Coming back from a short trip along with four other friends
yesterday (writing for this blog started on 7/8/13 and was completed a week
later), we were listening to the news of the airplane that crashed upon landing
in San Francisco airport on CNN, Fareed Zakaria’ s news analysis program.
Zakaria had three guests to discuss the events in Egypt, plane crash in San
Francisco airport, and the fate of Edward Snowden, in addition to some CNN
reporters. It was interesting that his three guests said the same thing about
each of those subjects, as if each was repeating the previous speaker’s
analysis, just in different verbiages. They ended up saying what Zakaria
concluded, and what we can hear from government officials regarding all three
subjects. There was not much to explain about the plane crash, what we were
mostly interested to learn about. However, the other two subjects; “lack of
experience in democracy in Egypt” and “Snowden aiding the enemy” were not
anything short of the news we could get from Fox and other media, mostly the
mouthpiece of the US government. In his memoire published in 2010, Jimmy Carter
discloses his notes of his presidential period of late 1970s. One complaint
that is continually repeated throughout this book is the conflict the media had
with his administration, and the media’s polarization of his policies. He states
that at the beginning of his term, Washington Post published a document about
Jordan’s King Hussein, and his relationship with the CIA disclosing Hussein’s
monthly stipend from the US secret service. It is interesting to see the 180
degrees turn of the media coverage during these thirty something years, to an
opposite direction. The main reason may be monopolization of the media, and
allegiance of the media moguls to status quo.
Interpretation of events has always been different
depending upon the interpreter’s views. However some news are so confusing that
one cannot depend on the general media in order to find the truth. In fact, such news are intentionally
made ambiguous to leave it open to interpretation and retraction. Some of the recent news touch upon
the core of the problem, requiring more investigation. We may have to turn to alternative media and ask hard questions about the validity of what they say or imply. For instance we may check into some of the more recent news such as: was military ousting of Morsi a military
coup or as a result of Egyptians’ relentless struggle? Was this year’s Iranian
election rigged? Was the justice served in Trayvon Martin’s case? Why are there
so many wars in the Middle-East and Africa in this century? Why does Obama
blame guns and people’s easy access to guns to explain the recent death of black
teenager, instead of addressing question of race? How come no one objects killing of hundreds of innocent people every week by drones in international stage? Why Israel is
expanding and attacking Palestinians at will, with no consequences? Why are there
so much poverty and so many super rich in the world, amidst austerity? What is
this surge of whistleblowers and the US all-out war against them? What is ALEC
(American Legislative Exchange Council)? Who is behind the two years’ war in
Syria? These and many other such questions receive conflicting answers, all of
which may sound right! One would notice that if there ever was a black and
white answer (or easily distinguishable responses to most questions) in the past, that may
not be the case any longer when racial division in the US and murder and abuse
of the third world countries are at their height, during the presidency of the
first African American of the most powerful nation of
the world. The case of corrupt dictators installed and supported by imperialist
nations in order to exploit third world nations’ natural resources is coming
back home to roost. Considering that each country is governed by a State or an Establishment, that oversees general policy of the elected government in order to ensure continuation of the general policy of the country, Obama’s presidency has been the most brilliant move the
State have devised, in order to add another layer to the confusion of ‘who is
for the deprived mass of people and who is for the wealthy few’.
