Fact and fantasy
In recent weeks, the establishment media across the world have focused their attention on the private exploits of US President Bill Clinton and his testimony before the grand jury. Did he have an affair in the hallowed halls of the White House? Is he telling the truth? Has he committed perjury?
Now that Clinton has come semi-clean and admitted to “inappropriate behaviour” with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky, the hot news is how Clinton will reconcile this affair with his family and his God.
It's great stuff for selling newspapers and winning prime-time slots for TV advertising -- the president of the most powerful nation in the world likes to have the odd fling. He is even prepared to tell a little white lie about it.
Contrast the endless hours of TV and radio banter and the superficial reports in newspapers and magazines on Clinton's sexual whims with the real acts of “inappropriate behaviour” his administration has carried out.
Where is the concern in the establishment media for the thousands of Iraqi children dying each month because of the UN-imposed sanctions, backed by the threat of a US-led military attack? Why is the US, the “defender of the free world”, not ridiculed for its illegal blockade of Cuba, while it actively aids and abets dictatorships across the globe?
The big business media merchants such as Packer and Murdoch benefit a great deal from the hypocrisy, lies and distortions which they help create and foster.
Green Left Weekly, on the other hand, attempts to present news and analysis differently. The paper does not seek to bolster the rotten and exploitative profit-driven system. It does not trivialise the destruction of the environment and people's lives at the hands of big business.
Green Left Weekly upholds the belief and tradition that people united in action can make a difference. It argues that the state of the world can and must change for the better.
If you share this vision, and want to help guarantee the continued existence of a paper that does not sit glumly on the sidelines, why not make a donation to the Green Left Weekly fighting fund? Every dollar makes a difference. Green Left Weekly -- it's your newspaper.
