By MARC McDONALD
Do you ever have one of those days when you suddenly get hit by an ominous premonition and a feeling of deep dread about the future? I'd imagine that a lot of us on the Left regularly experience these sorts of days in the era of Bush's America.
But recently, I haven't been able to shake the feeling that something sinister is around the corner. And it involves the end of the relatively new but fast-growing progressive Web media.
The Web's progressive media is still nothing more than a mosquito compared to the established giants of the corporate media. But the Liberal Web is growing and it's starting to become a force that even the MSM cannot ignore, whether it is CNN offering a daily roundup of day's hottest blogs to Bill O'Reilly ranting and raving on Faux News about the evils of the "far left" Web sites.
For progressives, the past six years have been a nightmare. Well, really, things have been going downhill for the Left since Reagan was first elected--but that's another article. But the past six years of Bush's America have been particularly gruesome.
One of the few bright spots in the past decade has been the rise of a whole new progressive media online. A new media that tells the truth and is answerable to no shareholders or multinational corporations. A new media that corporate America has discovered (much to its horror) that it has zero control over.
This, of course, is a major and growing irritant for the Right Wing. After all, over the past quarter century, Republicans have methodically consolidated their power in America via a variety of methods, from blatant gerrymandering to stealing votes. Today, the GOP controls all three branches of government.
Perhaps even more crucially, the Right Wing controls Big Media in this country. The latter is a vital lever of the GOP's power. The MSM can be relied on to spread the Right Wing's agenda and pacify the American people and keep them ignorant and apathetic with pabulum disguised as "news."
Control the information and you control the people.
There's only one obstacle to the Right Wing's master plan for controlling the flow of information: progressive and independent Web media.
This is something that has to drive the Wingnuts crazy (or at least crazier than they already are). Remember, these are people who despise dissent and who go absolutely bonkers when anyone says anything negative about their hero Bush.
Bush and Cheney themselves are notorious for not tolerating the slightest hint of dissent. Both men are surrounded by sycophants and "yes" men. Both men will refuse to set foot in a public venue to give a speech, unless the building has been thoroughly emptied of all dissenters and protesters.
It's clear that the Wingnuts' depth of hatred for the Web's progressive media is at least as deep as their slavish, fanatical devotion to Bush. I have zero doubts that if Bush tomorrow pushed for a law to curb dissenting Web sites in the name of "national security," the Wingnuts would line up to voice their support.
Is it really that implausible that the Bush regime would do such a thing? To ask the question is to answer it. Anyone who believes otherwise is simply naive.
We've all seen what happens to those who voice any opposition or dissent these days. From treasonously outing CIA agents to libelously sliming war heroes like John Kerry, John Murtha and Max Cleland, there is nothing the NeoCon Wingnuts will not do to crush their opposition.
Can we expect a NeoCon crackdown on the progressive Web in the future? I think it's entirely possible. Really, the only thing the NeoCons need to make it happen is to come up with a snappy, focus-group-tested, benign-sounding name for the crackdown. Which shouldn't be a problem: I mean, these are the people who shredded our nation's Constitution and called it "The Patriot Act."
News and opinion with a progressive viewpoint.
When it comes to the Bush administration, progressives in this country ought to expect the worst---and then the reality will be probably 10 times worse than that. Sadly, over and over again, the Left often doesn't anticipate Bush's crimes until it is too late.
ReplyDeleteFor example, Kerry should have anticipated that the Bush team would go after his Vietnam record. But he didn't---and in fact, he didn't even respond to the Bush team's sliming of his record for at least a couple of weeks. By then, it was too late. The Bush team by then had already planted a few seeds of doubt in the minds of some Americans about Kerry's war record.
To recap, the Left in this country should EXPECT the worst from Bush and prepare for it BEFORE it happens, instead of standing around like a deer with its eyes transfixed by the headlights of the oncoming train.
Can we expect a NeoCon crackdown on the progressive Web in the future?
ReplyDeleteI vote yes. Sigh.
Just a few years ago, the FBI entered the offices of IndyMedia in London and removed their computers, shutting down that independent media outlet. Apparently, there was some controversy over a story IndyMedia posted about an American drug or something. That is the sort of thing progressive media should worry about, that the FBI is actually in the business of shutting down media outlets that do not toe the party line.
ReplyDeleteI have no doubt that the NeoCons will eventually find a way to shut down progressive media on the Web. But they're crafty enough not to openly admit that this is their goal. I look for such legislation to bear the Orwellian title of something like, "The Internet Freedom Act."
ReplyDelete