What do Thrillist, New York Magazine, HuffPo, Nikki Finke, Time Out, satirist Andy Borowitz, the New York Observer, Elizabeth Spiers, MediaBistro, NBC, Jossip, The Economist, and Jared Paul Stern all have in common? They are all afraid to cover the Bilderberg/NWO meeting in D.C.! This according to the emails received by those people (and many, many more!) admonishing all involved for failing to report on the secret shadow super-government currently meeting to plot terrible things in D.C. Thankfully, one media outlet wasn't afraid of these powerful kingmakers: Slate. Oh, wait, but what is Bilderberg and why is it evil?

Bilderberg is a yearly secret meeting of "120 or so billionaires, bankers, politicians, industrialists, scholars, government officials, influentials from labor and education, and journalists," which basically makes it a conspiracy theory magnet. Kissinger and Tony Blair and Dean Rusk all playing Boggle and plotting the New World Order! Everything is off the record and future presidents and prime ministers often attend but reportage of the event is always limited because it's off the record and no one can get in!

Cranky media critic Jack Shafer makes the point that if this secretive group was really controlling the world and building One World Government than they probably wouldn't put out press releases and stuff, but maybe that's just what they want you to think!

Would a shadow government, should it exist, really convene annually at a hotel to hash out the world's fate? Would it really issue a press release about its latest meeting? Would it routinely assume the security risks of inviting new blood in? (Couldn't the notorious Bilderberger Conrad Black negotiate his way out of prison by exposing the group? Or is Bilderberg so powerful that it controls the federal prison system, too?)

Maybe Conrad Black's just a distraction! Maybe they sent him to prison to throw us off the scent! Wheels within wheels, people!

Anyway we look forward to many more emails on the subject!

Hey, here are photos of Ben Bernanke and others arriving at this year's Bilderberg Conference. Enjoy! It's spooooooky!

The Bilderberg "Blackout" [Slate]