By Timothy V. Gatto

Share Link:

It seems that most Americans will continue to support whatever war du jour is served up by their government. As long as most Americans remain silent as to what American media chooses to cover, we will continue to see coverage of media celebrities and coverage of weather events as “news”. We can see that the coverage of Haiti’s situation has already faded into the background as we watch the snowstorms that hit the Mid-Atlantic States take center stage.

Meanwhile, the assaults on the Taliban in Helmand Province in Afghanistan can be seen on the BBC and most international news outlets if American audiences should be so inclined. World news can be seen on world class news outlets until such time as the powers that be decide that it is no longer in our best interests to see these reports. If it is decided that world news will no longer be seen on American TV, most Americans won’t even notice.

Now that corporate control of our elections is out in the open thanks to our Supreme Court, we might as well realize that what we see on our televisions and read in our newspapers is also corporate-controlled. We can still tune into the internet to see world news and different opinions, but I can see that soon even the internet will swallowed up by corporate money.

Let’s summarize before I stop. Our elections are dominated by two corporate dominated political parties. We are, by the way, one of a minority of countries that are ruled by only two political parties. With over 350 million Americans, it is amazing that two political parties can represent workers, poor people, rich people, the dwindling Middle Class, those on the West Coast, East Coast, Central U.S., Southern States, Alaska and Hawaii so effectively.

We get our news from corporate outlets that basically all report on the same things with very little variation on what they report on. This is all being done as most networks cut their overseas bureaus. Meanwhile this seems to be fine with most Americans.

Our defense budget has never decreased since the Second World War. Even though the threat of Communism disappeared, it was replaced by Islamic fundamentalism that has allowed our defense industry to continue to operate as it did during the cold war. Between the Cold War, The War on Drugs and the War on Terrorism, this country has been at war during all of our lives.

After six years of beating my head against a brick wall, I have decided that most people in this country are just not that interested. As long as they can be entertained, it makes no difference to them what our country does in the guise of “fighting the war on terrorism” or “the war on drugs” as long as American Idol still airs and isn’t interrupted by something as boring as The State of the Union speech.