Press foolery in the United States

THE EDITOR, Madam:

In dictatorships, at least some, perhaps half, of all those who daily suffer the injustices of their tyrannical leaders have obviously been fooled into believing in the scam. This may seem like a simple observation, but what is most simple in today’s virtual world may also be the most important key to finding truth. If something ends in fooling, it must’ve started with fooling. It’s just that simple.

In those same countries, we observe that the content and delivery of news media products – what’s got from the “press” as it’s called, if it even exists, is often heavily restricted or totally controlled by the government. There is a foolery at play here, a narrative the government wants its people to follow. It is the same in all dictatorships:

The government’s corruption must be hidden; it must maintain its power over all aspects of society and provide a palpable story line, one it hopes enough of its people will accept as representing the reality of their lives. The news media, the press, must become the keeper of the foolery and this becomes a critical part of making the scam work. If anyone objects to the government’s line, there is always a handy means of social pressure and individual retribution available from ostracism and slander to murder and disappearance - the choice is more one of convenience than necessity.

Individual and personal freedoms, beliefs, family, hopes and dreams – all this means nothing to the leaders of these dictatorships. So who is taking up their cause? What about the United States, that bastion of freedom and individual rights?

Today, it seems half the country is being fooled by what is called a “progressive” agenda supported by the mainstream press - one that in reality seems to contain hardly any progress at all and in fact has only shown just how easily corrupted the press in such countries can become.

The other half is now waking up to this foolery and wondering just how to keep the country from becoming another poor, Third-World type, socialist dictatorship. It needs all the help it can get to avoid that catastrophe, especially from its allies and what’s left of a free press anywhere in the world.

So, hang in there, Gleaner. Jamaica has earned a respected place in the free world and since your 1834 inception you have helped it to keep that place by continuing your best efforts to be informative, fair, objective and truthful efforts I am proud to support today with my letters, as I’ve been doing for many years now.

ED MCCOY

Bokeelia, Florida