Surviving Capitalism (Not) : Amanda Knox: a story of media depravity

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, October 11, 2016

Amanda Knox: a story of media depravity

Click here to access article by Jonathan Cook from his blog.

I'm not sure I can thoroughly justify posting this article. The main reason is that Amanda Knox is a young woman from my area and a student at the University of Washington in Seattle. I think it was a junior year abroad arrangement that took her to Italy where she ended up in this Italian judicial and capitalist media nightmare.

I thoroughly recommend the new documentary Amanda Knox to anyone interested in either human nature or the role of the media – which should include most of us. Here is the chance to hear the main protagonists tell their stories. Don’t be put off by the lukewarm reviews. Journalists don’t much like this film because it reveals so much about how journalism works – and it isn’t pretty.

Of course, Cook is referring to capitalist journalism in which the reigning cult of capitalism permits and even rewards journalists to feed the profit and/or power mills of corporations. It's an old story, but well told according to Cook who sees the film's insights being very applicable to the current British scene where corporate media mills are being fed to stop Jeremy Corbin.