Evidently, that ignominious “report” the Mail ran online yesterday is still closed to comments. Don’t you wonder why? The lack of objectivity by the Mail is truly gob-smacking. Separating “news” (Tommy Robinson on vacation) from “views” (right-wing thug, etc., ad nauseam) seems to have been left behind in the 20th century.
Here is Pithy Paul, giving the archaic media the roasting it deserves:
“… their (media) days are almost over.”
I strongly disagree with you, Mr. Weston. Their influence is enormous and their outreach staggering. I do not know how in the UK but here home (US) 90%+ of the media, academia, entertainment figures, big cities’ governments etc. are just as left as one can imagine. NPR is an ultra-left station, for example.
All these proto-commies are massaging public opinion 24/7.
Their days are far from over. They are intensifying the attacks with every single day our President is (still) in the office.
I do not see end to this – not anytime soon at least.
NPR an ultra-left station of proto-commies?
Have you read the Communist Manifesto? It is actually good fun to read, even if you know there are things it got quite wrong. Marx was a real journalist and an astute observer of the unsettled conditions of his day. He could also write in vigorous, polemic prose when that was still socially acceptable.
I think you will find that NPR is not exactly communist. From the reports I get, including from true leftists, it has become a largely corporatist, often neoconservative mouthpiece.
Well, you may be right. I don’t know. I totally stopped listening to NPR when they held an hour-long “memorial” to 9/11, without mentioning “Islam” once. They treated it as if it were an act of nature, like an earthquake or forest fire. My senses totally revolted against the saccharine tears and sincere, funereal voice of the announcer celebrating the heroics of the self-sacrificing police and firemen, who really deserved better, and I haven’t been able to listen to an NPR broadcast since.
Recall that “neocon” actually means “new conservative’, originally a “conservative” who used to identify as a Trokskyite or CPUSA-type communist. The common denominator of neocons seems to be that they support massive, tax-funded bureaucracies to create and deploy vast military enterprises. A neocon is no enemy of government support and subsidies, making an NPR-neocon alliance not very surprising.
I stopped listening to NPR during the first George W. Bush election. The talking heads were all quavering in tears when it appeared that Bush had overtaken Gore. I gave up in disgust.
I do agree with you on many points – corporatist mouthpiece – yeah, probably, although I think that damn Manifesto is not so much fun to read.
Have I read the Manifesto? – You bet; I even have a college diploma attesting that I excelled in study of that ideology: Marx-Leninism was one of my minors 35 years ago. Saying that commies are around me here in the US may be an overreaction based on my extensive exposure to the work of revolutionaries of the likes of Marx, Engels, Lenin and other nuts.
From the reports you get from true leftists JohNF? Really? That must be one exciting job you have there. That NPR isn’t exactly communistic. Well, well, well. That is the exact phraseology I get from every “true leftist” that none of them are “exactly communist”. Just a strange coincidence to be sure. Yet they’re reporting this to you, and is that a written or verbal report by the way, that NPR has become corporatist. Ever look up that word JohNF? Do you know what corporatism is? Fascism isn’t it? A type of Oligarchical Collectivism isn’t it?
Oh and I suggest you update your NEWSPEAK dictionary to the current version. Neoconservative is now synonymous with DEEP STATE. That DEEP STATE being that Oligarchical Collective of either the Malevolent Left Handed Path or the Benevolent Right Handed Path. It’s their Hegelian Dialectic thing you know. Look up those terms too. Because I can turn on the radio and listen to NPR on any day, hour and minute and attest to you that they can all be considered disciples, fellow travelers of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. And whether you want to parse that out as being exactly communist or not isn’t worth noting to anyone of the hundreds of millions of its murdered victims from the 20th Century alone. Maybe look that little tidbit up too.
I think what he means is that the days of Big Media are fading. CNN, for instance, is sliding toward oblivion. Only Big Money keeps it afloat. Same goes for the New York Times and the Washington Post. The latter is kept afloat by Bezos’ billions. NPR has become an echo chamber, supported in part by Big Government.
As for colleges, the cratering has begun.
https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2018/08/college-suicide-hotline-update.php
Notice, at the end, where he says which colleges are doing well. Hint: it’s the ones who don’t take federal money.
What is the reference to “roofer” beginning at 4:55? Does “roofer” mean something in British slang?
A man who repairs roofs. In this context it refers to a man who repairs a roof that does not need repairing – and charges over the top for his services .
Not slang. A roofer is a man (sorry, person) whose job is to build/fit/repair roofs on houses, cottages etc. The reference to a little old lady, was it, is because “cowboy” tradespeople (skilled or semi-skilled workmen) are known to knock on the door at the home of an old person in order to try to deceive them into having unnecessary work done on their property.
The lesson of the vignette is that the mainstream news does not give any news, and so the alternative media, such as GoV is not just an alternative point of view, but an absolutely vital requirement for understanding anything taking place today.
The thought of using the government to enforce “free speech” of commercial entities scares me, though. I think ultimately, the free ride will be over, and if you wish to subscribe to a real journal, you’ll have to pay for it. It’s very convenient to use the free services of YouTube, Facebook and Google for dissemination of the truth, but he who pays the piper calls the tune.
My worst fear is that Amazon will decide to delete all the books by controversial authors, and simply return the purchase price which, of course, will not be a thousandth of the real disaster involved with having your library suddenly disappear. I have no doubt somewhere in the Amazon user agreement there is a provision that you don’t actually own the content but are renting it at the sufferance of Amazon. If and when Amazon pulls the plug, I hope to see a massive lawsuit based not on the First Amendment, which doesn’t apply, but on commercial common law and legislation. There are simply some things you cannot put into a contract. Otherwise, giving the government the power to mandate content will lead to an even worse disaster from which there is no workaround, other than the literal Samizdat as practiced in the USSR.
I have no doubt somewhere in the Amazon user agreement there is a provision that you don’t actually own the content but are renting it at the sufferance of Amazon. If and when Amazon pulls the plug, I hope to see a massive lawsuit based not on the First Amendment, which doesn’t apply, but on commercial common law and legislation.
It will indeed be a massive pushback. Lots of liability lawyers who owe nothing to Bezos will be more than happy to band together in order to take him down. So many people read Kindle books that the stink will be massive. When the wallow is over, Amazon will be defeated but it will take a very long time.
The Daily Mail is an odd beast; mainly Conservative, but not consistently so. Sometimes it reports stories critical of the actions of followers of Islam not covered by the other MSM; on other occasions we get this crap.