There are forgotten corners of this country where Americans are trapped
in endless cycles of poverty, powerlessness, and despair as a direct
result of capitalistic greed. Journalist Chris Hedges calls these places
"sacrifice zones," and joins Bill this week on Moyers & Company to
explore how areas like Camden, New Jersey; Immokalee, Florida; and parts
of West Virginia suffer while the corporations that plundered them
thrive.
"These are areas that have been destroyed for quarterly
profit. We're talking about environmentally destroyed, communities
destroyed, human beings destroyed, families destroyed," Hedges tells
Bill. "It's the willingness on the part of people who seek personal
enrichment to destroy other human beings... And because the mechanisms
of governance can no longer control them, there is nothing now within
the formal mechanisms of power to stop them from creating essentially a
corporate oligarchic state."
The broadcast includes images from
Hedges' collaboration with comics artist and journalist Joe Sacco, Days
of Destruction, Days of Revolt, which is an illustrated account of their
travels through America's sacrifice zones. Kirkus Reviews calls it an
"unabashedly polemic, angry manifesto that is certain to open eyes,
intensify outrage and incite argument about corporate greed."
A
columnist for Truthdig, Hedges also describes the difference between
truth and news. "The really great reporters -- and I've seen them in all
sorts of news organizations -- are management headaches because they
care about truth at the expense of their own career," Hedges says.
