The High Price of Free News

Greetings, Critical Thinkers.

I've ranted about Metro "News" before, but I've seen some things in that rag over the past few days which have really rekindled my ire.   

On July 18'th the once-proud city of Detroit, Michigan filed for the largest municipal bankruptcy in the history of the United States.  Anyone who's been watching the Motor City's slow and steady decline over the past forty years knows that there are a slew of factors which contributed to this outcome: increased domestic and foreign competition, government corruption, rampant crime, a plummeting population, decreased tax revenue and an engineered housing market crash.

But not according to this corporate-friendly global wire dispatch which was blithely printed in the Metro on Monday July 22'nd:

"In 1950, Detroit's population peaked at more then 1.8 million.  But by that time, the auto industry had started to seek refuge from Detroit's powerful unions in other states and overseas."   

Now, although I'm more then willing to squeeze "union abuse" in between "government corruption" and "rampant crime", I wouldn't want readers to think that EVIL UNIONS were sole reason for Detroit's woes.  Who the hell wrote this article?  Tucker Carlson?

This is my main beef with the Metro.  Frazzled, busy, uninformed commuters are going to look at this and conclude "Friggin' unions, whatta menace" without understanding why we need them in the first place.  It's because corporations can't be trusted to do things that are just and ethical.          

But that's just one of the Metro's recent transgressions.  Littered all over the bus like discarded Arby's coupons, I made the mistake of picking up and then flipping through one of these dreadful things yesterday. Here's what my incredulous eyes beheld:

• The prime real-estate on page three was dominated by a merger between a local shoe shop and a venerable department store.  Page two, by the way, was a full-spread ad for a car dealership. 
• A story about a harrowing raccoon-based home invasion appeared on page four.  Crammed into the lower right hand corner of the same page was a story about some dead fisherman.  Whatevs. 
• Page five: nothin' but Shoppers Drug Mart love for as far as the eye can see. 
• A headline which read "Chris Brown Not Cowed By Protests" appeared on page six.  Coincidently the EXACT SAME ARTICLE also appeared on page eight.
• Finally on page seven I found the paper's first truly substantial story, a tragic tale about five-hundred and eighty-two documented cases of missing aboriginal women.  Now, keep in mind this came after the stories about shoes, racoons, and the fact that some of us choose not to forgive a wife-beating scumbag.  
• Then, on page nine, I stumbled across one of the most blatantly-useless articles I've ever seen in a widely-circulated newspaper: "PM's No Twitter Twit, So Who Writes His Tweets?"  Really?  Seriously, Metro?  Is there so little corruption, greed and evil going on in our world that you have to pad your "news"paper with a story about how Stephen Harper doesn't have as many Twitter followers as Barrack Obama?  A feature like that tells me one two things, either (A) We're desperately trying to make boring news seem more appealing to people who are obsessed with Twitter or (B) they're trying to propagate the falsehood that we should all be obsessed with Twitter.  Hey, Metro, instead of exposing Harper's deplorable social media skills why don't you start addressing the increasingly impossible-to-ignore mound of evidence which conclusively proves that HE'S THE WORST PRIME MINISTER IN CANADIAN HISTORY.  
• Page ten manages to sandwich in three more relevant news stories about asshole Gay Pride protestors in Montenegro, anti-government actions in Bulgaria and an update on the unconsionably-detained Russian punk rock activist group Pussy Riot.  If you're on the verge of actually learning something here, don't panic.  Just flip to the next page, read the article entitled "Mom's More Plugged In Then You Think" and rest assured that the paper is definitely targeted towards porn-dodging tweens and mentally-arrested twenty-year-olds.  
• The rest of the paper (from page twelve all the way up to yet another full-page car dealership ad which constitutes the back of this unholy fish-wrapper) is a smattering of useless editorials, vapid entertainment news, inconsequential sports stories, and a delightfully quick n' easy recipe.  *A-hem*  Sorry, but that recipe was more innovative then 99% of the crap in that paper.  Honestly, if you want to know how the Blue Jays have been creatively blowing leads lately, what the best brand of make-up primer is or why Amanda Bynes shouldn't be allowed within fifty feet of a gas can, this part of the paper is tailor-made just for you.  Which is to say, it's made for everyone since corporate media and politicians are always trying to divert attention away from what they're up to and towards all of the pretty, fun, silly, shiny things.

So, come clean, Metro.  Admit it: you're less of a newspaper and more of a house organ for your corporate taskmasters.  Want me to prove it?  What were you doing when The Coast was exposing our former Mayor's concert and executor scandals?  Oh right, you were sniffing around Tim Bousquet's word processor for table scraps, which from hereon will be referred to as "Scoopy Snacks"™.

Stop trying to Jedi Mind Trick us into thinking that stories about shoes, racoons and Chris Brown constitutes news.  Get out there and start rakin' through the muck.

It's already up to our knees, fer Chrissakes.  

EPIC DOC  Regardless of what you think about Michael Moore, you can't deny the fact that he was born and raised in Flint, Michigan and saw first hand what impact shareholder greed had on his neck of the woods.  

EPIC OBSERVATIONS  There's more hard-hitting news in one segment of The Colbert Report then there is in the entire Metro News archive.  By the way, when Fox News pinheads are refering to "lavish pensions" they actually mean "pensions".

FAIL-URE PRECEDENT   Given the insurmountable level of U.S. national debt, will more American cities follow in Detroit's staggering footsteps? 

FAILURE OF RESOURCES  Here's today useless Metro headline du jour. 

 

WikiLies

G'day, Mates!

Again, Kind Readers, I must beg your indulgence.  The regular broadcast of "You Can't Get There From Here" will be preempted this week so that we may bring to you the following special presentation...

I've railed before about the sad state of modern investigative journalism but the reaction to this recent spate of WikiLeaks by the media (or lack of reaction as the case may be) has really put a hornet in my toque.

Dontcha think it's kinda funny that all of the major media outlets are talking about how awful WikiLeaks is and how much of a demon Julian Assange is instead of actually talking about what WikiLeaks is supposedly revealing?

Honestly, how many people out there have actually seen this little bombshell...

No?  Hmmmm, what a shocker...

I remember how jarring it was the first time I witnessed this scene in Stanley Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket:

Like the passenger in the helicopter, I almost threw up when I watched this.

So here we are, confronted by a real-life version and for some reason we aren't hearing about it or talking about it.  The sad thing is, if you hunt hard enough, there are other leaks that are just as despicable or galling, such as what's discussed in this report on Fox News of all things:

And here's another:



So I just want to put this question to you, Bright Readers.  If the information being released by WikiLeaks is such a subversive powder keg then why are the major media outlets more keen to talk about debating the ethics of releasing the information or examining the scruples of Julian Assange versus actually reporting the leaks themselves!

Now I'm not saying that Assange is some sort of paragon, but since we seem to have no investigative journalism or government transparency anymore I believe that what WikiLeaks is doing is critically important.  Essentially it's rubbing our collective noses in just how ignorant and resigned we've all become to what our elected officials and captains of industry are doing unmonitored behind closed doors.

Here's another recent news break that's barely getting coverage.  Remember the G20 event in Toronto back in June?  Do you remember how the mainstream media seized on that small group of anarchic yahoos and showed images incessantly every night of these clowns smashing the windows of a Starbucks ("GASP!") or burning police cars ("M'eh.")?  It was almost designed for the casual viewer to glance at this, tut-tut and declare: "Look at that pack of savages, they're a friggin' embarrassment!"      

What they didn't see was that the vast majority of the 10,000 or so peaceful protesters showed up because:

• G20 countries are responsible for more than 85 per cent of global military spending and 95 per cent of global arms production.
•  The G20 directs the efforts of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.  These organizations give loans to poorer nations of the world with all sorts of interesting clauses attached, clauses that create exploitative inroads for mega-corporations, curtail funding on education and health care, soften up environmental guidelines and labor laws, export dirt cheap goods to the the richer nations of the world and subsequently undermine our own domestic industry.   Why do this?  Simply to have the globe's poorest nations subsidize the richest in a vicious circle of economic extortion. 
• There's nothing even vaguely democratic about the G20 process.  At all.  The meetings are secret, our elected officials arbitrarily decide on everything behind closed doors and then they decide what to tell us about it.   

And frankly I find this scarier then all get out.

Even though there were tons of illegal arrests happening during the protests, we only heard any real dissenting voice last week when Ontario's ombudsmen released the following report: 




I'm sorry, but doesn't this terrify anyone else?

And this recent revelation just blows me away:

I can't believe the friggin' Liberal party rolled over and died on this issue.  Actually, that's not entirely true. Anyone who thinks that there's actually some sort of distinction between the major Canadian political parties nowadays is sadly misinformed.

I think it's hilarious that this time last year Steven "Malamute Eyes" Harper was playing hardball about the departure date of our troops, and then, all of a sudden, last month it suddenly becomes imperative for us to stay until 2014.  WTF!?

Hmmmmm, I wonder if it might have something to do with this...

Or this?

Or this?

Are there really still people out there who truly believe that we're in Afghanistan solely to bring democracy to an oppressed people, capture a kidney-deprived dude in a cave and/or protect our own borders from Islamic extremists who apparently want us all dead just because we have a Cinnabon in every mall?  Is that really what we have to believe in order to turn a blind, uninformed eye and let us sleep comfortably at night?  Well, frankly, I don't want our troops to be the fall guys for shady, Machiavellian economic and political chicanery anymore.  Enough is enough.   

Look, you don't have to be a correspondent for "60 Minutes" to see that there's a pretty obvious story here.  So, why the f^%$^ aren't we getting this perspective on the news every night and reading about it in the papers every morning?

Well, mainstream media might not be willing to acknowledge the 800-pound gorilla in the room, but by golly, the independent, old-fashioned, shit-disturbing internet journalist of WikiLeaks and other sources sure do.

Which brings me to my final scary video:

Never forget, folks: "dissent is the highest form of patriotism".  Don't accept what you're told at face value.  Question, protest, investigate and stay vigilant...while we still can.

EPIC:


FAIL:   Will WikiLeaks prove to be the Reichstag fire of internet censorship?