Diatribune - corporate monopolies - Comments

Thanks for staying on top of

Jacob Freeze — Mon, 19 May 2008 20:36:09 -0600

Thanks for staying on top of this issue. The conglomeration of news into five or six giant corporations is probably more dangerous for democracy in the United States than any other single issue.

If the public is only informed about whatever five or six right-wing billionaires want them to be informed about, then voting turns into an empty formality, and elections are decided by propaganda and tabloid images.

It's important for us internet news junkies to remember that 85% of the public still gets political info mainly from newspapers and TV, and the political rainbow on all those outlets only runs from far right to center-right.

Now McCain is supposed to be a centrist, just because he isn't a fundamentalist theocrat like Huckabee!

my initial instinct was to

fake consultant — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 16:40:26 -0700

my initial instinct was to more or less agree with your comments and let it go at that; but after a few minutes it occured to me that there's an interesting parallel to be drawn between china's political situation and our own.

in both cases there's an effort underway in segments of the population to make government irrelevant-for good or for ill-and there's also a perception that has developed in both countries that corruption has turned the state into a corporatist entity as much as a political one...which, in the case of "communist" china, is a bit ironic; but there you go.

Thanks for this clever and

Jacob Freeze — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 15:22:22 -0700

Thanks for this clever and plausible post. Best of all, it gives me a chance to rag on China, that brutal and backward totalitarian crap-hole!

For the combination of Apprentice and American Idol, I think you're overestimating China's level of developement. For those of us unlucky enough to have walked the stinking streets of China, and millions more Olympic visitors who are about to smell what other travelers have smelled already, I suggest something more like a quiz-show format:

What's that smell?

The only problem with this show is that the answer would (almost) always be the same:

Urine.

Except in the "wet" markets, where the answer would be...

Blood.

(I was only able to write this comment because I failed to make the Olympic Team, or else I would have had to sign a pledge not to say any mean things about China. What fun would that be?)

For all those planning to attend the Olympic Games in China anyway in spite of the stink of blood, urine, and the on-going genocide in Tibet, I have two words of advice:

1. Don't drink the water, and
2. Stencil this slogan on every wall you see: CHINA OUT OF TIBET NOW!
(Editor's note: Following this advice will get you killed.)