Home > An Open Letter To The Mainstream Media
Dear Mainstream Media,
Hello. I am the Plaid Adder. I am one of those people who posts stuff on the internet under an assumed name. Unlike "Jeff Gannon," however, I am not under the mistaken impression that I am a real journalist. I am a lunatic with internet access. I’ve always been ready to admit that. And it’s because I don’t work for a ’legitimate,’ branded, American media outlet that it drives me absolutely fucking NUTS to see you people CAVE to this bullshit administration!
I meant to maintain the tone of civil disagreement a little longer, but GOD DAMN! What the hell are we going to do when there is no longer a single recognized media outlet in this country willing and able to stand up to this administration’s bullying? What is it exactly that you people are afraid the administration is going to do to you? Throw you out of the White House briefing room? For God’s sake, if they want to throw you out let them do it—what the hell use are those briefings anyway, except to get the lies du jour dished out for you on a hot plate? Are you afraid they’ll cut off your access to administration sources? Well, if the administration sources are going to set you up and knock you over every time you talk to them, maybe you’re better off WITHOUT access to these doublecrossing bastards. Hey, have you ever thought that maybe you’d get more accurate information about what this administration is up to if you interviewed some people who WEREN’T on the Bush payroll? Are you afraid the conservatives are going to cancel their subscriptions if Scott McClellan yells at you? Honey, they’ll do it anyway as soon as you print anything that takes the halo off from George W’s head. Or are you really afraid they’re going to put you in jail for sedition? That’s not the way it works at this stage in the evolution of a dictatorship—it’s too important to them to maintain the illusion of a free press.
WHAT ARE YOU AFRAID OF? What have you got to lose by standing by a report that after all only relays a piece of information that has been in the public domain since 2003? Do you _really_ think that the average Afghani is making his decision about whether to participate or resist based on your reporting? May I remind you—and remind the assholes in this administration while I’m at it—that in the rest of the world, people get much of their news from outside the American mainstream media? The Koran-flushing story could have got to them from a dozen different directions long before you ever mentioned it, and even if you take Scotty’s advice and completely transform yourself into a helpful conduit for the Bush administration’s PR, that will not have a meaningful effect on America’s image abroad.
You see, America’s image abroad has already been irrevocably destroyed by America’s actions. Self-censoring so that you only tell the happiest of stories about America’s actions abroad only convinces those who have been affected by those actions that you’re all a bunch of lying cowardly administration bootlickers. Which accomplishes what, exactly?
Repair America’s image abroad. That’s a good one, Scott. Nobody on God’s earth could repair America’s image abroad after the job George W. Bush and co have done on it. And Rumsfeld sputtering about how "people are dying"? For CHRIST’S SAKE! This is the guy who responded to questions about massive looting after the fall of Baghdad with "freedom is untidy." This is the guy who unleashed "Shock and Awe," whose military doesn’t count civilian casualties, and who, most unbelievable of all, unleashed bloody anarchy all over the country he invaded because he DID NOT PLAN FOR THE INVASION PHASE. Now all of a sudden Rumsfeld cares about human life? BULL SHIT!
Look, if you people have decided that you can’t print anything critical of the administration because it’s too dangerous, why don’t you just quit? Just run blank pages and advertising from now till the end of the War On Terror. The War On Terror will never end, of course, which means you will never be able to go back to reporting—but what do you care? Not paying correspondents, editors, typesetters, or photographers will save you all a lot of money and increase your profit margins, which is apparently all you care about. OK, if you don’t think people will buy a blank magazine, why don’t you just bring in Jeff Gannon to write all your copy? He works for free!
Look, I’m not a real journalist. I don’t have the time or the skills or the experience to be one. Neither do most bloggers, really. That’s why WE NEED YOU. We need people whose job it is to find out what is really happening and report on it. Not what the administration SAYS is really happening, but what actually IS happening. You people are placed to do that, and you’re placed so that people will actually believe what you say. And what are you doing? Rolling over. "Thank you, Mr. Rove, may I have another?" BAD MEDIA! NO BISCUIT!
I don’t know why it’s so hard for people to understand: you DO NOT EVER CONCEDE TO THIS ADMINISTRATION. As soon as they smell weakness, you’re gonna get run over with a tank. CBS...*vroom*. Newsweek...*vroom.* PBS...*vroom*. Doesn’t it bother you to see everyone else going under the tank treads? Don’t you even want, just a little bit, to fight back, even if it only delays the inevitable?
Sigh.
Well, there it is. You have abandoned us. We are also abandoning you. In the end, the only people reading you will be Bush’s staffers and his worshippers. The rest of us will be reading the Canadian, British, and Australian media—or anywhere else we speak the language. This is the era of the world wide web, and we don’t have to buy your crap.
Enjoy your bootlicking,
The Plaid Adder
Forum posts
18 May 2005, 02:37
R.I.P. -Main Stream Media- 2002
18 May 2005, 09:59
I gave up reading the newspapers and watching the TV news 12 years ago, when I realised I was only getting half the story. Now I see we are being dished up with only a minimal percentage of the true stories. I don’t need to know about Michael Jackson and the Runaway Bride.
I enjoy reading fiction and science fiction, but I think the best fiction authors are now working for the media, not the book publishers.
Oh well. Come back, George Orwell, you were right, all along. Any one for 1984 and Animal Farm?
18 May 2005, 15:21
I ask all the subscribers of newsweek to cancel their subscription. Newsweek should change their name to NewsNot.
18 May 2005, 16:28
You were not too upset, were you now, when the MSM ignored the women who accused Clinton of improper conduct, isn’t that so? Because, after all, maybe Clinton behaved badly, but at least he was a Democrat, right you bloody left wing hypocrites.
The left controls two major organs these days: The media and academia. But the rest of us are fighting back now. I"m sick of hearing the glories of late term abortion by every radical lesbian Chris Matthews interviews.
18 May 2005, 16:36
Come on, they went after Clinton with everything they’d got. If the pursued GW the same way he’d have been in prison for years now. You right wingers have about as much memory as you’ve got common sense.
18 May 2005, 18:21
Excuse me! Clinton may not have been Mr Chastity but he didn’t lie to start an illegal war that has cost the lives of thousands of innocent people. He didn’t cheat to win elections or trod all over The Geneva Conventions by torturing people. George Bush and many people in his administration are war criminals. They should all be arrested, tried, convicted and sent to prison. In case you didn’t know, The International Criminal Court has already convicted Blair and The Shrub for war crimes. You people need to wake up. Bush is a FRAUD!
18 May 2005, 18:22
Using the term "Mainstream Media" is a part of their using the doublespeak language of Orwell’s 1984. Much like the No child left behind, Clear Skies Act,these things are all exactly the opposite of what the names state! After a while they hope people will be SO confused that they don’t know what the reality is.
If you have not read 1984 I suggest you do and you will be shocked by the similarities to what is happening now, right down to the BIG BROTHER and the TV. The TV IS the ruination of us all, not because it is watching us, as in Rove’s Bible(1984), but because it ie brainwashing millions of Americans into obsessing over Scott Peterson and Martha Stewart and Runaway Bride’s, instead of discussing REAL news such as the Right Wing obsession with power, and the thousands dying in Iraq!
Whenever any of the Corporations that control this Country label something, assume itis truly the opposite.
Boycot the media, and do as I do and everytime someone asks me "what do you think of the Runaway Bride", I say," Frankly I don’t think of such trivial matters I am more concerned with the thousands dying in Iraq,and the loss of our freedoms in this country". That makes the person who asked me feel foolish.
19 May 2005, 23:42
if black is white and white is black, then the only truth is that everything is really a shade of grey.
20 May 2005, 04:22
AMEN!!
20 May 2005, 11:15
I am not a supporter of Clinton, nor Bush. I am not rep, dem, left, right, etc. I am a citisen that has seen too many lies over the last 15 years in my travels outside this closed off nation.
Unlike the previous poster, that’s never seen real media. I know of a lot on Clinton that has never been reported here, the media didn’t go after him, that was a ruse.
Whenever you throw party affilation in, you lose and the real culprits win.
Worship no man/woman, search for all truths.
20 May 2005, 22:07
To the person who called President Bush the "Shrub" Are you an American? If you are, you must be one sorry American. I cannot imagine calling a sitting President by that name. Especially on a site that is read by many people who despise America and the President as it is. Too bad. No, Bill Clinton CERTAINLY was not Mr. Chastity as you put it. BUt on his watch, Osama bin Laden grew FAT, and POWERFUL, because Democrats are weak, and cannot fight back. This is one of the main reasons John Kerry (your candidate) lost the election. His plan? Surrender, pull out, capitulate, and make an abject apology on bended knee in front of the Useless Nations - that lodestone organization of all liberal orthodoxy. The same one that engages in pedophilia and other scandals like food for oil. Don’t see too many articles in the liberal press about it, though, now do you?
What Geneva Conventions and what ICC are you talking about? That is precisely why the Republicans in Congress are now going to fight tooth and nail to get us Judges that place AMERICAN soveregnty above the ICC. We will NEVER be part of that liberal madness! We will get Judges that rule in Favor of America and Americans, not the Europeans and Belgium. YOu embrace homosexual marriage and late term abortion, move to Canada or Belgium. I’m sure they’ll welcome you Americahaters with open arms, from what I"ve read going on at the Cannes Film Festival. Maybe you’d like France, that blueest of blue states. You can join that other liberal Democrat traitor. We are going to have Judges that affirm the rule of the people.
Today that other Jewish liberal traitor, Pinchy Sulzberger pushes more of his agenda to destroy this country with his front page article. If Alberto Gonzalez had any balls, he’d arrest that bastard and send him to a jail cell in Guantanamo Bay, where he belongs, with his cohorts.
Piscine Molitor Patel
20 May 2005, 23:20
DAMNNN, 63.***.93.**. When it’s that time of the month for you, it REALLY IS that time of the month!! Even the Shrub, himself, refers to himself as the Shrub, dumbass! Why don’t you do something really daring and get a grip on some historical facts while using smaller tweezers to get that ’special’ grip on yourself. Otherwise, go suck a little bit more on Jeff Guckert cum Jeff Gannon. . . .you know, the REPUBLICAN White House sex toy that you and every other so-called right-wing punk adores but doesn’t want to talk about! Clinton is OLD NEWS, dumbass, so you should really try to catch up with the real world; but since you insist upon reliving the past, why don’t you talk about THE FRANKLIN COVER-UP: CHILD ABUSE, SATANISM AND MURDER IN NEBRASKA. SIIIIIGGGGGGGHHHHH!!!! I apologize. I forgot. You don’t read books that tell the world the truth about girlie-Bush Republican sex. But maybe, just maybe, you would read HELL RANCH, and talk with the Cops and Prosecutors who investigated Shrub for six months in Brownsville, Texas, for the murder and skinning of 17 satanic cult members. The only surviver of the cult????? SHRUB!! But none of you ’enlightened’ and worldly people want to think bad thoughts about your asshole icon. An escape from your basement might be a helpful first start, but you and your asshole buddies just don’t have the guts! So put on your plastic GI Joe helmets and just keep on pretending to be bad and smart.
By the way: What are you going to do when the Canadians and ’BLUE’ people bring the revolution to the door of your basement, little one?
25 May 2005, 03:48
Gee, I thought I was being kind when I referred to GW as the shrub. I could have called him what he really is. A liar, a cheater, and a murderer. For your information the Geneva conventions, which the good ole USA helped write and became a signatory to, plainly state"...every State has the duty, in conformity with the Charter of the United Nations, to refrain in its international relations from the threat or use of force against the sovereignty, territorial integrity or political independence of any State, or in any other manner inconsistent with the purposes of the United Nations." Under article 3 of the conventions, in regards to the treatment of people of the "conquered country" the conventions clearly state "Persons taking no active part in the hostilities, including members of armed forces who have laid down their arms and those placed hors de combat by sickness, wounds, detention, or any other cause, shall in all circumstances be treated humanely, without any adverse distinction founded on race, colour, religion or faith, sex, birth or wealth, or any other similar criteria." (That’s just two example of violations of international law)
Georgie Porgie was planning to envade Iraq right after he was sworn in as Pres. Now with the Brithish memo being made public, we find he was lying about his war plans. That is a treasonable offence!
For those who believe that Shrubby won the election I offer the following;
(A) that the exit polls were wrong;
(B) that Zogby’s 5pm election day calls for Kerry winning Ohio and Florida were wrong (Zogby was exactly right in his 2000 final poll);
(C) that Harris’ last-minute polling for Kerry was wrong (Harris was also exactly right in his 2000 final poll);
(D) that it was just a coincidence that the exit polls were correct where there was a paper trail and incorrect (+5% for Bush) where there was no paper trail;
(E) that voting machines made by Republicans with no paper trail and with no software publication, which have been proven by thousands of computer scientists to be vulnerable in scores of ways, were not tampered with in this election."
Oh, by the way, stealing the election is also a trasonable offense. As for being an American I am deeply concerned about the direction our country has taken and I am trying, in my own way, to inform people like yourselve that there is something seriously wrong here. And, just as a parting comment to all the christian hypocrites; what business is it of yours if people marry whom they choose? Why is it such a problem for you? Meanwhile, real christian don’t use bombs!
20 May 2005, 23:42
Hey, Plaid Adder, I agree with you.........to a point. But your article still assumes that we have some kind of reasonable and rational person in the White House when you completely sidestep the issue of that BIG RED BUTTON that controls the launch of nukes. We have a confirmed psychopathic omnisexual asshole in the White House surrounded at all times by 500 guards and extraneous sex toys. What makes you think that kind of creature wouldn’t wipe out more than just 3,000 Americans the next time, while having a little kindergarten reading reprise of My Pet Goat? Fahrenheit 911 didn’t picture a ’Deer in the Headlights’ at the time of the attacks; that was the film of a two-legged brute just sitting there with a satisfied smirk while enjoying the thought of the screams and blood pouring from unsuspecting Americans. If the media ever reported the truth, there WOULD be swift and fatal, and some form of nuclear, retribution. Since the media can gain nothing from revealing the truth, the only alternative is to try not to lose everything by publishing the lies. The bold and courageous media we once knew and respected has devolved into a cold and calculatingly cowardly corpocratic coffee klatche! And SO HAVE WE!