Alternative Media Is Today’s Free Press
You probably already recognize that the entertainment-obsessed behemoth regarded as “the press” is anything but the free press that was intended way back when its rights were codified in the U.S. Constitution.
Any objective analysis must conclude that the protection granted to the press in the First Amendment of our beloved Bill of Rights has been utterly wasted on today’s traditional media industry.
Here we confront the modern American dilemma. Much of the nation acts perplexed as to why our society no longer seems to work quite right — but considers the routine defiance of our Constitution to be virtually inconsequential.
The bold declarations contained in the Bill of Rights are clear and concise. But, more importantly, they are timeless axioms intended to be the glue which binds the Constitution, ensuring its efficacy. Once the tenets of the Bill of Rights are ignored or become twisted to mean something other than what was intended, the Constitution quickly becomes unraveled and is bit by bit rendered meaningless.
Unfortunately, we appear to have forgotten that those first Ten Amendments were necessarily added to our Constitution to guarantee its ratification. In sum, without the Bill of Rights there would be no Constitution. You cannot have one without the other.
No wonder our system of governance no longer harmoniously works. Once the rights which were codified to protect free men are considered flippant and left to the whimsical interpretations of the day, why should we expect anything less than trouble?
The problem is that large swaths of the population are indifferent about the whole matter. To our collective detriment, many a contemporary citizen has come to believe that government exists to provide for him. Blinded to the reality that he could ever possibly need protection from his government, he has become dependent and subservient. In essence, the state is now his master, because he has relegated himself to life as a lowly creature intended to serve the will of the state.
Rather than acting as an agent of protection against an intrusive government, today’s mainstream media — or big media, as I call it — seeks at best merely to entertain us. At worst, it has become an unofficial agent of the state, acting almost exclusively on its behalf.
Whether or not big media intends to promote the government is irrelevant, for the net effect exists regardless. The point is that it has defied the system as it was designed, begetting a serious problem.
Fortunately, even those who torment us cannot defy the natural order of things, so again we find the rules of cause and effect at work. As man, in his natural state, seeks to be free and resists the authoritarian nature of the state, inevitably alternative media was born.
The rise of a new press is nothing less than an attempt to re-establish a free press — an essential component of a free society. Sadly, this too has also been misconstrued and confused in the public mind. In our modern age, everything is politicized precisely because government has involved itself in virtually all aspects of life. Having willingly assumed a supporting role in advancing the concept of government which infinitely expands in size and scope, big media has been a central player in this phenomenon.
“Freedom of the press belongs to those who can afford one” and when those who can afford a computer and thus, print the articles that they can reshape the timbre of the news, then the big players don’t like that and will try to take them down. The old media; the alphabet players of the past are clearly now in bed with the marxists and the socialists and the “ruling elite” really don’t like being told how to deliver “the news”. Instead, they prefer having drinks and sharing witticisms with the ruling class, throwing their heads back and laughing at the unwashed and the people who really operate this nation. It’s the age old problem of trying to pamper themselves while trying to act superior to the very people who pay their wages. Nothing new, nothing really “revolutionary” for lack of a better way to put it. They want to stick their fingers out while drinking their lattes and call the rest of us “gauche”. Clint Eastwood did a very good job of saying that while making fun of the ruling class and also making fun of them. When making fun of the people who do the work, it’s best to not do so while they hold the razor that’s at your throat in the barber shop. Well paid but not particularly well-bred or well-read. I always tended to laugh at the raccoon-eyes of Brian Williams who seems to always have been under the broiler just a bit too long. Image is everything to a socialist society whore, I guess.
Sorry, gang, it was early and I didn’t do a very good job of proofreading. The Clint Eastwood reference should’ve said, “He did a good job of making fun of the social elites who like to stick their fingers out while drinking their lattes, thumbing their noses at us.” And by that remark I mean the Brian Williamses who know nothing but who feel empowered by hobnobbing with the politically powerful, the intellectuals and the wealthy. No credibility whatsoever as to ever having DONE anything. It’s no wonder then they worship at the altar of The Won.
The new media is the best thing that ever could have happened to the world. Sure, there is a lot, and I mean a lot, of junk on the Internet. But the Internet now is giving a voice to people who never would have had the opportunity to speak to their fellow citizens. Never. As such, now it’s harder and harder for the Federal government to simply enact laws without any comments, let alone consequences, coming from the people they claim to represent. The outrage that was stirred up by the Obamacare debate is proof of that and the price paid by the Democrats was plainly seen in the 2010 elections. And lets not even talk about how much money can be raised for political campaigns through the Internet. People finally have a voice again and can use this power to tell their representatives what they really think.
Frustrated by e-mails Congressmen never read or phone calls they never answer, people now can bypass them and go directly to their fellow voters and contact them with their opinions. This reminds me a little of the 18th century, when political pamphlets were created and printed just prior, during, and after the American Revolution. Anybody with access to a printing press had a voice and used it to influence their fellow citizens. Given the terrible state of affairs with our main stream media, we need a lot more of this, not less. It could be the only thing that saves this nation from being taken over by the “elites” who certainly do NOT have our best interests at heart.
The media cat is out of the bag and politicians cling to the old formulas for controlling the message. ACCESS. The old media are just lazy. They don’t want to get their sleeves dirty pursuing the truth, when the politicians are more than ready to tell them what the truth is, as long as they play along. Our brave MSM parrots, going along to get along.
“Alternative Media Is Today’s Free Press”. M-m-m-m, okay, yeah, . . . so, . . . m-m-m-m, what’s new, let’s get down to the news, . . .
Or, “Alternative Media Is Today’s Free Press”, yeah, and if the net goes down—say, with an EMP—at least it can be temporarily quieted. I don’t know why, that useless preoccupation, . . . yak, yak, yak, through the media, . . . their free press and all that; they need to have something productive on which to occupy their minds, . . .
Eventually, the way things are going Phillip, an EMP won’t be necessary to silence the ‘alternative media’ on the net. The ‘ONE’ is already getting ready with a new fairness doctrine to shut down opposing views, the BATFE is working with other alphabet agencies in our gubmint to further destroy the 2nd amendment and the ‘Czars’ in the gubmint are working with the EPA to force us to start living back in the 19th century without the approval of congress or passing more damn laws but through executive fiat. I wonder, day to day, when a majority of sheeple will stop being sheeple and face the facts that it’s later than we think and if things don’t start turning around soon to get back to constitutional government, we’re doomed. Congress gave up the right to coin money, the senators started being elected popularly rather than by the state legislatures, all in the interest of tightening slowly but surely the control of the federal government and ultimately it seems the control of a ‘royal’ presidency. We’re closer than ever to all the power being centralized in the white house and congress and the SCOTUS seem to be fine with that. Doomed, I tell you, doomed, unless we all wake up, not just the few.
Coeurmaeghan in 29 Palms, CA
You aint seen nothing yet.
The flow of information, once quaintly called news, is in the process of exploding with the technical advances in IT. There are current glimmers, e.g. cloud computing, or quantum computing, either here, or coming, but the flow of information has gone from a trickle, to a fire hose, but with a tsunami soon to hit. Today, NSA monitors every electronic signal on earth, your wireless phone call, or al-Qaida’s FAX. A few years ago, Dan Rather tried to throw a Presidential election with false claims on one candidate’s military record. In a few news cycles, he was disgraced by experts who blew up his fraudulent scoop, via universal disbursement on the web. His news simply was not true. A few months ago, several Arab nations were destroyed, when fossilized dictators were over thrown by Twitter, whatever that is. The more technically astute Chinese simply do not know how to content with open information. They know that without it they will be ignorant; with it their educated are informed that their baloney is not true. There is no solution to their problem.
In a few years, it is quite possible for some cop to shut off your engine as you drive. He will know all about you, and can continuously monitor your speed and maneuvers. He can see every thing you do in your house, as he watches in a parked van on the street. The airport monitors which make you naked, will become sun glasses.
Two things are certainly coming. Privacy is gone forever. Information, and error, (spoofing, trolls, etc.) will/have become ubiquitous. We are being deluged with half naked women who either report the “news” or are the subject of the “news”, albeit with no content, or importance. Unless the US goes the Chinese route, a distinct possibility, we may morph into two camps, e.g. conservative media and liberal media. Neither are to be trusted.
To stay free, we must be much more disciplined, both in absorbing new information, and assessing its legitimacy. These are not traits in which an average American excels.
i fear for our nation. Our freedom sits on a knife edge.
Your analysis is accurate and prophetic. But, let me give you a silver lining to the dark cloud that you so excellently describe. There is a reason why this informational tsunami is coming that goes beyond technology and politics; it is spiritual.
The message of the Coming Kingdom of God WILL go out to anyone and everyone. There will no longer be a way to suppress this vital message of hope for mankind! The pseudo-educated and those who control media have done everything they could over the centuries to prevent this knowledge from being disseminated to ALL of mankind. Alas, they will fail. The “genie” will be out of the bottle, and isn’t going back in.
We live in a world that is finally beginning to figure out that it doesn’t have the answers to the difficult problems that beset us, and will have to look…UP!
There is nothing so difficult to stop as an idea and a message whose time has come…
I must agree with you.
After decades assessing advanced technology, my sole conclusion is to attend daily church services. A thousand years are as a watch in the night in His presence, but mankind is beginning to learn, every few hours, as much as we learned in the prior thousand years. Trained, discipline thinkers can not comprehend the multidisciplinary findings which are exploding out of the labs and think tanks. For years I worked on a means to catalog new knowledge. The Library of Congress system is simply worthless. To track the state of the art in technology, you must track not books, or chapters of books, but the hour stamp on emails. Hot news. Real news dissemination is becoming a volcano. Who can assess, comprehend, are apply wisdom to the metastasizing volume of knowledge?
The One who conveyed the Good News. His book is still current. And His command still rules the world: Love one another. This presents a moth, and flame problem, depending on how one lives their life. However, the rate of news acquisition leads me to conclude that the future must be shorter than the past, for human comprehension. Much shorter. All men will be forced to confront/ acknowledge blinding reality: He is God. And Peace. And Love.
How will America fare in His judgement? It sits on a knife edge. Thou shalt not lie and steal governs our media and we are badly messing this up.
Replying to both #6 and #7:
The cops can’t spy in our houses from parked vans if they’re dead.
The pornoscanners are useless if their operators (or wearers) are dead.
Any “fairness doctrine” is irrelevant if the federal LEOs who would be tasked to enforce it are dead.
The ATF cannot destroy the 2nd Amendment if its agents are dead.
The “czars” and their EPA henchmen cannot send us back to the 19th century if they’re dead.
Recall Gen. Patton’s famous quote about not winning a war by dying for one’s country. (You win by making the enemy die for his country.) Now replace “country” with “principles.” That, I’m afraid, is where we’re headed. But that’s why the 2nd Amendment exists — to guarantee the people’s ability to resist tyrannical government with deadly force.
Fortunately, the vast majority of those govt. goons are not “true believers.” They’re in it for the fat paycheck now and the fat pension later. Once they realize their chances of living to collect that pension are 50-50 or less, you’ll see a tsunami of resignations that will cripple those agencies to the point that they become non-functional. That’s how the IRA paralyzed the British occupation and paved the way for Irish independence.
And don’t worry about the mind-numbed sheeple. They won’t help, but they won’t get in the way either.
Once upon a time not that long ago (a decade or so) I actually tuned in and listened to the likes of Bill Maher, Chris Matthews, Bill Moyer, 60 minutes, Frontline, NPR (Every year I donated money personally and through my company, but haven’t in years now), Sunday NYT and others. Not that long ago many of these folks were still a little flexible, not arrogant and condescending and would even on occasion have stories about conservatives and their issues and generally were pro-America.
I know for certain I haven’t changed that much at the age of 62, so there is only one possibility. They have absolutely changed, inching to the left so far that I can no longer listen. They surely have no use for people like me as in their mind I am a knuckle dragging idiot and teabagger to boot. And in the process of this inching left they have all become noticeably arrogant and condescending. It runs shivers up my leg to listen to most of them, when I accidently surf into them by accident or on purpose on my way to somewhere else. Oh, and all so apparent, none of these people have ever actually talked with a tea party member and have no idea what the movement is about, other than what they believe to be racism and hate in general. This is very obvious to any of us who have joined the cause. I mean seriously I throw my empty coffee cup in the trash container. Seriously, I do.
Unfortunately I see a lot of young people whose daily news feed comes from John Stewart and Steve Colbert, who are conveniently comics when it suits them or earnest journalists if it suits them, they get to choose. These guys and Rachel Maddow generally deal in sound bites, pictures, mocking diatribes and not much depth and frankly a lot of half truths and distortions. And unfortunately our youth don’t take the time to look it up from any other viewpoint. Generally I have found that talking to the young mush minds and liberal useful idiots in general is a waste of time.
Meanwhile I don’t see Rush being any more or any less conservative than he was 20 years ago and frankly he has only improved his style and vocabulary over the years. And now he is joined by such great conservatives as Levin, Hewitt, Dennis Miller,etc. I know why but I am just not a big fan of Hannity or O’riley albeit they have their audience and they do their job well for their segment of the conservative movement, which is fine with me, go for it.
We are apparently at a crossroads wherein either I am right or they are right and I suspect that one of us is going to win and the other will be ever more marginalized. I have read both sides of the arguments and frankly I am not at all sure where this ends up.
Let’s hope the current economic situation will be a wake up for the youth. Let’s hope some of them mature. Let’s hope that we have a Republican president and congress. Let’s hope the Republicans don’t get arrogant again and go Rino and blow their toes off.
Let’s hope Obama has no hope left.
P.S. Until the age of 26 I was a rock hard Democrat, albeit JFK could NEVER win the Demo nomination today, he would be a tea party racist wing nut.
Excellent Commentary! Thanks for your insight.
P.S. Until the age of 26 I was a rock hard Democrat, albeit JFK could NEVER win the Demo nomination today, he would be a tea party racist wing nut.
That’s absolutely correct. And I would even say that if JFK had run for president in 1968 rather than 1960 he wouldn’t have gotten the Democrat nomination without totally flip-flopping on certain issues the way Bobby Kennedy did.
Until the age of 26 I was a rock hard Democrat albeit Kennedy could not win the Dem. nomination today…
I think this is misreading the intentions of the Democratic Party within at least the past half century. Do you think it was a fluke that big media dubbed Obama the New Kennedy? Their use of their wizard’s wand TV portrayed Obama as saviour,Messiah in what they believe a Christian nation? Without much comment on his basic knowledge mistakes and designs to “transform” America. Or on his and his wife’s announcement they were “ashamed of America”? Was this just oversight on the part of media – expert in influencing mass populations?
Do you really believe that sub-prime that set the entire scenario in motion, a Democratic/RINO political move on the banks, was just a fluke? Or the problems in the banking system took the politicians and media by surprise in October 2011? After Obama’s triumphant rock-star tour through socialist stronghold Europe with Leni Riefenstahl style TV coverage in late summer of 2011, assuring Obama’s election as the “first black president” was also just a fluke?
Republicans, perhaps unintentionally, during big media hoopla for Obama, introduced a new sun to the political galaxy, jeopardising Obama’s certain election via big media ministrations.
The TIMING of the hysterical announcement of the “banking crisis” with nationalising banks “to save the system” ONLY AFTER the appearance of this new sun endangering Obama’s election was also just a fluke? Serendipity?
The responses of big media to this new sun to the point of deranged animus with brownshirt tactics to dim her shine a fluke? As the responses of Congress and Executive attempts to silence, to restrict information from alternative media through vaunted “net neutrality” restrictions also a fluke?
Big media is an unelected power in the land except by voluntary audience size.
Citizens have a powerful weapon to compel them to their remit for fair and unbiased reporting of information, and turning them off is only the first step. That weapon, big media /Hollywood in theory private enterprises, is the very substance of capitalism, which big media and Democrats so despise while using for their conquest of that system: MONEY. None of these malfeasants in big media news or entertainment could do what they do without sponsors.And sponsors want to sell their products. BUT if nobody is buying the products, including their political programs, and informing the sponsors why they don’t buy them, commercial sponsors pay attention. To get their attention stop buying their products. A buyers’ strike against these poisoners of the nation.
Use the same tactics to get “representatives of the People” Republican as well as Democrat to comply with their remit to defend and uphold the Constitution of the USA. Big money has the edge, but masses of little money can send a message.
Lot’s of good points, but I don’t recall saying anything about a “fluke” or “not a fluke” for that matter. Thanks though, appreciate your thoughts.
Maybe you’ve lost your appetite for Hannity and O’Reilly because they’re both pathological egomaniacs who simply cannot stop talking about themselves. Also, get rid of the apostrophe in “lots,” OK? It doesn’t do a lot for your credibility.
Sorry. I didn’t mean to suggest that You considered these events flukish. I meant they seem consistent,straight-line development of the NOW professed aims of the Democratic Party since the 1960s. The election via bizarre vote count in Cook County, Chicago, that brought the entire Kennedy male offspring into federal office: White House, Justice and Congress. Fulfilling the patriarch’s “dream” of a Kennedy Dynasty. Thus Obama’s dubbing by Media as tne New Kennedy. From which acorns – 1960s election – we now have the tree, Obama. Brought into office with another bizarre development in the TIMING of the banking crisis announcement. It all seems too much like the Reichstag Fire of the 1930s which brought Hitler and his National SOCIALISTS into office in a Democratic advanced Western Nation at the end of the Weimar Republic – i.e. economic catastrophe.
ALL fed and fertilised by compliant/submissive big Media, in thrall to the Kenndeys and their like,e.g the Kennedy clone WJ Clinton. The figureheads for the “Democratic” Parties aims to Change the US from citizen governing nation to a royal court. Which monopoly on information was removed only with appearance of the internet and the journalists who still apparen
I didn’t mean to imply that YOU thought them flukish. Only that put together they seem flukily consistent, straight-line development, of NOW professed aims of the Democratic Party since the 1960s. The election via bizarre vote count in Cook County, Chicago, brought the entire Kennedy male offspring into federal office: White House, Justice and Congress. Fulfilling the “dream” of the patriarch – famous for his personal and public probity and respect for the law and women – for a Kennedy Dynasty (Camelot – royal court?). With compliant/submissive big Media enthralled by the glamour of the Kennedys as their shills. From which acorn we now have the tree in Obama. Thus the note on the media dubbing Obama the New Kennedy. Brought into office with another bizarre event, the TIMING of the announcement by big media of the banking crisis when Obama’s certainty to wear the crown of Camelot was in danger. Obama’s election closing the circle, a circle with a sun was Obama’s campaign logo.
Like the Reichstag Fire which brought into office, in a Democratic Western nation after resonant speeches promising CHANGE, Hitler with his National SOCIALISTS. Trumpeted and given rock-star treatment by Leni Riefenstahl and their media and propaganda organs. Obama’s naming his personal advisors TSARS seems consistent with the aims now apparent. Excuse the prolixity of my response, but I hope I’ve made my points clear..
Marvelous article with very astute observations and conclusions.
Got ‘ur head screwed on wrong there, big guy! The explosion of social media and all these ezine stories has more to do with technology growth than it does with your Alice in Wonderful view that good always rights itself. Sooner or later, yes. But unfortunately,sometimes not before some really bad stuff happens.
And you use too broad of a brush in your Big Media swipes. The gaggle of TV talk shows are entertainment. They’re news only to the spiritually disemboweled who can’t see the corpocracy elements pulling the strings in the background. Indeed, we are in the midst of a new kind of “institutionalized racism” seedbed; and it’ll turn fascist in a heartbeat if we don’t stop hating each other so much, and learn how it is to walk in somebody else’s shoes.
Don’t think for a second there still aren’t hardworking, honest reporters and editors outside New York and Washington still working the profession hard and long for a mere pittance of what the talk show moguls are making. And they’re proud of their contributions, too. Being closer to their readers or viewers, they can actually see the results of their work. And you’ve done them an injustice.
In wanting to scream to high heaven about what you think is wrong in the world you’ve denigrated a ton of legal and news professionals and associates working day and night to make things right. Don’t look to re-inventing the wheel. Put a wrap on your wailing and get your butt to working more for the good of mankind. From your credentials it sounds like you’ve already made a pretty good start.
Nobody is accusing the smaller and local media sources of being uniformly hard-left. Don’t take everything so personally! Just because you use local radio, local TV, or local periodicals to reach the public doesn’t mean you can’t be “alternative media”. It isn’t the means of publication, but the outrageously biased content of Big Media that is the problem.
BTW, even if you use more traditional means of communication, you should also be using the net to promote it, to deliver at least some of the content, and to engage in dialogue with the public.
“To maximize effectiveness, the new breed of constitutional conservative activists, like-minded legislators, and alternative media must all work in concert”
This coordination will come *naturally* – as principled conservatives are guided by a code of principles. We don’t need no stinkin’ Soros, Inc funded propaganda machine to give us our daily marching orders.
d(^_^)b
http://libertyatstake.blogspot.com/
“Because the Only Good Progressive is a Failed Progressive”
“The problem is that large swaths of the population are indifferent about the whole matter. To our collective detriment, many a contemporary citizen has come to believe that government exists to provide for him. Blinded to the reality that he could ever possibly need protection from his government, he has become dependent and subservient. In essence, the state is now his master, because he has relegated himself to life as a lowly creature intended to serve the will of the state.”
Trouble is, we’ve run out of “other people’s money” and those seeking to feed from the government teat will have to learn on their own how to become independent and productive. Socialism always collapses in that same way.
And those large swathes of the population who have been indifferent because they have been too busy trying to make a living and raise their families, are also hurting, big time. They are a lot less indifferent now than they used to be!
Please read this and pass along to your friends and group members. I don’t know how many voters will help me but we are at least trying to send a message to Congress men and women that voters are seriously disappointed in Washington DC politics. Their job is to serve America – not for voters to serve them. They are not there to make a “living” on all of us tax payer’s backs while many people have already lost their homes and farms yet the politician loses nothing.
Please take time to read the petition at Change.org and maybe you’ll see more signatures added because you took time to pass my message along to other voters and friends who may wish to help.
A man, Mr. Halleron, sent this message to me and I decided to try getting this petition circulated. Help me if you can. I am new at this and this is taking some time to get signatures. If you don’t wish to then it is still America and you have your right not to. Thank you just the same for going to read this one page 28th Amendment. It clearly and simply explains we want a basic 12 year term limits, just a paid salary while in office – with no retirements or voted self pay raises, when they are finished serving Amercia, they go back home and back to work with the rest of us. They get the same access to health care that we do – it’s not free! They pay their own way. Things of this nature are on this one page. That’s as simple a government that I would like to see.
Dan Luttrell, in Bedford, IN.
I just created a petition entitled Voters: Sign Petition to Get the 28th Amendment to The Constitution into Law, because I care deeply about this very important issue.
I’m trying to collect 100 signatures, and I could really use your help. We are at the 50 signature mark.
To read more about what I’m trying to do and to sign my petition, click here:
http://www.change.org/petitions/voters-sign-petition-to-get-the-28th-amendment-to-the-constitution-into-law?share_id=kYfHEoghxR&pe=d2e
It’ll just take a minute!
Once you’re done, please ask your friends to sign the petition as well. Grassroots movements succeed because people like you are willing to spread the word! Thank you for your time.
Daniel