TMR: Trust in Mass Media All Time Low, Edward Snowden Documentary Debut at NY Film Fest, and the NSA Thinks It Still Has Friends
It's only Thursday, which is too bad, as everyone looks forward to Friday far, far more for obvious reasons. Thursday's inferiority complex must be massive. Anyway, here's that whiny crybaby of a day's Morning Roar! Public Trust in Mass Media Hits All Time Low This should surprise no one except liberals and conservatives who only watch the channels that appeal specifically to their point of view, but the quality of mainstream media reporting has gone straight to hell and the public isn't buying it anymore. A new Gallup poll reveals the discontent and mistrust with the MSM that's grown over the years.
After registering slightly higher trust last year, Americans' confidence in the media's ability to report "the news fully, accurately, and fairly" has returned to its previous all-time low of 40%. Americans' trust in mass media has generally been edging downward from higher levels in the late 1990s and the early 2000s.
What's shocking and amazing is that there has been a "sharp uptick" in those polled saying that the media has gotten "too conservative."
Nearly one in five Americans (19%) say the media are too conservative, which is still relatively low, but the highest such percentage since 2006. This is up six points from 2013 -- the sharpest increase in the percentage of Americans who feel the news skews too far right since Gallup began asking the question in 2001.
Wait, what? Seriously? I know Fox News is ridiculous most of the time, but for one Fox News, there exist many MSM channels that cater to the liberal whims of the President as if he had a controlling stake in ownership. CNN, MSNBC, NBC, ABC - these are all still strongholds for liberal propaganda coming from the White House. I personally have been impressed lately with the NYT, WSJ and WaPo's efforts to try to become more balanced in recent months. The current President and his media cronies have been sharing a bed for quite some time, and now more than ever.Edward Snowden Documentary, "CITIZENFOUR," Debuts at NY Film Festival Edward Snowden is a man with quite a fanbase here at Lions of Liberty, and we look forward to taking in the Edward Snowden documentary, CITIZENFOUR, when it reaches the western shore after its premier at the upcoming NY Film Festival.From Deadline Hollywood:
New York Film Festival director Kent Jones said today that the Film Society of Lincoln Center has added the world premiere of Laura Poitras’ CITIZENFOUR to its Main Slate lineup. The presentation will run Friday, October 10 at 6 PM at Alice Tully Hall.According to the festival: In January 2013, Poitras was several years into the making of a film about abuses of national security in post-9/11 America when she started receiving encrypted e-mails from someone identifying himself as “citizen four,” who was ready to blow the whistle on the massive covert surveillance programs run by the NSA and other intelligence agencies. In June 2013, she and reporter Glenn Greenwald flew to Hong Kong for the first of many meetings with the man who turned out to be Snowden. She brought her camera with her. The film that resulted from this series of tense encounters is absolutely sui generis in the history of cinema: a 100% real-life thriller unfolding minute by minute before our eyes.
Maybe our East Coast Lion John Odermatt will take a road trip to NY and report back for us?NSA Chief Says "Yes we still have friends"The fallout from the NSA spying scandal was immense, sending shockwaves not only through our own country's political elite and citizenry, but also through the political leaders in our ally countries, none of which were too happy to learn that they'd been spied upon. Yet, despite this, the chief of the NSA wants to assure everyone that they "still have friends."
Adm. Michael Rogers, commander of U.S. Cyber Command and director of the National Security Agency, said the Obama administration’s controversial spying programs have not cost the country friends or allies either in the technology industry or abroad. Indeed, the agency shows no signs of slowing down at all.“I fundamentally reject the premise of the question that says the NSA is no longer in a position where it has a relationship with foreign counterparts or with the corporate sector, or that foreign counterparts have walked away from the NSA. That’s not what I’ve observed in my five months as director,” he said.
I know that some corporations have been fighting back against government demands for data as they come under fire from consumers, and Germany at least was more than a bit miffed at the US for its spying ops. While I'd like to think that Rogers is sitting in his basement, talking to his stuffed animals over a tea party and pretending that Cherry Merry Muffin is actually Germany's Chancellor, worldwide espionage seems to be an "everybody-in orgy" where no one cares if they get an STD. Our longtime, super-strong, billions-of-dollars-a-year wasted "ally" Israel is the biggest espionage threat to the U.S., yet all we hear on the Hill is how we have to make sure they stay safe and secure.Oh, also, Rogers seems to want to expand the surveillance power of the NSA. I mean, hey, why wouldn't he? It's not like the government actually ever listens to the citizens of the country or anything, or ever learns from its mistakes.
“You look at the most controversial program… it blew up not because of what NSA was doing…but a significant change in American political culture. A significant faction of our countrymen… said, ‘OK, you told them, you didn’t tell me. That’s consent of the governors, not consent of the governed.’”Rogers’s comments suggest that the NSA will not be changing its approach to metadata collection in any meaningful way unless compelled by changes in law. In fact, he seemed to imply that the growing threat posed by massive cyber incidents could serve as justification of expanded types of data collection, bordering on the controversial.
He wants to build up a “full spectrum of capability” to allow the government to respond to cyber attacks and, of course, launch them himself! But a big part of that is developing better situational awareness of what’s happening online at all times. Read that to mean more surveillance of users’ online behavior, possibly within the United States, that may pose some threat to larger systems or that could be classified as “not normal.”Super duper. ****As I walk away whistling "Happy Days Are Here Again"Read The Morning Roar every weekday Monday-Friday!The Lions of Liberty are on Twitter, Facebook & Google+Receive access to ALL of our EXCLUSIVE bonus audio content – including “Conspiracy Corner”, “Degenerate Gamblers” and the “League of Liberty Podcast” by joining the Lions of Liberty Pride and supporting us on Patreon!
