"Too Many Lies"

Bill Moyers on the changing face of newsmedia in America, where he says "A Democracy can die on too many lies:"

First, let me assure you that I take in stride attacks by the radical right-wingers who have not given up demonizing me although I retired over six months ago. I should put my detractors on notice: They might just compel me out of the rocking chair and back into the anchor chair.

Who are they? I mean the people obsessed with control using the government to intimidate; I mean the people who are hollowing out middle-class security even as they enlist the sons and daughters of the working class to make sure Ahmad Chalabi winds up controlling Iraq's oil; I mean the people who turn faith-based initiatives into Karl Rove's slush fund, who encourage the pious to look heavenward and pray so as not to see the long arm of privilege and power picking their pockets; I mean the people who squelch free speech in an effort to obliterate dissent and consolidate their orthodoxy into the official view of reality from which any deviation becomes unpatriotic heresy. That's who I mean. And if that's editorializing, so be it. A free press is one where it's OK to state the conclusion you're led to by the evidence.

One reason I'm in hot water is because my colleagues and I at "Now" didn't play by the conventional rules of Beltway journalism. Those rules divide the world into Democrats and Republicans, liberals and conservatives, and allow journalists to pretend they have done their job if, instead of reporting the truth behind the news, they merely give each side an opportunity to spin the news.

And so we see the factionalism of the Media crossing the same thin lines of politics and economics. They are all "controlled" by the same operative ideologies: one or two significantly large, interlaced entities who make contact and network with others, and hijack the simple control of culture. Those of you who think people like Rupert Murdock are insignificant figures are fools; those who think Reverend Moon walks around marrying masses of people randomly as a daily exercise are naive.

By why exactly are they important figures? I guess, simply because they own all the buttons to press.