Fascism in the USA

I just finished reading (Bill Weintraub's) America: The Incipient Fascist State. I gotta tell ya... It was a terrific article. It was put together beautifully and clearly and you have to WANT to miss the point... because it just cant be missed in this piece. gaytoday.badpuppy.com/garchive/viewpoint/021201vi.htm

I want to thank you for providing the article... because I ...(and I'm sure others)… sometimes feel that I might be reading too much into the political trends of late. . I know that I have seen this stuff coming for a long time... but it seems like I'm the only one who does. Fortunately... I got a little reinforcement from reading this article and I realize that .... no.... I'm not the only one who sees this impending disaster.

Thanks again...reinforcement can be a very valuable gift.

Vicki P.

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Corporate Media and the Dearth of Free Expression

I want to share something with you which I find deeply, deeply disturbing. I was intrigued by the comment in the Gay Today article about a Florida newspaper ignoring anti-Bush protests. Now, I know there have been many such protests as well as you do. Not least, the banner planes over the Super Bowl and the Daytona 500. Then the protestors outside Southern Methodist University when Scalia visited. Then the protesters outside Sullivant Elementary School when Bush visited Ohio. So I went on a little search -- actually, a pretty big search. I was up until 4:30 in the morning searching through the websites of every major news organization in this country -- ABC,. CBS, NBC, CNN, MSNBC, FOX -- you name it, I searched them all. I typed in one keyword phrase after another into their site search engines: "Scalia protest Southern Methodist," "Scalia protest Dallas," "Bush protest Sullivant," "Bush protest Ohio," "Daytona protest," "Daytona banner plane," and on and on and on and on, every variation I could think of, of keywords which would reveal coverage of these events. Guess what? I consistently got "No matches found."

Related Stories from the GayToday Archive: College Paper Covers Bush Protest Ignored by Corporate Media America: The Incipient Fascist State Know Thy Enemies (and Their Web Sites) Related Sites: The Lantern American Family Radio Miami Herald New York Times Dallas Morning News GayToday does not endorse related sites.

The last link I could find for anything related to a Bush protest on these major sites were brief mentions of protestors on Inauguration Day. So I went to the major newspapers' websites -- the biggies like the New York Times, the Miami Herald, the Cleveland Plain Dealer, the Dallas Morning News, and a dozen others -- and once again came up with zero coverage of any anti-Bush protests since the inauguration.

I am both deeply disturbed and a little horrified by this utter silence by the major media news outlets. It's not that there were only tiny mentions of Bush protests -- it's that there were NO mentions of Bush protests. Nothing. Nada. Zip. Blank slate. What in the world is going on here?

It's not like some of these weren't high-profile newsworthy items. A protest banner plane flying over the Super Bowl, for God's sake! Yet there is utter, complete, and frightening silence from the major news organizations on anti-Bush protests and sentiment.

Maybe they think such protests will go away. And if there is no coverage and recognition, my great fear is the protests WILL go away. Something must be done about this situation. What is it going to take to get the corporate media to report on anti-Bush protests? Do we have to start setting ourselves afire at high noon on Boston Commons, like the Tibetan monks in the Sixties?

I honestly thought I'd just missed coverage of the protests, in the midst of a busy life. But when I found out last night, after six hours of diligent searching, that there had BEEN NO COVERAGE, I was more than appalled. I was frightened. The recent Gay Today article (by Bill Weintraub) America: The Incipient Fascist State gained a whole new meaning for me. I don't know if the news organizations are fearful of reprisals and denial of access, or if they sincerely believe anti-Bush protests are merely a passing fad. I DO know that something must be done which they absolutely cannot ignore.

Teddy Snyder

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College Paper Covers Anti-Bush Demonstration

Thank God for this College paper for exposing the fact that there are STILL many American citizens who are demonstrating against Bush. And yet again, isn't sad that it has come to this - a college paper, as opposed to the regular press.

Vilma ;-)

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Anti-Gay Rhetoric on American Family Radio

I want to bring to your attention what I believe is the origin of much of the anti-gay rhetoric in America today. Near where I live Tupelo, Mississippi, is the home of American Family Radio (AFR).

I know people who work there and have talked to them about this network. This radio network is growing everyday reaching across the US, Canada and via the internet to the world. Adding stations every month and now having over 150 stations. I force myself to listen to their programs often and find almost every station break contains an anti-gay commercial.

Advertisements to boycott Disney, request for listeners to oppose the extension of hate crimes to gays and lesbians etc. I could go on and on. It is really unbelievable. Any legislation they oppose precipitates a urgent request for listeners to call their legislators and they give out the phone numbers.

I first heard homosexuality compared to alcoholics on this radio network then later heard Senator Trent Lott use the same comparison. I need not tell you how powerful Senator Trent Lott is in this country. Mr. Wilemon the head of this organization, I believe he and his idiot son set the agenda and both must he very homophobic.

Sen. Trent Lott