It’s Not Happening: the Mainstream Media Is the Enabler of American Dysfunction
(Phillip Giraldi) Has anyone seen anywhere in the mainstream media a serious discussion of Israel’s possible role in the Beirut bombing? I am not suggesting an evidence-free indictment of Israel but rather just a review of Israel’s possible motive and a consideration of its capability to carry out such an attack without having to directly do it itself with one of its bombs or missiles. Given the Jewish state’s unrelenting hostility towards Hezbollah and its repeated violations of Lebanese territory and airspace, it would seem to me that it would at least merit a sentence or two in the New York Times or Washington Post.
Or how about the Jeffrey Epstein case, another one involving Israel? There is considerable evidence to suggest that Epstein just might have been using underage girls as sex bait for powerful men so they could be blackmailed into cooperating with Mossad. It might have meant having a Bill Clinton as a presidential spouse if voting had gone the other way in 2016 and Bill would have had to be answerable to Benjamin Netanyahu. I haven’t seen anything about that in the newspapers of record or on FOX, MSNBC, CBS or CNN.
Or to look at another manifestation of mainstream media mendacity, how about the reporting on the disturbances that have been taking place all around the United States? Recent major riots in Portland and Chicago were frequently ignored in the mainstream media or were described as “peaceful protests” in support of “racial justice,” contradicting what one could see with one’s own eyes where video was available. The looting, burning, beatings and vandalizing in Oregon over more than eighty days continues nearly nightly with police now withdrawing from Portland after the local district attorney declared that he would avoid prosecuting rioters.
In Chicago the looting that centered on the high-end Miracle Mile Michigan Avenue shopping area was so bad that that part of the city had to be closed off by raising the city’s bridges. Twelve policemen were injured and more than a hundred looters were arrested. U-Haul trucks were even brought in by the rioters and stolen cars were used to smash open shop windows. It was the second major trashing of the area in the past three months.
Illinois Retail Merchants Association president Rob Karr released a statement on the following day which included: “There’s a limit to how many times retailers are willing to be kicked. It will be difficult after retailers who have invested millions in reopening to have to do it again. There has to be a lot of confidence that they can be protected and, so far, that confidence is lacking.”
Chicago’s flagship Macy’s outlet on the avenue has already indicated that it is considering closing due to the shoplifting, looting and general lack of security. In short, many American cities are no longer able to make even an effort to protect the persons and property of their citizens and taxpayers. Was the Chicago story important enough to report by the New York Times? Yes, but only late in the day on a back page.
Chicago is reportedly responding to the crisis by creating a special task force on looting, but the follow-up coverage in the national media was predictably pretty toothless. On the day after Michigan Avenue was laid waste, Black Lives Matter (BLM) held a rally outside the police station where some of the arrested rioters were being held. Fox News alone among national media covered the story, reporting how one BLM organizer Ariel Atkins described the estimated $60 million dollars-worth of looting as really just “reparations.” She said “I don’t care if someone decides to loot a Gucci or a Macy’s or a Nike store, because that makes sure that person eats…That is reparations. Anything they wanted to take, they can take it because these businesses have insurance.” Presumably the rioters, who did not on this occasion loot supermarkets for food and instead chose to steal luxury items will be able to eat their Gucci loafers.
In a similar vein, the New York Times did have something to say about businesses shutting down or leaving Manhattan. A long article entitled “Retail Chains Abandon Manhattan: ‘It’s Unsustainable’” described how many restaurants and shops, including major chains and department stores, are closing due to unaffordable high rents that can no longer be paid due to a lack of tourists and office workers’ business as a result of the pandemonium. The article does not mention a lack of security due to the city government’s permissive attitude towards demonstrations that sometimes turn violent, a curious omission as friends of mine who live in Manhattan have observed the results of random looting and arson in many parts of the city, leading to boarded-up shops and sharply diminishing retail activity. Some long-time residents describe it as a “return to the ‘70s” when the city became unlivable for many.
America’s newspaper of record the Washington Post promotes its product with a phrase “Democracy dies in darkness.” In reality, the darkness is created by the media itself, which no longer reports what is taking place in an objective fashion. What does appear in the papers, online and on television and radio, no matter what the political orientation, is a product that is engineered to send a certain message. That message is itself disinformation, not substantially different than what takes place in the controlled media put out by so-called totalitarian regimes. In fact, news sources like Russia Today are likely to be much more reliable than CNN or FOX on many issues.
Opinion polls suggest that the American public has largely figured things out and reveal that few trust the media to do its job in an objective fashion. In that light, articles like the recent Politico piece have appeared that have questioned how it can be that the Trump White House is optimistic over the prospects for the November election when opinion polls suggest a large margin of victory for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. If journalists were doing their jobs and were actually getting out on the streets and talking to people, they would discover that people are really worried about the future of the country and what it all will mean for their children and grandchildren. And many of them blame the unrest on the Democratic Party coddling of radical groups that are actively fomenting ethnic and racial divisions for political gain, not on the Republicans. Trump’s playing on those fears might well have a great impact when it comes time to vote. Someone who responded to an opinion poll the week before saying he or she would vote for a safe choice Biden might well go into the voters’ booth and instead pull the lever for Trump.
Philip Giraldi, Ph.D. is Executive Director of the Council for the National Interest.
