[OilsNotWell]

MSM = Mainstream Media...

Here's an interesting article:

Canada: Class Action Accuses Banks of Illegal Creation of Money

Here's a few other subversive sites you might want to check out and hear what you don't normally hear to make up your own mind...

http://www.gnn.tv/

http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/


http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/

http://www.dailyreckoning.com/

Link TV

Whiskey Bar - Free Thinking in a Dirty Glass

[OilsNotWell]

Gee, now all the latest about Brittany what's her face, Paris 'Sex-Tape' Hilton, and Michael's trial seem well, distractionary, now don't they?

Dig deep into some of those sites (Information Clearing House in particular, which has a video of why the media works (or doesn't) the way it does)...and you've got a recipe for a '4th Estate' that went from protecting liberty (hmmm...did it ever really do it that well, come to think about it...I can think of lots of groups who didn't fare so well...) to engendering and perpetuating servitude or worse....

Click on all those links on the left and you'll be amazed...

Oh, and here's another one:

Strike the Root

"There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root." - Henry David Thoreau.

[UIUCstudent01]

I also recommend:

Lefti.blogspot.com - A blog, but news with very good analysis
dissidentvoice.org - Updated at least Daily
axisoflogic.com - Also good.
globalpublicmedia.com - One I'm sure most have encountered here.
freerepublic.com - Home of Neo-Naz *cough* Neo-con propaganda testing grounds on loyal supporters - either that or there are fake posters.

Sometimes I turn the TV on (my roommate uses it for video games and such) and turn it on to CNN or MSNBC... and just point out all sorts of different things to my roommate (who wishes to be in blissful ignorance - but I tell him anyways). I just can't believe how much news stories are misleading or how much they focus on distractions. ARGH!

America is just so dumbed down. ug. ARGH!

[chargrove]

You can't forget Daily Kos, overwhelmingly the best political / current events blog on the 'net IMO (the community there is enormous; there's a reason why several folks from Congress post there).

[bart]

Juan Cole (Mideast expert and author of the blog Informed Comment) wrote a great call to arms for bloggers:

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'M')atthew Haughey says he won't read our blogs if we use the term "mainstream media" (a.k.a. MSM).

A news flash for Matt: We don't care.

We don't care if you read our web logs.

The difference, Matt, is that we are independent actors, not part of a small set of multi-billion dollar corporations. The difference is that we are not under the constraints of making a 15% profit. The difference is that we are a distributed information system, whereas MSM is like a set of stand-alone mainframes. The difference is that we can say what we damn well please.

If we were the mainstream media (perhaps better thought of as corporate media), we would care if you threatened to stop reading us. Because although we might be professional news people, we would have the misfortune to be working for corporations that are mainly be about making money.

We would be ordered to try to avoid saying anything too controversial (and I don't mean "Crossfire" controversial), because we would be calculating what would bring in 15% profits per annum on our operating capital. Would hours and hours of television "reportage" and discussion of Michael Jackson or of Terri Schiavo or Scott Peterson (remember?) bring in viewers and advertising dollars? Then that is what we would be giving the public. Bread and circuses.
Mainstream Media and Bloggers