Honestly don't read this it's just sad, fuck poaching
I'm only picking this to comment on, because it's the most recent FP post, and I need to bitch about them, and I think you'd be a receptive ear besides. Do you get their daily emails? I do. They register you when you sign up, and I never bothered to unsubscribe, because I like some of the content, and I also really, really like run on sentences, but that's not important right now. Anyway, if you do get the emails, you'll notice today that the subject line isn't "Morning Brief:...". It's "Morning Brief, Presented by Chevron:..." I thought it was a satirical joke, and I laughed until I actually opened the email to see that there's a big fuckin' Chevron logo in the banner. Are we really admitting that Chevron gets to control the press who writes every day about the Middle East? WTF?!? I don't think I'll ever be able to look at them the same again. So much for even the appearance of an independent press. What a fucking joke. I'm pissed off right now.
My contempt for them, or their contempt for us? I'm going to assume you meant the latter and answer that question, because it's more interesting anyway. I think that, although the of exploiting the minerals of the Mideast history predates it significantly, that everyone should familiarize themselves with The Suez Crisis. Even though the US wasn't involved in that plot, I think it accurately sums up the attitude of business interests toward those parts of the world that they consider to be populated by lesser humans. And the fact that it was perpetrated by governments on behalf of business interests further signifies the extent to which the strings are pulled by the wealthy (the old Golden Rule: Those who have the gold make the rules), as they were able to recruit entire armies to join their cause (or maybe they didn't recruit, maybe it was just assumed that this was good policy and no guidance from BP was necessary--what's good for GM is good for America, after all). The one thing that we (The People) have in our power is knowledge. If the press doesn't provide it to us, who will? It's not as if we can travel to far flung regions of the world on fact finding missions ourselves. "New Media" can't help. Even good bloggers don't have foreign bureaus. Corporate news isn't new; I get that. But when the press starts openly serving corporate interests, unnecessary wars break out (for the uninitiated, see, e.g., Spanish American War, The Iraq War, and various police actions and coups, among others). (By coincidence, NYT had an Editorial Board piece about how it won't bow to China's demands on changing its China coverage, because NYT doesn't serve any government. Oh, the chuckles that brought me when reminiscing about the Iraq War. Tom Friedman still has a job there, for the record.) News media need money. And like any other organization, they serve the people who pay them. When you and I stop paying, someone has to. I'm sure Chevron is all too happy to "sponsor" FP's daily briefing. I doubt they will ask for any editorial oversight. They won't need it; it will be assumed. This is what we get for demanding free newspapers. Shame on FP. Shame on Chevron. Shame on us. In the short run, let's keep an eye on how vociferously FP argues that we need to protect Kirkuk from ISIS. I'd put the over/under at a lot.
p.s. consider it in context of "self governance", "The People", the bell curve, and social mobility.
HA! Kerry's next press conference ought to look like this: "Foreign policy of the United States ... presented by ExxonMobil." And his opening line: we've finally stopped lying! I mean if oil companies control what we do in the Middle East they might as well also control what the media says about it. I'm done.