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Experts for the People—Shut Out by the Mass Media

#1

Experts for the People—Shut Out by the Mass Media

Ralph Nader

Ever wonder how the television, radio and newspaper people select whom they are going to interview or get quotes from when they are reporting the news or producing a feature? I do. What I’ve learned is that they go to guests that are connected with the established powers—such as think tanks in Washington, D.C. that work on “the military industrial complex” policy (to borrow President Eisenhower’s words) and somehow lean toward more war mongering (e.g.

#2

Probably the best place to see a wide variety of views is book TV on C-SPAN2, Also the best place to see a interesting discussions is C-SPAN. And there are no ads.

#3

There is a reason it’s called programming. Mass Media is a corporate cult and we all are being programed.

#4

This is a significant contributor to the fact that nothing appreciably changes in our system of corporate exploitation.
One way to begin to address this is to consider the ongoing viability of the corporation itself.
Otherwise, we will remain at its arbitrary mercy.

#5

I think - at the root - higher education for all is needed.

Which is why it isn’t happening.

#6

At some point the left has to go from identifying glaring inequities to naming names. No matter who the esteemed expert is and what the subject is.
Therein lies the rub with the MSM, including NPR and almost all center-left information outlets supported by corporate advertising $$$. As soon as you put your thumb down on the culprits, call them out and sic the dogs on them; well you know, the $$$ is threatening to go bye-bye and the self-censorship kicks in.
" No one in power is bribed for what they already know, they’re bribed because they have power to find out what others don’t want them to know. "

#7

Wasn’t Fox the creation of repug. ideas and money?
Why couldn’t a truth channel be it’s rival? The Green channel perhaps?

#8

Ralph is so very correct on this topic! I have written down all of the names of the experts that he names, in order to independently research their writings. We all can and should do that. But the great majority of Citizens will never hear their names. It is a shame and a disgrace that the American public is never exposed to alternative ideas and other perspectives than those who are in agreement with the corporate/neocon/neoliberal/“free-market”/status quo viewpoints.

I might add that Ralph Nader himself is among the largely excluded. How often do you hear him on radio or television “news”? We get so much “news” and so little real information. Just that which is chosen for us.

Thirty years of this has resulted in most Americans becoming the most over-entertained, and the most under-informed population on Earth!

#9

There are plenty of experts missing from public view that deserve to be heard. I think Ralph Nader’s name needs to be at the top of the list.

#10

Speaking of people who are persona non grata on msm shows: Ralph Nader!

Also, I saw Medea Benjamin speak recently. She’s the cofounder of the anti-war group CodePink. She said she has NEVER been on MSDNC!

Many people who USED to be on the ‘liberal network’ are not anymore, including Glenn Greenwald and Frank Thomas, who was loved when he wrote ‘What’s the Matter with KS’ but shunned since he wrote ‘Listen, Liberal’, which critiques the left.

Can’t have that.

#12

“The Truth, and Nothing But the Truth, So Help Me God” channel.

That’s priceless.

#13

That’s the same reason the Duopoly refused to have Jill and Ajamu on the debate stage in 2016.

#14

Good ponts Mr. Nader.
Ralph himself is rarely quoted or interviewed.

It’s all … “filtered” for us — an anti-democratic notion from the get-go.

#15

That would be Thomas Frank.

#16

Let’s add one more, that modesty prevents his doing.
The real #1 - Ralph Nader.

#17

Chris Hedges points out that in early 1970’s Ralph was among the top 4 respected voices in the US.

From a 2010 article by Hedges

Ralph Nader’s descent from being one of the most respected and powerful men in the country to being a pariah illustrates the totality of the corporate coup. Nader’s marginalization was not accidental. It was orchestrated to thwart the legislation that Nader and his allies — who once consisted of many in the Democratic Party — enacted to prevent corporate abuse, fraud and control. He was targeted to be destroyed. And by the time he was shut out of the political process with the election of Ronald Reagan, the government was in the hands of corporations. Nader’s fate mirrors our own.

Nader was singled out for destruction, as Henriette Mantel and Stephen Skrovan point out in their engaging documentary movie on Nader, “An Unreasonable Man.” General Motors had him followed in an attempt to blackmail him. It sent an attractive woman to his neighborhood Safeway supermarket in a bid to meet him while he was shopping and then seduce him; the attempt failed, and GM, when exposed, had to issue a public apology.

How the Corporations Broke Ralph Nader and America, Too

#18

Corporations have been around for a very long time, and the vast majority actually do a good job providing goods, services, and advocacy. My problem with corporations is that they have acquired Constitutional rights intended for human beings and have expanded the economic sphere to include the governing sphere. They now rule us rather than the other way around as was originally intended by the framers, who held no quarter with the corporation and strictly regulated them. Strip them of their Constitutional rights.

#19

Reinstituting Civics in classrooms as a regular part of each grade’s curriculum, beginning at the primary level, would do a world of good as well.

#20

Agree, although it has more right leaning people and organizations than left. You hear about a lot of good new books on Book TV on Saturdays and I watch it most Saturdays. Brian Lamb is the CEO or head honcho for C span and he used to work in the Nixon Admin so is somewhat biased.

#21

Which is also why we got the fucking moron in the White House. If you never have listened to C span in the early weekday mornings, you will learn a lot about our "world class’ education system if you listen once or twice.