[Newspoetry] right of free press opposes propaganda

[DL Emerick]

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/02/politics/02propaganda.html?th&emc=th

Troubling stories of secrets.

Secrets are things troubling:
Defending the indefensible,
ever the work of managers,
to hide behind partial truth,
as if all the truth is danger.

I have seen them at work,
in business corporations,
ever selecting for employees,
investors, and the people,
what facts are to be known,
which facts are to be hidden.

Is the business of America
just this kind of business,
a decision of the ungoverned,
to decide what facts are news,
to promote only those facts?

The fact is, and it is a fact,
democracy can not arise there,
not where rulers decide facts,
and write the news accordingly.

Again, the defense is strength,
to support the war upon Iraq,
as if Iraq had asked for war,
which the US gladly gave them,
because we had so many warriors
who longed for vain-glory wars,
to cover their deeper interests,
in pro-fvanities of great wealth.

A General says "It's classified,
we classified and hid it from you,
because if a news source is known,
it becomes contestable propaganda,
and we want to win this contest,
to ensure the survival of secrecy."

Secrecy is ever enemy to democracy,
for power knows that free and equal
factuality provides no unfair field,
on which power ever thrives and grow.
Inequalities of information persist
and subsidize foundations of power,
which aristocracy ever promotes,
as its alternative to democracy.