Police and the Mainstream Media, Government´s Most Obedient Pets

This article was originally published at americanchronicle.com on Sept. 22nd, 2008

I grew up in the sixties. Yeah, I was just a little kid, but I remember quite a bit of what was going on. I guess I have a pretty good memory. I watched a war in Vietnam on television. I watched protesters take to the streets. I saw a lot of violence on the evening news. Back then, the reporters got their feet dirty. They got down into the trenches and filmed for us, at great personal risk, footage of police bashing and breaking peaceful protesters, and then footage of those once peaceful protestors finally fighting back. It took much testicular fortitude, to borrow a phrase, to take on such a job. At least that´s how it seems to me as I look back on things.

I also remember Watergate. I remember that two reporters, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, were heralded as heroes for breaking the Watergate story. That was back when the media had teeth. I don´t believe it was completely a free media back then, but it certainly wasn´t as controlled as it is today. Those who have become drunk with power have seemingly managed to neuter the mainstream media. There are those in power who know how to manipulate the information received by the masses and there are those of great influence who seek to control what information the masses receive and what information the masses are kept unaware of. In this way the establishment makes certain it stays the establishment. In this way the media becomes its lapdog, neutered, whimpering, dependent upon its master for survival, and willing to bark incessantly if it senses any intrusion upon the master´s private property. The establishment will pat the dog on the head when it does a good job and spank it when it´s naughty, sending it to a corner with its tail between its legs.

The mainstream media has lost its significance when it comes to news reporting. It is no longer the watchdog for the people. It is no longer able to report truthfully on government corruption, for it has fallen into bed with those in power and now sleeps peacefully at their feet while the masters plan their treasons against the American people and the Constitution. They are afraid to lose their comfy chairs in the White House press room and so they refuse to ask tough questions and more importantly refuse to investigate claims as they take the word of those in power as gospel. They are, in my humble opinion, just as responsible for the debacle in Iraq as the current administration, for they had ample opportunity to expose the lies and they chose to simply report the Bush administration´s claims as if they were fact. Yet that doesn´t seem to matter to a great many Americans as they seem to have forgotten that betrayal (among others) and continue to trust these propagandists as if we still had an uncompromised press.

With such news services, the masses don´t see any real news as it happens. Take, for instance, the recent political conventions just produced by the establishment politicos. They did not want the American people to see any of the protests taking place, and so the only place one could go to find coverage of these very significant events was Youtube. While scores of protesters marched during the DNC they were largely ignored by the mainstream media and a scripted convention brought to you by the established national powers was televised to a mostly unaware public in an attempt to sustain the illusion of party unity they want the masses to believe in. While at the RNC scores of our fellow citizens tried to exercise their God given rights to free speech, dozens inside the convention tried to foment a little bit of drama of their own and thousands gathered a few blocks away to take part in Ron Paul´s Rally for the Republic, hardly a peep was heard from the mainstream media as they decided instead to broadcast the meaningless drivel spewing from the mouths of inconsequential statists as they praised another statist named John McCain and his politically correct beauty queen pick for a running mate. In both cases the real news was happening outside, but the lazy, bought and paid for, neutered mainstream media proved once again to be the obedient pets of the state as they reported on only the trivial just like the establishment wanted.

Meanwhile, the state´s other favorite pets, the police, were and are busy with their own duties to the establishment. Unlike the media, these darlings are able to keep their man bits so that they can maintain their aggressiveness. Many of these unquestioning servants of the powers that be want nothing more than to be able to bash in the heads of some dissidents. Most likely it is only the fear of their violent crimes being exposed by some random blogger who just happens to film them and post it on Youtube that is keeping them from completely losing it and going gonzo on peaceful protesters. Their fellow state pets in the mainstream media certainly aren´t keeping them in check. There´s even the possibility that the castrati press are frightened of these mad dogs as they´ve seen their work first hand and don´t wish to get caught up in the mayhem should the police be unleashed upon unarmed activists. Recently, I´ve seen a couple of reports of police brutalizing even some in the press as they chillingly attempted to silence US citizens who tried to exercise their right to peaceably assemble and speak their minds at the RNC. This silencing of the commoners was mostly successful due to the lack of reporting by the mainstream media. The masses remain uninformed and go about their business as if all were normal, mostly unaware that they now live in a police state and that their freedoms they once cherished are no longer respected by that state.

It is the job of these police to be the sheepdogs of the establishment. Using fear and cruelty they manage to keep the sheeple from wandering off on their own. Using extortion and the threats of the justice system they fleece the sheeple and keep them in line. They are keeping the herd together and driving them toward, well, only the shepherd knows where we´re being driven and for what purpose. These police are no longer peace officers who are called upon only to keep the peace between individuals, but law enforcement officers called upon to enforce the dictates of a powerful elite regardless of whether their "laws" are good or bad, or whether they are constitutional or not. Today´s police are as adept at keeping the herd together as the best trained sheepdogs, and it seems to me they are patted on their heads and rewarded even when they get a bit too aggressive with the sheep and hurt a few of the herd. The established powers love their sheepdogs and want to be certain the most aggressive rise to the top.

One of the favorite laments of some of these state pets as they arrest someone or write them a citation for some "crime" that even they don´t think should be a crime is that we shouldn´t blame them. They are, after all, not responsible for writing the law, only enforcing it. They are just "doing their jobs." We shouldn´t take it personally as we are arrested, handcuffed and thrown in jail. We shouldn´t blame those who wrote the citation when we have to take a day off work, waste our time and go and stand before someone calling himself judge, explain our actions which harmed no one and beg him to let us keep our money/license/dignity/freedom. We shouldn´t blame our tormenters for tormenting us if that´s their job. They´re just doing their job. No thought process going on there. Just doing their job. The last lament of the unprincipled, obedient pet who loves its master and all he provides. Despite knowing what´s right, despite the faults of the system set up by the state, these pets chose to do no thinking as they go about their busniness.

These favorite pets of the establishment, the mainstream media and the police, almost seem to be working in concert to hold the common man in check. As our voices grow louder in a collective cry for justice, a return to the principles of our founding fathers, and a show of respect for our rights as sovereign individuals, the police grow more maniacal and the press becomes more silent. There is change brewing in this country, and it's not coming from some presidential candidate. The man on the street is walking on eggshells, and the uncertainty permeating the atmosphere does not help matters. There may come a time when these pets of the establishment have to make some hard decisions, and they may just decide to bite the hands that have fed them. After all, these are fellow human beings I´m talking about, and when push comes to shove, most human beings will know the difference between right and wrong.