Gore Vidal on the Real News
throws his conderable weight behind an effort to get at the real news behind the corporate spin:
Everybody with an IQ above room temperature is on to the con act of our media. They are obeying bigger, richer interests than informing the public -- which is the last thing that corporate America has ever been interested in doing.
In this interview, he discusses the American media's unwillingness to ask the right questions, take risks, and pursue political investigations with energy. Socrates said the "unexamined life is a life not worth living", and Vidal agrees; but journalists, he says, are constrained by whichever corporate empire employing them to examine political life, and academics are too nervous about earning tenure at universities to rock the boat. The result is a depressingly unadventurous public-intellectual landscape. But can the internet offer the solution he's looking for?
Comments
Gore Vidal is one more left over reject from the 1960s left wing lunatic fringe who hasn't died off yet. Right in there with the likes of Norman Mailer and Noam Chomsky. Still full of his cynacism, contempt for the average American voter, filled with conspiracy theories, and held up as some sort of intellectual luminary by a few diehards because he can put a string of words together to form sentences and have them published as books. I've heard this crap all of my life. It was disgusting when it was in fashion among the spoiled brat baby boomers in their squandered college years 40 years ago but it's merely pathetic from this washed up has been/never was today. I'm sure there are a relative handful of Americans new to this bilge who will swallow it and many America bashers all over the world especially in Europe are only too happy to proclaim his likes as the real voice of the American People. But in truth, when his kind or those they support most strongly run for office, they NEVER get so much as one percent of the votes. Transparent as glass they aren't called "the lunatic fringe" for nothing. By the way, does he also include ±«Óătv in his list of lying media outlets? They're among those at the top of mine.
Well, Mark, I have to agree with Gore Vidal that the U.S. news media is not an independent body.
I learned this to my astonishment when I got involved with an investigation of the crash of TWA 800 after I had personally witnessed the firing of a missile in the NY metropolitan region. The story of my work on TWA 800 is published here:
members.aol.com/bardonia/
Despite the materials we brought to numerous news organizations in the U.S. including the NY Times there was no follow up. Indeed I had one senior reporter tell me that his âgovernmentâ sources said he âshouldnât go thereâ and if he did all future âbackgroundâ briefings with him would be terminated. Independent journalism? Bah!
Fritz Meyer, with his co pilot Chris Baur, were the first pilots over the crash of TWA 800. Fritzâs story was never published and a surveillance van was placed outside of his home (a story about this appeared in Paris Match) All of this was known to the American news media. Read Meyerâs account here
hometown.aol.com/missiletwa800/meyer.htm
Despite the fact that several hundred eyewitnesses saw what happened to TWA 800 not one of these eyewitnesses was permitted to speak before any public panel including the NTSBâs âopen panelâ and the news media never questioned why. We gathered their story and published it on the internet
hometown.aol.com/missiletwa800/eyewitn.htm
Despite the fact that our group obtained the actual FAA audio recordings of other missile incidents involving take offs and landings at JFK and Newark airports and gave these to the news media nothing was ever followed up. You can listen to these tapes and judge their news value for yourself here
hometown.aol.com/missiletwa800/tapes.htm
Shortly after the 911 incident an aircraft was bombed taking off from JFK and crashed. The news media printed only a story of how the tail had broken off because the pilot had gone through some turbulence of a preceding aircraft yet the story that others assembled from the eyewitnesses and gave to the U.S. press was again ignored. That story can be read here
hometown.aol.com/missiletwa800/aa587.htm
Mark, I am not politically in the Gore Vidal camp but in my opinion he is right on the mark on this matter. I could have given other examples but I fear this post might not then be published on a ±«Óătv blog.
Regards,
Michael
Lots of people love conspiracy theories. I know people who have been debating who actually killed John Kennedy and who was behind it for the last 44 years. But most times, the real truth is exactly what it seems to be.
I think it was Nova or CNN or both which presented a very detailed analysis of this crash including discussion of the missile theory. I think most reports at least mentioned the missile theory and cited eye witnesses who claimed to have seen it. The evidence speaks to an entirely different cause, an electrical spark inside the center fuel tank which ignited the air fuel vapor mixture above the liquid. Eyewitness accounts are notoriously unreliable as anyone familiar with law enforcement knows (you hear it on Law and Order almost every episode.) Only a thorough investigation can determine the actual cause of an airplane crash, something which usually takes years. Most of the wreckage was recovered and reassembled since it was found in relatively shallow water. It would have taken an enormous conspiracy to cover up a missile attack as many people were involved in the investigation. The fact that your missile theory was explored in the program and was widely known even from the beginning shows that the conspiracy theory of a coverup is absurd. If the government tried to discourage talk of it at the beginning, it was probably due to not wanting people to generate mass hysteria and panic based on unfounded evidence, at least not until an investigation had determined the likely cause.
"After an exhaustive investigation into the cause of the TWA explosion, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) concluded that the probable cause was not terrorism, but an electrical short circuit that sparked an explosion in the vapor-filled center fuel tank. The NTSB warned that other aging planes were similarly vulnerable and, in fact, some safety experts had warned about the risk of fuel tank explosions as far back as the 1960s."
The fact that the problem has not been fixed is much more ominous than it would be were it a terrorist attack. It means many planes now flying are vulnerable at any time. Personally, I have given up flying, my last flight was around eight or ten years ago. The airlines IMO still have a lot of work to do before I'll feel flying is both safe and not too great an inconvenience. I've flown and traveled enough already for a lifetime anyway.
Re# 3 Mark: Read the material I proffered! Especially the Meyer stuff. He was flying the pieces of the aircraft away from Calverton and down to Washington when the FBI picked them up before the NTSB viewed them! The only pieces the NTSB got were the pieces that the FBI approved.
Go figure.
Anyway I am not going to discuss it anymore as I find that debating the issue with people who have not studied the case is Sisyphean. I just brought the matter up to say that from my own personal experience Gore Vidal has a valid point. You just attacked him as a person and me for my facts.
But that is ok - no hard feelings ;-)
Here is another list of people that I hope you won't disparage. Some of the people involved in this were:
1) Admiral Thomas H. Moorer USN (deceased) - Former Chairman, Joint Chiefs of staff. During World War II Admiral Moorer received the Silver Star for "extremely gallant and intrepid conductâ during an attack by Japanese aircraft. He also received the Purple Heart. In 1957, President Eisenhower approved his selection to the rank of Rear Admiral. During the 1960âs, Admiral Moorer commanded the Navyâs Seventh Fleet, for which he received the Distinguished Service Medal. He later served as Commander in Chief of the Pacific Fleet, NATOâs Allied Command, Atlantic, and the U.S. Atlantic Fleet. He is the only Naval officer ever to have commanded both the Pacific and Atlantic Fleets. In 1967 President Johnson awarded Admiral Moorer the Gold Star. In the same year, President Johnson named Admiral Moorer Chief of Naval Operations. In 1970 President Nixon appointed Admiral Moorer as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs. He served two terms at this post. After retirement in 1974, Admiral Moorer remained active in policy matters as a fellow with the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
2) R. Admiral Mark Hill USN (Ret.) - Submarine officer in the Pacific during World War II and then naval aviator where his command included the aircraft carrier Independence during the Viet Nam conflict. He also served as Asst. Chief of Naval Operations for Manpower and has testified extensively before Congress. He was the Chairman of U.S. Defense - American Victory, Washington, D.C.,
3) Brig Gen. Ben Partin, USAF, (Ret.) - Designer of Continuous-rod warhead for the BOMARC missile.
4) Cmdr. William S. Donaldson USN (Ret. Deceased) - Former Officer in Charge of Carrier Battlegroup's Air Traffic Control Center, pilot and military accident investigator. Cmdr. Donaldson wrote a Report to the Subcommittee on Aviation on the Crash of TWA Flight 800 to which the I contributed a section on the eyewitness reports and a statistical analysis of eyewitness credibility.
5) Captain Howard Mann, Retired TWA captain and accident investigator. Captain Mann analysed the Flight Data Recorder.
6) Major Fred Meyer - Decorated Vietnam pilot and Air National Guard pilot who witnessed TWA 800 shot down from his helicopter and was one of the first pilots to overfly the burning wreckage. Major Meyer's eyewitness account may be read in detail in the references provided.
7) Captain Al Mundo - Retired TWA pilot and the flight engineer on TWA 800 for the incoming flight from Athens.
Just read the material and weep!
Other can listen to this:
hometown.aol.com/missiletwa800/pia712.rm
Regards,
Michael