Practical Idealist Revival
columnist: John Kusumi

Topic: Media
Dear Lou Dobbs and Jack Cafferty - an open letter

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The unfinished business of the mainstream news media.

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by John Kusumi
(Centrist Liberal)
Thursday, February 7, 2008

Dear Lou Dobbs and Jack Cafferty,

This may be remembered as a very loud public letter. The mainstream media knows that it has a problem with reporting on the Chinese democracy movement (and the Ron Paul revolution, and the 9/11 truth movement, and the U.S. government's sale of nuclear secrets and technology). Furthermore, the mainstream news media is unlikely to report on its own manipulation of the election races. I hope that you will check my YouTube account (/JohnPKusumi), because it shows you more than how I interview. --In one of those interviews, I said, "The news media appoints itself to be as if it is the guardian of what is acceptable, what is newsworthy, who is a viable candidate, and who you can vote for. These things are fed to us, and you may notice that they give us results, like who is the front runner, even before any votes are cast. And, this is just some self-appointed people in the system." When I said that, it was in a 1992 interview in support of the candidacy of Gov. Jerry Brown (D-CA) for President.

It remains the angle from which the media comes into politics. If you are honest, you will admit that in the rise of television, three networks saw that they were the bottleneck -- that political information could be "headed off at the pass." More recently, the internet is allowing Americans to get out from under that box canyon, which seemed to be perfected under Jennings, Brokaw, and Rather. Heck, I got my first computer as a 12 year old in 1978, and I well agreed that the microprocessor was very democratizing / levelling the playing field. A 12 year old can program a computer, and the machine does not ask anything about your station in life. By now, the internet is reaching a critical mass and a tipping point as it impacts our political discourse. The old lies will fall away. There will never be another Jennings-Brokaw-Rather style triumverate with a monopoly on political information.

So, it is time to "mainstream" these issues from above. It's time to admit that the media has been manipulative. I'll go farther and say that it has been evil, but we can differ about our assessments. Still and all, it is a challenge for any commentator to do so. To mainstream things, whether the Chinese democracy movement or one of those other stories, is really not to climb out on a limb. It's more like climbing back down from the limb that was already climbed by Jennings, Brokaw, and Rather (JBR). They performed an experiment that might appeal to geeks in an academic setting. Can they cast the illusion that China has solved its human rights problems? Can they "disappear" the Chinese dissidents? Can they make it look like there is no opposition for China's regime that is still led by the Chinese Communist Party? Well, JBR tried to do so, and it revealed more about them than it did about reality.

China's population is 20% of humanity. It is completely twisted to abandon them to the same tyranny and injustice that typified the Soviet Union. I grew up in an America that didn't much like nuclear armed, communist superpowers. The Baby Boom generation of Presidents has been feeding and building up a new nuclear armed, communist superpower. It is to their shame and disgrace. But, this points up more things that the media has been "hiding" from the American people. For example, while JBR and Ted Koppel were cheerleaders for China trade, 79% of Americans opposed that trade deal. JBR did not report it, and made it look like there was no opposition in this country to the trade-with-Communist China deal.

Who do they think they're kidding? If it was the American people themselves who were 79% or 4-to-1 against the trade deal, then they themselves know it. It doesn't take Bill Schneider to report that poll. (The poll was published in BusinessWeek magazine.) American leaders say they want China to develop a middle class, which is fine if they do it themselves. But, why should China develop its middle class by eviscerating the American middle class?

I'm writing because the two of you are nearly alone as beacons of journalistic integrity. Your network has participated in the untoward shenanigans to which I've already alluded, but your own reporting has risen above the level of CNN overall. For being out in front with hard truths, you two are standouts. It's not clear to me how you will "mainstream" that which is in fact present day reality, but you are tasked to do so. It would help if Nancy Pelosi and the Democratic Congress would find a backbone and commence impeachment proceedings against the Bush administration. But I am sure that the feces will hit the fan, one way or another, and that network news will be forced to admit of some truths that it has been covering up. --It's the only way for network news to maintain its relevance.

Kudos are now due for MTV and MySpace, who jointly sponsored a helluvan airing for Dr. Ron Paul and his presidential campaign. Soon, people will realize that there is a market gap in network news. Some networks can be the "empire" networks, while others (new competition?) will become the "integrity" networks. America can and must choose between integrity and empire. MSM (the mainstream media) has been far too one sided in being "empire" oriented, and in cheerleading for an administration that now deserves impeachment.

There are neo-conservatives, and in their twisted mentality, might makes right and it goes "from them, to us." It is a docile network which believes that authorities speak the truth -- at all times -- and are not to be questioned. It is a much cooler network that believes that truth *is* the authority -- and therefore, it may be that right makes might rather than the other way around. The market gap is for a network which goes that way -- where truth, science, and things that stand to reason have their day in the sun.

It will be a challenge for mainstream sell outs to change their mindsets accordingly. Colleagues will say that it's climbing out on a limb. I continue to believe that it would be climbing down from a limb. I believe that JBR made the leap into la-la land, or hyperspace. It was a fair question to ask, "What planet are they reporting from?"

For my part, I won't be climbing down from the political perch that I already have. Above, I referred to my YouTube channel and I believe that those interviews stand on rock-solid ground. That is material that you should mainstream, and then you will still have lots of work because there is a backlog of material -- things of reality and things which stand to reason -- and hence there is a lot more work for you, after you make visible the Chinese democracy movement and its current opposition to holding the Olympics in Communist China. I wish you good luck with lots of work ahead -- unless you duck, dodge, and chicken out as JBR might have done. In the latter eventuality, I will curse you along with them.

Please give America "grown up news" rather than "Romper Room" news. Please continue to report from the same planet on which you are standing! --That's what's odd about the other networks, and to fix things, that is a good place to start. Thank you for taking in my letter.

/s./ John P. Kusumi, February 3, 2008

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2008 John Kusumi, all rights reserved.
Published: Thursday, February 7, 2008
Last modified: Thursday, February 7, 2008

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