US Executions

A new week a new blog. That’s what I try to do anyway. What’s new: Out of USA Today 7-16-09; in the front page there’s a little graph that shows the USA is 4th in the most executions in 2008—executions of people. It ranks China as 1st with 1,718; Iran 2nd with 346; Saudi Arabia 3rd with 102; USA 4th with 37; and Pakistan 5th with an, oh so close 36—better luck next year Pakistan. Yes, living in a free county like the USA is great! We aren’t anything like those commie Chinese or Evil Iranians. Nope, we put people to death after a fair trial—guilty or not. Here in America we try to only execute the innocent, but if a mistake is made; well, we just sweep it under the rug. No sense the voters getting worked up over a little thin like that. Besides it doesn’t affect them anyway. The guy was guilty of something? Right??? Several blogs ago I wrote about how a man in Texas was executed and then it was proven he was innocent. I only ever saw—read—one article about that. Why is that? Where the hell is the free press. The so called fourth estate. Maybe it’s because my life is so free from the constant barrage of the media. That I’m able to see things clearly. From where I sit there is something wrong with the use of the death penalty in America. But I’m more surprised by the silence coming from the media on this. And that worries me more. In Irving L. Janis 1982 work Groupthink: Psychological Studies of Policy Decisions and Fiascoes. Janis points out symptoms of Groupthink. I believe that the media in America has fallen into several of the groupthink consequences. Self-censorship. With this consequence self criticism is muted in the group (newsroom). Because of norms of consensus as it is impolitic to alienate colleagues. The days of Lou Grant are over in other words. Now it’s the going along to get along; where dissidents and miscreants tend to suppress their disagreements with the dominant view. In big corporate media it’s no longer about the “Big Scoop”, it’s about the bottom line. So almost all news outlets report the same homogenized stories. Some knowingly or not get into bed with the various government agencies—police, fire, military and form groupthink bonds with them and actually begin to spew propaganda on behalf of the agency that is supposed to be covered impartially. That is another groupthink consequence—belief in the inherent morality of the group. If a reporter is embedded with a military unit at war, and that unit does something wrong (real war crime) there is going to be a lot of psychological pressure on and within the reporter not to report the wrongdoing. The reporter will see the unit as his or her group so both the self-censorship and inherent morality of the group will exert overwhelming force on the mind of the reporter. That persons whole world view is tied up with our side being the good guys. And another consequence of groupthink is stereotypes of out groups. We—the USA or the police are the good guys—are right! The others—terrorists, gangs, commies or whatever are wrong. Corporate media doesn’t want the folks back home to think the we, (our group), maybe are wrong. So they too apply pressure on the reporter. So that truth probably will never come out. I see it all over the news. Reporters reading a police press release as if its real news. Where are you truth when we need you the most? So, Texas put an innocent man to death—so what ? The media is too interested in where the first dog des his doo-doo or what the first lady’s new shoes look like. Not news; not real news. Corporate news made to perpetuate the illusion of a free America and a us—them paradigm. So a man in Texas was put to death—so what? Did you see the latest movie by so and so? Please if you are reading this WAKE UP! It might be you next. With Respect, Veritas5509 Thank you to the Independent Review and Charlotta Stein and D.B. Klein