Hasbara Buster
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US media silent on grassroots issues: Mark Mason
Interview with Mark Mason
Press TV has conducted an interview with Mark Mason, activist and political commentator, about Americans in dozens of US cities rallying against the government’s spying programs. What follows is an approximate transcription of the interview.
Press TV: Do you believe such movements will be enough to bring attention to this vital issue?
Mason: We have to see in the coming days. That's a tough task that you have assigned me because it's very difficult to predict these are grassroots response to anything in Washington D.C. We have a granite-like almost impervious mythmaking machine in Washington D.C., a propaganda machine that owns and controls the mass media as well.
So much of the grassroots movements that we see today and we have had hundreds of people reportedly five hundred or more people rallied in New York today and we had hundreds today in San Francisco and other locations, in Washington D.C. it was a rally also, so this will be a grassroots effort probably worth most likely through the social media, through Facebook and Twitter and the blogosphere.
Press TV: Mr. Mason, looking at it from the outside, there have been many protest movements in the United States such as the protest movement before the Iraq war and there were massive protests at that time against the United States going to war in that country but that really did not stop the United States from doing so. Is the government in many ways above the will of the people?
Mason: No it's actually not at all. I would take a strong opinion on that regarding the will of the people can mobilize and does mobilize government, it shapes our imperial power.
We have an imperial presidency. Imperial presidency has been the history of more than two hundred years in the United States, it's not new. We now have a global presence, yet the international community as well as up-swelling of popular movements in United States. The last major movements were during the late 50’s and 60’s that dramatically changed not only the letter of the law in the United States but it dramatically changed our social relations to the civil rights movement, the beginning of the movement for environment and the women’s movement and such.
Press TV: So then what is holding people back from coming out in larger numbers? Is it the fact the mainstream media is not covering this issue? Is it basically an issue of ignorance at this point?
Mason: I hate it's a lot of whole factors there. There is corrupt in the media, they don't cover grassroots issues, they don't cover issues regarding violations of the Constitution by the president of the United States. They're covering Snowden and his heroic effort as a whistleblower to uncover illegal activities of the president of the United States and the administration covering it as if Snowden is some kind of a criminal which is highly biased. He is a ...hero with regards to civil liberties in the United States.
Interview with Mark Mason
Press TV has conducted an interview with Mark Mason, activist and political commentator, about Americans in dozens of US cities rallying against the government’s spying programs. What follows is an approximate transcription of the interview.
Press TV: Do you believe such movements will be enough to bring attention to this vital issue?
Mason: We have to see in the coming days. That's a tough task that you have assigned me because it's very difficult to predict these are grassroots response to anything in Washington D.C. We have a granite-like almost impervious mythmaking machine in Washington D.C., a propaganda machine that owns and controls the mass media as well.
So much of the grassroots movements that we see today and we have had hundreds of people reportedly five hundred or more people rallied in New York today and we had hundreds today in San Francisco and other locations, in Washington D.C. it was a rally also, so this will be a grassroots effort probably worth most likely through the social media, through Facebook and Twitter and the blogosphere.
Press TV: Mr. Mason, looking at it from the outside, there have been many protest movements in the United States such as the protest movement before the Iraq war and there were massive protests at that time against the United States going to war in that country but that really did not stop the United States from doing so. Is the government in many ways above the will of the people?
Mason: No it's actually not at all. I would take a strong opinion on that regarding the will of the people can mobilize and does mobilize government, it shapes our imperial power.
We have an imperial presidency. Imperial presidency has been the history of more than two hundred years in the United States, it's not new. We now have a global presence, yet the international community as well as up-swelling of popular movements in United States. The last major movements were during the late 50’s and 60’s that dramatically changed not only the letter of the law in the United States but it dramatically changed our social relations to the civil rights movement, the beginning of the movement for environment and the women’s movement and such.
Press TV: So then what is holding people back from coming out in larger numbers? Is it the fact the mainstream media is not covering this issue? Is it basically an issue of ignorance at this point?
Mason: I hate it's a lot of whole factors there. There is corrupt in the media, they don't cover grassroots issues, they don't cover issues regarding violations of the Constitution by the president of the United States. They're covering Snowden and his heroic effort as a whistleblower to uncover illegal activities of the president of the United States and the administration covering it as if Snowden is some kind of a criminal which is highly biased. He is a ...hero with regards to civil liberties in the United States.
I think the crux of the problem is that the American people are depoliticized. It is really hard to describe. I don't think there is any other place on the planet where the population are highly educated and yet they are depoliticized meaning there is no grassroots organizations politically.
You go to the schools and colleges in just our neighboring Canada, right a few miles across the border here in North Canada and students are organized, they are active, they are politically conscious and you go to a college here in the United States and there are individuals, they are studying on their own, so we have a very cultural context that has been shaped by the last fifty, sixty years of really divide and conquer.
PressTV - US media silent on grassroots issues: Mark Mason
You go to the schools and colleges in just our neighboring Canada, right a few miles across the border here in North Canada and students are organized, they are active, they are politically conscious and you go to a college here in the United States and there are individuals, they are studying on their own, so we have a very cultural context that has been shaped by the last fifty, sixty years of really divide and conquer.
PressTV - US media silent on grassroots issues: Mark Mason
