Obama Empowers the Corporate Military Prison State

Max Eternity - Though mired in the economic crisis of the Great Recession, many Americans are nevertheless continuing to throw their blind support behind President Obama, even as it becomes widely known and agreed upon that he has not followed through on most campaign promises. Perhaps it is because some feel they have no choice. And yet, instead of being the Progressive he made himself out to be on the campaign trial, the President is serving up what appears to be yet another Bush term, policy wise, in the White House. His justice department has given cover for the torture program of the Bush administration, also continuing to operate secret sites and prisons, including Guantanamo Bay. Obama bailed out Wall Street, simultaneously neglecting main street--the middle class and working poor. And though the President received the Nobel Peace Prize last year, he has also escalated the Middle-East wars and occupations, more that Bush ever did--adopting the unconstitutional Patriot Act, increasing spending on nuclear stockpiles, while also doing essentially nothing to stimulate job growth. And in its most recent affront to democracy, the Obama administration has ordered the de facto militarization of Haiti in the aftermath of that nation's 7.0 earthquake that has killed over 200,000 people, due in large part because the US military, which has taken complete control over aid operations, has neglected to distribute already delivered aid to the devastated populace, also now shutting down Haiti's only airport.

Obama and the Democratic Party has failed or caved at almost every turn since the president was sworn in--costing them the loss of Teddy Kennedy's senatorial seat just last week in Massachusetts to a virtually unknown Republican, Scott Brown. And while the right-wing political machine continues to amass its power, in spite of the fact that the republicans are the minority political force in Congress, the Left is befuddled in a fog of disillusionment, enamored with the personality of a man, the President, who filmmaker Michael Moore has declared "The New War President."

To be expected, this ongoing colossal blunder on the behalf of Democrats and Progressives under the leadership of Obama, is playing out in the media too, with FOX News coming out on top, in a very big way. The Guardian UK reports:

The onward march of Fox News, the relentlessly rightwing channel that has revolutionized American television news by making it overtly partisan, has been boosted by an opinion poll that suggests it is the most trusted news operation in the country.

Almost half of all Americans surveyed in the poll of 1,151 registered voters said they trusted Fox News. That is a notably larger vote of confidence than the 39% who said they trusted Fox's great rival CNN, and vastly more than the credibility ratings of the traditional news networks ABC News (31%), CBS News (32%) and NBC News (35%).

The poll findings are vindication of the commercial strategy of Fox News, which is owned by Rupert Murdoch and is the brainchild of his controversial henchman Roger Ailes. Fox News threw out the old model of television news - pitched towards a mass audience across the political spectrum and aspiring to standards of fairness in reporting - and replaced it with an aggressive drive for a niche audience of rightwing voters.

The motto of the network is "Fair & Balanced", but in many respects it is anything but. "Fox News is not really a news network, it's a commentary network. Its news output is a small island in a vast sea of very conservative commentary," said Mike Hoyt, editor of the Columbia Journalism Review whose March issue features a cover story exploring the Fox News phenomenon. Read more.