Learning The 3R's
     There are two AARPs. The better known one sells insurance and discount laxatives to duffers. The lesser known one, the American Association of Rightwing Propagandists, decides what our news should be.
    This second AARP publishes a poster displayed in newsrooms from Fox to NPR. Titled Reactos Rules of Reporting, it’s designed to teach tyro journalists what they can and cannot say in their stories.
     The first RRR proscription is that Israel must never be criticized. The second is that the free market, even when it becomes monopolized,  must always be described reverentially and as the cure for every civic and social ill. The third is that Israel must always be praised.
     The fourth is a ban on the use of the phrase big business. All businesses, even Exxon Mobil, must be described as small, friendly and helpful to the community. A corollary rule is to never even hint that businesses raise prices to make more money for themselves. Rather, they do it to improve their product and benefit the community. Also, when corporations are convicted of wrong-doing, never describe such instances as crimes, but rather as mistakes and inadvertencies. Likewise, Israel's dubious actions must always be put in the best light.
      Never, under any circumstances, must it be revealed that the biggest, most important, most expensive and dangerous thing the U.S.A. does is to run a global empire. Always say instead that the U.S. is the world’s leader because it helps other, usually ungrateful, countries.
    When referring to countries that publicly provide health care to all of their citizens at reasonable cost, always claim that their people have to wait years and decades for treatment. Never reveal that Israel has such a public system.
    In stories about the Iranian “threat,” never mention that Washington has been warning about Iran’s proleptic nukes for the last 34 years. It might make some citizens cynical.
    Finally, it must constantly be reiterated that the U.S. is the greatest country in the world--except, of course, for Israel.
     The above  is only a sample. For your free copy of the complete RRR poster, write to RRR, Liar’s Bend, AZ.