Kolchak: The Night Stalker
AND
CENSORSHIP.
Admittedly, the story you are about to read is bizarre, incredible. Those of you who wish
to avoid being unsettled, who wish to avoid thinking, will label it insane. And though
you, the reader, would find these facts almost impossible to substantiate, that does not
change their nature. Facts they are, I know. I saw them happen. (Rice, Chase, &
Playdon, 1974, 0:03)
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| Kolchak fights the Vampire of media Censorship . |
(1)>>Carl Kolchak, played by Darren McGavin. Was a character that every week he battled monsters , its pervasive humor, its consistently downbeat endings (Carl often discovered the truth, but was never allowed to share it), its insistence on monsters being monsters. For a reporter like Carl censorship was his biggest monster .Importantly, Kolchak was not the night stalker. Kolchak stalked the things that stalked the night.
The night stalker in The Night Stalker was a vampire. Kolchak, however, fights on two fronts. (1.2)>>He battles uncanny entities as well as skeptical colleagues and incredulous superiors. The crusading reporter bumping heads with a hard-headed editor is a narrative staple—for example,Likewise, (1.3)>>Kolchak deals with the antagonism of the police and public officials attempting to stop him from finding or reporting the truth. The monster stories always end with the evidence being destroyed or the police blackmailing him into silence. Sometimes the monsters are at work, in city hall and, by extension, in the conspiracy-riddled 1970s White House. While everything about Kolchak is fictional . In
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| No It's not FAKE NEWS! |
REALITY the monsters of censorship are real , but not only do we Americans get brain freeze we are being feed propaganda via Television . Our society is fallen prey to these monsters crafted by the left as well as right for the polarization that wracks this country, and for the erosion of free speech. Liberals have engaged in a politics of grievance and contempt: anyone who disagreed with them was racist, sexist, classist, or homophobic—and stupid. On college campuses, they passed ‘hate speech’ codes, banning speech that they deemed offensives. They would brook no dissent. The Fairness Doctrine was first introduced by the Federal Communications Commission in 1949. It required broadcasters “to afford reasonable opportunity for the discussion of conflicting views on issues of public importance.” In other words, if a radio
station aired a conservative view, it would have to provide equal time for an opposing liberal view. This regulation started as an attempt to make sure both sides of a debate were heard on government-controlled airwaves. But soon after its passage, it became a tool to silence critics and political opponents. Conservatives have long complained about unfair treatment on (2)>>social media platforms, which they see as bastions of Silicon Valley liberal views. While Kolchak was far from just a fictional TV show. If anything beyond that formula holds the 20 episodes of The Night Stalker together, it’s McGavin as Kolchak. In a way, the character is very much of his time, a hero for the post-’60s era of conspiracy movies like The Parallax View and Three Days Of The Condor. It was also produced during a period characterized by Watergate and the real-life heroics of the reporter team that brought down a crooked president. “A reporter is paid to find out things, whether he wants to know them or not.” That’s how Kolchak defines his job, and it’s a line that would sound very strange coming from a reporter some years later—say, during the buildup to the second Iraq War , the LIES of Weapons of Mass Destruction that was sold to the American public . NOW Carl seems to spend most of his time either being scared out of his tennis shoes by exceedingly lethal monsters, or (because the proof of his wild stories always seems to get lost, destroyed or covered up) as being regarded as certifiably nuts by his long-suffering (2.2)>>editor Tony Vincenzo. Still, in the tradition of the best pulp heroes, Carl Kolchak never lets his outward cynicism stop him from battling near-hopeless odds in his quest for truth -- nor would he ever let the forces of supernatural evil prey on the innocent (even if in destroying said evils, the luckless Kolchak also often ends up destroying the only proof he has of their existence.) All in all, this is pretty heroic behaviour for a guy who looks as if he hasn't bought any new clothing in at least 30 years. On the surface, Kolchak fits the conservative equilibrium model. Example Kolchak vanquished the monster of the week each week. Yes, the public is kept in the dark and everything seems to return to normal. However, there is a structural narrative alteration to Kolchak that destabilizes his return to normality. The key to this destabilization is Kolchak’s narrations. In his introductions, he presents the facts of the case, as outlandish as they might seem. Kolchak can take on supernatural monsters, but he cannot vanquish censorship (both governmental and editorial) (3)>>or the suppression of the facts. The all-too-real notion of cover-ups is as much a monster as the creatures. At the end of The Night Stalker, city officials closed ranks. Vampires are not good for Las Vegas tourism. They paid off or ran off everyone involved in the case, including Kolchak’s girlfriend. Kolchak is presented with a warrant for murder—a warrant that will be executed if he tells the truth. With no real evidence to back his story, Kolchak is run out of town.
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| "what I am about to tell you , YOU'LL NEVER Believe ..............." |
Kolchak epilogue.
As far as the authorities are concerned, the events of April 20 and 21 will never have occurred.They’re gonna tell me that if I ever breathe a word of this they’re gonna break me like a strawman . . . if you’re ever in a subway or pedestrian tunnel underneath a ballpark and you think youhear something moving in the walls, it may not be your imagination. Take my advice, don’t walk—run—to the nearest exit. (Rice, Neale, & Huff, 1975, 49:14)
NOTES AND COMMENTS:
(1)>>Carl Kolchak . I remember as a kid staying up late on Friday nights to watch the repeats of this show @midnight on CBS in the late 70’s. I love this show. The two made for tv movies and the series have obivously inspired almost all the supernatural/scfi tv shows that have followed. Some of the episodes are cheesy and hard to watch but taken as a whole it is a really good show.Also, you can even argue that without Kolchack that the modern Urban Fantasy genre wouldn’t be a prevalent as it is today. For those who are not familiar with Kolchak, a quick recap. The original made-for-TV movie The Night Stalker (1972) was intended to be a one-off based on the unpublished The Kolchak Papers by Jeff Rice, adapted for television by Richard Matheson (Thompson, 2009). Carl Kolchak is unique. First, he is a throwback to the cynical, hard-boiled noir detective. Going back to Stranger on the Third Floor (1940), newspaper reporters as neophyte gumshoes are archetypal noir characters, and speaking truth to power is another noir fundamental . Like noir detectives, Kolchak narrates his own stories and holds his own ethical standards close and uncompromisingly. When witches and Satan worshippers tempt him with power and treasure, Kolchak refuses to compromise. His dedication to the truth is more important than either. The final noir influence is the idea of corruption in high places—big business, government, and rich families . (1.2)>>He battles uncanny entities as well as skeptical colleagues and incredulous superiors. It’s almost funny how those busiest burning the reputations of others are themselves transgressors of the ever-evolving neo-Puritan morality. After all this time, and after we’ve seen the litany of revelations that confirm what we’ve known for over a year now, there is still hope that someday while we yet draw breath the FAKE NEWS crowd will finally have to admit their folly. But we’re not holding our breath (1.3)>>Kolchak deals with the antagonism of the police and public officials attempting to stop him from finding or reporting the truth. Kolchak obviously fights the brainless Bureaucracy which tries hard to suppress sensational news which is too un-believable to the public to fathom . While the later X-FILES morphed the government Bureaucracy into the image of the vile cigarette smoking man , still LATER we have the MATRIX with the men in black with sunglasses posing as ' government officials' that offer NEO a job just to stay brainwashed into a illusion , keeping him asleep to what is really going on . With the term "waking up to reality" . Similar & While our present media is far from fiction , its basically implanting in our minds [ subliminally] misinformation on current world situations examples are Syria, Venezuela which our American gov propaganda machine has been trying to sell the notion that we have to have military intervention in places like Syria , this has been sold to the American public for nearly 2 decades . Up until recently there has been an out cry to end the endless wars that nearly bankrupted our nation. NEXT and CURRENTLY this is going on today , right now with the endless confusing twists in President Trump's ever morphing collusion story which too soon will be made public, or out of fear sealed away and another story will be out so that wide spread panic will not spread could be possible . While Trump has no clean laundry to hide , trying to pin a crime on Trump , trying to remove him from office , or impeachment is even right mow becoming worrisome to the Democrats .(2)>>social media platforms . "Social Media" are private corporations - certainly "small government" conservatives will allow the free market to work its magic and regulate without big government interference. In late January, Facebook changed its algorithms. This resulted in greatly decreased traffic for many Facebook pages on the right, as well as those
websites which relied upon Facebook traffic. Facebook claimed the algorithm change emphasized posts from “friends, family and groups” and reduced those from “businesses, brands and media.” But an analysis from The Outline observed that right-leaning sites were the hardest hit. The site found “engagement totals for February dropping as much as 55 percent for some, while the engagement numbers of most predominantly liberal publishers remained unaffected.” It’s not just Facebook that’s apparently been censoring conservatives. YouTube has taken down a rash of gun videos and videos addressing conspiracies in the past couple of weeks. Some right-leaning users found themselves locked out of their accounts. It’s being referred to as the “The Great YouTube Purge.” It comes after the first wave of censorship, demonetizing right-leaning YouTube channels, which takes away their ability to run ads. (2.2)>>editor Tony Vincenzo. The role of Tony Vincenzo remains one of Simon Oakland’s most endearing and memorable roles. On the surface, Tony seemed to be a rather easy man to read; all he wanted were facts---facts that could be verified. Much to his chagrin, of course, it was all but impossible for Carl Kolchak to prove his unbelievable stories, leading to clashes between the editor and the reporter more than once. (3)>>or the suppression of the facts. If you are weeding out Fake News, there is nothing so Fake as CNN & MSNBC, & yet I do not ask that their sick behavior be removed. I get used to it and watch with a grain of salt, or don’t watch at all.” Or dont take their questions or remove them from press gatherings. AS WE certainly know about censorship but in this case he's taking about right wing domestic terrorists who should not be allowed to espouse violence and fascism on social media. It's bad enough that right wing media are allowed to serve up fake history. HOWEVER we Americans are being fed crap through our technology , while facts can be SUPPRESSED by a "government" . The worst part is when the government uses the media to instill FALSE information to its citizens. Like the PRO- War propaganda . The American mainstream “news” media scorns President Trump for daring to contradict the suddenly infallible intelligence community. DNI official Dan Coats made a point of saying that Iran has no immediate interest in the production of nuclear weapons, contrary to the President’s publicly declared concerns and Iran’s incessant boasts. Coats’ congressional testimony came only one day before it was widely reported that Iran had shipped 30 tons of yellow-cake uranium to its Itstahan enrichment facility. Meanwhile, Chuck Schumer advised intelligence officials to conduct an “intervention” on President Trump and the television panels went wild over the supposed outrage of a U. S. president disagreeing with “his own” intelligence officials. Earth to mainstream, this is hardly the first time it has ever happened. Remember? The Iraq war was blamed by media and numerous politicians on faulty intelligence over weapons of mass destruction. In that case the intelligence may have been right.
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| " Carl , YOU want me to print this stuff" " YEAS Vincenzo ! " |
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