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 [ LOS ANGELES ](https://www.citywatchla.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&id=312)

#  The News as Dialogue

October 14 2019

Written by Leonard Isenberg.

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**MY TURN**-There is a rather grotesque irony that exists when it comes to the present-day reporting of the news.

While unprecedented advances in computer technology should give the public more access to nuanced information about what's going on in the world today, this technology is being misused to report less and less hard news than ever before. Any hard news that in any way challenges the corporate party line is buried or never sees the light of day in mainstream commercial or public media.

The U.S. Constitution's 1st Amendment's freedoms of the press, speech, and association were put first by our Founding Fathers because they understood that you could not have a meaningful democracy unless ultimate power and accountability were vested in "We the People." If those "People" are purposefully not educated and therefore not knowledgeable and aware of all aspects of what their elected officials are doing -- supposedly on their behalf -- it is not surprising that the country has degenerated into a “We With The Monied” plutocracy that puts their minority interests over those of the “People” who are kept in ignorance.

In 1933, when Hitler was appointed chancellor in Germany by then President Paul Von Hindenburg, he was able to use new radio technology of the Volksempfänger to limit and control what information Germans and their allies could access. Then Minister for Armaments and War Production Albert Speer said, "Through technical devices like the radio and loudspeaker, 80 million people were deprived of independent thought. It was thereby possible to subject them to the will of one man . . ." Considering what's going on in this country today, doesn’t this sound familiar?

Philosopher George Santayana said, "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." Is there anything we can do to stop the current abuse of power and reestablish the silenced majority’s voice in controlling our democracy -- before our latest iteration of human society follows its predecessors over the cliff?

Ironically, even with the corporate-controlled media, technology offers the best possible solution for changing our present state of affairs. This lies in better using the same media technology that has been responsible for censoring and depriving us of information we need to virtually and freely associate with other members of the marginalized majority and take back our country.

Already, there are alternative non-corporate sites reporting the news. But presently they have no mechanism to engage their readers, enabling them to join with each other to bring about change with regard to issues like public education, taxes, inflation, homelessness, wars, medical care, and other matters that remain unaddressed in the mainstream media.

All these sites would have to do is add to every story they cover just one link allowing readers to share the story and their contact information with other like-minded folks on these virtual commons. Now, instead of just reading the reported the news, people would be able to get together and make the news.

Reporting news should not be the selective, biased process it has become. It has the technology-supported potential to become an uncensored, virtual commons that can drive an engaged citizenry. This would be a site where all citizens could come together on equal footing to "establish justice, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and insure the blessings of \[true\] liberty to ourselves and our posterity.” If you agree with any part of this vision and have the time or ability to be engaged and advance it, get in touch: <Lenny@perdaily.com>

*(Leonard Isenberg is a Los Angeles, observer and a contributor to CityWatch. He was a second- generation teacher at LAUSD and blogs at* perdaily.com. *Leonard can be reached at* [*Lenny@perdaily.com*](mailto:Lenny@perdaily.com).*) Edited for CityWatch by Linda Abrams.*

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