submitted by Gabrielle Price
h/t to Media Mayhem on The Lip TV

[Having taken a hiatus while working on other projects locally, I would be totally remiss not to share this outstanding interview with my readers.  Mike has been an incredible inspiration to me personally and his life’s work an enormous contribution to anyone in journalism who cares deeply about the truth, nowhere to be found in corporate media. He speaks with authority because he’s earned that authority and this is the best interview I’ve seen with him since I began studying peak oil. It is a must see…but leave your cognitive dissonance at the door. Sat nam, Mike.]

Michael Ruppert is an investigative journalist and author of two books, Crossing the Rubicon: The Decline of the American Empire at the End of the Age of Oil and Confronting Collapse: The Crisis of Energy and Money in a Post Peak Oil World. In the 1970s, Ruppert was a narcotics officer for the LAPD. While there, he discovered evidence that the CIA was complicit in the illegal drug trade. He alerted his superiors with this information and soon found himself dismissed even though he had an honorable record. These events spurred Ruppert to begin a new career for himself as an investigative journalist. He was the publisher/editor of the From The Wilderness newsletter which, until its closure in 2006, examined government corruption and complicity in such areas as the CIA’s involvement in the war on drugs, the Pat Tillman scandal, the 2008 economic collapse and issues surrounding Peak Oil. Ruppert has lectured widely on these topics and was the subject of a documentary, Collapse, in 2009 which was based on one of his books. Currently, he hosts the radio show, The Lifeboat Hour, on the Progressive Radio Network.

Part one:  Mike discusses getting persecuted as a journalist over Pat Tilman, the Bush administration, Pat Tilman cover-up, media red herrings and distractions from the Right and Left, collapse, peak oil and the Iraq War, Christopher Dorner and how investigative journalism appears through the cracks.