Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Remembering Watergate Summer and Watching Hackgate....


For over 6 years I have Blogged at Watergate Summer . I originally set up this blog and named it such because those of us living through the Bush Years were hoping for a Moment of Truth Breaking Clarity. As a nerdy kid, I watched the Watergate Mess unfold, it shaped me, it made me a News Junkie. I was hooked on the Washington Post and Baltimore Sun and I followed all of this when I was 12 years old. I would weed gardens and babysit and mow lawns so I would have money to buy newspapers and books. The First Summer I read the Story of the Break In at the Watergate and then the next summer I watched with interest the actual Watergate Hearings.

I would sit and watch and read the Papers. We were spending the Summer in Florida and my mom was furious that I was wasting my days sitting inside watching the Hearings Day after Day. She didn't understand that I was hungry for the Truth, that I wanted to KNOW if Nixon broke the Laws. I wanted to know if the Journalists were investigating a Moment in our History that would Change History. That summer was amazing, for me it woke me up to Such things as Corruption and Crime in High Places.

And yes within 30 days of the Resignation of Nixon, sadly Ford would basically shut the door on the Search for the Truth and Nixon was pardoned. It left many of us bitter,confused and angry. A few years later I dated a Lifeguard who worked at the Watergate. We would sneak in in off Hours and I was haunted by the stinky moldy carpet. ( To this day the smell of Moldy Carpet, the stink would remind me of The Watergate.) We would "borrow" towels and sell them as "souvenirs", and swim late night laps in the Pool of Shame......We would make bad jokes about plumbers....We remained haunted by the Watergate Summer.

So yes, in 2005 I named my Blog Watergate Summer because I was hoping for another Watergate Summer, A summer where the Truth would Unravel Big Lies. But sadly It never happened under the Bush years, the Lies persisted and yet the Unraveling ever happened , even though Big Lies were told that led to Crimes and an Illegal War.

I am watching Hackgate because It is a Historic Situation where a very powerful man and his family are being confronted with Something Awful that went on in their Papers. It is about Journalistic Integrity and how What happens when Journalism collides with A Broken Moral Compass, Too much Power, Too Much Money and Political Lust and Hubris....It is ugly , it is fascinating...it is Historic. And even though some Horrendous things were done in the name of "Journalism", there is some amazing Journalism now going on with Reporting from the Guardian, BBC, The Globe and the Telegraph and others showing true integrity. And once again a Political Leader is over his head, possibly compromised on his path to Leadership. Cameron made a dangerous liaison with both Brooks and Coulson. And as in any dangerously crafted Criminal Mess with too many tentacles, a Whistleblower has turned up dead on Monday within hours of Brooks Arrest. This Situation is Dirty , and ugly, I would not be shocked if there were not more incidents or accidents. It is also sad that the Police and even Scotland Yard are dirtied by this Scandal and involved in despicable ways.

4000 People were hacked, spied on, violated. All kinds of people. Even the phone of a little girl , a murder victim. 911 Families, Military families. There is something evil that made all of that happen, and too many people were involved in such activity for the shock and revulsion of this being revealed to go away.

Will the Hackgate Hearings reach across the Ocean to our shores ? Will it reveal more about FOX ? and will it reveal more about WSJ ? Was there hacking in the United States ? Will it wake up our Journalistic Void ? Will it bring back Journalistic Integrity ? ....There is much more to come....
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Rupert Murdoch and his son James, a Father Son Moment as they are questioned today.....
( Many Thanks to Keith Olbermann and Current and Countdown for covering this Story, reporting the facts.)

3 comments:

mommapolitico said...

"Journalism collides with A Broken Moral Compass, Too much Power, Too Much Money and Political Lust and Hubris" - this captures so well all that we have seen go wrong in our own country in the past decade. That's a phrase that I will have to write down somewhere and keep for posterity.

I think you're right - there is more to this tangled ball of string that we have yet to see...if this doesn't hit AIles and FAUX News, it'll only be because a bunch of money came in-between them and the truth.

Stay tuned, eh? Yet another great post, Girlfriend. Keep fighting the good fight.

Durward Discussion said...

Having worked at a radio station for five years and watching the national takeover of the airwaves by these huge conglomerates that totally destroyed local stations, I'm in favor of anything that brings the Murdochs down.

enigma4ever said...

Amen Jamie...amen...so so true...

and Momma...yeah we gotta keep our compass and focus on how to get this quagmire of times...