Forum Post: Hail to all 99 percenters

Conservative losses in the recent U.S. elections are almost entirely due to the Occupy movement. The trouble is that the coming winter will push much of the movement underground. But during that time 99 percenters can do something very constructive. First a few facts: For twenty years conservatives have operated a huge nationwide propaganda machine, not unlike that which German Fascists used in the 1930s to turn ordinary Germans against Jews, intellectuals and socialists. It isn’t just coincidence that conservatives today are targeting generally the same kinds of people for the same ugly reasons. And the methodology differs little to that of the past. Conservatives are using a two- tier system. One of which emits insults and character assassinations which effectively end all discourse. The other, much subtler, fills the resulting vacuum with lies. Though less shocking, the latter is far more dangerous because it’s spread by “community” newspapers and magazines which behind a facade of ingratiating beneficence distort, censor and lie about the truth. While we all know of Fox News, The New York Post, the Wall Street Journal, and the Associated Press (a refined version of the NY Post), comprising a far larger part of this machine is a company called Gannett Publishing Inc. (GPI).
If you’ve never heard of GPI it’s no surprise. It’s under the radar because it IS the radar. As the largest newspaper publisher in the U.S., it owns 80 daily newspapers and around 900 non dailies plus “America Today,” plus all armed forces papers and periodicals, plus many web portals. It is the principle reason why conservatives have done so well politically since the election of president Obama. GPI has worked tirelessly to imprint conservative views in the public mind and almost single handedly has helped conservatives damage the union movement and the public school system in America. Because of GPI influence public schools are being replaced by charters, whose teachers, no longer protected by tenure, are now destined to teach only what right-wing ideologues tell them to teach. A book titled “The Chain Gang – One newspaper versus the Gannett Empire,” by Richard Mccord conveys what GPI is all about and what it’s been doing since the Reagan years. It tells how profit and power obsessed GPI has systematically compromised freedom of the press in the U.S. (and the UK too- because it is now doing there what it has done in and to the U.S.) While the destructive influence of GPI has been great, its contempt for truth has helped produce the Occupy movement, exposing a vulnerability in the process that might otherwise be difficult to exploit. Now, the Occupy movement is large and strong enough to exert great pressure on all members of this propaganda machine, Fox included. Boycotts of GPI’s print media and boycotts of products of those who advertise with GPI, Fox and their various allies , can be severely damage that machine, and perhaps even shut it down for good. During the coming winter 99 percenters should promote these boycotts wherever possible. For a list of newspapers and other media outlets controlled by GPI and Fox go to their web sites. What you will find is eye-opening. Also it would be very useful to write letters and email to those who use GPI and Fox to advertise.