This resolution was introduced in late May, and had over 100 Co-sponsors by June 19, when the blog Daily Kos, followed soon by the rest of the alternative press, broke the story. Thousands of people knew about it by then, including every member of Congress, yet searches on news.google.com and news.yahoo.com indicate that not one news report had appeared anywhere! Wire service UPI carried a story on it on July 7, which was not picked up by any major news organ, and as of today, July 17, it still hasn’t been covered or even mentioned by any of the networks or national dailies, although it could come to a vote at any time now! Its only mention in the mass-circulation media has been two opinion pieces on Yahoo News by Pat Buchanan, on June 27 and July 15, and an interview by bill sponsor Gary Ackerman on CBS News website (no indication that it was aired), denying that the bill means what it says.

How is this possible? Is it a conspiracy? Or is this just the normal way the way the major media operates? Or then again, does the normal way the media operates constitute an ongoing conspiracy? Let’s look at some more evidence.

The total news blackout on HCR 362 is unusual. (At least it’s the only one I’ve found over the last three months, but then, if the news blackout is total, how could one be sure?) But near-total news blackouts on stories, and blackouts complete enough that it is obvious that most people will not see or read the news, are fairly common. We’re talking stories that any reasonable person would agree were news of national interest that an informed public ought to know. Among the stories that I have determined were given this treatment over the past three months are:

* Ron Paul’s win of 26% of the vote in the Idaho Republican Primary.
* Ralph Nader declaring for Impeachment of Bush on the White House lawn.
* Obama’s declaration that he would review all of Bush’s signing statements and regulations and strike down any he found to be unconstitutional or repugnant.
* Putin’s declaration that Iran is not working on a nuclear bomb.
* Iraqi Prime Minister’s rejection of US terms for a security pact (covered eventually),
* HCR 362 calling for a blockade of Iran.
* Kucinich introduces 35 Article of Impeachment on House Floor.
* Barr’s anti-war platform on the occasion of his nomination by the Libertarian Party.
* “Democrats to back down on Iraq war conditions”
* Iran offers to include participants from other countries in its uranium enrichment program.
* Steelworkers Union merges with giant British/Irish union to form first global union.

Those are just the stories that I found, with a few hours of my spare time, over just three months. Looking through this list makes clear that this is not a left-right issue or a Republican-Democratic issue. This is about suppression of stories from any source that could lead people to reject the Empire’s war plans or stand in its way. It is routine, nearly invisible and evidently coordinated, although by whom and how is unknown. Nor is it a left-right or highbrow-lowbrow split within the media. If FOX, CNN and the Washington Times are in on a news blackout, without exception so are The NY Times, the Post and NPR! Many of these stories were carried by wire services and were widely covered in Europe!

The most striking exception, the one national news source that was most likely to carry a silenced story, is Yahoo News. Rumor has it that whoever succeeds in the corporate battle to take it over will spin off the news department to Murdoch’s News Corporation. In any case I have never seen MSNBC or msn news break ranks on a silenced story.

Anyone, left, right or center, who stands for democracy and the defense of the Constitution and who opposes the takeover of our country by forces committed to unlimited war and intervention in support of the Empire, has an interest in finding a way to get the news that the media moguls don’t want us to see out to the tens of millions. I believe that we will be best served in this by doing it without picking and choosing which stories “we” want the people to see. Let the media moguls define that. If they don’t want the people to see a story, then they probably should.