Mainstream Media Censorship Conspiracy

Let's start off this week with a quote from someone I'm sure most of you have heard of. Dan Rather of the nightly news as well as 60 minutes. Dan been a household name to anyone who owns a TV set for years. Now in his autumn years, he finally speaks out about an issue that he, of all people, should know about. And that is censorship.

Dan Rather has told the BBC that American reporters were practicing 'a form of self-censorship': 'there was a time in South Africa that people would put flaming tires around peoples’ necks if they dissented. And in some ways the fear is that you will be necklaced here, you will have a flaming tire of lack of patriotism put around your neck. Now it is that fear that keeps journalists from asking the toughest of the tough questions…. And again, I am humbled to say, I do not except myself from this criticism.”What we are talking about here - whether one wants to recognise it or not, or call it by its proper name or not - is a form of self-censorship.'”

Three cheers for Dan for calling a spade a spade. I've noticed that sometimes, as people get to a certain point, they will let out little snippets of truth like this. Not dissimilar to a deathbed confession of sorts, if you will. And if it's not disclosing too much, they don't get symbolically "necklaced", as Dan refers to.

Another example that comes to mind is President Eisenhower's warning in his Farewell to the Nation address as he prepared to leave office on January 16, 1961. In it he warns all Americans to beware of the "military/industrial complex in this country. Now, who should know better about this sort of thing than a true leader who served as General of the armed forces AND President of the United States? Here is an excerpt from that speech:

"In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist. We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals so that security and liberty may prosper together."

"Altert and knowledgable..." sounds like my readers.

And there this on the subject from Wikepedia:

"In the penultimate draft of the address, Eisenhower initially used the term military-industrial-congressional complex, and thus indicated the essential role that the United States Congress plays in the propagation of the military industry. But, it is said, that the president chose to strike the word congressional in order to placate members of the legislative branch of the federal government. Shortly after Eisenhower's address, the issue of military-industrial-congressional influence came to the forefront after Kennedy canceled the B-70 bomber on March 28, 1961. After appropriations bills had been passed and signed with B-70 funding that Kennedy would not use, the House Armed Services Committee (with 21 members having B-70 work in their districts) subsequently attempted to "direct" -- by law -- the Executive Branch to use "the full amount" appropriated for the B-70. However, a March 19, 1962 eleventh hour White House Rose Garden agreement by chairman Carl Vinson retracted the language from the appropriations bill, and the B-70 cancellation remained permanent.[4]
Attempts to conceptualize something similar to a modern "military-industrial complex" existed before Eisenhower's address. In 1956, sociologist C. Wright Mills had claimed in his book The Power Elite that a class of military, business, and political leaders, driven by mutual interests, were the real leaders of the state, and were effectively beyond democratic control."

Notice the self-censorship that Rather talks about in the first bolded section? And the reference to President Kennedy?

I wonder if either of the dead Kennedys (not the band) would have had more to say if they were allowed to reach an older age. Or maybe they said enough. Does the word "necklace" come to mind, anyone?