A WEEKLY COMMENTARY
Year Twenty-Seven ... Number Fifty ... December 12, 1980
THIS AGE OF ANTI-HEROES
James Fenimore Cooper (1789-1851) was America's first great novelist, author of the famous Leatherstocking Tales and a score of other works about America and Americans. Like his equally famous contemporary, Washington Irving, he served his country as an American Consul. Returning to the U.S. after a tour of duty in Lyons, he was shocked upon discovering that his country had begun to turn towards liberalism and democracy. A strict Constitutionalist and conservative by nature, he spoke out, and wrote, against this leftward trend. As a result -- even as today -- he was ridiculed, berated and libeled by the liberal press of the Nation. Ired by such treatment, he wrote:
| "If newspapers are useful in overthrowing tyrants, it is only to establish a tyranny of their own. The press tyrannizes over public men, letters, the arts, the state and even over private life. Under the pretense of protecting public morals it is corrupting them to the core and under the semblance of maintaining liberty, it is gradually establishing despotism as ruthless, as grasping and one that is quite as vulgar as that of any (state ever known). With loud professions of freedom of opinion, there is no tolerance; with a parade of patriotism, no sacrifice of interests; and with full panegyrics on propriety, too frequently no decency. |
Congressman Larry McDonald quoted Consul James Fenimore Cooper, and then launched his own complaints against the more expanded, faster, and therefore more effective communications media of today. He wrote, and we quote from his statement as it appeared in the Congressional Record of Dec. 4, 1980:
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"These comments by the famous author are not a general indictment on my part of the press across America. In fact, most local weekly newspapers, the medium-sized daily newspapers, the smaller radio and television stations .. generally do a rather good job in news coverage and they attempt to be fair and honest in their reporting and on their editorial pages. This is true, too, of some larger daily newspapers .. My following comments are aimed primarily at the three national television networks, some national columnists, the major wire services and such newspapers as the Washington Post, the New York Times, the Atlanta Constitution, the Chicago Sun-Times, the Boston Globe and others. In other words, the so-called establishment press. "Generalizations are perhaps risky -- but that has never stopped the national press. With that in mind, it seems to be a valid view that virtually all of the establishment news-media seem to be clones of each other. Almost without exception, the clones have a liberal philosophical outlook regarding the role of the Federal Government. Usually, they favor more and more spending for various social programs and uniformly condemn what they call the military-industrial complex or the Pentagon for all of society's ills. Those who believe in a classical interpretation of our Constitution are almost invariably referred to by this segment of the press as extremists, ultraconservatives, rightwingers, reactionaries, radicals, or mossbacks -- usually with not so subtle hints that neo-Nazism is really behind the motives of those who seek to restore limited Federal government operations, restore a sound economy and attain a superior defense for our Nation. On the other hand, liberals are usually referred to by this same press as moderates or middle-of-the-roaders. Raving Socialists are usually the only ones referred to as liberals by the establishment press. "All of us in public life, at one time or another, have been the victims of vicious, false attacks by biased reporters and editors. Only an immature, insecure individual would object to honest, constructive criticism by the press or the public. We are well aware of and deeply appreciate our freedom of speech and the press as guaranteed by the Constitution. However, I am concerned by the lack of concern and responsibility on the part of some segments of the national news media in regard to the rest of the Constitution -- notably the 9th and 10th amendments to that noble documents -- and (the lack of concern) for common fairness and decency. While in theory, public servants and individuals who are maliciously and falsely attacked can write a letter to the editor as a complaint in the case of the printed media; demand equal time to scurrilous assaults by the electronic media; insist on retractions or file civil lawsuits charging libel or slander; these are rarely sufficient to correct the sometimes incredible damage to a person's reputation by an irresponsible segment of the news media. "Regarding letters to the editor: Many times they are not printed at all. If published, they are often buried and seldom noticed. And in any case, as many of us know from experience, it is virtually impossibe for the truth or a correction to ever catch up with a falsehood. The equal time provisions as I understand them do not apply to so-called news programs presented by the electronic news media, so that approach is not feasible. Retractions are as difficult to extract from newspapers as an impacted tooth from a wounded lion. While the few newspapers may appear to offer a solution to this problem, they are usually inconspicuous and rarely touch the audience that a large front page story or lead editorial reaches. And although libel or slander laws are perhaps theoretically possible for nonpublic individuals -- if one does not consider the cost for initiating such actions -- this avenue is a virtual dead end insofar as public figures are concerned because of various court rulings. "Of course, some newsmen, when faced with these arguments in favor of more responsibility on the part of the press, will loftily assert, 'Well, you can buy a printing press, too.' This ignores the reality that individuals, in particular, and most public figures, in general, have neither the time nor the resources to compete on a weekly or daily basis with already established news media outlets. It is easy for governmental officials and Members of Congress, in particular, to fold under the pressure of relentless attacks from the liberal news media. But when officials with public trust toss their principles behind them for a public relations advantage, they betray both the U.S. Constitution and the people they represent ..." (Unquote). |
Congressman McDonald concludes that, where the nefarious and dishonest actions of the Establishment Media concern him personally, he will fight back by recording the facts in The Congressional Record. Unfortunately, The Record is not widely or carefully read by most of us, and with its price increasing to $135 per year, it will be costly reading for those on its free list.
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At a time when the U.S. Postal Service is planning another rate increase and the coercive imposition of a ridiculous and unnecessary nine-digit zip code, we recieve the following advisory from the American Board of Trade:
In recent issues of our exchange-affiliated publications, we have called attention to the extraordinary mail delivery delays that seriously hinder market transactions and cause great harm to investors and to financial organizations, such as The American Board of Trade. We have pointed out that if you were to mail an order or check to the ABT at its new address at 9 South William St. in New York's Wall Street area, especially if you used a postpaid business reply envelope, there's a strong likelihood that it would not reach ABT offices in less than 9 or 10 days, even if you live as close to New York as Connecticut, New Jersey or Pennsylvania. These delays are the direct result of the Post Office personnel allowing incoming mail, first class mail, mind you, to accumulate on work tables, benches and shelves within the processing areas, without any attempt, even by Post Office supervisors and managers, to arrange for prompt delivery of the accumulation. To induce an outflow of the accumulation of our mail, we have found it necessary in recent months to follow-up Post Office supervisors with protest phone calls and in-person inquiry, after which huge bundles of mail become available, containing letters clearly postmarked to reveal inordinate and even shocking delays in arrival. The previously reported actual delivery delays of 9 to 10 days may now be accurately revised into a much broader range of delay of 10 to 43 days ... That is the delay range involved in a huge bundle of first class mail that had accumulated from hundreds of customers and was made available to the ABT on Oct. 28, following strong protests on our part that something has obviously gone awry in U.S. Post Office operations .... That huge Oct. 28 bundle of accumulated first class mail contained customer market orders and actual remittances of check and money orders totalling $370,000, postmarked 10 to 43 days earlier.
We say that delays of 10 to 43 days on the part of the U.S. Post Office in delivery of first class mail .. are evidence of complete breakdown of mail service in our country .. The time has arrived to vigorously publicize the inadequacy of the present U.S. postal system so that remedial action can begin through the new Congress that will assemble in Washington in January.
(Please note that remedial action does not require increased rates or digits).
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In this discussion of the Establishment Media, Rep. McDonald might have mentioned that it published only what it wants the public to know and promotes only those issues and personalities that seem good in its eyes, because it is under the control of its exclusive club, the Council on Foreign Relations. William S. Paley, Frank Stanton, Dan Rather, Harry Reasoner and others of CBS belong to the Council. John Chancellor, David Brinkley, Thornton Bradshaw, Herbert Schlosser and others of NBC belong to CFR. Likewise there are Barbara Walters, John Connor, other of ABC who belong. Cyrus Vance of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Trilateral Commission is a director of The New York Times. Paul Austin of Coca-Cola, Carter's Cabinet and the CFR is a director of Dow Jones which publishes the Wall Street Journal, Katherine Graham of Newsweek and the Washington Post belongs to the CFR. Daniel Schorr of Ted Turner's Cable News Service is a member. So are Joseph Kraft, George Will, William Buckley, James Reston, Marquis Childs, Charles Collingwood, Marvin Kalb, Bill Moyers, Theodore White, Robert McNeil, etc., etc. There are more than 75 members of the Council on Foreign Relations who are associated with the Establishment Communications Media as directors, publishers, editors or anchormen, correspondents, columnists, commentators, and such. All this plus the relentless pressure that can be brought by the national advertisers, most of whom are directed by members of the Establishment or are influenced by the Big Bankers who keep them alive at twenty per cent on indispensable loans.
A most noticeable Establishment Media activity during this presidential transitional period, is the pressure that has been applied to the Reagan team. When a non-Establishment conservative has been mentioned as a possible member of the Reagan Cabinet, questions are immediately raised as to conflict of interest, ethics, past associations with Nixon, questionable business deals, etc. Prime target was Richard Allen. William Smith, John Tower, and other Congressmen have been given "the treatment." The Establishment Media has done its utmost to actually name the members of Reagan's Cabinet, with some success.
But the most bizarre promotion of the Establishment Media has been the presentation to the world of the late John Lennon as a lily-white hero, worthy of some sort of sanctification. Not since the mysterious assassination of President John Kennedy (with which it is being compared) has such a hullabaloo been raised because of a shooting. The anti-gun crowd is out in force. Pages after pages have been devoted to the death of Lennon. Networks ran special features and a ten-minute period of silent mourning was arranged for all television and radio stations on Sunday, December 14. Suddenly a total blackout was dropped over the former activities of the man who told the world that "The Beatles are bigger than Jesus!" Censored is the news that the Beatles promoted the drug culture that has virtually destroyed a whole generation of Americans. Blacked out is the news of how he and wife Yoko denounced the traditional and Christian family unit as part of "the God trip, or father-figure trip," which has to be dissolved in faovor of "facing up to reality instead of always looking for some kind of heaven." When John Lennon spoke of the pleasure of being without parents, wife Yoko explained in an article in Ramparts, vol. 10, no. 1, July 1971, page 45: "Perhaps one feels more pain when parents are there. It's like when we're hungry, you know it's worse to get the symbol of a cheeseburger than no cheeseburger at all. It doesn't do you any good, you know. I often wish my mother had died so that at least I could get some people's sympathy. But there she was, a perfectly beautiful mother."
Suddenly because of the premeditated action of a "Jesus freak," a man who was the antithesis of everything considered respectable by Christians is presented by the Establishment Media as a Christlike martyr! The Age of the Anti-Hero it might be called. Morality is scorned, sinfulness is sanctified. Patriotism is called treason while treason prospers. Joseph McCarthy is vilified, John Lennon is glorified. Even when the majority of Americans would wish it otherwise the Establishment Media blacks out truth, keeps their eyes and ears turned and tuned to invented crises, created catastrophes, and the actions of murderers. Like pages upon newspaper pages and hours upon electronic hours, bemoaning the condition of 52 hostages in Iran, while hundreds of MIAs and prisoners of war and known to be alive, but are officially forgotten, in enemy lands. Columnist William P. Hoar says that 389 Americans known to have been prisoners of war were simply written off after the Korean Police Action, that there are 2,500 unresolved cases of American Servicemen missing from the Vietnam War; that there have been more than 4,000 individual sightings since 1973, of U.S. Servicemen in Indochina, many still alive and in miserable condition. But what Establishment Medium will mention this? Instead, they'll lament the 52 in Iran and tell us to wear yellow ribbons in remembrance -- the color of cowardice.
We have a federal government that is out of control, partly because of the communications network that is under the control of a self-chosen Elitist Company which uses it "under the semblance of maintaining liberty (to) gradually establish despotism." To defeat that monopoly is our purpose.
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