"But whatever you call it (Mainstream Media), it has an agenda and people react to it like sheep. If you really look into things, Ron, I think you'll see there isn't a lot of difference between Keith Olberman and Bill O'Reilly. They set up a lively dialogue to make you think there's a difference, but it really only reflects the very shallow difference between Democrats and Republicans.

RIGHT!!!!! That is exactly the problem. The MSM keeps the public in a predictably sheeplike condition just as you have stated, Riginslinger. They set up supposed sets of opposites which are really so near to each other that it's a joke...and that is supposed to be an alternative???

This is plain to most people outside the USA, but the majority Americans aren't aware of it. They get fooled into the notion that the Dems and Reps are actually a legitimate choice between 2 points of view! Yikes. Those parties would both be considered right of center in most western democracies, they would both be considered very anti-socialist, very pro free market and in league with corporate policy, very pro-imperialist in their approach to foreign relations and American wars overseas.

What a farce. There is no real legitimate choice between opposing viewpoints in American politics. There's a duopoly of the corporate right that dominates the entire political agenda through two faces...the Democrats and the Republicans. The duopoly rules no matter who gets elected.

That doesn't change the fact, of course, that one candidate is sometimes a bit better or worse than the other...but it's still largely a phony exercise calculated to deceive the American voting public, to keep them in a sheeplike condition, and the MSM is the vehicle for marketing that phony exercise.

It's like Orwell's 1984...only it is done through extreme capitalism rather than dour socialism.

As in 1984 a war has been created which has no real identifiable enemy and no really achievable end. This permits the system to have an endless war, an ongoing crisis, and a reason to continue lessening civil liberties and tightening the screws. If you want a war that never ends, it's simple: create a fictional enemy who is supposedly "everywhere", but who cannot be found (Osama and Al Queda). Use that fictional enemy as an excuse to make war in whatever part of the world you wish to. Use it as an excuse to intervene in other lands where there are resources you want. Use it as an excuse to spy on your own population, increase police powers, and reduce civil rights.

It works like a charm. The best Osama is an Osama who can never be found. The best Al Queda is an Al Queda that doesn't really exist in truth, therefore can never be destroyed.

And the corporate weapons and money machine rolls merrily on...building more of its WMDs.

They themselves are everything they say that their "enemy" is. They are the enemy.