Here are a couple of recent emails I got from the far-left loony group Common Dreams:
Friend,
Last week, McClatchy Company, one of the biggest local newspaper publishers in the country, filed for bankruptcy.
It’s just the latest blow to a journalism industry already in a death spiral—and that should worry everyone.
Since 2004, 1 in 5 newspapers has gone out of business. Newsrooms have been gutted. Pittsburgh, a city of 302,000, has no daily newspaper at all.
What does it mean for democracy when journalism fails? It means more corruption in government and less accountability for corporate polluters and Wall Street fraudsters. It means a less informed electorate and an even easier pathway to power for aspiring autocrats, like Donald Trump.
This was part of a fundraising effort. No, I did not donate. Maybe I’m being unfair, but it seems to me that there are NO major newspapers in the US that provide objective news anymore. The entire industry is blighted and malignant. The downfall of such an industry does not mean that the public is “less informed;” it means that the public is less MIS-informed.
It’s a little off topic, but I’m frequently reminded of the damage a dishonest newspaper industry can cause to the human mind. I’ve been debating a woman on Quora. She based her “point” entirely upon newspaper reports – mostly of the events in Charlottesville. I wasn’t there, but I’ve spoken to people who were, and the newspaper accounts are completely wrong. Years of exposure to such lies will damage a person’s mind, to the point where one cannot conduct any sort of rational discussion with him. I don’t see much of a difference between extremist neo-Nazis and extremist Antifa-sympathizers. They suffer from the same mental disorder.
Here’s another email from Common Dreams:
Friend,
Since November, billionaire Michael Bloomberg has spent more than $360 million on campaign ads.
That money went directly into the pockets of the corporate media, and now, those same corporate media outlets are treating Bloomberg as a top contender.
That’s not journalism. That’s bribery.
Let’s face it, American democracy is in crisis, and the corporate media is a huge part of the problem.
CNN and NBC are motivated by profit, just like Dow Chemical or General Motors, and they’ll never bite the hand that feeds them.
Funny we don’t see Common Dreams complaining about the SPLC, which treats “hate” as an industry, and soaks up many millions of dollars. Its current assets amount to almost half a billion dollars. Corporate America provides much of the SPLC’s funding.
Where’s the outcry over corporate support for La Raza? Read this 2007 Amren report for the long list of La Raza’s sponsors. There is not a single corporation, educational institution, government agency or NGO that supports white advocacy…
… and yet groups such as Common Dreams have the nerve to cry foul when a political rival tries to buy his way into office.