On Spinning the News
Posted by Butler Shaffer at 11:57 AM

Though beginning my forty-third year as a non-voter, I nonetheless observe this circus, perhaps out of the same sense of curiosity that leads people to attend freak shows on the midway.

There was a noticeable difference in election return coverage between the mainstream television networks and C-SPAN. In its reporting, C-SPAN identified the specific party affiliations of the non-Republicrat candidates (who were listed as "Libertarians," "Greens," "Independents," etc.) By contrast, other cable channels tended to identify non-Republicrats - if mentioned at all - as "independents." Thus, in Arizona's sixth congressional race, CNN identified the Republican incumbent, Flake, as receiving 74% of the vote. Below his name was an announcement that there was no Democratic party challenger. On the following "page," it was reported that Blair, an "independent," received 26% of the vote. Blair was, in fact, the Libertarian Party candidate. Thus, a non-existent Democratic candidate was listed ahead - and in a separate showing - of the candidate who provided some significant opposition to the GOP incumbent. Reporting that there might be organized political parties offering major challenges to the "Republican vs. Democratic" cartel would be too dangerous to establishment interests. Such information must be directed to the memory hole.

The New York Times' slogan "all the news that's fit to print" seems to have been revised, by some television channels, into the motto "all the news that fits our agenda, we print." C-SPAN, at least, has retained its integrity.

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The Revolving Door Keeps Spinning
Posted by Butler Shaffer at 02:23 PM

Those who still harbor doubts about the symbiotic appetites for power that unite most institutions, are invited to pay close attention to Donald Rumsfeld's resignation as Secretary of Defense. After serving four terms in Congress, Rumsfeld became U.S. Ambassador to NATO and, thereafter, CEO of two major corporations (one a pharmaceutical firm) and, later, chairman of the board of another pharmaceutical company. The revolving door took yet another turn and he became Secretary of Defense.

Robert Gates was former head of the CIA, and now serves as president of Texas A & M University, as well as board member of several corporations.

The state, corporations, and academia are implicated not only in the news regarding Department of Defense leadership but - along with the media and various religious organizations - in a continuing effort to employ the coercive power of the state to achieve institutional ends.

When the decline and fall of Western civilization occurs, just make certain you are not standing beneath an institution!