AGR–The AntiFOX

The Asheville Global Report is damned depressing. Everyone knows it. We probably know it better than anyone–we read it pretty regularly. The thing is, there's a lot of pretty depressing stuff going on. We are witnessing an unprecedented push by a small group of super-elite, super-wealthy business people and politicians (the line gets blurrier all the time) who have hijacked our democracy and are using it as a tool to spread an ugly and violent form of militant corporate imperialism. Meanwhile, much of the mainstream media, instead of informing the public about the egregious misdoings of our "elected leaders," through omission and spin, supports a delusive worldview that furthers these goals. As we reported in issue no. 404, on Oct. 3, FOXNews's "The O'Reilly Factor" mislabeled disgraced former Congressman Mark Foley as a Democrat. This occurred three times on a prerecorded broadcast–it seems pretty unlikely that it could have been an accident. It would seem that proponents of the "family values" party are keen on distancing the GOP from the former chairman of the House Caucus on Missing and Exploited Children. This incident perfectly highlights the fact that certain elements of the mainstream media will even stoop to outright deceit to help maintain the far-right's death grip on the US political system. The AGR takes a slightly different approach to journalism. For a bit of perspective, please consider the following two quotes: "Think of the press as a great keyboard on which the government can play."–Joseph Goebbels, Nazi propaganda minister; and "Paramount among the responsibilities of a free press is the duty to prevent any part of the government from deceiving the people."–Hugo Black, Supreme Court Justice. We'd like to think that the AGR exemplifies the latter attitude, and strives to live up to this, indeed paramount responsibility. As you probably know, AGR is run by dozens of dedicated volunteers who put in long hours every week because we feel that it's not just important but critical that people be informed about what is going on in this community, this country and around the world. We're not in this for the money, but we do rely on the continuing financial support of our readership. In many countries (including China, home to about one fifth of the residents of planet Earth) journalists who cast government officials in an unfavorable light are imprisoned or worse. It is not beyond the scope of reason to imagine that such a policy could be implemented here. We have already–perhaps long ago–begun sliding down the slippery slope toward fascism. Help us keep you informed while we still can. Thank you.