Every since the Corporations have bought up the media, the very idea of 'honest journalism' has been a joke in America.
I grew up with the likes of Edward R. Murrow and Walter Cronkite - I KNOW what real and honest journalism is all about.
The 'propaganda' corporate machine that rules the airwaves now, is nothing more than a tool to control the message/masses, and at all costs, whatever 'they' do 'they' will make certain that stories like the one on Sibel Edmonds (on the diary recommended list) never, ever see the light of day. God forbid, America should hear the 'truth' about America and England planning to divide up Iraq months prior to 9/11.
Still, I must give people like Bill Moyers, Keith Olbermann and Rachael Maddow credit, where credit is due. But sometimes I wonder how much longer we will have even an iota of what little 'journalistic integrity' is left on our television sets and radios. That is why the below story caught my eye.
J.P. Morgan and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. are also among radio stations' leading lenders.
Goldman Sachs and other lenders just swapped debt for 85% of Nassau Broadcasting Partners LP's equity. Nassau operates 51 radio stations along the East Coast. Nassau had to put its Cape Cod, Mass., stations into a separate company, because Goldman has another radio investment in Cape Cod and didn't want its stake to cause a conflict with the FCC.
Throw companies like Tribune into the mix where JP Morgan will allegedly end up with an majority equity stake, and one wonders why Goldman and JPM were so eager to provide "rescue" financings to virtually the entire distressed media space: both companies knew too well that sooner or later they would end up with full equity control over essentially the most coveted industry: thousands of TV stations, radio channels, newspaper and magazines. If you thought the media propaganda was unbearable now, just wait. Nonetheless, one doubts that much will be made by the FCC of JP Morgan's or Goldman Sachs' stealthily encroaching control of the entire media world. After all, they already pretty much already control the airwaves. This way their domination of the 4th estate and the idiot tube will soon be complete.
Alas, all these funds operate primarily out of their offshore accounts. So while they just now start the long, hard process of convincing the FCC they have nothing but the best P&L intentions, Goldman and JPM, or better known as the Treasury and the Fed, will have long cemented their controlling stakes in a streamlined, deleveraged media industry.
http://www.zerohedge.com/...
Somehow I doubt very seriously if the FCC will need 'much' convincing, but is certainly does not bode well for our country. Goldman Sachs - the great Squid - has it's tentacles in everything these days - our government - the Congress - the Federal Reserve - and now they are buying up the media. Too big to fail? Or too big and protected by the very Corporations that own our government?
"... the media serve the interests of state and corporate power, which are closely interlinked, framing their reporting and analysis in a manner supportive of established privilege and limiting debate and discussion accordingly."
"The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum - even encourage the more critical and dissident views. That gives people the sense that there's free thinking going on, while all the time the presuppositions of the system are being reinforced by the limits put on the range of the debate."
Noam Chomsky
Every day, the media gets more inane. So I thought since Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan will be our new 'media masters' in the upcoming months - perhaps we should do a small review of what they have accomplished to date:
from Glen Greenwald at Salon:
Exactly as one would expect, the prime beneficiaries of all of that pillaging continue to grow. The banks that almost brought the world economy to collapse but then received massive public largesse because they were "too big to fail" are now bigger than ever; as The Washington Post delicately put it: "The crisis may be turning out very well for many of the behemoths that dominate U.S. finance." Everything involving the government turns out well for these "behemoths" because they own and control the U.S. Government. Just this week, The Post detailed how the government and Wall St. are now so intertwined that banking executives are spending vast resources to increase their presence in Washington:
.....
As previously documented, Goldman Sachs itself has a virtual lock on the top Treasury positions no matter which party is in power. The vaunted bipartisan "Baucus plan" was literally written by a Baucus aide who just left her position as Vice President of Wellpoint to write the health care reform plan for the Senate -- a revelation which barely caused a ripple. And the Supreme Court is on the verge of striking down the few limits on corporate involvement in our politics, a ruling which may (or may not be) constitutionally defensible but which will flood American politics with so much corporate money that it will give new meaning to the term "oligarchy."
So with this massive pillaging of America's economic security and the control of American government by its richest and most powerful factions growing by the day, to whom is America's intense economic anxiety being directed?
Here is how Goldman Sachs started 'taking over our country':
Consider below a simple time line from one of the strangest periods our financial markets had ever experienced. As you read it, keep in mind that following the demise of Bear Stearns, the strictest interpretation of the so-called investment bank "Bulge Bracket" included just four entities: Goldman Sachs (GS), Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley (MS).
* September 9: The short attack on Lehman Brothers begins in earnest.
* September 14: The New York Times (NYT) reports Lehman will file bankruptcy.
* September 15: Goldman Sachs share price begins to wilt. Merrill Lynch announces it will be sold to Bank of America.
* September 17: Goldman Sachs’ share price continues to plummet. The SEC announces "new rules to protect investors against naked short selling abuses".
* September 18: Goldman Sachs’ share price continues to plummet.
* September 19: The SEC "halts short selling of financial stocks to protect investors and markets". Goldman Sachs’ share price posts a strong gain.
* September 22: Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, the two remaining members of the "Bulge Bracket" announce their intentions to transition to bank holding companies, giving them access to lending facilities of the US Federal Reserve (an organization with which Goldman has an uncommonly tight relationship).
The most interesting event to come of that most eventful period may have been the SEC’s September 19 ban on legitimate short selling. What makes it so enigmatic is the fact that not even the most vocal opponents of illegal naked short selling have ever even hinted at the need to restrict legitimate shorting. In fact, Patrick Byrne himself compared the ban to limiting motorists to making only right-hand turns. Here is a theory that might explain what was going on.
An examination of the volume of both naked and legitimate shorting of Goldman Sachs in September of 2008 reveals something very interesting: while there was an enormous amount of short selling taking place, there was essentially no naked shorting of Goldman shares. Indeed, short selling accounted for a third of total volume on September 15 and 16, while failed trades accounted for less than 0.07%, suggesting shortable Goldman shares were in abundant supply. This conclusion is supported by an analysis of the stock loan rebate rate that prevailed for Goldman shares during the period in question: a very reliable indicator of the scarcity of shares available for short sellers to borrow, where a lower rebate rate indicates a more limited supply.
http://www.marketrap.com/...
There is a 'silent coup d'état' going on in our nation. Of course, this very silent coup d'état would never be mentioned 'out loud' by anyone in the 'media'- and people will of course refer to any such idea of Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan taking over our nation' media as nothing more than just another 'conspiracy theory'. That is the excuse that both Goldman Sachs and the Federal Reserve throw out whenever anyone dares to get to close to look behind the curtain.
But the facts are out there for anyone to see. It's getting very scary out there in America when - what 'too big to fail' really means is: 'too big for anyone to question.'
Michael Moore wants Goldman Sachs investigated - so do I: