Michael Parenti on Orthodoxy and Diversity Part 1/5

[zhengiszen]

democracy is a religion, a religion where god is human

[zhengiszen]

What is liberty of media in a capitalist democracy, when money rules the game ?

[MichaelParentiOrg]

Thanks for uploading!

[wvprogressive1933]

Fred Barnes is on Fox "News" these days.

[theflyingbananas]

Just to expand a bit, I think that it is important to remember that - in the end - there is no tangible difference between, say, the New York Times (said to be far left) and the Washington Post (said to lean right). Are there more commentaries for one side or the other depending on the publication? Sure. But anytime either one faces an issue that gets somewhere near the truth, they'll sound identical. Remember the New York Times sat on the warrant-less wiretaps for a year. Many, many more examp

[DaHonestAbe]

I completely agree. Tim Wise said the same thing when he was getting truthful about race relations on CBS.

[Rundstedt1]

@theflyingbananas

And so to expand also, the NY Times can be said to be farther left than the Post, and within the constrained American model therefore 'Left'. But the constrained mainstream American model does not and never has represented the entire spectrum, traditionally merely only part of it, namely the Right Center, and over the last 30 odd years it has moved even farther right, and especially recently, and so has moved even farther away from even the Center Right.

[theflyingbananas]

The only thing I disagree with here is the emphasis Parenti puts on left vs. right. I don't believe it to be anywhere near as simple as saying all these major networks or Murdoch, for example, is "far right" and that, contrastably, Parenti is "far left." I think it is becoming clearer and clearer that the Clinton's and the Bush's and our new president Obama, etc are all within the same concentrated power system. And since they yield to the same interests, saying "left" or "right" is irrelevant.

[Rundstedt1]

@theflyingbananas

I realize that your comment is two years old and so I was reluctant to respond but; what I think you're failing to see is that all the presidents, Clinton, Bush et al, are, in the larger spectrum Rightist, so of course they serve the same interests and Parenti has said as much elsewhere. Right and Left are far from irrelevant, the problem seems to be that you have fallen for the Right-wing mantra that they are irrelevant, and that is what the power system wants you to think.