"FWIW Obama's cancellation of the summit is getting rave reviews from basically every major paper I've looked at"
The NSA is out of control, and calling the shots. The government is run by a cozy coalition of secret services and big business. Secret courts rubber-stamp away the constitution.
But that's not the biggest problem. The biggest problem is that the media - and by that I mean ALL media - is more or less a propaganda channel for the government and the powers behind it. That means Americans are not adequately informed. Rather, they're bombarded with "talking points" that very effectively tell them what to think.
The absence of an independent news media is the biggest crisis. We have FOX news and FOX News in green; we have the WJS and the WSJ in green (the NYT). The exact same message comes in different flavors - do you want Vanilla, or Chocolate, want a right-wing view or a left-wing view, your choice! Oh it comes in libertarian, too.
Stewart and Colbert serve as emotional outlet for the dissatisfied without changing anything or straying too far from the course. As much as I love watching Colbert he's basically the government-approved court jester.
If you want to know whether the USA has independent news media, ask yourself this: Which US newspaper or TV channel would print Snowden's leaks in the way the guardian in the UK does? Answer: None. They all protect the government because they're owned by the same business interest that's also running the government.
The NSA is out of control, and calling the shots. The government is run by a cozy coalition of secret services and big business. Secret courts rubber-stamp away the constitution.
But that's not the biggest problem. The biggest problem is that the media - and by that I mean ALL media - is more or less a propaganda channel for the government and the powers behind it. That means Americans are not adequately informed. Rather, they're bombarded with "talking points" that very effectively tell them what to think.
The absence of an independent news media is the biggest crisis. We have FOX news and FOX News in green; we have the WJS and the WSJ in green (the NYT). The exact same message comes in different flavors - do you want Vanilla, or Chocolate, want a right-wing view or a left-wing view, your choice! Oh it comes in libertarian, too.
Stewart and Colbert serve as emotional outlet for the dissatisfied without changing anything or straying too far from the course. As much as I love watching Colbert he's basically the government-approved court jester.
If you want to know whether the USA has independent news media, ask yourself this: Which US newspaper or TV channel would print Snowden's leaks in the way the guardian in the UK does? Answer: None. They all protect the government because they're owned by the same business interest that's also running the government.