We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Thursday, April 22, 2010

Frontline Fronts for Corporations, Not the Public

by Margaret Flowers from The Public Record. This article on Frontline, a liberal PBS program in the US, illustrates how a (capitalist) government subsidized TV network acts as a gatekeeper of opinions on the left, and what range of views are acceptable to be considered at all.
The major point of the influence of health-industry dollars on the reform process, which should have been mentioned, is that these dollars were spent in order to restrict the debate and protect industry profits.

The lucrative status quo would have been threatened if single-payer had been openly discussed because a publicly financed national health program can provide high quality universal health care and control health care costs, something that a private-insurance-based system cannot accomplish.

After watching this film, viewers would have no idea that single-payer exists or know that there is a strong movement for it.