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September 23, 2005
Alaskan in Exile
by Neil Zawicki

    I feel isolated, out here on the water. A whale breached a few yards from the boat an hour ago as I dozed on a pillow of collapsed headsail. The brief communication pierced the simple quiet of the ocean, and made me smile. But what I really wish for is for any conservative to breach the surface and respond to my challenge to defend the president’s remark about the levees.

    Still no takers.

    Not one?

    I at least expected some sort of preternatural knee-jerk reaction from some Right-Wing thinker with a massive crew cab diesel-powered Captain Alaska truck and a 53-inch television set about what an un-American, drug-addled, godless thug I am.

    Nothing. What’s Morford got that I haven’t got?

    Okay, I’ll give the conservatives a Mulligan on the Levee challenge. I guess it really is just an inexcusable and indefensible position that I’ve asked you to defend. Sorry. I’ll back off a little next time. It must be hard for you all to know that Bush is hitting The Wall, and that his presidency is on track to end on a delightfully sour note, and that all of you who supported him will be branded fools, and have to spend the rest of your days giving wild, back-pedaling explanations at dinner parties and church picnics, and may also spend late nights with an S.O.S. pad and some turpentine, feverishly scrubbing your Bush/Cheney stickers from the bumpers of your Silly, Unreasonably Large Vehicles.

    Oh, life.

    I also heard through the Sat uplink that Aaron Selbig’s journalistic credentials – and those of some of his contributors – were called into question on the air.

    Well, as the most credentialed contributor to Insurgent49, I would like to speak in defense of having no credentials.

    Take Thomas Paine, for instance. When he published “Common Sense” in 1776, he had no credentials. In fact, he was an out-of work printer’s assistant. Of course, Common Sense was one of, if not the most powerful Op-Ed piece in the history of American journalism. George Washington read Common Sense to his troops at Valley Forge. And how about George Washington? His credentials as a general amounted to a few battles in the French and Indian War, where he was a junior officer. He also had no credentials as the leader of a nation when he was elected our first president. And our nation had no credentials as a nation when it was born.

    In fact, there were no journalism schools in those days, so how in the world did anybody write any news at all?

    The danger with “credentialed,” “objective” journalism is that the reporter that embraces such things will become an out-of-touch goofball.

    Take Tom Wolfe, for instance. When he wrote “The Pump-House Gang” in 1969 he was taken for a ride by some of his subjects: a group of surfers in La Jolla, Calif. Wolfe went out to La Jolla while writing the book, which was about counter culture types worldwide. The surfers in La Jolla saw Wolfe coming, and filled him full of bullshit about the why’s and wherefores of their exploits, and he ate it up, and wrote a bullshit book about it. They later admitted they made it all up, and were happy with what Wolfe had written about them.

    That, to me, exemplifies the haughty, detached media of today. I can just see Wolfe, in his goofy white suit and foppish hair, standing among a bunch of salt-crusted, tanned, half-stoned surfers as they feed him lies and giggle behind his back.

    Bravo.

    I guess Selbig was also accused of printing propaganda.

    All information is propaganda.

    Don’t tell that to Rupert Murdoch and his Fox News machine. But you might want to check out the documentary called “Out Fox’d,” for further exposition of this topic.
Insurgent49, and other like media outlets, give voice to news and opinions that have been shouted down by a media machine with manipulative and flashy tactics.
Just like the Roman Empire made its citizens complacent with beer and circuses, so does our government – in concert with the media – keep most of the consumer public fat, dumb and happy.

    I’ve said it before.

    Beer and circuses, man.

    For example, what does the billboard say? Come and play, come and play. Forget about the movement.

    Who said that? Some uppity, Rage-filled loudmouth, no doubt.

    So, anyone who speaks out Against citizen journalism and grassroots movements meant to question the intentions of The Machine, is simply not dedicating enough thought to the world around them.

    Look a little closer. You’ll see it.






Neil Zawicki, exiled Alaskan, is Editor at Large for Insurgent49, a former reporter for the Alaska Star, and winner of the Alaska Press Club's 'Best Columnist' award. He is now living out the rest of his days in an undisclosed location in Oregon. He can be contacted at -  neil@insurgent49.com
- Columnists -

Editor's Desk
by Aaron Selbig

Red Alert
by Soren Wuerth

Alaskan In Exile
by Neil Zawicki

The
Bramble Bush
by Kevin Morford





- also by this writer -
Copyright 2005 Insurgent Media. All Rights Reserved.
in-sur-gent (in sur'jent), n. 1. a member of a group which revolts against the policies of its leadership.