I grew up as a legally blind person who couldn't see well enough to read
newspapers. Using a magnifying glass was too difficult, although it helped with
reading books. I suppose that the newsprint was too small. At any rate, I
always felt locked out of this really important source of information until the
CCTV reading machine was developed. And then, I couldn't afford one until the
Ethical Humanist Society to which we belonged, loaned or gave me the money. I
can't remember which. But that must have been in the mid 1960's. And even then,
the newspaper was too unwieldy to put under the machine. A friend of mine used
to cut out articles for me. It took me a very long time to discover that the
newspaper wasn't necessarily a font of wisdom. One of the podcasts I listen to
is "Citations Needed", and it's all about how we're manipulated by propaganda
that is implanted in the points of view of news stories. One of the hosts is a
reporter for FAIR, which is a media watchdog. Fair has a podcast called
Counterpunch, a much less sophisticated podcast about the media. But ever since
I began using the computer to read articles and even before I joined the Blind
democracy list, people were sending me material from alternative news sources
and I was also reading mainstream media stories and was able to understand how
facts can be emphasized or omitted so that my opinions could be manipulated.
After I began reading the material that Sylvie was posting and also listening
to Democracy Now, I began to discover that I could trust certain journalists
more than others, and that I could listen to and read a number of articles
about an issue, and come to my own tentative conclusion about what the reality
might be.
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
<blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> On Behalf Of Carl Jarvis
Sent: Sunday, December 16, 2018 11:05 AM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: The New York Times' Shameful Obituary of
Historian William Blum
According to undocumented scraps of yellowed notes in my dad's folder, a
distant cousin was one of the founders of the New York Times.
Henry Jarvis Raymond (January 24, 1820 – June 18, 1869) was an American
journalist, politician, and co-founder of The New York Times, which he founded
with George Jones.
Obviously Henry Jarvis Raymond came from the wealthy, conservative side of the
family forest. The "Pure" Jarvis stock had been settled in the Grafton,
(West)Virginia since the mid 1750's...at least. They were mostly working
class. Farmers, miners and Trackers. But in those days it was not uncommon to
be the distant cousin of just about everybody. I've mentioned that my several
times Great Uncle was Jefferson Davis. An aunt who lived in the Grafton area
was Anna Jarvis, founder of Mother's Day. My grandmother Jarvis' brothers,
Samuel and James Hickman, and a cousin John Hickman were all pastors of large
congregations. But my direct linage consisted of miners, loggers, farmers and
Radicals. Searching back to John Jarvis, a farmer in (West)Virginia, I seem to
be the first Jarvis in that line, who attended college.
But back to the New York Times. It was nicknamed, "The Gray Lady". I used to
buy a copy at the news stand on my way home from the Drapery Factory. If I
found a seat on the bus, I'd read the Editorial section and leave most of the
paper on the bus. The majority of the NY Times was about as bland as the
Seattle Times(no connection) only bigger.
Going back to the mid 1950's, I can't figure out how that paper earned the
label of Liberal Press. For much of my youth, I trusted the major papers,
believing that they reported All the news. But as I grew up, I saw how the
Press could manipulate the news, and which news was published, and which was
not. I saw honest, caring people crucified because they held different
opinions than those of the Nation's Masters. I saw my name and my fiancee's
name(later my wife, Cathy)dragged through the Seattle PI. I watched as close
friends of my parents were labelled Communists, and fired from their jobs. And
later, I watched as close friends of Cathy's and mine were attacked by so
called investigative reporters, and left wounded by the side of the road. I
learned to never trust a word I read until I have proof that it represents
factual information.
Seldom has the Working Class had a national Public Platform, a People's Press.
And the experiment called PBS has been corrupted by the private sector until it
no longer, if it ever did, represents the voice of the people.
If we are going to fight for Truth, then we must explore everything we hear.
Find the source. Learn what is driving the people behind the news.
Engage one another in dissecting the day's news. Find out why certain news
reports are not put forth.
Protecting our freedom is constant hard work. Not that we should turn our
backs on the joys of life, but we must be aware that if we do not maintain a
free press, we will lose what free choice we still have.
Carl Jarvis
On 12/15/18, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Well, there are two things to consider in relation to this. First, the
guy who wrote the obituary is not a Liberal. He's a Conservative.
Second, if the New York Times were ever a liberal paper, it changed
quite a while ago, certainly by the time it unquestioningly supported
W. Bush's story about Iraqi weapons of mass destruction. Actdually, I
think perhaps there's a third point to make, which is that probably
The New York Times was never as liberal as everyone thought it was.
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
<blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> On Behalf Of Carl Jarvis
Sent: Saturday, December 15, 2018 5:11 PM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: The New York Times' Shameful Obituary
of Historian William Blum
So Donald Trump believes the Press is Liberal?
Carl Jarvis
On 12/15/18, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
The New York Times' Shameful Obituary of Historian William Blum
Jens Schott Knudsen / Flickr
You know you’ve lived well-well enough to rattle the
establishment-when the New York Times smears you in the obituary it
runs about you (FAIR.org, 6/20/13).
That distinction was achieved by William Blum, historian and critic
of US foreign policy. Once a State Department computer programmer who
aspired to “take part in the great anti-Communist crusade,” he quit
government in
1967 out of disgust with the Vietnam War and became a founding editor
of the Washington Free Press, one of the first alternative papers of
the New Left.
In books like The CIA: A Forgotten History (re-released as Killing
Hope: US Military and CIA Interventions Since World War II) and Rogue
State: A Guide to the World’s Only Superpower, Blum documented the
violent and anti-democratic record of the US empire; he was a
reference that FAIR frequently turned to when noting what was missing
from the corporate media’
s version of history.
How did the New York Times (12/11/18) frame this remarkable life?
With this remarkable headline:
William Blum, US Policy Critic Cited by bin Laden, Dies at 85
Yes, to the Times, the most important thing about Bill Blum’s life is
that Osama bin Laden once remarked to Americans, in a tape released
from hiding, that Rogue State would be “useful for you to read.”
“Blum denounced the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in New York
and Washington,” obituary writer Sam Roberts acknowledged, “and said
he would not want to live under an Islamic fundamentalist regime.”
But, Roberts scolded,
“
he did not disavow the recommendation or express regret that bin
Laden, the orchestrator of those attacks, shared his disdain for the
policies carried out by the department where he had once worked.
It’s unclear what formulation Roberts was looking for from Blum;
should he have denied that his book would be “useful…to read,” or
wished aloud that bin Laden had been a supporter of the State
Department policies? There are certainly some policies where you’d
find the State Department, Al Qaeda and the New York Times on one
side, and Blum on the other-such as the invasion of Afghanistan that
bin Laden hoped to provoke with the 9/11 attacks, and the protection
of Idlib, Al Qaeda’s last stronghold in Syria, from Syrian government
attack. Should the Times “express regret” that it finds itself on the
same side as the 9/11 orchestrators? The editors would no doubt
protest that they backed the invasion of Afghanistan and the defense
of Idlib for very different reasons than Al Qaeda would, but that’s a
distinction that they don’t grant their ideological enemies.
If it wanted to give a better sense of the relationship between
William Blum, the US foreign policy establishment and Islamic
extremism, it might have noted that it was William Blum who spotted
and translated (with David
Gibbs) the interview Zbigniew Brzezinski, President Jimmy Carter’s
national security adviser, gave to the French publication Le Nouvel
Observateur (1/15/98). In the interview, Brzezinski boasted of
launching a secret program in 1979 to undermine the government of
Afghanistan, a covert operation that he correctly predicted “was
going to induce a Soviet military intervention.” Asked by the
interviewer, “Do you regret having supported the Islamic
fundamentalism, having given arms and advice to future terrorists?”
Brzezinski responded:
“
What is most important to the history of the world? The Taliban or
the collapse of the Soviet empire? Some stirred-up Muslims or the
liberation of Central Europe and the end of the Cold War?
When Brzezinksi died in 2017, his New York Times obituary did not
bear the headline, “Brzezinski, Official Who Boasted of Promoting Al
Qaeda, Dies at 89″-though surely that is more relevant to
Brzezinski’s legacy than bin Laden’s book review is to Blum’s.
The Blum obit achieved what former FAIR staffer Peter Hart described
as “peak NY Times” with this petty put down:
“
He also reiterated his unpopular, but not unique, position that
American intervention abroad had been breeding enemies and inviting
terrorism.
It’s not clear how “unpopular” Blum’s views were-in a 2013 YouGov
poll,
61 percent agreed with the statement, “In the long run, the United
States will be safer from terrorism if it stays out of other countries’
affairs”
-but what is certainly “not unique” was the Times’ attempt to use an
obituary to settle ideological scores.
Jim Naureckas / FAIR
#al qaeda #cia #jimmy carter #killing hope #new york #new york times
#osama bin laden #