Is it safe to say that a group of powerful people are trying to keep information from the masses? After the confessions of Hunt, a CIA man, with connections to many top officials, and the head of the "plumbers" at Watergate, and there is almost a complete media blackout of the story. How is it that Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan are talked about more on the news than this event? To tell the truth I never even saw anything about the Hunt confessions on CNN or Fox, but I can turn it on at anytime of the day and within an hour I am guarenteed to hear about Paris having to spend 45 days in jail. Its not debatable anymore, there are powerful people in this country that are running things behind the scenes. They are criminals at the highest level of government and industry and most people are in denial of it.

This is an interesting question...and I think I have the answer!

I always thought that in the Soviet Union...the Government 'controlled' the media...poor media...couldn't speak their minds about the truth for fear of the government...boy was I wrong. The fact is the Soviet Media WAS the government...and there is your answer.

Our media isn't interested in truth...they are a tool of the government...they are in league with the government..they ARE the government.

The elected officials don't control the media...it's the other way around.

The vast majority of our culture is designed to dumb us down. Most people don't even notice paris is the only thing the news covers, to them that is the news.

Boy that is scary, but you never know with what is going on in the news these days I would not be surprised. The funny part of it all is that here where I am we only get the 'breaking news' about 2 to 3 days after is happened! It is so funny... Sometimes I read stories on this forum and then a few days later only see it on the news! talk about a delay...

I don't know about that . Bushco got busted paying reporters to lean stories his way on various subjects.

3rd Columnist On Bush Payroll

WASHINGTON, Jan. 28, 2005

(CBS/AP) A syndicated newspaper columnist received at least $4,000 from the Department of Health and Human Services for work in support of President Bush's effort to promote marriage, USA Today reports.

Mike McManus is the third commentator to receive money from a federal agency to boost Bush policy initiatives. The newspaper said McManus got the money to train marriage mentors.

USA Today also said Marriage Savers, a non-profit organization operated by McManus, received $49,000 from a group that receives HHS money to promote marriage to unwed couples who are having children.

The newspaper said McManus had boosted the Bush marriage initiative in his column on several occasions since he began receiving government money in 2003. USA Today also reported that Wade Horn, the HHS official who manages McManus' contract with the agency, was quoted in at least three of the columns.

Horn is a former member of the Marriage Savers board of directors, the newspaper said.

News of the McManus contract follows the disclosure that syndicated columnist Maggie Gallagher was being paid $21,500 by HHS to push the White House's $300 million initiative to encourage marriage.

Columnist and commentator Armstrong Williams was paid $240,000 by the Education Department to plug Mr. Bush's No Child Left Behind legislation. That contract became known two weeks ago.

McManus told USA Today that the opinions expressed in his column were not influenced by his work for HHS. "I was hired because we have an expertise in working with churches," he said.

On Wednesday, President Bush ordered his Cabinet secretaries not to hire columnists to promote administration policy.

"All our Cabinet secretaries must realize that we will not be paying commentators to advance our agenda," Mr. Bush said. "Our agenda ought to be able to stand on its own two feet."

That wasn't good enough for the Democrats.

Sens. Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts and Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey say they will introduce a bill next week that would strengthen existing law against using government funds for publicity or propaganda within the United States.

"This abuse by HHS is just another in a long list of similar incidents of paid policy advocates supporting Bush Administration policies," the senators wrote.

Also Wednesday, the House Committee on Government Reform released a report on the use of taxpayer dollars for public relations campaigns. It found the administration spent a record $88 million on government-funded public relations contracts in 2004 — more than double the amount spent in 2000, according to the report prepared for House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and other Democrats.

Several investigations, including one by Congress' investigative arm, the Government Accountability Office, and the Education Department, are under way. They are looking into whether any laws were broken — and if so, by whom — when Williams was given the money to produce television and radio ads promoting the No Child Left Behind Act.

Williams has apologized, calling it a mistake in judgment to not disclose that the administration was paying him, but insisting he broke no laws.

Gallagher apologized to readers in her column Tuesday, saying she was not paid to promote marriage but "to produce particular research and writing products" — articles, brochures, presentations. "My lifelong experience in marriage research, public education and advocacy is the reason HHS hired me," she wrote.

She said it never occurred to her to tell readers about her work for the government. "I should have disclosed a government contract when I later wrote about the Bush marriage initiative. I would have, if I had remembered it. My apologies to my readers."


http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/01/26/...ain669432.shtml

and this -

Pentagon Paid Reporters for Stories Overseas

Published: February 06, 2005 9:00 AM ET

WASHINGTON (AP) The Pentagon’s chief investigator is looking into the military’s practice of paying journalists to write articles and commentary for a Web site aimed at influencing public opinion in the Balkans, officials said Friday.

At the request of Larry Di Rita, chief spokesman for Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, the Pentagon’s inspector general, Joseph Schmitz, is reviewing that case and also looking more broadly at Pentagon activities that might involve inappropriate payments to journalists.

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/ne...t_id=1000789872

the military already has admitted to propaganda new stations in Iraq. just as bad as islamic extreamist propaganda.

and this is only what we know. the government has been manipulating media for years. even more so now since 80% is republican owned. want the news ? read all sources , over seas media is a decent place to start. Even the British media is becoming withdrawn compared to the past , but hopefully that will change soon.

Ever since the last days of the World War 2, The Americans were bought into the same ideas that Hitler was, Propoganda. Goverments and political entities in there enviroment of politics funds the telivision and all the media they originaly had uzsed for advertisement on the products for the markets and industsry economical future and the american family is what the buyers were , media was being sold to. It seemed ok for a idea, at the time but it has now wafered the most extreme evil intents of the individuals and the lies to produce money or power or gain in the human race. One having great wealth over another group. leaving the tempation and the lust of money and populations have become more corrupt.

It was always the media wanted to sell so they financed the poliltics , therefore the politicians always funded the media to have the air time to sell their party for the american people to vote today, the industry has vasted out like a brand name pen into semi , double delux, double, mega, super, diet , sugar free, etc. BACTERIA ,....now its out of hand and has no conscience for the innocent that have become victims due to its devise and manipulate ability to leave censorship out of the media and I feel the fact of the media finances the politics and the politics fund the media ,... is controdictory , because , they are two sources asking for help in the same prolems due to innocent victims and or pandemics or disease when the market the stuff that promotes the darn cripple cratola in the first place, does not anybody elese see the contradiction. I makes no sense and its a le that allot just let happen. Personnaly Im sick if the television and all the restrictions on the freedom to know what everybody elese knows in the richer suberbs. priv;laged is on the scale upwards ,.... we all better start standing up for the rights as humans and cival liberities.

Personally, I get sick and tired of 95% of the news in the papers and on TV, hence why I rarely watch or read it. Pathetic, menial storylines that are about as interesting as watching paint dry just about does my head in. The other day I am sure I heard that Paris Hilton was going to write her memoirs about her experience, well that should be interesting!!! I must buy the book and then burn it on my bonfire on November 5th - it's about all it will be fit for.

The Government may try to control the masses, unfortunately for them, they can't control people's freewill.

We are supposed to have free speech in many countries, of course, we all know there are many things we are not allowed to say (for fear of offending others) - half the bloody time it wouldn't offend them anyway!

Some town in England was even considering banning the word "Christmas" (hence it should offend non-Christians), all I can say is if that should happen countrywide, I will be sticking one great big banner in my window on the 1st December that says "Happy Christmas" and if someone doesn't like it, I will hand them a blindfold so that they can trot on by without viewing it!

Does the government control the media?

No way. Not at all... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELrq9TsFLs0...ted&search=




It ain't called The Mighty Wurlitzer for nuttin'.

Before you get all excited about a Masonic conspiracy on this one, try getting all the facts first...

These guys were arrested in a warehouse, not a Masonic Lodge as the reporter said - which he related because people saw FEZZES inside! This cell were members of the Moorish Science Temple of America.

The Moorish Science Temple of America was founded in 1913 as a sect of Islam but incorporates teachings from Judaism and Christianity, said Aminah Beverly McCloud, a professor of religious studies at DePaul University in Chicago who has written about the group.

Moorish Temple members say they trace their ancestry to Morocco and often wear fezzes and use the titles "Bey" or "El." According to the indictment, suspect Lyglenson Lemorin used the alias "Brother Levi-El."

Adherents pray two or three times a day facing east and follow prayers and religious instructions from a book titled Holy Koran of the Moorish Science Temple of America.

One of the ringleaders was Batiste. "Batiste, 32, born in Chicago, owns a small construction company, Azteca Stucco and Masonry, which provided work for at least some of his followers, including Phanor and Lemorin, 31, who immigrated legally from Haiti in 1993."

With the chaos of reporting at the scene, I can very easily see someone asking for info on these guys, a local offering, "That Batiste was into masonry," hearing about a fez, and jumping to conclusions. Not, of course that anyone HERE would jump to conclusions...

The answers and the proof is out there - you just have to look for it. There have been lots of books written about his topic - look up Noam Chomsky for a good reference. Abercrombie is right, American media is mostly propaganda. The major media outlets are all controlled by only a few corporations and those corporations basically work for our government. They are funded through the gov't. The gov't hires PR firms that basically serve as liasons between the gov't and the media and they are responsible for over 90% of the stories we read and see everyday. That means that almost all of the news you are seeing is planted by our own government. The last thing this gov't wants is a bunch of dissident voices causing problems and they will put a stop any movements that try to take shape - but that is a whole other topic.

It is done so smoothly that most people don't realize they are essentially being brainswashed. The gov't uses the media to keep the masses at bay. The US gov't is motivated by money, money, money.
Very brief overview here:
We do not like smaller countries with socialized gov't because they try to kick US corporations out of their countries because they want to control their own economy and resources rather than having US corp. using their country and their labor to extract resources, export them out of the country leaving the population in poverty - the US will try to squash these socialist gov't and install US friendly regimes(El Salvador, Nicaragua, Iraq, Venezuela, Haiti, Dominican Republic, to name a few). In order to do this effectively they have to make sure the populous is mis-informed. They painted the leaders of El Salvador as blood-thristy Communists which was absolutely not true, same with Nicaragua so when the US forceably took out their leaders(who were peaceful) and installed a dictatorship that was meant to squash the countries citizens rights so they would not rebel and support the US at the same time, US citizens went right along with it because most of them didn't know any better. They are trying to do that with Hugo Chavez-painting him as a crazy communists-he is NOT anti-american, he is anti-BUSH and outspoken about it. In fact, Chavez was on of the first leaders to donate millions to the victims of Katrina AND send his own people to help, he also runs the oil for money program that gives poor americans access to oil based energy in the winter for low, low costs--he has his issues but they are nothing at all like the American media portrays it. Obviously what happened in Iraq is an example of how the media was used to mis-inform the populous, we armed and helped install the Taliban in Afghanistan because we did not want Russia to have a stronghold in the Middle East. The Palestinians are painted as mindless terrorists so we can continue to support Israel financially and militarily because being allies with Israel gives us a base in the Middle East we so strongly needed. The media is used as a brainwashing tool. Most of what we see on the news and in the papers in put there by the gov't. They even make up fake organizations who support the US agenda to be interviewed on tv, radio, etc. It is propagana at its best and most effective. It is so effective most people don't even realize it is happening.
People are going to call me crazy and un-American but the truth is I am neither. I have taken the intiative to educate myself about the government and it's policies that I live with everday. I do not agree with a lot of thing the US does in the name of capitalism but that certainly doesn't mean I am anti-American - my husband does things I don't agree with and I still love him.
If anyone is interested I would be happy to recommend some reading. In the meantime check Democracy Now - they a non-profit news agency that offers some realistic news.