{"id":2042,"date":"2008-01-17T12:27:22","date_gmt":"2008-01-17T18:27:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.blackactivistwg.org\/blog\/?p=2042"},"modified":"2013-04-09T10:33:22","modified_gmt":"2013-04-09T16:33:22","slug":"the-pimping-of-black-america-why-much-of-the-corporate-media-supports-barack-obama","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.blackactivistwg.org\/blog\/the-pimping-of-black-america-why-much-of-the-corporate-media-supports-barack-obama\/","title":{"rendered":"The Pimping of Black America: Why Much of the Corporate Media Supports Barack Obama"},"content":{"rendered":"

Published in Issue 260 of The Black Commentator on January 17, 2008<\/a>
\nBy Larry Pinkney<\/strong><\/p>\n

What is the current US corporate media-induced frenzy, regarding the so-called \u201cObama phenomenon,\u201d really all about and why, at this juncture in history, has it become increasingly so important for corporate America\u2019s global military\/industrial apparatus to have a male face of color as the figure head at its helm?<\/p>\n

The actual function of the US corporate media and its allies is to control, falsely depict, and shape opinion.<\/em> It does not exist to\u00a0inform<\/em> honestly the masses of people in order that they\/we might truly be an informed<\/em> people making\u00a0informed<\/em> decisions in our own best interest. Grasping this reality is essential to understanding how and why the US corporate media acts in the fashion it does.<\/p>\n

The perpetual objective of the US corporate media and its minions world wide is constantly to distort,\u00a0dis<\/em>inform and thereby disempower and control. Thus, anyone who dares expose the actual avaricious interests of the corporate media and its masters, in favor of the masses of people, such as does former US Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney, is vilified, marginalized and\/or ignored by said media. Cynthia McKinney is a\u00a0time tested<\/em>\u00a0champion of the people who has demonstrated time and time again that she is no pawn of corporate America\u2019s military\/industrial complex. Like the late and beloved former US Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm, Cynthia McKinney is \u201cunbought and unbossed.\u201d She does not have to make a case to the American people about her ethnicity or Blackness, as the essence of who and what she is, is amply demonstrated by her many years of\u00a0active<\/em>\u00a0commitment to the struggle for political, economic and social justice for\u00a0all<\/em>\u00a0people: Black, Brown, Red, Yellow, and White.<\/p>\n

Cynthia McKinney has left the morally and politically bankrupt Democratic Party in favor of building and supporting a real grass roots coalition across this nation that is committed to attaining real<\/em> power for and to the people. Nevertheless, don\u2019t plan to ascertain much about her US Presidential campaign or the concomitant “Power To The People” coalition\u00a0from<\/em> the US corporate media, for this is not in their interest. You will, however, learn about Cynthia McKinney\u2019s campaign and the “Power To The People” coalition over time, as the incessant whispers of\u00a0 every day people grow into the roars of active political coalition building. This is all about real empowerment: exposing, stopping, and ultimately systemically reversing the insidious gains made by the de facto war profiteers and their blood-soaked and greedy corporate partners. This is not about raising false \u201chopes\u201d or \u201cdreams.\u201d This is about people collectively and\u00a0actively<\/em>\u00a0struggling to take control from the corporate maggots of the military\/industrial complex who profit from the deprivation and misery of the vast majority of people in this nation and on this planet.<\/p>\n

It does not take a rocket scientist to understand, immediately and intuitively, that the very same (and in many respects\u00a0worse<\/em>) US corporate media that overwhelmingly vilified both Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X right up to the time of their assassinations, continues today to be no friend of the majority of the people, be they Black, Brown, Red, Yellow, or even White. To the contrary, the US corporate media promotes the interests of the corporate power elite by promoting those who represent those interests.<\/p>\n

A Black American reader of\u00a0The Black Commentator<\/em> recently wrote to me concerning Barack Obama: \u201cWith Obama the system is employing a bait and switch<\/em> tactic. On the surface the guy looks like he represents all that is new and hopeful, but he is a product of the corporate culture and that is where his heart and interests lie.\u201d In my opinion, this reader\u2019s observation is correct.<\/p>\n

When observing the cynical strategy of Barack Obama\u2019s US Presidential campaign, particularly as it relates to Black America, and ultimately to America as a whole, I am reminded of the words of Malcolm X when he said in relevant part, \u201cA man who tosses worms in the river isn\u2019t necessarily a friend of the fish. All the fish who take him for a friend, who think the worm\u2019s got no hook in it, usually end up in the frying pan.\u201d<\/p>\n

Be clear about this: Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was brutally murdered on April 4, 1968, in the context of his active and outspoken support for the massively exploited sanitation\u00a0workers<\/em>\u00a0in Memphis, Tennessee, and his crystal clear and\u00a0adamant<\/em>\u00a0opposition to the US war in Vietnam. Dr. King was fundamentally despised by corporate American media and the US military\/industrial complex. To portray this otherwise is simply not the truth, and it is accurate that those who do not know their history assuredly are bound to repeat it. We can ill afford to be hoodwinked by the US corporate media and its allies.<\/p>\n

Yet, when researching who US Presidential candidate Barack Obama\u2019s campaign advisors are, it is clear that they come from corporate America and the military industrial complex and who today remain, more than ever, the de facto enemies of economically exploited and oppressed Black, Brown, Red, Yellow, and White peoples. [Reference:\u00a0Obama and the American Dream,<\/em> by Dr. Lenore J. Daniels, PhD,\u00a0The Black Commentator<\/em><\/a>, January 10, 2008, Issue 259]. We must ask ourselves: are we about to be the \u201cfish\u201d who \u201cend up in the frying pan\u201d of corporate America\u2019s military\/industrial fish fry?<\/p>\n

Whereas Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. abhorred the US war in Vietnam and elsewhere in the world, Barack Obama, cloaking himself in the guise of being a \u201cpeace\u201d candidate, has repeatedly stated his support for \u201cunilateral\u201d US military actions in other nations. He has indicated that he opposes\u00a0how<\/em> the US is waging the war in Iraq, not the US waging of this bloody, illegal, and amoral war\u00a0itself<\/em>. It should be reiterated that Obama has clearly stated that he would wage this war \u201cbetter,\u201d more effectively. This is\u00a0not<\/em>\u00a0the position of a candidate of PEACE. It is the position of a candidate promoting\u00a0a PIECE of war.<\/em><\/p>\n

US corporate media clips and sound bites of Barack Obama, shamelessly and hypocritically mimicking and invoking as his own, the legacy of the murdered Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and other Black American women and men freedom fighters as if\u00a0he<\/em>\u00a0embodies the struggle for justice and equality of Black, Brown, Red and other disenfranchised people in America, is patently utterly obscene.<\/p>\n