Surviving Capitalism (Not) : Is Shutdown of Investigative Journalism Department of Beijing Paper Harbinger of USA Things to Come?

We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Is Shutdown of Investigative Journalism Department of Beijing Paper Harbinger of USA Things to Come?

Click here to access article by Rob Kall from OpEd News.

In the context of the recent reports of a shutdown of a Chinese investigative journalism unit and the concentration of media in the hands of a few who engage in corrupt practices like Murdoch's News Corp in Britain, he asks some very important questions about the freedom of journalists to pursue the truth.

My answer is that the Chinese incident is no "harbinger of things to come"--it has been an increasing reality over the past 40 years in the US. Thus, it seems to me that Rob Kall's belated observations are another example of how naive "progressives" in the US have been. As Frances Moore Lappé once wrote, it's "time for progressives to grow up."