Z.Monkey’s Blog

According to some researchers the Daily Show has as much real news as CBS or FOX. This doesn’t really surprise me but it does clearly illustrate the problem with broadcom news, they have the same amount of news as a ‘fake’ news show.

It also demonstrates that the mainstream media may not be so mainstream anymore, and that people looking for in-depth treatments of newsworthy topics are often best served by looking in places other than the evening news or The Daily Show, no matter how funny the latter is.

Maybe it is time to stop using the TV to get your information!

This might be a stretch but here goes.

Thomas More was Lord Chancellor for King Henry VIII (of England), and was know for being intelligent, fair and honest, much like Colin Powell. Now, as you may or may not know, Henry would eventually break with the Catholic Church in order to divorce Catherine of Aragon. This decision could have been very unpopular so the King decided that More should use some of his “political capital” to persuade Parliament and the English people to go along with him (not that he needed him, Parliament rubberstamped the act anyway).

Now if you read through a recent Washington Post article on Powell entitled, “Falling on His Sword: Colin Powell’s most significant moment turned out to be his lowest”, you may see some similarities. As I stated before, Powell was known for being honest, intelligent and fair; his poll ratings showed this (they were always higher than Bush’s). Bush wanted Powell to use some of his political capital to sell the war in Iraq to the UN and the US public, as Cheney put it, “You’ve got high poll ratings; you can afford to lose a few points.” As we know now, Powell did go to the UN and make outrageous claims about Saddam having WDMs, e&c. (It was probably not necessary for Powell to do as there was a rubberstamping congress at the time). According to the article, Powell was just a soldier following orders (even though he questioned the validity of the intelligence they were based on) and that the mean old people in the White House tricked him into doing it (even though he had the same intelligence they did and knew the people involved would do almost anything to start a war).

So, when placed in a similar situation, what did More do? He refused to support Henry. And, while he never contradicted Henry’s reasons for divorce/annulment, his silence was an extreme censure (and taken as one by the public). In the end More did have his head chopped after a mock trail, but he stood up for what he thought was right! Powell did not. Could he have held up the war by saying “I need more information before I can make this argument”? I think so. If he did that, there might never have been a war, because, as we know now, most of the intelligence was wrong or used in a misleading way (i.e. they lied). What is more, More did what he did knowing he’d probably be executed. Now Powell will always been seen as either to dumb to know what was going on or, more accurately, unwilling to take a stand in a tough situation.

Aside, I was recently “supposed” to read through Thomas Moore’s Utopia for class and the comparison between More and Powell jumped into my mind when I read the Washington Post article. I hold you enjoyed it!