For whom do corporate news media speak?
The State, of course. [1]
The State simply can not allow law-abiding citizens to accuse the State of doing what the State does; so it commits “preemptive” violence against non-aggressing, liberty-exercising individuals on private property.
And when independent media or dissenting public intellectuals threaten to expose these State crimes, the apparatus ”preempts” them too.
But these illicit acts can eventually go “viral,” thus requiring massive PR (Propaganda Reconnaissance) to whitewash the State’s crimes against the people. That’s where corporate-statist news media come in. They do the same thing as the government, only on a different level: they commit preemptive information warfare on the minds of their unsuspecting audience, numbing the consciences of those who trust them and inhibiting the will to recognize — much less resist — federal tyranny.
‘Coverage’
The inherent illicitness of Leviathan is legitimated when the central government and its various organs get the first, most, and last words in any dispute versus the individual. (Thus, e.g., AP stands for Absolutist Propaganda.) Sometimes the urgency to accomplish this can be daunting, especially with the ever-present and dire necessity to conceal media-state incest. That’s why the most successful state-propagandists have always stressed not only the repetition of lies and the omission of truths, but also the use of filler material — family “entertainment,” as Nazi war criminal, Joseph Goebbels, would call it — to make the observer feel all warm and fuzzy inside.
Still, editors often trip over themselves in the effort to pose as credible and conscientious news sources while peddling federally sponsored, unconstitutional thuggery:
Convention security plan going well, police say
ST. PAUL, Minnesota (CNN) – Police Sunday saw little disruption prior to a Republican National Convention greatly scaled back due to Hurricane Gustav. [2]
Note to CNN editor: Please remove “due to Hurricane Gustav,” or at least qualify the assertion somewhere in the body of the report. Also, remove either the word little or the phrase greatly scaled back. No biggy: it happens to the best. Thanks.
The red-inked ”balance” (a.k.a., editorializing) of CNN’s report amounts to the following. If not for a looming natural disaster, the looting of an extra fifty-million in U.S.-taxpayer dollars to pay for the violent, preemptive, and unconstitutional police-state measures would be even more necessary than federal and local officials claim.
According to Concealing Necessary News (CNN), an anticipated ”flood” of protesters (thus the Gustav mention?) at the Republican National Convention must be “handled” by the Secret Service and local police. If not for necessary and unavoidable disasters, you see, there would be a lot more avoidable ones at the hands of the uh-thor-uh-taze.
The necessary disasters, of course, being the local and federal gangsterism against law-abiding citizens — a.k.a., that unavoidable ”flood” (of hurricane proportions?) comprised of those ever-dangerous free-speech practitioners:
On Saturday law enforcement officers say they uncovered evidence of an anarchist conspiracy to riot and disrupt the convention during a series of pre-convention raids.
In the raids, sheriff’s deputies for Ramsey County — which contains the convention host city of St. Paul –arrested a number of what they described as anarchists. They also found bricks and human waste they say was meant to be thrown at police, slingshots to launch projectiles, tacks meant to puncture tires and Molotov cocktails.
Note to CNN editor: To whom do you attribute that last sentence? Also, are those “tacks” also ”meant to puncture … Molotov cocktails,” or have those ”sheriff’s deputies” actually “found … Molotov cocktails”? Please relate this item more coherently and with attribution. Thanks.
The reference to the raids begins at the 13th paragraph. But it should have opened the report; it should have been the subject of the report; and there should have been more than just a couple sentences from family members of the abused and accused, up against the 90+% “balance” of the report, which pats the State-sponsored thugs on the back.
CNN’s government monologue, instead, inverts the violations of civil liberties into an acts of statist heroism, leaving the less-savvy observer to strongly suspect the “ANARCHISTS!!!!!“
But it’s easier to create a convincing boogeyman when he is framed as part of a maligned movement or group. It makes it easier to rally support for attacking him too. The threat, existent or not, becomes more imposing via pure conjecture, innuendo, group-think, and lies.
That’s why the implied justification for the illegal violence against law-abiding U.S. citizens in Minnesota boils down to a “flood” of protesters “intending to disrupt.”
Boo!
Meanwhile, the most important questions are not asked: Were the raids constitutional? Were the search warrants lawful; did they exist? What proves intent to commit a crime? How do the alleged plotters respond to the intent charge and the ”anarchist” label? How many slingshots? How and where was the waste being stored? Were they everyday thumbtacks? How did the accused individuals respond?
And how crushing was the “deadline” (FLOOD!) the folks at CNN were up against, that they should paraphrase in defense of the accused, then, qualify it with a quote that apologizes for the accuser-attackers:
Geneva Finn, a lawyer for the protesters, also said the they were not planning to do anything illegal or violent.
“Since there is no way of knowing what’s true in advance of the convention, the authorities see a danger in underestimating the potential for disruption,” he said.
But lo! “Official” oblivion — understated and uncriticized, of course — is owned in the last sentence of the report :
On Sunday, Holtz of the St. Paul Police Department said he was unaware of any specific threat from anarchist.
Note to Holtz, CNN, et al.: Are you aware of the threat posed by your actions?
Indeed. Those “pre-RNC” raids are actually pre-protest aggressions. CNN, AP, and the rest of the corporatist agitprop cartels are leading the illicit crusade against the people. Employing misinformation and guile to rig the apparatus, they preempt the free speech of those who would dissent.
If so-called mainstream news media were credible and worthy of our time, they would be reporting honestly and comprehensively, allowing the observer to weigh the facts on legal and moral grounds. Which would help to incriminate the tyrannical State (redundancy) and help to restore and secure the people’s rights.
Instead, they use pseudo-patriotism, false choices, and other fallacies and lies to sell to us our own demise. But for good reason, of course: corporatist news media aren’t about to intentionally incriminate themselves.
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[1] Also known as the establishment, the status quo, etc., the State, simply put, is central government, its members, and the political and economic systems by which it loots life, liberty, and property of the individual for its own expansion and enrichment — all on account of “the common good” and so on. For more on this, see: “The Anatomy of the State” (lifted from Murray Rothbard’s Egalitarianism as a Revolt Against Nature and Other Essays).
[2] CNN.com: “Convention security plan going well, police say.” August 31, 2008. Accessed September 1, 2008 (cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/08/31/rnc.security: “updated 11:04 p.m. EDT, Sunday, August 31, 2008″). All other block quotes and direct quotes (but not all scare quotes) are ibidem.
