Another Case Of White House Censorship

Another prime example of the White House attempting to censor and silence the media was revealed yesterday. Below is a post from Crooks and Liars about how CBS caved in to pressure from the White House, aided by a Senator, to kill a story with damning evidence of illegal Bush-style justice and politics.

This is an outrageous atrocity that has been going on for several years now, and it has done serious damage to this country as well as a lot of the world. It’s past time to hold this administration, as well as all of those lawmakers (or lawbreakers, depending on who you’re referring to) accountable for their actions.

Congress and the media are supposed to be the eyes and ears of the American public. Congress and the media have grown richer turning blind and dumb while Americans have been terrorized by their own government and financially ruined. You can turn the tables and start doing something about it.

Between the lines below is the post from Crooks and Liars. Below the post is my rant to CBS.

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60 Minutes Caves to Pressure from White House on Siegelman Story… article from Crooks and Liars:

We’ve done posts on Don Siegelman before. The former Alabama governor was convicted of corruption on shaky grounds and imprisoned and kept from speaking out or appealing the verdict in an unbelievable story of Republican cronyism and amoral partisanship. Now it looks like the strong arming continues…all the way to the corporate offices of CBS. After all, it worked so well with Dan Rather…

at Largely:

Well folks, seems that 60 Minutes is postponing (read “killing”) its Siegelman story. The excuse I am told for this lapse in ethics is that the network needs more time to vet the whistle-blower, Dana Jill Simpson. You see, the reason the network suddenly needs more time to vet Simpson is that the White House has launched a direct campaign inside CBS to discredit her and just to make sure the dirt sticks, they have called in some favors too. I am told that Senator Jeff Sessions has been instructed to help the White House discredit Simpson as part of his “Senatorial” duties. Nice system of government we have here, eh?

So, two things are going to happen now. The first is, we will be including what 60 Minutes did not report as part of the Raw Story series on the case. Instead of 5 installments, we will now have 6. Second, all of you as citizens of this nation must voice your concerns about this situation to CBS. You want a free press? Then fight for it!

ADDRESS:
60 Minutes
524 West 57th St.
New York, NY 10019

EMAIL: [email protected]
PHONE: (212) 975-3247

UPDATE: Don Siegelman’s birthday is coming up.  Mark Crispin Miller has been in contact with him and says his spirits are low. You can send him a card of support via the address here.  (h/t MBH)

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My rant to CBS:

It’s a shame that you choose to let political and judicial corruption stand in the way of truth and justice. Your reputation is allegedly based on honesty and integrity but your ethics have been compromised and questionable for years. Letting the most corrupted presidential administration in history suppress the truth will only end up making you look just as bad as them.

Despite the fact that CBS selectively mentions the presidential candidates in their online polls and articles, and the fact that there is still a LOT of corruption involved in the ‘democratic’ election process selectively reported, young voters are turning out in record numbers to vote. Why? Because they’re just as fed up as the rest of us. They’re also well aware of the selective reporting done and the corruption of an administration that holds itself above the law, and they’re fighting to do something about it.

Americans are realizing that an entire administration has been blatantly lying to them, using (sometimes completely ludicrous) scare tactics to further their corrupted agenda. For too long now civil rights have been methodically removed from us all to further the illicit agendas of this presidential administration and the greed of large corporations such as yours.

It’s no wonder people don’t watch as much news or buy as many newspapers. Even before Bush was appointed to the presidency, many once reputable news sources started reporting propaganda for the White House instead of reporting the truth while keeping quiet about illicit activities going on that will have a dramatic affect on the vast majority of every American citizen. As a result of receiving ungodly amounts of money — at the taxpayers cost while you receive tax cuts — to do what his dictatorship wants, large corporations got larger and wealthier while Americans became poorer, misguided and uninformed.

Little mention of the deceitful language of the “Homegrown Terrorism” Bill is made by main stream media owned by large corporations. It’s not enough that this administration has to fabricate evidence to convict terrorists at the cost of their right to defend themselves with legal defense, or knowing exactly what they’re being charged with. The Homegrown Terrorism Bill would give this administration the right to imprison, possibly torture or worse, any citizen the government believes is trying to incite terrorism — of course, with all the terrorism purposely committed among American citizens by this administration, you can bet they won’t be arresting or convicting themselves. In order to keep people quiet, this administration believes they can do what they want when they want.

More and more people are relying on independent investigative news sources found on the internet. It’s not full of the lies and propaganda, and it’s not owned by the White House. For example, FOX News, one of many ‘reputable’ news sources owned by this administration is beginning to pay the price for their stupidity. Of course, trying to portray George Bush as Abraham Lincoln — which is akin to comparing Hitler to Mother Teresa — doesn’t help them either. How they can possibly think people are that stupid is beyond comprehension.

The problem this administration has is that after more than 7 years of lies and BS — a plethora of corrupt incompetent and delusional leadership in key positions who engage in selectively falsifying and fabricating propaganda, illegally spying while claiming to be protecting americans and profiting from an illegally started war that has resulted in what amounts to genocide — it’s becoming harder to suppress it and keep it all straight. Intentionally ruining reputations of those who oppose their lies and corruption has been one of the many dubious themes in this administration.

Firing Dan Rather for telling the truth and purposely smearing his reputation was a bad mistake on your part. Letting this administration kill the integrity of a show such as 60 minutes — a show that has for the most part, a lot of integrity — and hiding more information from the public would be a bigger one.

As noted in an article titled “The Media At War – Old Media Vs. New Media” from Citadel-of-Light:

“The Old Media has lost the faith of the American people after betraying it for years. The New Media is poised to bring a level of accountability and richly different information to the table. New Media is changing the media-scape permanently.”

If you look at the current approval ratings of Bush and Congress, you’ll see an approval rating of 30% and 22% respectively.

You obviously have verified credible evidence provided by Dana Jill Simpson. To sit back and continue letting OUR Government illegally smear reputations of whistle-blowers or any other individual or organization that has stood up to and spoken out against this administration makes you just as guilty as they are.

Main stream media has profited from and contributed to the political corruption of this and previous administrations. Don’t let the stupidity and corruption of an ‘elected’ leader who is running out of time ruin the reputation of CBS or 60 minutes. While what happens next is up to you, you have the opportunity to do the right thing. A lot of us hope you will.

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