Journalists try to persuade us on behalf of political and economic interest groups. The PR industry can have slanted stories appear in respected journals like the New York Times and the Boston Globe.

Resigning as chair of the journalism department at the B. U. School of Communications, Bob Zelnick suggested that the school’s advertising and PR departments should be separated from the journalism department.Journalism Professors at BU are not unanimous about his suggestion. One of them co-authored a book with James "Whitey" Bulger's chief assistant, Kevin Weeks.

On Sunday April 9, the Globe published Shelley Murphy's review of four books about corruption of the Boston FBI office, the law enforcement apparatus and the state government. The authors included Howie Carr, Kevin Weeks, Red Shea and Patrick Nee. Curiously, Murphy's review was not published in the online edition of the Globe. Was that another example of how the Globe goes easy on the FBI?

The Globe published a letter on April 16 by retired State police officer Robert L. Cerra. He wrote that politicians, as well as some "corrupt cops that have not yet been identified,… betrayed the public trust." He repeats the findings of crime commissions, "organized crime cannot exist without the assistance of corrupt government officials."

Sounds of silence

Why are elected officials silent about this scandal? Both U.S. Senators, one of whom still wants to be President, said nothing about Whitey Bulger’s nineteen known homicides as an FBI informant. Congressman and former Somerville Mayor Michael Capuano, in whose district the Boston FBI office sits, said nothing about it either.

Can you hear the silence from the Boston and Cambridge City Councils? What about the darling of Harvard's limousine liberals, Jarrett Barrios? For once, the Chairman of the Public Safety Committee stands mute. Senator Barrios represents Chelsea, where the FBI framed four innocent men for a murder. Two of them died in prison. Two served 30 years for a murder they did not commit.

The Associated Press found twenty memos from Boston agents to the FBI director's office, along with six replies, showing that headquarters was told of the abuses and condoned them between 1964 and 1987.

In ruling against the Government’s efforts to dismiss the survivors’ lawsuits, Judge Gertner wrote, "… the state prosecution of Limone, Greco, Salvati, and Tameleo was procured by the FBI and nurtured by both federal agents and state officers who knew that the charges were bogus."

On April 18, WFXT-TV Channel 25 Boston Ten O'clock News, Dan Jaehnig reported that Peter Stout's wife allegedly tried to burn her family’s Tewksbury house. She and her 5 and 8 year old daughters were inside at the time. One of the girls called her father, who called the police.

Jaehnig reported that the husband said his wife has "a history of mental illness." He did not say if she was taking psychiatric drugs. Psychiatric drugs affect the minds and emotions of the person taking them. The drug industry and their priests refuse to reveal the harmful effects of those drugs. They continue to blame the illness as the cause of violence. Jaehnig said that there was a divorce in progress.

Loose talk

How does WFXT justify repeating what the husband said? Is his statement credible? This demonstrates prejudice by the editors at WFXT. I've written to the News Director twice in the past year about this irrational reporting using the phrase "a history of mental illness."

That suggests that mental illness causes crime. Why else report it in a two-minute story? But if mental illness causes crime all it should take to incarcerate a person is to have a psychiatrist or a psychologist say that a person is mentally ill.

The truth is more likely that a person accused of mental illness is the victim of crime. But that does not serve the psychiatric industry or the drug companies. If they can scare people they can also create business for themselves and for the human services corporations.

On that same broadcast David Wade reported that Pedro Rivera of New Jersey allegedly waved a gun at State police in the middle of Route 495, stopping traffic. Rivera's father said on camera that his son has "serious mental health issues." The police shot the son with a beanbag gun. He is in Bridgewater State Hospital for psychiatric evaluation. Again there was no mention if Rivera was taking psychiatric drugs. The father is grateful that the police did not kill his son.

Why did the TV crew report what the father said? What is the connection between the accusation of psychiatric illness and the alleged crime? Who is a reliable source for medical diagnoses? If anyone can make medical diagnoses, who needs psychiatrists? If a medical professional reveals records without consent it is a violation of the state right to privacy statute.

Last month the London Times reported that pharmaceutical companies are "systematically creating diseases in order to sell more of their products." The article mentions ADHD, and restless leg syndrome, as examples. I did not see any of this reported in the Boston Globe or the New York Times.