Guest Post by Eric Peters
Have you noticed that major media web sites like CNN no longer publish reader replies to their stories? Could it be that they realized the false consensus maintained by print media was being eroded by allowing people to openly disagree with and question the propaganda being peddled by them? 
No question.
It wasn’t just that people disagreed. It was that thousands disagreed. Each MSM story typically had a tsunami of contrary reader responses so lopsided that it clearly indicated the public and the MSM are profoundly at loggerheads on major (and minor) issues. This public divergence encouraged individuals who, previously, felt very alone – that “everyone” agreed with the major media/party line about whatever the topic du jour happened to be.
Unlike the letters-to-the-editor page of a print newspaper, they had no control over what people wrote online in response to their dreck. And most of what the readers wrote radiated contempt for the “stories” published by the MSM, which typically left out critical facts and were (and still are) suffused with pro-state/pro-authority premises.
The people whacked the pinata – and the major media outlets began to be seen for what they were and still are: Propaganda organs for the nexus of corporate/crony capitalism and the warfare state. That is, for a tiny minority of interchangeable influence peddlers and job holders who have managed to get their hands on the levers of… everything.
For the con to work, the illusion of consent and consensus was critically necessary. But the people clearly did not like the endless wars, the flowering police state; the flooding of the country with “immigrants” … the politically correct lecturing about What We Should Think… . The occasional shootings performed by some defective loon were not having their intended effect of galvanizing public opinion in favor of “sensible” gun control. The people saw through the sham of “free trade” deals with authoritarian regimes that benefitted the Wall Street Crowd at their expense.
Etc. Etc.
It was embarrassing – and becoming dangerous.
The manufactured consensus that made viable the illusion of consent was crumbling.
Something had to be done.
So, the comments sections have been taken down. Check around, see for yourself. The major organs realized they were losing the debate – so they’ve stifled the debate. They are doing the last thing they can do – short of having the government shut down contrarian media.
If necessary, that’s next.
What they want – what they must have – is a return to the days when they, the anointed, regally issued The Story – and the public dutifully walked between the lines. The System depends on it, cannot exist without it.
Right now, they are trying to quell the mortifying (to them) public enthusiasm for Trump but much more so, the incandescent hatred of a very large portion of the public for Beltway/Wall Street Republicans, the greedheads and chickenhawks who’ve systematically gang-raped the country and want to keep on doing it. Trump’s support – more so than Trump himself – is a mortal threat to them and theirs. A crisis moment is at hand.
Jeb! was laughed off the national stage. Cruz, the oily and obvious tool of the same interests as The Chimp (whom he worked for) is despised. If Rubio fails, they will trot out … Mitt Romney.
But for that to succeed, they must – somehow – convey the impression that MIttens is desired by people other than the Wall Street banksters and Beltway warmongers (who never go to war themselves) and the only way to do this is by locking out and atomizing the public’s disgust such that it’s no longer so obvious.
To return to an Internet version of the Three Network days, when CBS and NBC and ABC (and their print analogs, The WashingtonPost and The New York Times) determined what was the news. Whatever they ignored was not news. Because no one saw it or read it, except for a few “kooks” on the margins.
There are – and always have been – many more “kooks” than the establishment media wants known. Especially to other “kooks.” A mass consciousness of kookiness spells real Trouble for the tiny elite that controls the country. Trump has tapped into this, opened a vein. Organs like CNN and the rest of them are doing their damnedest to triage the situation and staunch the flow.
This is not a paean to Trump. Whatever he is, he’s not a Libertarian. But he is a dagger aimed at the heart of the Republican Party – and they are screwed no matter what they do. If they thwart his nomination by backroom skullduggery, the puppet they trot out as his replacement – Mittens, for example – will be viewed as just that. A puppet. He will lose – epically.
Of course, the candidate they want will still win.
Hillary would be just fine with them. They have said so, openly.
But they play with fire and don’t even begin to realize it. There is gasoline all over the floor.
All it will take is a spark.
“Of course, the candidate they want will still win.”
“All it will take is a spark.”
Subverting the will of the people and installing ‘their’ candidate will surely provide that spark.
Or it won’t. We’ll see. They’re definitely playing with fire, though.
Our own rag used to have a lively opinion page back in the day when media wanted debate to bolster readership.
Then things slowly changed and the new editors attempted to control the conversation, first by setting rules that were interpreted by a mysterious moderator.
That failed so eventually big dogs were silenced by deletion of their accounts. I was deleted twice and the editor and I graduated high school together, told her to take a flying leap at a rolling doughnut.
Readership is wayyyyyyyy down, the rag is a shell of it’s former self with a remote staff simply pulling in stories from other remote staffs, just the same circle jerk over and over.
The people can sense this, not many in the majority trust the media, just the minority with the loud voice of media, which is growing more insignificant every day.
Change, is a commin.
The Hartford Courant is a completely compromised propaganda rag and has been for decades. They still have a comment section but it is heavily sterilized of any ungoodspeak.
Even my local rag pulls that shit. What it does is to simply remove the story and all the comments no matter how topical or important the story is. When challenged by readers on this behavior, those comments disappear as well.
Murika has the exact same free press as the Soviet Union had.
Same here in N.C. The Charlotte observer has been a liberal rag for decades. A few years ago they cut over half their staff but unfortunately they are still in business.
If Mitt gets it, I suppose the same people that voted for him last time will vote for him this time.
With the same results.
Bush v. Gore
Election fixed before your eyes. Think it wont happen again? You all have known for a long time now that hitlery was going to follow obama. Accept it and move on. She only gets the one term before it all falls down though.
I see censorship more and more everywhere-Facebook, MSN, Disqus is blocking people from commenting across the entire internet for no apparent reason.
First they demonized and shut down public drinking in bars, under the guise of completely skewed safety statistics. Then “the economy and the internet” shut down local papers.
Revolutions were fomented in taverns and local free press.
Figure it out folks.
Intentionally culled, then intentionally shut down from even speaking of it.
Tis for the children, you know. And it is. Makes them more compliant serfs to our masters.
And don’t forget to be afraid of aliens, get your flu/zika shots, and blame yourself when you drop dead young anyway.
The cognitive dissonance is such a sight to behold, well, from a distance that is.
Good read! They are on the run in search of a new strategy to lull the sheep. Their new found strategy may be the same as the old strategy, another false flag used to distract.
bb, I’m in Charlotte as well, and have seen the Observer dramatically veer to the left. Funny thing: I cancelled my subscription over a year ago, and they keep delivering it. Not sending bills or anything, it just keeps showing up. That tells me all I need to know about their propaganda efforts.
It’s not just in the USA….. Canadian MSM’s are shutting off the comment sections en-mass over the last year. They claim that has become a free for all with respect to human rights violations.
Bullshit…. most of the commentators bring up very valid points on any subject you can name, except it was “not politically correct to call a spade a spade” “We don’t want you to tell it like it is”
Hell even the local government HIRED people just to browse the comments section of newspapers and attack the commentators who dared speak about the government wrongdoings.
Journalism died a long time ago……..
“told her to take a flying leap at a rolling doughnut.”
It’s OK, you can say fuck. ‘Flying leap’ doesn’t work, unless maybe you were changing the insult to fit the gender of the insultee.
Control public conversation and you control public thinking.
Refuse to allow public conversation and you don’t even have to control it.
A lesson to enjoy the freedom of speech we have on sites like this, and a warning to do what it takes to keep that freedom. No doubt the wheels are turning on how to eliminate this freedom.
They don’t need no stinkin’ comments. BTW our local newspaper is BK. Consumers no longer read newspapers, therefore newspaper advertising is D.O.A. They’ve tried to switch to online but there is not enough mass on a local basis to make it work for advertisers. This is happening all over the U.S.
The Tallahassee Democrat was a full sized newspaper 10 years ago and now is a thin comic book even Liberals don’t read. Conservatives need not write letters to comrade editor.