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Opinion
Nov. 29, 2009
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

THOMAS MITCHELL: President Hermaphrodite

THOMAS MITCHELL
MORE COLUMNS

Return with us now to those thrilling days of yesteryear, when men were men, women were women and presidents were hermaphrodites.

Huh?

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    • Well, that seems to be the wish of a couple of scribblers in a recent Washington Post article.

    John Nichols and Robert McChesney bemoan the decline and presumed eventual death of American newspapers. They quote President Obama as saying, "I am concerned that if the direction of the news is all blogosphere, all opinions, with no serious fact-checking, no serious attempts to put stories in context, that what you will end up getting is people shouting at each other across the void but not a lot of mutual understanding."

    The two writers claim the present marketplace kills 1,000 journalism jobs a month, and call for a financial model to pay journalists to "question, analyze and speak truth to power."

    Nichols and McChesney anguish over the "prospect that this 'information age' could be characterized by unchecked spin and propaganda, where the best-financed voice almost always wins, and cynicism, ignorance and demoralization reach pandemic levels, is real. So, too, is the threat to the American experiment."

    Their answer to this dystopian vision is as old as the First Amendment itself: federal subsidies.

    Nichols and McChesney correctly report that the post-colonial press was sustained by postal jobs and printing contracts from various levels of government.

    "The first generations of Americans never imagined that the market would provide sound or sufficient journalism," they write. "The notion was unthinkable. They established enlightened subsidies, which broadened the marketplace of ideas and enhanced and protected core freedoms. Their initiatives were essential to America's progress."

    They neglect one niggling little problem with those "enlightened subsidies." The post-colonial press was beholding to its benefactors and, as such, was notoriously partisan, vicious and subjective to the core.

    There was no incentive for fact-checking or putting stories in context. Those papers were much like the benighted blogosphere, full of spin and propaganda and shouting across the void.

    A cursory perusal of early journals reveals a propensity for scandal and slavish loyalty to the person holding the purse strings. Even Thomas Jefferson financially supported the newspaper writings of the likes of James Callender and Philip Freneau, who aggressively and often savagely attacked George Washington, John Adams and Alexander Hamilton.

    For his part Hamilton used newspaper editor John Fenno to do his bidding.

    When Jefferson was secretary of state, he hired Freneau as a translator and assured him government printing contracts, as well as insider information for his National Gazette newspaper.

    Meanwhile, Hamilton used his post as secretary of the Treasury to funnel printing contracts to Fenno's Gazette of the United States.

    From their respective sinecures the two editors exchanged calumnies, epithets and slanders.

    Fenno's paper printed a letter describing the competition as "the tool of a faction, and the prostituted vehicle of party spleen and opposition to the great principles of order, virtue, and religion."

    Freneau's called Fenno a "vile sycophant" and said Hamilton's policies were "pregnant with every mischief."

    But Callender was probably the most infamous of the era's scribblers, partly because he changed sides depending on his patron of the nonce.

    While under the wing of Jefferson's Republicans, he wrote about Hamilton's affair with Maria Reynolds. After a falling out with Jefferson, he wrote about the president's alleged dalliance with the "African Venus" Sally Hemings, who he noted had a son named Tom whose "features are said to bear a striking resemblance to those of the president himself."

    Fenno suggested Callender was responsible for "sufficient slander on our country to entitle him to the benefit of the gallows."

    Actually, Callender was the beneficiary of a jail cell during the Adams administration for violating the Sedition Act.

    Perhaps that is why Callender accused Adams of having a "hideous hermaphroditical character, which has neither the force and firmness of a man, nor the gentleness and sensibility of a woman."

    Nichols and McChesney are co-authors of an upcoming book called "The Death and Life of American Journalism." I won't fail to miss it.

    Many of the descriptions of the subsidized colonial press' antics reported above can be found in Eric Burns' book "Infamous Scribblers: The Founding Fathers and the Rowdy Beginnings of American Journalism."

    A subsidized press is hardly the answer to what ails modern journalism. No man, nor journalist, can serve two masters -- his readers and his benefactor.

    Thomas Mitchell is editor of the Review-Journal and writes about the role of the press and the need for access to public records and meetings. He may be contacted at 383-0261 or via e-mail at tmitchell@reviewjournal.com. Read his blog at lvrj.com/blogs/mitchell.

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    poor cow-patrick wrote on November 29, 2009 09:27 PM: His little religion turned out to be a farce and now he realizes that he is a gullible moron. Global Warming is for sheep who need led.


    how to make a difference wrote on November 29, 2009 08:55 PM: To fully understand the Fed ~ you must review its dark history of greed and manipulation which begins with the Rothschild's.

    TIME LINE OF THE ROTHSCHILD OWNED FEDERAL RESERVE BANK

    1791-1811: Rothschild's First Bank of the United States.

    1816-1836: Rothschild's Second Bank of the United States.

    1837-1862: Free Banking Era - no formal Central Bank through the efforts of President Andrew Jackson, who , according to Jackson, the Rothschild's later tried to assassinate.

    1862-1913: System of National Banks through the efforts of President Andrew Jackson.

    In 1862 Abraham Lincoln issued his own fiat money to finance the Civil War and bucked the New York Banks who wanted to charge the government 24- 30% interest on any loans. Lincoln was assassinated on April 14, 1865

    President James Garfield tried to buck the banks and was assassinated on July 2, 1881.

    1913-Current: President Wilson Federal Reserve Act creates a consortium of privately held Jewish & associated banks called the Federal Reserve Bank. The largest shareholders of the Federal Reserve Bank are the Rothschild's of London holding 57% of the stock which is not available for public trading.

    On May 23 1933, Congressman Louis T. McFadden brought impeachment charges against the members of the Federal Reserve Bank. A smear campaign against McFadden ensued and he was poisoned 3 years later.

    On June 4th 1963, John F Kennedy signed Executive Order 1110 which returned to the U.S. Government the power to issue currency without going through the Federal reserve. With the stroke of his pen, President Kennedy was on his way to putting the Federal Reserve Bank of New York out of business ~ for that order gave the U.S. the ability to create its own money backed by silver. Five months later on November 22, 1963 Kennedy was assassinated.

    Congressman Ron Paul wants to audit the Federal Reserve. His bill to do this (HR


    coinage wrote on November 29, 2009 08:06 PM:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AICGUyoISX0


    how the leaders use a simple tool to keep the distractions at maximum wrote on November 29, 2009 03:33 PM: effects of partisan ideology to blurr and distract the public to ram through a master plan of the elite and are an ongoing trick of liars who control the puppet strings


    http://hubpages.com/hub/Kennedy_Executive_Order_11110


    patrick wrote on November 29, 2009 03:04 PM: Rasputin:

    Its odd that a self-professed independent has very little to say about the problems with the republican party, yet is very vocal about the problems with the democratic party.

    And, the only "seriousnessness" about the President's birth certificate is that those who view it as a serious issue, cannot be taken seriously.


    Frank's right wrote on November 29, 2009 02:14 PM: Perfect description of the Review-Journal.


    Frank M. Pelteson wrote on November 29, 2009 01:57 PM: Thomas Mitchell is revealing the truth about reporters.

    It is that they are liars, tattle-tales, troublemakers, and generally useless for improving Society.

    So, why are we buying newspapers?

    We are reading them for the advertisements, to play the crossword puzzles, to read the financial pages, to get the radio and TV programs, and to get the weather forecast.

    The rest of the sickening garbage, called "News," has little or no value.


    Rasputin wrote on November 29, 2009 01:41 PM: Hey, lil p -

    I've had an (i) after my name for my entire adult life, and I'm extremely concerned with the reasoning and plans that our current president is propagating.

    Add to that the seriousness of the birth certificate issue, a matter which has not, with any sort of finality or measure of honesty, been proven, and there is, indeed, grave concern for many Americans.

    And your opinion not withstanding, just because someone is a Republican does not make them 'evil' or 'narrow-minded', just as being part of the Democrat party does not make one 'good' or 'enlightened'. Far from it; I tend to see hard-core R's and D's as the two differing faces of the same problem.


    patrick wrote on November 29, 2009 01:26 PM: Mr. Mitchell:

    I appreciate the admission that this newspaper is more interested in some lunatic story about whether the President has a birth certificate than it is in the former vice president having SECRET meetings about this country's energy policy.

    Hmmmmmm:

    Only people interested in having the sky falling during this administration are those who have a (r) behind their names.

    And, this country is finally recovering from the tragedy foisted upon us during the administration of the minion of the devil; I know how hard that is for people with a (r) behind their names to take, but there it is.


    hide the truth to make money wrote on November 29, 2009 12:49 PM:


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