With respect to Dan Horton's question about media, I suggest the mass media (at very least the TV networks) are beyond reform. Forget about them.
The formalcause of this is the for-profit corporate control of mass media. Asking our corporate overlords to reduce their propaganda content from 99% to 98%, a 100% increase in news content (ie from 1% to 2%) has little chance of succeeding at its narrow goal, and no chance of succeeding in improving the general level of "education." The only way to improve news coverage is to create better news by expanding the excellent non-corporate non-profit news sources already out there. The best of these that I've come across is Democracy Now (can listen to real audio over the web at democracynow.org and other sites. I generally second list by L. Tolls?) I have entertained trying to arrange a daily rebroadcast of this in the evening, if a suitable public forum could be found for a webcast. Community gathering, community building, community educating. Another great news resource, is Google News (ok I'm undermining my point about corporate control, but they just haven't found out about this yet.) I posted something recently about the way some media consulting firm (interestingly Cleveland based, good place for a protest?) has told broadcasters not to cover peace rallies because they displease large fractions of the audience. The underlying message is that it doesn't matter if peace advocates are right or wrong, the only issue is whether acknowledging their existence maximizes profits. As long as the metric of truth is profit, peace loses. (as long as "profit" is defined by corporations.) Another telling example is the way multiple ads for peace were banned from networks. Military recruiting is just fine. Antiwar voices, are "issue advocacy." This is a structural problem and it isn't going to be fixed by going with your hat in your hand to the networks and asking them to do a better job. (Also the way Michael Moore's anti-war video was pulled from MTV.) The levels of ignorance about foreign policy in our society are stunning but not surprising once you realize that this is what powerful corporate interests want. Mass media are being used almost exclusively for mind control, not information or education. Interestingly, this creates a public that is unable to do much but say yes, a fact which resonates strongly with the William Rivers Pitt essay about the failures of the Rumsfeld Pentagon yes-men. We create increasingly a culture of yes-men, largely indistinguishable from "good Germans." A similar phenomenon arose under Stalin: Lysenkoism. Reality became "bourgeois science" and was opposed by "revolutionary science," which was really just about parroting the propaganda du jour. It became the chief job of Soviet intellectuals to figure out not the truth, but what the most powerful elements in the society wanted the truth to be. As we see tellingly from Peter Arnett, you can be fired for telling the truth now in the US, first amendment or no first amendment. Even groups like NPR, with their heavy corporate dependency, lack critical context: the single best example I know is that they have no paid peace expert consultants to balance their entourage of military expert consultants. Return Of 'Fragging' Echoes Earlier War By Earl Ofari Hutchinson, Pacific News Service March 25, 2003 The alleged grenade attack by U.S. Army Sgt. Asan Akbar on U.S. soldiers in Kuwait stirred disturbing memories of the murderous attacks by American soldiers on each other during the Vietnam War. There were a reported 209 "fragging incidents" during that conflict. The targets of the attacks were mostly junior field officers, and the men who killed their officers were in many cases African Americans. They were pushed over the top by what they considered the brutal, racist and dehumanizing actions of white officers. Their hatred was fed by resentment of being drafted and forced to fight in what they considered a racist, senseless war against oppressed colored people. Russia's deputy foreign minister Alexander Losyukov said Tuesday the US-led war against Iraq is likely to push North Korea to develop nuclear weapons. "Unfortunately the Iraqi situation is driving the North Koreans to strengthen their defences," the Interfax news agency quoted Mr Losyukov as saying. http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/eastasia/view/36316/1/.html A hero: spread the news The first American conscientious objector from the Iraq war will give himself up at a marine base in California this morning. He said he believed the war was "immoral because of the deception involved by our leaders". Stephen Eagle Funk, 20, a marine reserve who was due to be sent for combat duty, is currently on "unauthorised absence" from his unit. He faces a possible court martial and time in military prison for his action. "I know I have to be punished for going UA," Mr Funk told the Guardian in an interview before surrendering to authorities, "but I would rather take my punishment now than live with what I would have to do [in Iraq] for the rest of my life. I would be going in knowing that it was wrong and that would be hypocritical." from an email: Here is a history quiz . The test consists of > one multiple-choice question. > > First, read this list of the countries that the U.S. has bombed since > the end of World War II, compiled by historian William Blum: > > China 1945-46 > Korea 1950-53 > China 1950-53 > Guatemala 1954 > Indonesia 1958 > Cuba 1959-60 > Guatemala 1960 > Congo 1964 > Peru 1965 > Laos 1964-73 > Vietnam 1961-73 > Cambodia 1969-70 > Guatemala 1967-69 > Grenada 1983 > Libya 1986 > El Salvador 1980s > Nicaragua 1980s > Panama 1989 > Iraq 1991-99 > Sudan 1998 > Afghanistan 1998 > Yugoslavia 1999 > Afghanistan 2001- > > And now for the test: > In how many of these instances did a democratic government, > respectful of human rights, occur as a direct result? Choose one of > the following: > > (a) 0 > (b) zero > (c) none > (d) not a one > (e) a whole number between -1 and +1 > > > > . > > 2454 Professor Ave. Cleveland, OH 44113 (216) 687-0703 Welcome to the Cleveland Non-Violence List Serve. 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