President’s office leaks to the Times. And the vice president goes on Sunday television and puts the ball in.< > < > < > And really this is a huge deal for me. Our media becomes less and less independent every day. It's one of the biggest threats to our democracy, and I want the issue on front street. It ings me back to a great Al Gore speech that you can read the transcript of here, via TMPCafe. It's a long speech, but I really encourage you to read the whole thing because as I said, I think it's critical to our democracy. But here's some quotes that stand out to me. (And I had to trim it down, because he makes so many great points I wanted to quote them all!)< > < > Quote: On the eve of the nation's decision to invade Iraq, our longest serving senator, Robert Byrd of West Virginia, stood on the Senate floor asked: "Why is this chamber empty? Why are these halls silent?"< > < > The decision that was then being considered by the Senate with virtually no meaningful debate turned out to be a fateful one. A few days ago, the former head of the National Security Agency, Retired Lt. General William Odom, said, "The invasion of Iraq, I believe, will turn out to be the greatest strategic disaster in U.S. history."< > < > Quote:Those of us who have served in the Senate and watched it change over time, could volunteer an answer to Senator Byrd's two questions: the Senate was silent on the eve of war because Senators don't feel that what they say on the floor of the Senate really matters that much any more. And the chamber was empty because the Senators were somewhere else: they were in fundraisers collecting money from special interests in order to buy 30-second TVcommercials for their next re-election campaign.< > < > Quote: In fact there was a time when America's public discourse was consistently much more vivid, focused and clear. Our Founders, probably the most literate generation in all of history, used words with astonishing precision and believed in the Rule of Reason.< > < > Their faith in the viability of Representative Democracy rested on their trust in the wisdom of a well-informed citizenry. But they placed particular emphasis on insuring that the public could be well-informed. And they took great care to protect the openness of the marketplace of ideas in order to ensure the free-flow of knowledge. < > Quote:< > The news divisions - which used to be seen as serving a public interest and were subsidized by the rest of the network - are now seen as profit centers designed to generate revenue and, more importantly, to advance the larger agenda of the corporation of which they are a small part. They have fewer reporters, fewer stories, smaller budgets, less travel, fewer bureaus, less independent judgment, more vulnerability to influence by management, and more dependence on government sources and canned public relations hand-outs. This tragedy is compounded by the ironic fact that this generation of journalists is the best trained and most highly skilled in the history of their profession. But they are usually not allowed to do the job they have been trained to do.< > < > Quote: In fact, one of the few things that Red state and Blue state America agree on is that they don't trust the news media anymore.< > < > Clearly, the purpose of television news is no longer to inform the American people or serve the public interest. It is to "glue eyeballs to the screen" in order to build ratings and sell advertising. If you have any doubt, just look at what's on: The Robert Blake trial. The Laci Peterson tragedy. The Michael Jackson trial. The Runaway Bride. The search in Aruba. The latest twist in various cele ity couplings, and on and on and on.< > < > And more importantly, notice what is not on: the global climate crisis, the nation's fiscal catastrophe, the hollowing out of America's industrial base, and a long list of other serious public questions that need to be addressed by the American people. < > < > The point of my post is the role of the news media in Democracy is a critical role. Democracy just does not work without an informed public. And with all the distractions we have today, we as a whole are less and less informed. I worry about this, because we have a ton of shit we need to deal with. There's a rapidly changing world out there, and our seat as the top dawg doesn't seem as secure. We've got to get our shit together, and that starts with being informed. Actually giving a fuck about government.
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