This is my second last write up on the hatred I saw on Cable TV in the US, being incited by Fox News in order to create civil disharmony in America, turn Americans against each other. The most recent addition Glenn Beck, a new player on the Fox News Channel, the channel which treats each side of politics like a sports team and they a one eyed cheerleader of one side, is probably the worst I have seen.
The man is a danger to the cohesiveness Americans have always shown in the face of adversity and it wasn't until he equated the owner of Fox News, Rupert Murdoch, own mother with being a possible believer in Eugenics, a Nazi policy, that I realized the depths that the channel will go to destroy American Democracy.
Calling Australians, including Dame Elisabeth Murdoch, in fact any country with Universal Health care, countries which would embrace the Nazi policy of Eugenics as a core principle, was a bridge too far for any rational human being to ever believe that Murdoch is a man that respects the responsibility that comes with bringing the news to the people.
What am I talking about?
This:
Glenn Beck - "It will be taken out of context...it will be called fear mongering"
Carefully constructed introduction with a set up so that any criticism is framed that it is expected and it will be coming from people who are simply targeting the man, the channel, but not the ideas themselves.
If this was a factual, rational program there is no need to say these things as an introduction. Certainly a respected current affairs program does not need to run a pre-emptive caveat against all its criticizers possible complaints, but Beck does.
Follow up with a reframe of the presentation to
"Only doing what Obama asked me to do....
Question with boldness....we must have answers"
Makes any criticism from external parties seem disingenuous as Beck is claiming he is simply asking questions, acting democratically, which the Obama administration asked him to.
"I want to show you the history of Eugenics...
Basically creating a master race"
Immediately providing another deligitimization of any detractors for knowingly going somewhere which any respectable human being would not even consider talking about, Glenn goes on to describe that anyone criticizing this show 'sits in a basement' creating their blogs.
He then says he is not suggesting anything of the sort with respect to Eugenics is happening and then goes on to describe in detail just the opposite and how it is highly possible.
This is just like a guy who says robbing a bank is illegal, immoral and he'd never condone it. Who then, on national TV goes on to describe the layout with plans, what time the bank shuts, what the security code is and where to find a spare key.
A disingenuous cop-out in order to excuse inexcusable behavior that the person already has a guilty conscience over.
Again, if this was legitimate, why so many excuses before he has even begun?
"Eugenics... didn't start with the Nazis... but with American and British Socialists"
Straight away, paint socialist policy as equivalent to Nazism. Uses the words Progressives constantly.
With posters and twisted history from the past, Beck makes false equivalencies of the time then, with today.
Incredibly incendiary and irresponsible for a so called National News channel to put on at any time, let alone presenting this hypothetical construct as reality.
"Eugenics infected the Mindset of 'intellectual leaders'.... Liberalism movement".
Quotes from a book from 1909 with the passage
"State must interfere on behalf of the fittest"
My question is this, what possible reason would any person have to seek out single line quotes from books from over 100 years ago, and claim that "progressives, liberalism movement, intellectual leaders" are basing any policy on that now?
"What most history textbooks seem to ignore is that before the Nazis took power Germans lagged behind Americans and Europeans in Eugenics"
This is a constant complaint of Fox News. That somehow everyone else is 'covering up' or 'hiding' or 'teaching' a different truth that only they know about. They are the mainstream who have a monopoly on telling the 'real story'. Everyone else is being lied to. This is subversive propaganda intended to deligitimize any conflicting or alternative viewpoints. Encouraging its viewers to dismiss outright any debate as it wont be the 'true truth'.
Claims that World War I and the great flu pandemic basically turned doctors into social planners.
That Hitler took the logic of PUBLIC HEALTH to totalitarian extremes.
Follows on with claims that Eugenics was being effectively written into the constitution in the United States. That Progressives helped introduce a policy in Massachusetts.
Beck claims Hitler asked for a copy of the famous "Case for Sterilization" from the American President of the Eugenics society which called for the forced sterilzation of 10 million Americans. Glenn then says the Germans that year sterilized over 50,000 'Unfit' Germans.
Which caused an American Genetist to complain, quote "The Germans are beating us at our own game."
The Nazi Eugenic idea evolved naturally into the eventual Holocaust
This construct is framed to do two things - convince Americans that this policy was in place in America at one point and secondly that Progressives basically adopted it. In other words it can happen again in America with Progressives.
The next frame Glenn says in a serious concerned tone
"America there is so much anger and hatred in this country right now"
"No-one is claiming Eugenics is coming"
That the policy of Eugenics only came about when the Germans began to devalue life.
Glenn then goes on to cry-talk about his daughter who is disabled, claiming a Nazi poster reminds him of his daughters hand. This gives the presenter a sense of empathy, of connection with the subject matter, personalizes his fears that he is genuinely concerned Eugenics could become a threat.
Immediately after TWO Nazi propaganda posters have been shown on American television, Glenn runs a segment with Barack Obama saying he does not want to pull the plug on Grandma.
Beck has built the outrage, he has equated Eugenics with a Nazi policy born in the ideals of early century American 'Progressives', he has personalized the story so you feel a sense of empathy FOR HIM because he cried and bought up his daughter, then he gives you a target. Someone who is defending in a very short sound bite, that he will not be 'pulling the plug on Grandma'.
My question is, who are you, if you are an uncritical viewer, going to believe after that construct?
Again, Glenn Beck has preempted criticism from any body else and goes on to say:
"I don't think he wants to kill your grandmother...
it would be truly an evil person who would do that....
However, what happened in Germany was they couldn't afford health care for all....
...It has never ended any other different way than it did in the Weimar Republic...
...could our economy, the way we are currently spending and printing at will, possibly go into some sort of emergency situation, could it collapse, is it possible?
...that our debt is so high that we can't pay it back, or we have to make tough decisions....we have to ration health care?
The answer, everyone will tell you is yes.
What does it mean when you use a whole lot of coulds, possibles or possiblys in a sentence?
Glenn Beck has just presented a complete hypothetical as fact to his viewers by actually USING Nazi propaganda, lines from books written in 1909, irrational conclusions as to the cause and effect to what happened in Nazi Germany, calling on his own personal struggles to elicit empathy and belief from the viewer, a sound bite from the President where he is defending himself for something made up, and using one crisis to make the viewer believe that another is not only possible but highly likely to occur and lead to health care rationing.
This is where I take issue with Mr Murdoch and what his station is doing. What has just been constructed is a false conclusion, a completely irrational premise, that America will go broke and by having universal health care, the government will ration and decide who lives or dies.
It is from this position, this false conclusion Beck finds the excuse to dig then through all of the published papers, thoughts and comments from Obama's advisors to make the most damaging of conclusions without presenting their comments in the context of what they were writing about. In other words if they were writing about a worst case scenario and what they would do to ie. save as many Americans as possible, are their comments reasonable for such a time?
Here is part 2 and 3 from this propaganda program which is an argument attacking Barack Obama's advisors based solely on a hypothetical construct which has no basis nor precedent in all of the other countries with Universal Health care listed below.
Because Beck has just taken the viewer on a journey of crazed lunacy with false conclusions, they are at the point of believing that yes, the United States is going bankrupt therefore these conclusions from Obama's advisors are what will come next.
Fear mongering, drawing conclusions that Universal health care leads to Eugenics and using Nazi propaganda on American TV to take the viewer there is probably the most horrific and deceptively damaging thing to Democracy I can think of any network news station could do to its viewers.
It is journalistic malpractice if not inciting terror with concocted scenarios.
So with that, please consider just how rational the fear mongering is coming from Rupert Murdoch's enterprise when he has people suggest that countries with Universal Health care will inevitably lead to implementing death panels, just like the Nazis because "it has never ended other different way than it did in the Weimar Republic".
I do not appreciate Fox News, no matter the presenter, making the false analogy that Australians or Britons, the French or Italians, Spanish or Greeks, Irish or Canadians, Danes or Norwegians, Swiss or Japanese or even the Germans themselves have conspired to selectively 'cull' their population in an economic crisis simply because they have Universal Health care. This suggestion is vile and unconscionable and the network should apologize for this despicable insult.
However as it was pre-meditated I do not think that likely.
And actually seeking out, regurgitating and using Nazi propaganda posters and footage on American TV... does it really matter how you use them?
Is not the fact you have chosen to use them despicable enough?
Imagine if you couldn't speak the language or the sound was turned off on your TV. What you are seeing is Nazi symbology which is incendiary enough.
Who else does this on US cable News - to spread fear throughout the American population using actual Nazi Propaganda material?
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So lets review the feasibility of Becks premise and begin by listing those countries which have some form of Universal Health care.
Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, United Kingdom, Japan, Finland, Australia, New Zealand , Czech Republic, South Korea, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia
Now of the above where do you think they rank in terms of World Health Organization assessment for the best health system?
Data Source for GDP% and Per capita spending
Ranking source
As a % of GDP, the United States almost doubles the median % of GDP spent per capita on health care. The difference from the next closest countries total spend on health care is quite striking when seen in this chart.
Spending as % of GDP
The Spending in US$ per Capita also where the United States stands out as the highest per person.
Spending per Capita US$
France is number 1 and spends less than half per head of population than the US on health care provision.
Every single person is covered in France which is not the case in the United States.
Because not everyone is covered, almost 45,000 people lose their lives each year in the United States due to lack of basic health care. That is 15 x the victims from 9/11 each and every year whilst this indefensible system remains unchanged.
Study links 45,000 U.S. deaths to lack of insurance
Even when you think you are covered in America by private health insurance there is often a 20-40% chance that the treatment your doctor prescribes will be rejected by your insurance company
More than one of every five requests for medical claims for insured patients, even when recommended by a patient's physician, are rejected by California's largest private insurers
Claims denial rates by leading California insurers, first six months of 2009:
PacifiCare -- 39.6 percent
Cigna -- 32.7 percent
HealthNet -- 30 percent
Kaiser Permanente -- 28.3 percent
Blue Cross -- 27.9 percent
Aetna -- 6.4 percent
Link
Or your claim denied because of pre-existing condition
Health Insurers Consider A Caesarean-Section Pregnancy A Pre-Existing Condition
If we look at Australia, which has a private health insurance system complementing a core or base Universal system (everyone is covered), for our 8.7% of GDP and $3,137 we get to claim position 32 versus the United States 15.8% and $6,933 and position 37. In other words the United States pays twice the money for a truly mediocre, if not shameful performance. A complete failure in terms of the economics in the case of the existing US system.
But this is not what has bothered me most about this particular issue, as I have tried to demonstrate in the past few diaries, it is part of a much bigger picture coming from the Murdoch University Department for Public Incitement to Zany Zimbabwean Anarchy (aka Mud Pizza channel or Fox News).
Lets now review the following countries with Universal Health Care and Rupert Murdoch's own interests in those countries:
Australia, Rank 32, Cost Per Capita $3,137, 8.7% of GDP.
Dame Elisabeth Murdoch Born 8 February 1909, resides in Australia a country with universal health coverage
Prudence Murdoch, who was born in 1958 in Melbourne, resides in the UK a country with Universal health care coverage.
Elisabeth Murdoch (born in Sydney, Australia on August 22, 1968)
- 3 Children born in the UK, 4 in total who reside in the UK. Both the UK and Australia are countries with Universal health care coverage.
Assets
National Rugby League (NRL) (50%)
The Daily Telegraph (Sydney)
The Sunday Telegraph (Sydney)
The Australian (national)
The Weekend Australian (national)
The Advertiser (Adelaide)
Sunday Mail (Adelaide)
The Sunday Times (Perth)
Herald Sun (Melbourne)
Sunday Herald Sun (Melbourne)
mX (Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane)
The Courier-Mail (Brisbane)
The Cairns Post (Cairns, Queensland)
Geelong Advertiser
Gold Coast Bulletin
The Mercury and Sunday Tasmanian (Hobart)
Northern Territory News (Darwin)
The Sunday Territorian (Darwin)
Australian Associated Press (45%)
United Kingdom Rank 18, Cost per Capita US$2,885 8.5% GDP
and Ireland Rank 19 Cost per capita US$3,001 7.1% GDP
Lachlan Murdoch - born in London, UK on September 8
- Resides in Australia with his two children, a country with Universal Health care
James Murdoch, - born in Wimbledon, UK on December 13, 1972
- Still resides in the UK with his two Children, a country with universal health care.
Assets
The Sun
News of the World
The Times
Sunday Times
thelondonpaper (a free newspaper)
The point of the above - Rupert Murdoch's children, Grandchildren have been born in countries which overwhelmingly have Universal Health Care. The vast majority of his children, particularly those with children themselves, live in countries with Universal health care. Rupert Murdoch's own Mother, Dame Elisabeth Murdoch who is 100 years of age, not only lives in Australia but also has championed the cause of public hospitals in Australia for a large part of her life.
In other words, most of the members of Murdoch's family CHOOSE to live in countries with an equitable and universal health care system.
If there was any genuine concern about the quality of coverage Medicare for everyone provides, any concern at all, why does Rupert's own mother still reside in Australia if these systems are supposedly so dangerous, so heartless?
The answer, Fox News is deceiving about death panels, deceiving about eugenics and deceiving about the citizens of Australia, the UK, Ireland, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Japan, Finland, Australia, New Zealand, Czech Republic, South Korea, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia all 'possibly' embracing the Nazi policy of Eugenics because they have a Universal health care system.
Secondly Rupert Murdoch's Newscorp has enormous business interests and thousands of employees in countries which have Universal health care. Criticism of universal health care is therefore completely disingenous as his own workers participate in the system in these countries saving Rupert Murdoch's businesses both money and the hassle of providing employer based health care.
There is one particular industry which Murdoch owns, which demonstrates the level of this deception. That is the Australian Rugby League ownership stake. This version of Rugby is very much an impact game with no body armor or padding.
Here is a search for 2009 Rugby League Hospital
The stories are broken bones, dislocated shoulders, broken necks, etc. Remember that both New Zealand and Australia have Universal Health Care, so through Rupert Murdoch's own business interests, in fact an occupational regular occurance, there is a direct link to his business operation and Universal Health Care. Thus he is palming some of the cost of doing business off onto Australian and NZ taxpayers to make a profit.
The fact is though, ask any Australian and they will tell you they don't mind as they also have businesses, both big and small which benefit from a comprehensive, universal health care system. It makes our businesses more competitive.
So this cannot be called anything more than a deception from Fox News and demonstrates just one of the distortions Murdoch is using to fool the American people who watch the Fox News channel.
There is another element of Newscorp where they are quick to make accusations upon something which they themselves may have partaken in, that is tax evasion:
News Corp has 152 subsidiaries in low-tax or no-tax countries, one of four companies to have more than 100.
In 1999, The Economist reported that Newscorp Investments had made £11.4 billion ($20.1 billion) in profits over the previous 11 years but had paid no net corporation tax. The article explained that in practice the corporation's complex structure, international scope and use of offshore tax havens allowed News Corporation to pay minimal taxes.
The only reason I can think of to have so many tax havens is if you want to avoid paying your fair share.
So, according to the Economist a Tax evader, having family members and businesses benefiting from the public option in the UK and Australia, having his own mother promote public health hospitals in Australia whilst claiming the system leads to Eugenics.
Does Fox ever tell the American people the truth that will help their lives improve?
In answer I don't think the American viewers realize just how much of what Fox News does is the old bait and switch. Pointing the finger everywhere else whilst doing themselves exactly what they are accusing others of.
Why do this? So they can then say it is simply pay back politics of course.
So who then is Mr Murdoch protecting if he knows this will save him money?
Rupert exists to service the super rich by controlling the opinions and beliefs of the middle class.
Fox News is the modern day tobacco advertiser telling you something akin to 'smoking actually increases the strength of your lungs and is good for you'.
Consider Wall Street ownership rates of the Insurance companies.
http://www.dailykos.com/...
United 77.32%
WellPoint 79.04%
Aetna 79.45%
CIGNA Corp. 68.71%
Coventry Health 82.25%
Health Net Inc. 79.37%
It interests me that the argument has become so convoluted that ordinary Americans have become outraged to the point of threatening behavior to fight a policy which will help average working Americans. They have been convinced to fight against other Americans in order to protect a system of health care that suits the insurance companies best of all.
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Some of you will not like what I have just written above, but let me explain.
This diary was written according to the formula that Hannity and Bill O'Reilly use each night to keep the sports fans on the edge of their seats and the adrenalin running.
Adrenalin Media:
- Outrageous lead in.
- Colorful Graphics
- Information which appears to back up my claim. And going a bridge too far as Fox always does with my choice of subject
- Demonstration of blatant hypocrisy
- Peer or supporting statement from a different party about something equal in hypocrisy
- An analysis of the subject
- The only thing missing - A feel good end of segment talking about something every American can respect and relate to. But I guess I have to leave that up to you.
If you are an American in the media, I really have one question to ask:
What is the one thing which Fox News has enabled and sought to do since its inception that is so absolutely Un-American that even an Australian can see it and is trying to point it out to you?
My answer:
To diminish the office of the President of the United States of America in the eyes of its citizens.
Think about this :
Fox News waged a disportionate witch hunt campaign over something which never affected Americans in any real way during the Bill Clinton years and distracted the country, continuously running the dignity and honor of the office of the President into the ground 24/7 on national network news.
Fox News helped in every possible way to get elected and to keep the most inneffective United States President, possibly ever, in power for eight years which left America almost a broken country.
Fox News is now endeavouring to destroy the office of your newest President through all means possible. Less than a year into his Presidency. Tying his hands by disabling his administration picks via the tactics of smear, innuendo and easily discreditable conspiracy theories.
They made the Republicans hate a Democratic President for deceiving over a BJ.
They made the Democrats hate a Republican President by helping elect an ineffectual man who wasted 8 years of American resources. They enabled taking the country to war under false premises and excused what was previously inexcusable behavior by politicians because they had such a loud platform.
They are now back to finish off the job where everyone already has already seen that the highest office in the land can, at times, deserve little respect because of how the Fox News channel has chosen to 'frame' the last two Presidents. Both representations by Fox News of Clinton and Bush not indicative of the true characters of these men and the effectiveness of their Presidencies.
For Eight years Fox News fought against the terrorists, or so it claimed, to protect the honor and dignity of the office of the President of the United States from all enemies foreign and domestic.
The terrorists of course worked overtime destroy societal cohesion in America, turning citizens against their government, against each other and against their President.
Fox News has achieved this with its viewers in eight short months without raising a sweat.
And you are allowing an Australian born news magnate to do this?
Are you blind?
Is there no-one in American media anymore that this injustice can continue to occur, that you don't even recognize when the President of the United States is being targeted like this?
Particularly with people like this. Glenn Beck, the greatest pretending/acting agitating exaggerator I've ever seen.