Up until last week, there was very little reporting on the Standing Rock pipeline protest. Much of the information found its way to readers via Facebook and twitter, but it’s one of the biggest stories in years. Mainstream media has remained intent on drubbing citizens numb with repetitive and useless information on the two presidential candidates. Mainstream media’s silence is so glaring, it’s hard to not notice.
The New York Times have chimed in a couple of times in the past week, but their tone has stayed neutral, or even slightly on the side of law enforcement and big oil. Read, “The View From Two Sides of the Standing Rock Front Lines” in which a sheriff’s deputy’s story is paired with a protester — the former bemoans “lost days off,” and the latter fights for clean water and protection of land that was promised. The article seems fair, but the real story gets lost in a bad equivocation.
CNN.com’s sole piece to appear in a Google News feed is titled, “Not all the Standing Rock Sioux are protesting the pipeline.” The article details the fact that protesters have come from all over the world to stand in solidarity with the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, but very quickly, two paragraphs later, makes the statement that the protesters are “not even close” to being united in their support. The article gives voice to a local named Fool Bear who makes the claim that if the Standing Rock chairman, Dave Archambault II “had any balls” he’d tell the protesters to go home. The article goes on to include some voices from the protester camp, but it’s pretty clear by its title what CNN wants its readers to take away, “not all” the Standing Rock Sioux are protesting or, See? It’s not that one-sided.
I think it’s clear who has the balls in this situation and it’s not mainstream media. Their lack of coverage is so noticeable it makes one wonder who’s pulling the strings. But there are reasons for the major networks to stay out of it. Major networks have clear connections to Big Oil, so it stands to reason that covering the severity of the protests would be a stab in the back to some of their pundits and their puppet-masters. It is also known that fracking ads have appeared on MSNBC, in what’s called “native” format, meaning that the ads appear seamlessly along with the regular broadcast. The oil to travel on the Dakota Access pipeline is fracked oil. These ads were examined by the FTC in 2014 but it appears nothing has come of it.
What do these connections tell us about the sanctity of free press in the United States? Probably something along the lines of, forget about it. Special interest has permeated every aspect of our daily “programming” and Americans are buying it hook, line and sinker.
It has come time for American citizens to ask themselves if they might find a better way of thinking if they paid attention to their inner-selves, engaged more in community dialogue and listened to less of what the corporate media has to say. Mainstream media can no longer be trusted as a reliable source, and it’s been this way for decades. There is no provable conspiracy, but as always, if one connects the dots, the picture becomes clear. The picture is becoming clearer and it’s one that shows a media fully tainted by special interests.
For now, Facebook and Twitter appear to be the best way to get news regarding the situation and, there’s some good news slowly trickling out of this: Obama appears willing to investigate an alternate route.
Update: as things intensify, mainstream media is left with no choice but to cover elements of the protest. Police Fire Rubber Bullets as Pipeline Protesters Try to Protect Burial Site