Genie’s out of the lamp

    To start this off right we’re going to have to take a quick jump back in time… say about forty years, the early 70’s.  I remember seeing bits and pieces of news broadcast, a few things that stick in my mind were the clips from the Vietnam War (maybe they were a bit graphic for a child my age), another thing I remember was the man that brought these stories to me, Mr. Walter Cronkite.  Back then (to me) he seemed to be a Grandfatherly figure calm and confident, bringing a view of the outside world to me.  The man had an air of intelligence, honesty and integrity about him that mesmerized me, it might as well have been Moses himself speaking from the mountain.   And of course the Watergate story and how journalist didn’t take “I’m not a crook” for an answer, they kept pressing and questioning till the full story was exposed.

 

     Stepping forward twenty years or so to October 1993, I was stationed at Royal Air Force Mildenhall in England when I saw the first reports of the Battle of Mogadishu in Somalia (commonly referred to as Black Hawk Down) on the BBC News Channel.  Again the video clips I saw on BBC were graphic, the troops of the War Lords dragging the bodies of American Solders around, the people kicking and hacking away at them as they passed.  A few weeks later on one of the VHS tapes from my parents (I really missed American T.V. so they would record hours of programs for me) anyway I saw the same reports of the battle that were being shown in the U.S., but they were sanitized… any view of the troops were cut out.  At the time I didn’t think much of it, maybe it was out of respect for the families I thought but in my youth I had seen equally gruesome images from the Vietnam War nightly.  Another thing I noticed, the questions being asked by the reporters didn’t seem to press the point… What Happened?  Why?  I was involved in air refueling tanker operations and heavy airlift at the time and the murmuring was that additional equipment had been requested by the Commanders in Somalia but President Clinton refused the build-up request wanting to avoid the appearance of escalating hostilities (a little preview of Benghazi?).  The press had to be hearing the same things we were but they seemed to rarely question the White House press releases.

 

    Now another twenty year jump to today, it’s no longer isolated instances of journalist biting on the “Official Release”. Almost without exception journalist are quick to run with the “OFFICIAL” account they have been fed.  No longer can we look to the news agencies for that Grandfatherly figure, calm and confident, with an air of intelligence, honesty and integrity.  For the most part what we get is a journalistic version of a used car salesman peddling a lemon of a story hoping we’re suckers enough to buy it.  The cheapened version of (and I use this term loosely) Journalist have taken the magic lamp of trust and smashed it only to release the Genie inside… and I hope, to their dismay.  The Genie is everyday citizens, ordinary housewives, factory workers, students… even grumpy old Vet’s like me that have taken to the internet on Facebook, Twitter, Blogs, etc…  We ask the questions that the professional journalist is unwilling to ask, we press the stories they refuse to cover, we are willing to point out the fact that the “Emperor” isn’t wearing any clothes in the middle of main stream media’s royal fashion report.

    Just to name a few, stories like Fast & Furious gun walking and Benghazi that the media was ready to write-off, the horror of Dr. Kermit Gossnel that the media had to be goaded into covering in its final days, or the fact that anyone bringing up IRS treatment of conservative groups was called a crack-pot by the media.  Now a force of citizens each with their own specialties, experiences and thoughts speak out to inform when possible, to empower, to embolden others to speak out.  We are slowly becoming the “Shapers” of public opinion, not by individually relaying stories on a national scale but by telling what each of us sees in our local communities, from our own front porches.  When our stories, our observations unite we not only shout-down the used-car salesmen journalist, we expose their omissions and lies. 

    Each day the credibility of the TWEET, The BLOG post or the FACEBOOK comment equals and much of the time surpasses the accuracy of journalist reports and the politician’s speech.  Unfettered by political expediency or agenda driven priorities the citizen is free to use critical thinking, common sense and often, just plain old gut instinct to pen their comments and articles.  You may be familiar with the Michelle Malkins’ and the Pat Dollards’ of cyberspace but you should consider stopping in on a few of the less well known contributors and adding them to your following list…  Each in their own right is worthy of an expanded audience.   Some are prolific writers others seek out and share interesting articles that don’t get national exposure, either way they each help to spread the truth that has become so obscured in the main stream media.

Will the Genie be put back into the lamp?

The TOMCAT

Recommended Sites/Follows

Jill‏
@Cajun_Fury  (a long archive... I've got a lot of reading ahead)
http://moronicprochoicequotes.blogspot.com/search?updated-min=2013-01-01T00:00:00-08:00&updated-max=2014-01-01T00:00:00-08:00&max-results=50
 

William Gohn
‏@WilliamGohn
http://paper.li/WilliamGohn/1357781485#

@IrishJoeHarriso

Writings of Irish Joe Harrison
http://irishjoeharrison.blogspot.com/

Pat Read

‏@SwiftRead
http://conservativereport.org/double-cross-hillary-clinton-state-dept-funded-trained-benghazi-terrorists/

Tom O'Halloran‏

@TPO_Hisself
http://tomohalloran.com/

AmericanBorninCanada‏

@ABiCduckie
http://constfreparty.blogspot.com/

Yllek T Mass‏

@YllekTMass
http://awellregulatedmilitia.wordpress.com/ (Get Back into the Fray)

John Dehmer

@jsd808

Ted Krager‏

@HomeownerIQ
http://www.thebrennerbrief.com/author/tedkrager/  (A must READ!!!)

Conservative Chick

@NaughtyBeyotch
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Naughty-Troublemaking-Beyotch/590279340986755?fref=ts

Dale Seale
@SealeTeam1
https://www.facebook.com/dale.seale

Selyf Sarffgadau‏

@CaptainJDavis
http://captainjamesdavis.wordpress.com/

Tom Holthaus

‏@tjholthaus
http://tomholthaus.blogspot.com/
 
By no means is this list all inclusive but in the past week these folks have written something or forwarded several items that have caught my attention…