I hear much talk about the “liberal media” (often pronounced “librul”) and the “conservative media”.  I’m here to say there’s no such thing.  What we suffer in this once-great nation is corporate media.  To be sure, corporate media targets it’s message (or lack of information, depending) through various outlets towards liberals or conservatives but the thing it has in common regardless of intended audience is that it protects corporations.

Corporate media works to deceive all Americans.  I’m fond of saying corporate media deceives conservatives on facts and liberals on intent.  What I mean is, conservatives believe (and they actually believe) that the economy crashed because the big, bad “gubment” forced poor, defenseless banksters to make bad loans.  They believe it because that’s what they were told by sources they trust.  Many of them can cite – in detail – various segments of the Affordable Housing Act as evidence of government malfeasance.

Perhaps a little background is needed.  The government kept receiving complaints from minority borrowers that loans for which they applied were being rejected even though the borrowers were certain they qualified for the loans.  As it happens, they were correct so Congress critters sat down and wrote a law.  The idea of the law was to “encourage” (read: “force”) banks to make more loans to minority borrowers.  The legislation included a cudgel: the government was going to review the banksters portfolios and if the number of funded loans didn’t include a certain percentage of loans to minorities, punishment would be swift and sure…

That’s what conservatives will tell you.  That’s the information they have.  Hmm, whaddaya know?  The government DID pass a law requiring banks to lend more to minorities.  But it wasn’t “no matter what”.  There’s a piece missing.  The part conservative serving corporate media leaves out is this:  “…consistent with sound lending practices”.

Five words but they make all the difference.  If conservative serving corporate media includes the phrase, the entire conservative position is undermined.  They’d be left to argue that making loans to borrowers who can’t pay them back based on falsified documentation qualifies as a “sound lending practice”.  Good luck.  See?  Conservatives deceived on facts…

For their part, liberals actually believed the government would do something to address the problem that would benefit the victims of the bankster’s fraud.  They believed it because liberal serving corporate media told them the government would do something to address the problem that would benefit the victims of the bankster’s fraud…if only Americans elect the “right“, er…I guess, correct candidate.

Well, we (liberals) did elect the guy who said he would help, the guy who promised us “change” and “hope”.  Of course, he didn’t.  See?  Liberals deceived on intent…

You know who benefited?  The corporate banksters and Wall Street.  They made a LOT of money while they were inflating the bubble.  They made a LOT of money after the bubble burst.  They are making a LOT of money re-inflating the bubble right now and they’ll continue to profit after THIS bubble bursts, too.  (Because the guy who made the promises hasn’t even done anything to change the corporate environment that encouraged the fraud in the first place…)

And all the while, corporate media makes money playing cheerleader for the banksters by deceiving conservatives on facts and liberals on intent.  I wonder how long Americans will stand for it?