The Brass Check is a muckraking exposé of American journalism by Upton Sinclair published in 1919. It focuses mainly on newspapers and the Associated Press wire service, along with a few magazines. Other critiques of the press had appeared, but Sinclair reached a wider audience with his personal fame and lively, provocative writing style. Sinclair called The Brass Check "the most important and most dangerous book I have ever written."
The University of Illinois Press released a new edition of the book in 2003, which contains a preface by Robert McChesney and Ben Scott. The text is also freely available on the Internet, as Sinclair opted not to copyright the text in an effort to maximize its readership.
For much of Sinclair's career he was known as a "two book author": for writing The Jungle and The Brass Check. Sinclair organized ten printings of The Brass Check in its first decade and sold over 150,000 copies. To maximize his readership, he did not take advantage of the opportunity to copyright the book.
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Sinclair criticizes newspapers as ultra-conservative and supporting the political and economic powers that be, or as sensational tabloids practicing yellow journalism. In both cases, their purpose is to promote the business interests of the paper's owners, the owner's bankers, and/or the paper's advertisers.
This is accomplished in several ways; among them:
The publishers tell the editors what can and cannot be printed.
Journalists routinely invent stories.
To stimulate circulation, newspapers sensationalize trivial stories and destroy lives and reputations.
Errors and slanders are never retracted, or the retraction is buried in the paper months later.
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At this point, I wonder if you have watched THE MEDIA AS THE HANDMAIDEN OF WAR. According to the Massachusetts School of Law that uploaded the video:
"Freedom of the press belongs to whoever owns the press." In this presentation of The Massachusetts School of Law's program, Books of Our Times, Dean Lawrence R. Velvel interviews American Historian Howard Zinn on his books: You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train - A personal History of Our Times, and Failure To Quit - Reflections of an Optimistic Historian.
The Massachusetts School of Law also presents information on important current affairs to the general public in television and radio broadcasts, an intellectual journal, conferences, author appearances, blogs and books. For more information visit THIS SITE.
Watch THAT VIDEO ON THE MEDIA AS THE HANDMAIDEN OF WAR.
Take a look around you today. Consider what you can read in the MSM and many online portals.
Does it seem to you that someone or some quarters are fanning away selling a negative picture of what might happen? Are they amplifying what they perceive to be deviance simply because something is not congruent to their ideals? What ARE they trying to sell to us?
They can fan, fan, fan away but the truth will prevail, especially amongst those who can see beyond deceit, lies, fabrication/distortion of truth.
patches It would appear that they have achieved their aim. I hear many telling one another to stay in on that Saturday and some say to even stock up. I am so aghast that these people who always at the first opportunity at any get-together would grouse, complain and repeat what is already on the blogs just don't get it into their heads that they should be responsible enough to go out and make a difference. Indeed, sad and gloomy days lie ahead for us all.