Saturday, August 20, 2011

MODERN TIMES - ALTERNATIVE MEDIA

There are other media voices in America than those which spew out a never ending stream of bile and prejudice. One of these is a website , NATION OF CHANGE-progressive journalism for positive action .

A non profit organisation, it believes in enacting change in the world through progressive journalism, commentary and activism . Peace,social equality,human rights and environmental conservation are basic planks. Furthermore, it believes dedicated individuals armed with knowledge and fuelled by compassion and optimism can enact dramatic change, even in a world fraught with corruption and injustice.

NATION OF CHANGE is an easy to read mixture of news reports and Op-Ed pieces , not only covering America . One of the Op-Ed authors is cowboy hat wearing Texan ,Jim Hightower , an influential activist who produces the HIGHTOWER LOWDOWN newsletter,sold to more than 130,00 subscribers, makes regular radio network commentaries and delivers well attended talks. The" Little Tramp,"Charlie Chaplin, was used in an article run in NATION OF CHANGE in which he strongly criticised the Obama Government, the Republicans ,corporate CEOS and the decision to slash spending to reduce the US deficit.

Rather than cuts, Hightower says the government should be using the Franklin D. Roosevelt Depression attack of spending to give the country hope. Middle America had been crushed and the rich were closing their fat purses to the masses. In part, he wrote :



"Today, we are a dangerously disunited society. Elite CEOs and big investors are grabbing all the gains, leaving the vast majority mired in recession and facing falling incomes. Since the recession technically ended 18 months ago, corporate profits have zoomed, sopping up an unprecedented 88 percent of America's economic growth. Meanwhile, only one percent of the growth that we all help produce has gone to wages and salaries, the primary sources of income for 90 percent of us."

In the MEDIA section of NATION OF CHANGE recent articles have referred to Fox’s history of mainstreaming hate groups, Fox defending the Tea Party from criticism following the Standard and Poor’s downgrade and the " class "warfare : Fox desperately defending the wealthy from tax hikes most Americans support .