The First Century analogues of Fox News, the megachurchers, and Corporate America DEMANDED the death of Our Lord Christ on the cross… fancy that… it seems like the “religious” haven’t changed their spots over the centuries!
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War is hell. Let’s face it, the battle for peace on earth and goodwill towards men isn’t for the faint of heart… or, apparently, for the faint of light. That’s the premise of ABC’s new, three-part special, The Great Christmas Light Fight. After all, how better to commemorate the birth of the Prince of Peace than with a fight? Moreover, with Christmas lights, no less! Forget goodwill towards men. Forget Charlie Brown’s dated, quaint paean to the spirit of Christmas using the allegory of a lonely, sparsely-decorated tree. Instead, the commando wing of Disney’s media army produced a climate-warming, suburban energy vampire version of duelling banjos. No, there’s no room at the inn for something as outdated as “goodwill” when families go head-to-head, matching wits and carbon-footprints in a contrived “reality” showdown. Furthermore, the winner gets money. Each episode ends with 50,000 USD (2.73 million Roubles. 310,000 Renminbi. 3.17 million INR. 58,000 CAD. 61,600 AUD. 41,000 Euros. 32,000 Pounds) awarded to the victorious family. C’mon… wielding your “Christmas spirit” to beat the other guy for a hefty chunk of change? What’s more “Christmas” than that? Onward, Christmas soldiers!
The only thing that matches ABC’s too-close-to-the-bone expression of a corporately-sponsored Christmas is America’s annual Black Friday demolition derby and the desperate consumerism that fuels it. Viral videos of the violent scrum have become a tradition, too. With each passing year, the kick-off to the profitable holiday season looks more and more like a kick-off to a football game, as retailers keep their stores open and their minds closed to anything other than squeezing a little more profit out of embattled consumers. Yes, Virginia, there’s a war on Christmas. However, it isn’t the misdirected and misanthropic battle ginned-up by self-interested media blatherati and crypto-crusaders. The implication of their version of the war on Christmas… sold by politically-minded religious “conservatives”, talk radio rabble-rousers, Bill O’Reilly and, it seems, the entirety of Fox News… is that they’re making a last stand at the Alamo of American Christianity against humanists, atheists, and a host of mealy-mouthed “liberals” bent on destroying the very foundation of the Republic itself.
There is a war, but these Christmas soldiers mass on the wrong front. Offended non-believers or the incessant meddling of politically-correct busybodies don’t wage the real attack… corporate profiteers wage the real war on the spirit and meaning of Christmas through a grinding campaign of multimedia marketing. Corporate Christmas isn’t a time of humble reflection, effusive charity, and financial modesty. It’s a market opportunity… and they do exploit it. It’s the last chance to change the year’s bottom line from red to black… thus, the term “Black Friday”. Corporate Christmas is a market-tested, pre-packaged, shrink-wrapped box full of emptiness; religious tradition is a mere by-product. The oddity is that this money-changing, profit-making, and strangely competitive version seems diametrically opposed to the “reason for the season”. Of course, that reason is the birth of one of history’s great champions of the poor, of the weak, and of turning your cheek away from a fight. Sorry, ABC. Could Jesus be any less of a fit with Corporate Christmas? According to the world-famous birthday boy, a camel has a better chance of passing through the eye of a needle than one of these rich corporate retailers has of joining him in heaven. Maybe, that’s why they spend so much effort and marketing money on wringing out the religious teachings and replacing it with consumer culture. The returns on that effort are mixed.
According to a new study from Pew Research, Americans’ least favourite part of Christmas is commercialism and materialism. A third of those polled don’t like the corporate version of Christmas. The emphasis on money also bothered 22 percent of those surveyed. One of the big numbers from the survey is 51 percent. Of the 91 percent of those who said they plan to celebrate Christmas, only 51 percent consider it “more of a religious holiday”. Moreover, someone should tell the folks at Fox that only 7 percent said they wouldn’t celebrate it at all, which isn’t much of a phalanx of anti-Christmas warriors. In fact, 80 percent of non-Christians will celebrate Christmas. Of course, they’d be more likely to view it as a cultural holiday, but (and this is a crucial number) only two-thirds of Christians view Christmas as more of a religious holiday than a cultural observance.
It’s true that a level of political correctness forced schools, cities, and states to agree to the demands of religious tolerance. However, isn’t it also possible that those efforts pale in comparison to the corrosive effects of maniacal materialism and corporate salesmanship? Doesn’t Corporate Christmas benefit directly from downplaying the religious, ethical, and anti-materialist themes associated with Jesus, His life, and His gospel? The most frustrating part of this war on Christmas scrum is the fact that those who profess a motivation to preserve tradition and to counter persecution… whether real, perceived, or simply manufactured… are often the very people who profit from the corporate rot undermining the traditions they seem so motivated to preserve. Their annual war on Christmas special generates outrage and, therefore, ratings. Those ratings, in turn, help them sell commercial time to the corporations that, of course, inundate viewers with a barrage of holiday sales, gift ideas, and plastic doo-dads made by wage-slaves in Asia. Perhaps, it’s this underlying tension and hypocrisy… linking the man who gave the Sermon on the Mount with a frantic feeding frenzy with a troubling, often violent, consumer competition… that has more and more people divorcing religion and ethics from the holiday.
Really, as the ethical and moral sentiments of Christmas fade, the holiday evolved into little more than a corporate-consumer battleground. Americans dutifully march unto the breach, hoping to declare victory (my shopping is done!) after harried forays into the crucible of conspicuous consumption. Besides, corporations do their best to offend no one, appeal to everyone, and launder all that holiday spending through their globalised system of production into their bulging bank accounts. Out of the hands of the many and into the hands of the few. It’s a haunting vision of Christmases yet to come. However, that ghost can’t compare to the politically correct bogeyman at the centre of the phony war on Christmas. Sadly, those crusaders are uncomfortable with Pope Francisco’s timely admonitions against hoarding wealth, worshipping Mammon and (on the eve of the holiday) America’s unique contribution to Christian theology… the Prosperity Gospel. Like the lonely light that led the wise men to the manger in the first place, he’s trying to lead people back to Jesus… sadly, his less-than-flashy effort has little chance of winning ABC’s Great Christmas Light Fight.
20 December 2013
J P Sottile
The Guardian
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/dec/20/war-on-christmas-material-culture
Voices from Russia 
2014: The Year Russia-Bashing Got Ugly… and Dangerous
Tags: 2014 Sochi Olympics, 2014 Winter Olympic Games, cartoons, civil unrest, diplomacy, diplomatic relations, editorial cartoons, Fox News Channel, Hillary Clinton, Hillary Rodham Clinton, Malaysia, Malaysia Airlines, MH17 crash (17 July 2014), News Corporation, Novorossiya, Olympic Games, political commentary, politics, Rupert Murdoch, Russia, Russian, Russian diplomacy, Russian history, Sergei Lavrov, Sochi, Sochi Olympics, Ukraine, Ukrainian Civil War, United States, USA, Vladimir Putin, war and conflict, Winter Olympic Games, Winter Olympics
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The western media narrative blames Russia’s “aggressive” foreign policy for triggering the collapse of American-Russian relations. Nothing could be further from the truth, and two major events of the last year prove it.
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The Sochi Games We Somehow Survived
In the weeks and months prior to the XXII Olympic Winter Games in Sochi, Western mainstream media shifted into hysterical gear, spooking the public with every possible thing that could go wrong in Sochi (but didn’t) scenario. A non-stop, mass-produced litany of tales of wild dogs, strange toilets, and the looming threat of terrorism had the rather predictable effect of prompting many spectators and even athletes to take a pass on one of the most successful Games of modern times. Although every city that plays host to the Olympics is expected to endure some level of hostile media coverage… invariably over the sheer cost of hosting the international event… the type of criticism aimed at the organisers of the Sochi Games was exceptional for the political edge of the attack, including Russia’s decision to ban gay propaganda in the months prior to the event.
There was a deliberate effort to conflate Russian legislation to protect minors from being exposed to inappropriate sexual messages with some sort of government-sponsored attack on homosexuals. Even Human Rights Watch painted a hugely inaccurate picture of the law, turning it into some sort of state-sanctioned hit parade. Tanya Cooper, an HRW researcher, said, “Russian authorities are sending a dangerous message as the world is about to arrive on its doorstep for the Olympics that there is nothing wrong with attacks on gay people”. President Putin explained in a BBC interview that everybody “can feel free” in their relationships, that Russia only banned the promotion of “homosexuality and paedophilia amongst minors”. He pointed up, “We don’t have a ban on non-traditional sexual relations. We have a ban on promoting homosexuality and paedophilia among minors. You can feel free in your relationships, but leave children in peace”. That seems like pretty sound advice for children, who’ll have plenty of time later in life to consider such issues.
Despite the West’s best efforts to portray Russia as the perennial villain on the global stage, it actually remains one of the last bastions of family-oriented values in a world that is being swept away by a tidal wave of godless liberalism. Indeed, the Sochi Olympic Games, judging by its opening and closing ceremonies, was exceptional for the quality of the presentation, much of it aimed at the promotion of families and children. By comparison, such a concept has become totally foreign at many American events, including the 2014 Grammy Awards, which left many critics wondering if the event actually promoted Satanism. Yet the Western media latched on to Russia’s supposed “gay ban”, turning it into an anti-Russian hammer to bash the Games.
So, what was the real reason behind this assault on Sochi? Putin said that such efforts were part of an ongoing attempt to hinder positive developments inside of Russia. He told members of the Public Council for the Preparation of the 2014 Winter Olympics, “Whenever Russia demonstrates any positive development, the appearance of a new strong player, of competition, is bound to cause concern in the economy, in politics, and in the security sphere. We see attempts to deter Russia here and there. Unfortunately, this had to do with the Olympic project” as well.
Fortunately, in a sign that not everybody in the Western media writes about Russia with blinders on, there was this rare gem courtesy of Esquire magazine, “These Olympics were supposed to be many things. They were supposed to be a giant soft target for terrorists. They were supposed to be an anti-gay goosestep. They were supposed to be shoddy, unfinished, poor, and corrupt, with zero customer service, and rabid dogs chewing on baby arms. They aren’t… they’re fun, and they’re beautiful”. The Sochi Games would prove to be just the first episode of disastrous reporting on Russia in a very tumultuous year.
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MH17 Malaysia Airlines Crash Over the Ukraine
Not only was the 17 July crash of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 a tragedy of human dimensions, it was also a tragedy of epic proportions as far as journalism is concerned. One day after the Malaysia-bound aircraft went down over eastern Ukraine, killing all 298 passengers and crew, Western media was already convinced it knew the identity of the perpetrator. Yet, every aircraft catastrophe requires painstaking investigation before you can make any conclusions. You must find and examine the black box, you must collect and fit together the pieces of the aircraft to understand how and what damaged the aircraft, you must hear witness testimony, and you must review satellite imagery. However, in the case of Malaysia Airlines MH17, which we should’ve allocated even more scrutiny given that it went down in a war zone, none of these details seemed to be of consequence for the Western media. Instead, like cheap propagandists, the Western mainstream media committed the cardinal sin of pointing the finger of blame without performing a single thread of investigative research.
Rupert Murdoch’s tabloid The Sun, with over 2 million readers, screamed in large-font print from its front page, “Putin’s missile”, whilst the UK’s most popular tabloid, The Daily Mail, said that America warned there’d be “hell to pay” if Russia (i.e. Putin) was involved in the downing of the aircraft. In the best-case scenarios, Russia remained conspicuously between the lines in the sloppily-crafted narrative. Once again, they glaringly overlooked a little ingredient known as basic facts simply because the subject at hand was Russia. Usually, such an oversight does nothing more bothersome than elicit a few chuckles at Russia’s expense. This time, however, the stakes were far greater, happening as it did in the middle of a Ukrainian civil war, the outcome of which had no small bearing on international relations and the geopolitical chessboard… which, we should add, has nuclear weapons all over it.
There were numerous questions posed by the Russian side that the Western media blatantly ignored media, including:
Not only is Russia asking these questions, but also Malaysia, which they actually excluded from the criminal investigation team. Was that because it was prepared to view the details of the crash with an objective open mind, not obsessed with blaming Russia? Dr Mohamed Harridon, associate professor in research and aviation at Kuala Lumpur University, told RT, “When the crash happened, we didn’t blame any parties, neither Russia nor the Ukraine, as we’d like to take a look at the concrete evidence. Unlike our western counterparts, [Malaysia] took neutral role, not pointing fingers at Russia”. This could be the reason for Malaysia’s exclusion from the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) permitted to apportion blame. Once again, a media that isn’t remotely interested in engaging in any sort of investigative journalism led the Western astray… even when the stakes involve nothing less than global security. Instead, as the pathetic reporting of Sochi underscored, the Western media would rather throw out misleading stories on Russia in order to achieve some kind of warped agenda.
Finally, as far as American-Russian relations go, the only time in recent history that Washington actually levelled with Moscow and told the truth was due to a wrongly-translated word that turned out to be surprisingly accurate judging by the “overloaded” realities. In March 2009, during the early moments of the Obama administration, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton presented Foreign Minister S V Lavrov a symbolic “reset” button, which the two diplomats jokingly pressed for the photographers, signalling their intention of renewing bilateral relations between their respective countries. However, the State Department, as Lavrov himself explained, wrongly fixed on the button the Russian word for “overload” instead of “reset”, thereby providing Moscow… albeit thanks to a technical glitch… a much clearer picture of Washington and the West’s true intentions regarding its relationship with Russia than anything else to date.
Robert Bridge
RT
http://rt.com/op-edge/219015-russia-us-ukraine-media/