ALJAZEERA… The year’s top story is not getting coverage…

This is the time of year for those in the media to opine as to which story from the year past was the most important.  Writing for ALJAZEERA, Danny Schechter’s end-of-year piece makes several important points about how much of the mainstream media seemingly continues to pretend that the financial and foreclosure crises aren’t happening.  He begins with the following…

This year’s top story is not getting coverage

New York, NY – As every media critic learns, the worst sin of our press is not its blatant biases, or crimes of commission, but rather the pervasive patterns of omission; what’s left out!

Already, with two weeks to go, the Associated Press has crossed the finish line with the top choice of the newspapers it serves. Perhaps in the outdated spirit of Mark Twain’s famous dictum that: “There are only two forces that can carry light to all corners of the globe – only two – the sun in the heavens and the Associated Press on earth”, their pick for story of the year is the killing of Osama bin Laden.

He goes on to acknowledge that on the progressive side of the street, this past year was an “ALL OCCUPY ALL THE TIME.” year, but that stories about Michael Jackson’s doctor, or the Kardashian wedding and break-up, are the “daily scandal that is there to titillate and drive up ratings.”

But, then Danny brings up what’s on all of our minds, Wall Street and the conspicuous absence of prosecutions and “perp walks.”

It has yet to happen and most media outlets are not focussing on why. I am referring to the lack of any real investigation of Wall Street crimes, and the indictments of wrongdoers. I am talking about “perp walks” by guilty Wall Street CEOs on their way to joining Bernie Madoff in some institute of incarceration.

Lack of investigative oversight

This is not a call for revenge, but for justice. The reason: the barely exposed chain of criminality that started in some salon of securitisation and then rippled across the world, bringing down countries and economies. It has its origins in Wall Street, where three industries colluded as a cabal to sell fraudulent subprime loans and then transfer fees and foreclosures from poor and middle class Americans to themselves.

Where is the examination of the pillars of our “FIRE” economy – Finance, Insurance and Real Estate. They became the interconnected cogs in a leverage machine to enrich themselves while plundering the rest of us.

So far, this story affecting so many millions has not really crashed through in the 1 per cent media machine with a few exceptions here and there.

And then… and this is where it really gets good, in my humble opinion… he tells people where they need to look to get the story that should be considered the year’s top story.

If you want to find out about this story of the year and years past, in all of its disgusting detail, you can’t just trust major media. You have to read Matt Taibbi in Rolling Stone, a music magazine, or blogs like Mandelman on Ml-implode.com, Naked Capitalism, Credit Writedowns, ZeroHedge, ProPublica, or Amped Status.com, to cite a few.

TV show host Dylan Ratigan has been a lonely voice on MSNBC while academics like former bank regulator William Black and former Bank economist Michael Hudson speak out frequently on the criminal environment that Wall Street has wrought in alternative outlets.

Journalists like Robert Scheer, Greg Palast and Chris Hedges write regularly on issues that from time to time make it into the columns of New York writers like Paul Krugman, Getrchen Morgensen, Frank Norris and James Stewart. All these opinion pieces rarely lead to follow-ups in the news section.

Was I too subtle there?  Did you happen to notice who’s blog was mentioned above?  Like, Woohoo! right?  Okay, just making sure…

Danny’s article goes on to discuss some very important issues, such as identifying those that are apparently, “Too Big to Question,” writing…

Just as many outlets did not warn us about the coming market meltdown, most are not warning us today about what will happen if the depression we are already sinking into deepens.

Already, a European economic think-tank called LEAP, with a history of credible projections, warns soberly, “Already insolvent (the US) will become ungovernable bringing about, for Americans and those who depend on the United States, violent and destructive economic, financial, monetary, geopolitical and social shocks.”