TWO WEEKS LATER--OCCUPY DEFENSE LETTER APPEARS

well--they did get the headline 'wrong'--but then my local newspaper does own the printing press.  Click on the newspaper opinion page http://thedailystar.com/opinion/x1022081317/Letters-to-the-Editor-Nov-16-2011 if you'd care to give it a little love.  I'm sure it will get some folks (probably more academic liberal types) in a lather.

Occupied by Revels, Slaves, and Courtjesters?

Recent Millard Filmore cartoons and letters about the “Occupy” movement conflict with my knowledge that 4-tour Marine Scott Olsen lies damaged by rioting paramilitary police in Oakland.   Award-winning journalist and theologian Chris Hedges calls Occupiers “the best among us.”   Having visited a few general assemblies in D.C. and NYC, I must agree with him.  They are clean, respectful, and principled. 

Sadly, the U.S. has no Canadian style law banning media liars--or we could ban Fox News and derivative ‘humor’ from Filmore.

  As a journalist since 1977, with a Masters and PhD in critical media analysis, I feel obligated to point the Star to the shining example of the late Ralph McGill, who put his pro-integration editorials on the front page--replete with photograph.   McGill and other publishers of his era, such as Hodding Carter II, knew that reactionaries have a history of calling ‘dirty’ those who ‘betray’ white middle class privilege to denounce injustice.  Consider Dr. Martin Luther King’s Letter From Birmingham Jail, which praised brave publishers like McGill thusly:  “...Unlike so many of their moderate brothers and sisters, they have recognized the urgency of the moment and sensed the need for powerful “action” antidotes....” 

I would like to think the Star would willingly stop carrying Filmore, and other ‘conservative’ liars.  

Anti-falsehood legislation would undoubtedly over-reach.

However, responsible editorial fiat could provide a sane middle ground.

So, please reconsider paying known liars.  In the words of Hedges:  “There are no excuses left....Either you obstruct... the plundering by the criminal class on Wall Street and accelerated destruction of the ecosystem that sustains the human species, or become the passive enabler of a monstrous evil....Either you are a rebel or a slave.”  

Lisa Barr Oneonta http://www.hegemonicseam.blogspot.com