tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11363027.post2330013513614690713..comments2024-03-28T21:32:41.763-05:00Comments on driftglass: Stupid Shit The New Republic Saysdriftglasshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09379167083253389153noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11363027.post-76833951605255569992014-11-06T17:39:32.242-06:002014-11-06T17:39:32.242-06:00They understand that the real purpose of their pro...<i>They understand that the real purpose of their profession is to serve the people who pay for their services, in this case the plutocrats and their higher-ranking servants.</i><br /><br />Or, as the not-so-apocryphal-after-all John Swinton <a href="http://rense.com/general20/yes.htm" rel="nofollow">put it</a>, probably around 1880:<br /><br />"The business of the journalists is to destroy the truth, to lie outright, to pervert, to vilify, to fawn at the feet of mammon, and to sell his country and his race for his daily bread. You know it and I know it, and what folly is this toasting an independent press?<br /> <br />"We are the tools and vassals of rich men behind the scenes. We are the jumping jacks, they pull the strings and we dance. Our talents, our possibilities and our lives are all the property of other men. We are intellectual prostitutes."Neo Tuxedohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15455041641080873400noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11363027.post-83576096722016489182014-11-06T16:24:21.838-06:002014-11-06T16:24:21.838-06:00I expect that Drifty's last question is rhetor...I expect that Drifty's last question is rhetorical, and that he already knows the answer--but just in case:<br /><br />Journalists <i>do</i> understand.<br /><br />They understand that the real purpose of their profession is to serve the people who pay for their services, in this case the plutocrats and their higher-ranking servants.<br /><br />The journalists serve their plutocratic customers by slanting truth and spreading lies to make the middle-and-lower-income victims of their customers think their suffering is their own fault, and/or the fault of people even lower on the ladder of income and respect than the middle class: down-and-out Murkans, non-conformist Murkans, and/or foreigners.<br /><br />At some point in the history of journalism, newspapers started making more money from their advertisers than from their readers. The resulting necessity of not offending advertisers compelled newspapers, and later forms of media, to adopt a pro-business attitude, whether or not they wanted to do that anyway. This began the long dreary decline of journalism.Monster from the Idnoreply@blogger.com