The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

The MSM’s Peculiar Silence on Zeitgeist (Guess Which Network the Progressive Award-Winning New Age 9/11 ‘Truther’ Film Suggests Is ‘Manipulating’ News)

Posted on | January 18, 2011 | 2 Comments

“The last thing the men behind the curtain want is a conscious, informed public . . .”
— Zeitgeist (2007)

“If conservativism is defined as standing athwart history yelling ‘Stop!’ Zeitgeist is looking the other way yelling ‘Go!’ Have you seen any major media reports on Zeitgeist? Why is that?”
— John Saxton, “Three Exculpatory Facts the MSM Continues to Overlook in the Arizona Shootings,” Hot Air

Which is the drum I’ve been beating since last Thursday: It is truly astonishing that, after ABC News broke the story of Jared Loughner’s Zeitgeist obsession on Jan. 12, there was no substantial follow-up reporting by any major national news organization.

The Washington Post did a 2,700-word profile of Loughner on Thursday and the New York Times did a 5,000-word profile of the accused gunman Sunday, and neither story so much as mentioned Zeitgeist. We got some more reporting in a Sunday story by the Arizona Republic, but the rest of the major media seem determined to ignore this clue to Loughner’s lunacy. Meanwhile, conservative bloggers have begun digging into this two-hour conspiracy cult film and calling attention to crucial elements of Zeitgeist that point away from the absurd claim that director Peter Joseph was pushing a “right-wing” paranoia. 

In addition to its 9/11 “Truther” orientation, Zeitgeist won a progressive film award and the movie’s key sources are associated with the New Age movement. And now Maggie’s Notebook points to another telltale clue of the movie’s political orientation:

After listening to every word, along the way it came to Fox News. Eight frames showing Fox anchors and Fox news-talkers – in the context of television “lying” to the people and “manipulating” the news. . . .
Added to everything else we know, is there still anyone out there willing to stand up and say Zeitgeist is a product of the “right-wing?”

In analyzing Zeitgeist, it is important to look at the way the film uses imagery to convey meaning, a point to which I alluded Monday in my American Spectator column:

“They do not want you to think too much. … You had better wake up and understand that there are people guiding your life, and you don’t even know it,” says one of the film’s “experts,” anti-Masonic conspiracy theorist Jordan Maxwell, near the end of Zeitgeist . . . A few minutes later, while images including Jesus Christ, Bill O’Reilly and Saddam Hussein flash across the screen, the narrator says: “The last thing the men behind the curtain want is a conscious, informed public, capable of critical thinking, which is why a continually fraudulent zeitgeist is output via religion, the mass media and the educational system.”

Wake up and smell the Bush Derangement Syndrome, people.

Category: Arizona, Conspiracy Theories, Crime, Fox News, Hot Air, Media Bias, Zeitgeist

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