Important Speeches & Presentations
— Scant US coverage, no follow-up or objective analysis … Is America’s media scholarly reprehensible? You bet!
Background
When Ronald Reagan became president America saw 50 major media companies. Today, there are five media conglomerates controlling 90% of all media, investigative journalism budgets have been severely slashed and all of the once-traditional ombudsman critics have been dismissed.
News is no longer covered. It is controlled and dished out by people born on third base. Today’s editor has essentially become an umpire who makes calls only to further advancement of oligarchy.
When the internet came into prominence rank and file citizenry quickly discovered it actually had a new voice to go with its vote. Ordinary people learned they, too, could participate in the discovery, delivery and influence of spreading news. Facebook, Twitter, Google and YouTube became like public squares where everyone held an in-house soapbox for outreach. Theoretically, knowledge became plentiful.
Pre-Internet, I read five newspapers a day — two national papers, one statewide paper and two local papers. I’d always catch the nightly news and very much looked forward to the Sunday network interviews. But I always did wonder why those Sunday networks covered nearly the exact same topics. Still, I was pretty much tuned in to what was going on.
The strength of my knowledge eventually enabled me to become a state representative where I championed progressive issues in an overwhelmingly GOP-dominated legislature. When President George H.W. Bush came to deliver a speech in the New Hampshire House of Representatives I opted to hang out smoking cigarettes and analyzing the severity of GOPwinger politics in the Members Lobby.
I, and the few reps I was then with, knew Bush like a book — we already knew what he’d say. We were there to legislate and not participate in pomp! Admittedly, however, as far as pomp goes, I must confess I had some bacon-wrapped scallops and some shrimp at the after-speech reception where we observed Governor John Sununu acting very much like Bush’s jolly gerbil. This is how I learned to criticize such receptions. Call it the politics of experience!
Bottom line?
Bush — full of pedigree and insipid pablum — was no Jesse Jackson. Jackson actually could deliver a meaningful speech and he’d hit on important issues that were generally ignored by the body politic. It’s one thing to reject a speech full of what’s already known; but it’s quite another to become deprived of a speech that is full of information that should be well-known.
Anyway, relative to speeches, throughout the course of Russiagate, I watched Vladimir Putin deliver several state of the union speeches. In America’s controlled media environment Putin is considered a piranha and his speeches are rarely covered or deeply analyzed.
Astoundingly, I discovered from following Putin’s speeches he’s a better Democrat than Nancy Pelosi or Chuck Schumer, Hillary Clinton or Joe Biden. It’s also noteworthy when trying to understand Russia— if one doesn’t rely solely on Western media — that aside from his traditional Communist Party opposition, Putin’s Russian political enemies are more of the ilk like Donald Trump and his nationalistic, white supremist and gun-freaked following. The same holds true for Putin’s enemies in Ukraine, who Trump opted to arm with weapons.
In my view, politically, Putin — a thinker, chess player, hockey player and pianist — would have preferred Bernie Sanders as the US president. Why? Sanders is a thinker, chess player, a pretty good ball player and someone who was vocalist to a produced album of traditional folk songs. They would have gotten along and the world would have been better!
Two Wings of The Same Bird
America’s oligarchs — who control Big Banking, Big Defense, Big Media, Big Oil, Big Pharma/Insurance, Big Agri, etc. — would never allow Putin and Sanders to hold a presidential conversation about world politics. Thus, America’s electorate repeatedly gets suckered into a vicious presidential choice between hardcore GOPwinger extremism which alternates with mop-up, back-up Democratic quarterbacks. US oligarchy thrives!
Fake News
Few have notice how the corporate media always accentuated Donald Trump as the champion voice for decrying “fake media.” Of course, Trump’s predilections primarily have been predicated out of prejudice and mostly aimed as red meat to his political base. Thus, the media felt like Trump’s fake news allegations simply flowed like water over a duck. Sadly, this came back to bite a bit as a result of the recent siege on our nation’s Capitol and members of Congress.
The more the media gave Trump the primary real estate on media criticism, the less it had to deal with true and principled media critics like Noam Chomsky, Chris Hedges, Stephen F. Cohen (RIP), Nina Turner or Seymour Hersh. The corporate media could also more easily ignore the multiple social media platforms or media organizations like Fairness & Accuracy in Media (FAIR), Colombia Journalism Review (CJR) or Consortium News.
Indeed, Trump, the celebrity billionaire who ultimately became renegade US president, always fit well as a perfect media distraction! Notice only at the end did they finally take his Twitter away, despite his blatant history of lying, insult and distortion. Meanwhile, while the political right has become absorbed into Trumpism, the progressive left has been clobbered with censorship with hardly anyone complaining except for those who’ve been victimized. Even the Venezuelan Parliament has been removed from Twitter but nobody seems to care!
Anybody find it ironic rightwing drive AM-Radio has always been cloaked from the radar and allowed to fester since rightwing billionaires — many of ‘em evangelical — began buying up all of the radio stations? Same holds true with the nation’s billboards.
Again, the media no longer covers the news; it controls the news!
Important Speeches & Presentations:
President Vladimir Putin 2020 Russian State of The Union Speech
Putin January 5, 2021 Annual Press Conference
Putin January 27, 2021 Presentation to Davos World Economic Forum
Recent Speeches from Davos:
António Guterres, Secretary-General — The United Nations — January 25, 2021
Xi Jinping—President of The People’s Republic of China — January 25, 2021
President Nicolas Maduro of Venezuela and President Bashar al-Assad of Syria Interviews:
[Authors Note: I also wanted to include English-version state of the union speeches from Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. On both YouTube and Google, I could only find video excerpts. When you type into Google “Nicolas Maduro entire state of the union speech” you mostly get Trump’s state of the union speech where he introduces Juan Guaidó’, the Venezuelan renegade interloper. One gets similar negative results when you type the same with the name Assad. Is this scholarly reprehensible? You bet!]
