Jacqueline Marcus: Corporate Media Networks Want Obama to Fail

BUZZFLASH GUEST COMMENTARY
by Jacqueline Marcus

Corporate media networks want Obama to FAIL. If Obama is not failing, then the corporate press outlets deliberately "project" the perception of failure.

For the first time in a long time, we got to see our President again at Allentown, speaking to his supporters. We got a chance to hear what he is up against: When questioned about regulations, for instance, Obama explained that is trying the best he can, but that Congress stalls legislation with committee hearings and debates and that it takes forever to get the ball rolling. We got to hear his side of things, uncensored and unedited by the corporate media. I felt assured that President Obama is indeed trying to get the right things done, but it's hard to see where he stands through the anger of Afghanistan and the smoke of Wall Street bailouts.

Nevertheless, after seeing Obama at the Allentown meeting, answering questions with his own people again, I felt badly for him.

One way to keep Obama's accomplishments off the radar is by censoring talks such as the one he gave in Allentown. C-SPAN showed it one time to my knowledge and will show it just once again on Monday night exactly during Monday Night Football. As for the mainstream media, NBC Nightly News, owned by defense contractor, General Electric, showed a brief edited clip of a young man asking about legalizing prostitution -- and that was it.

During Bush's Presidency, the networks, including C-SPAN, couldn't get enough of Bush. Every day, we saw Bush's face at every switch of the channel: Bush, Bush and more BUSH.

George Bush was the beloved King of Corporate Deregulation. And the media showered him with gifts, especially positive media play, full time, in the limelight.

President Obama explained that he's fighting hard to establish regulations to prevent the banks and Wall Street boys from repeating the same rip-off schemes such as "lending less and gambling more -- using taxpayer money to pay bonuses, float a new stock market bubble and make even riskier bets." As Obama put it, "What everyone hears is the $700 billion that was given to the failing banks, but what you DON'T hear is that the banks are paying back the Federal loans, with interest, and that we're making a profit -- and that money is being used to pay off the deficit." He's not happy about the bonuses and is pushing Congress to act quickly on supervision-regulations, but Congress is stalling as usual.

In emergency cases such as this, President Obama has the authority to implement an Executive Order to pass financial banking regulations, but instead, he's trying to ethically rely on the democratic process via Congress. However, if Congress is too caught up in corruption, then he should go around Congressional members and do what is best for the country. Global Warming IS an Emergency Crisis. Hence, there is every justifiable reason for employing an Executive Order to enforce lower pollution emissions with stiff penalty and criminal charges if industrialists don't comply. Predictably, the media and Republicans would crucify Obama for that, but in response, he could remind them of Bush's perpetual use of Executive Orders for corporate benefits.

What is Obama up against? We have a pretty good idea when the corporate media exaggerates a lost memo e-mail that refutes global warming despite the obvious threats we're facing from glaciers rapidly melting to severe droughts. We have a good idea of what he's up against when the corporate media censors all protests against the escalation of war, no coverage at all, but if the lunatic Republican "teabaggers" are out, they not only give them full coverage for weeks, they deceive the public on the number of teabaggers, exaggerating the appearance of crowds as was demonstrated on FOX.

I'm certain that President Obama does not like sending soldiers off to Afghanistan. There's more to this story that is yet to be told, but at the same time, there is absolutely NO coverage of what his administration is doing for improving conditions for veterans: Obama explained that he's increased funding for the Veterans Administration more than any time in the last 30 years of negligence. Obama has increased the funding and is working to improve the bureaucracy through the use of modern technology so that veterans can get the benefits that are due to them. There were no improvements under the Bush Administration.

For eight years, the Bush Administration systematically destroyed our middle class economy by turning up Reaganomics to high speed: Deregulation, corporate welfare of tax benefits for the coal and oil industries, defense contracts worth billions of dollars -- raping and polluting our national forests, rivers and oceans with an EPA that stood for Bush's Environmental Pollution Agency, and the list goes on. These major industrial polluting and defense criminals would make the worst gangster on the street look decent by comparison. Imagine the film "The Devil's Advocate" and you'll get an idea of how the Bush administrators and their corporate thugs operated in the White House. They've infiltrated our government at every level in every department. No one can be trusted.

"Compound that with the Bush-Cheney administration's aggressive seeding of its staunch loyalists throughout the bureaucracy, and you have a pretty tough situation. Obama, then, has to contend not only with the big donors and corporate lobbies. His biggest problem resides right inside his team." (Russ Baker, "What Obama Is Up Against")

By bureaucracy, think IRS, think CIA, think Pentagon and the corporations that have full control of the media.

The corporate media networks want Obama to fail. They want us to forget about the eight years of disastrous economic policies that reduced working Americans to an impoverished middle class. They are blaming the last eight years of horrific economic consequences on Obama. In addition, they want to make sure that his supporters hate him. How so? By focusing on the most unpopular decisions that Obama made under congressional and corporate pressure, and by censoring his accomplishments.

After listening to Obama's Q & A last night, I'm convinced that he IS trying harder than what we're led to believe. We have to be careful not to let the corporate media and press influence or manipulate our perception of Obama. That's not to say that we shouldn't be critical of decisions that are troubling to liberals, but at the same time, we need to focus on the progress he's making under incredible resistance, progress that is deliberately censored by the corporate press. That's why the corporate industrialists hate the Internet because they haven't figured out a way to control and edit it -- yet, but you know they're working on it.

BUZZFLASH GUEST COMMENTARY

Jacqueline Marcus' book of poems, Close to the Shore, was published by Michigan State University Press. She is a regular guest contributor to BuzzFlash.com. She taught philosophy at Cuesta College, San Luis Obispo, California, and is the editor of http://www.ForPoetry.com. She is currently promoting green technologies (solar & wind) on the island of Maui. www.GoSolarMaui.com. She is currently working on a new book: Corporate Media and the Erosion of a Civil Society.