AR...Some pent up opinionizing there.
I agree, of course.
I suppose the thread could go on ad infinitum... I'd toss out one more thought. Just how far does corporate influence go. My guess is a lot further than we expect. In the beginning, I thought Roger Ailes, Rupert Murdoch. Now I suspect much more is involved, so I'll bury myself by going back to conspiracy, and the idea that there's a lot more behind the media, than just political partisanship.
There's much in the way of blah, blah... and personal political attacks on the sex and moral failures, but there seems to be a point at which it all stops. There is so much more going on in so many parts of the world of money, that we never, ever, hear about.
We never hear outrage at the failures of people in Government, or Corporations. Short of sexual misconduct, no one ever goes to jail. No one ever gets fired, except to deflect serious attacks against the big guy... the real perp.
Corporations are hardly ever found guilty... they just pay fines without admitting guilt. The leaders are insulated, despite being the ones who made the criminal decisions.
In the past year, all of the money that has gone to the banks, the CEO's, and those financial firms that were at the heart of the current economic problems... has been talked about, but nowhere has anyone in government... OR THE MEDIA... brought serious suit to the criminality of theses actions. We jail a 20 year old for stealing a car, but when hundreds of billions dollars are added to the public debt, in criminally obvious quid pro quo deals... The media (which obviously knows through the opinion pieces exposes that are clearly true) does not even begin to name names, or directly call for punitive action.
You can name your own well known and understood sins that never saw individuals go to jail. The Exxon Valdez, the tobacco companies, the missing billions in Iraq, the cost overruns in the Osprey, the Boeing tanker deal, the current Geithner/AIG bailout, and a thousand more earmark, and vote trading deals.
Name the sin... then ask why the media, in all of it's supposed investigative zeal... always stops before crucifying the Person or Corporation at fault.
The media relies on advertising. Simple as that.
A truth is a truth. When the Goldman Sachs story is exposed, there is outrage, but it never goes beyond that.
So it ends up as a game of politics. Posturing and heavy breathing and six people trying to talk at the same time on a radio or TV show. Noise and fury signifying nothing at all.
Between the Housing bubble, the failures to fund Social Security, or Medicare, or Government and Private Pensions, and the failures to regulate the banking industry... we have an unfunded debt that may double the current 13 trillion dollars... (put in your own guess as to the total). It's no one's fault, aside from the sturm und drang, there's no interest in fixing the problem, or finding the people who caused it.
It's called kicking the can down the road.
