Corporations Raping the Nation till it's an Ideological Ghetto, While George W. Bush Plays the Fiddle

As I was reading the Hedges’ article I found certain mocking thoughts come to me. It got so bad that I had to start writing them in the margin of the paper. So for this post I think I’ll just put quotes followed by my inner thoughts.

“This year alone… some 6000 journalists nationwide have lost their jobs.” Yes because in 2008 nobody lost their jobs and everyone was hiring.

“Net advertising amounts to $21 billion a year, that amount is actually relatively small.” If that’s small then the hundreds of millions that Obama spent on campaigning must be like change. Maybe if we gather it up we can go taco bell and order from pretty pictures.

“[newspapers] give a voice to those who, without the press, have no voice.” If that’s true then who’s writing all the blogs.

“They keep citizens engaged with their cultural, civic and political life.” I thought that politics were corrupt? Why would citizens want to be engaged in that?

“Nearly all reporting-I would guess at least 80 percent- is done by newspapers.” You ‘guess’ 80 percent. While I ‘guess’ that 80 percent of the population goes to McDonalds because of the health benefits, not to order from the pictures. See how much fun it is to ‘guess’!

“Those who rely on the internet gravitate to sites that reinforce their belief.” Um, that’s true, but it’s true for a lot of sources besides the internet, like all of them.

“Reporting, which is time consuming and expensive.” Wait a second; didn’t he say earlier that newspapers were losing money by using the internet?

“We are left awash in a sea in propaganda.” Ok, newspapers are infamous for propaganda, take a history class, they’ll tell you.

“Facts, for many bloggers, are interchangeable with opinions.” If anyone would know about confusing facts with opinions, it would be you. Is hypocrite in that big advance vocabulary of yours?

“Time Warner, Disney, Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp., General Electric and Viacom control nearly everything we read, watch, and ultimately think.” You forgot the fast food places with all those pictures!

“A democracy survives when its citizens have access to trustworthy and impartial sources of information, when it can discern lies from truth.” Is there such a thing of ‘impartial sources of information’?

“Ideological ghettos.” I just think this phrase is funny.

“And the citizens in these degraded societies, he warned always end up ruled by a despot, a Nero or a George W. Bush.” I bet Cicero knew all about Bush, and besides, Bush is nothing like Nero, there is no way Bush has the talent to learn to fiddle.

I don’t have that much to say about the Thompson piece. It’s not as much fun writing about something that you agree with.

Remember when Chris Hedges was talking about how real journalists spend all this time researching, and gathering information to make newspapers descent sources of factual information? I think the Thompson piece fits this description, except that this piece was found on the evil internet.