Fitz?

Lamontz

With the president’s approval rating down to 32%, the veep’s and congress’ below 20% why is the corporatist media still shilling for them. I mean, what will it take for them to realize that yes, they could ignore the 50% that didn’t vote for w, but now that the disapproval is reaching 68%, they can’t just keep ignoring us without paying a price. Whether the price is lack of sales or being made fun of. And of course the left feels resentment towards them. If they had been ignored, ridiculed, defamed for 5 years, they would would have some lingering resentment as well.

As if…
Please, Reddhedd and Jane, you two have both hit the nail on the head. It’s about the cocktail weenies which translates into $$$.
You don’t get rich being a journalist, you get rich writing a book, you write a book after you get inside connections, you get inside connections after being a “go to guy/gal”, you become that guy/gal by seeing and being seen, you are seen at cocktail parties, you get invited to cocktail parties after making people in power look good, you make the people in power look good be abrogating your responsibility as a journalist.

Simple.

How does Digby do that? a few sentences and there it is. Just like you and Jane. And agani, congratulations on the E&P show, it’s great. Your posts yesterday were so incredibly well laid out and the snark was just right.

ql in ny-
Because they still hold the power.

Fitz don’t fail me now.

Something terrible has happened where two outright fascists like Christopher ‘ I love Trotsky’ Hitchen’s and Michael ‘ I love Mussolini’ Ledeen get paid to write for Slate and Newsweek.
Does the fact that these two fascists are the last ones pushing the smear on Niger ring anyone else’s alarm bells?
I don’t know everyone here knows this but for some time now there has been a combined Hitlerian/ Leninist party in Russia – the ‘ National Bolshevic’s’.
Condi Rice is reported to have fallen in love with study of Russian machtpolitick circa the 1920’s.
I thought Truman, Kennedy, LBJ, Carter and Clinton violently rejected totalitarianism like this?
So how did it get in inside the home of the brave and the land of the free?

It can’t be said loud enough – what are these outlets like Slate and Newsweek doing promoting pure fascism?

The more whinging I hear from the MSM, the more I know we’re doing our jobs. Let ‘em bitch…

All I have to say to the media is this –

“Truthiness is next to Godiness”

Watched “Good Night, and Good Luck” last night. I wonder if anyone in the MSM saw it? We are most definitely back to that awful time in American history, but Communists have been replaced by terrorists. I pray nightly that the American public will finally see through these Repugs fear-mongering.

Most noticeable from the response to Corbert at the WHC dinner was the few points where the audience laughed noticeably. All were insider, Beltway jokes – for example, DC as the chocolate city with a marshmallow centre (but the punchline about a crust of corruption fell flat).

This post addresses a lot of the reason why I am so pessimistic about the current state of our country and where it might end up in the future. The few people screaming for some sanity seems so insignificant to the number of people and well placed, well fincanced institutions (government, private businesses, think tanks, etc.) who keep pressing on the accelerator of the big bus, with lots of lot of momentum and inertia, that is currently heading for a really big cliff.

I know that I am a pessimist by nature, but I just don’t see any of this turning around in time to save our collective butts from going over that cliff. I get the feeling that most people will be going “Wheee!!!” as we go over….

“Is that too much to ask?”

Yep. As long as the GOP controls the regulatory processes in the House, the corporate media will dance to their tune.

Besides, I think Limbaugh, O’Reilly, Hannity, Coulter and the rest of the treasonistas have the trad-media types buffaloed and fearful.

I think it’s up to the citizen scribes of the mighty Blogistan to strike more fear in the heart of the MSM with the facts, than the treasonistas with their lies.

They honestly think they’re liberal. No, really. They’re the media, and they’ve so completely internalized the Right Wing Noise Machine message that they believe they’re liberal. Thus, criticism from the right is justified, and even encouraged (and repeated ad nauseating nauseum) … but criticism from the -left-? Why, they -are- the left! That simply doesn’t compute. So those criticising from the left must be the modern incarnations of Pol Pot, only angrier.

The sycophantic stenographistas deserve pity, really. They (and the Beltway Dems) are suffering from a political version of Stockholm Syndrome: “A phenomenon in which a hostage begins to identify with and grow sympathetic to his or her captor.”

This starts as a defensive mechanism, out of fear. The captive tries to see the situation through the captor’s eyes, while learning how to please and appease the aggressor, to keep from being hurt or worse. This tactic doesn’t work forever, but it sometimes can be used to manipulate the captor into taking a less dangerous stance–for a while. Any kindness done by the captor is magnified, and rescue attempts are seen as a threat.

Hear! Hear! And good morning, Christy; I hope you had a good night’s sleep after all that deconstructing of the Libby filing and the Memorandum opinion – I know I did!

What I notice is that it the right-wing media seem wholly comfortable with their counterparts in the blogosphere, and regard them as part of the cooperative effort to globally disseminate their message. If ever there was proof that the MSM leans right, it is the offense it takes to what is going on in the left side of the net. If the MSM were truly the liberal bastion that the extreme right wing always claims it is, this fight for the hearts and minds would be on more of an even footing, and I believe you would get more point-counterpoint, as opposed to point-point that we have now.

There also seems to be a creeping laziness in the media – especially the broadcast media, with the ABC, CBS and NBC products being almost indistinguishable from each other, even to the point where all three networks often have their nightly reports in the same order; really brings home the meaning of déjà vu.

I have to believe that much of the problem is the loss of independence that resulted from corporate ownership that has seen mergers with and acquisitions of other companies to the point where the news desks are hamstrung by the resulting conflicts between advertising and news; money always trumps truth.

RH – congrats on the E&P piece. well-deserved. any sense on how momentous that is for FDL? Is E&P almost MSM (forgive my ignorance)?
btw, Soc. Sec. trustees report is finally out. more bad news.

I was discussing the media with some conservative friends (yes, it’s possible, at least these aren’t freepi types) the other day, and I think I astonished them by saying that I had more respect for Fox News than I did for the NY Times or the WaPo. Why? Because at least FNC makes no real effort to conceal its conservative slant.

Then I went on to say that our journalistic institutions that value the appearance of objectivity are killing this country. There is no objectivity — human judgment is required just to choose what to cover, and once that door is opened, bias enters. There’s nothing wrong with that — it’s wrong only to pretend otherwise, that “balance” is close enough to “objectivity” to satisfy a journalist’s responsibility. Screw balance, just give me the facts — even if you have an open bias, you can still report facts that are meaningful. The National Review, for instance, could tee off on beltway Dem consultants for reasons of partisanship and still report facts that are meaningful to everyone. Bias just isn’t inherently harmful.

This is all old ground for FDLers, I realize, but I thought it was interesting how well received this was by my conservative friends.

In an aside… here in Texas I saw this yesterday: a minivan with a Jesus fish on one end of the rear hatch and a bumper sticker on the other that read: “I Can’t Wait for 2008,” with the familiar circle/strikethrough around/through the ‘W’ in “Wait.” There’s something happening here. What it is ain’t exactly clear.

I think they’re just jealous.

Christy…

Great post. The reason there is such an outcry about “The Colbert Affair” is due in part to the current state of the MSM. He took a blowtorch to a tray of cocktail weenies and burnt them while they were being served (serviced?)…and the guests demand un-burnt, beautifully presented, scorchless cocktail weenies, dammit!

Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette? Can the Bastille and the guillotine be far behind?

The question I would like answered is why did the mainstream media act as cheerleaders for a war that was clearly based on a pack of lies. Did they just buy into the NeoCon propaganda without question? Why were large news organizations like the New York Times and the Washington Post so hellbent on whiping up public support for the war? Did they have some agenda that we don’t know about?

Great post. It makes so much sense.

What’s most telling is that the MSM resents the style of leftie blogging and ignores the substance. They don’t get upset about missing big stories, or transcribing the talking points verbatim, but how dare we get snarky!?!

Style or substance—we know where their priorities lie.

And who is the most famous snark-master of American letters? Mark Twain. He’s still read. They won’t be.

The press loves war. Since the Spanish-American War, they’ve noticed their profits go through the (see AOL/TimeWarners recent earnings) roof. When any war costs too much and we call the boys home, they’ll be blaming the “liberal media” again.

This time, the Warmongers/Profiteers need to pay and be told to shut up when they start blaming someone else.

Thank God for the internet. Its the only thing that gives me hope the good guys will win.

Edward Deevy:

Afghanistan is one big, non-tinfoil, reason.

Bush was elected as a knucklehead with a good team. The invasion of Afghanistan seemed to bear this out–the administration did a singularly good job removing the Taliban. Sure, that’s the only thing they did well, and they’re now busy snatching defeat from the jaws of victory, but Afghanistan was an extremely important signpost in the march to war in Iraq. (And a few loud voice on the left–Chomsky, for example–issued dire warnings about the invasion of Aghanistan and the inevitably resulting genocide, which undermined the anti-Iraq-war position in the media’s eyes.)

Also, trauma. The urge for revenge. Laziness and sloppiness and insider access-tropism. And the understanding of journalism as reporting on competing truth claims, instead of the truth. And, probably primarily, the Right’s enviable and longstanding mau-mauing skills.

And, despite the nineteen responses I get for saying this (each claiming that if -they- knew the war was based on a pack of lies, then professional reporters sure knew) things weren’t quite as perfectly clear at the time as we remember.

Veritas78 says:
May 4th, 2006 at 7:12 am

Were they still here with us, I would like to read comments about the current state of American journalism from the following writers and/or journalists: Mark Twain, Ambrose Bierce, H.L. Mencken, and Alistair Cooke. As time goes by, we can add more names to that list of writers and journalists

Ed Deevy asked:

“The question I would like answered is why did the mainstream media act as cheerleaders for a war that was clearly based on a pack of lies.”

They didn’t want to APPEAR to be on the wrong side of what was a VERY popular issue at the time. The polls were running around 70% in favor of getting Saddam and his evil Al Qaeda band of merry pranksters.

I have been someone who has been on the losing side of the issue until it recently turned. There doesn’t seem to be the crowing and in your face attitude of the supporters anymore.

I just point out how much it has damaged our international reputation and tied up the military.

I also tell hardcore Christians that the bible talked about rebuilding of the temple of Babylon. They thought it was the refurbishing job Saddam was doing on the original temple. I tell them it is George W. Bush and his 500 million dollar embassy that is the new temple of Babylon being built for the empire.

They get wigged out on that script flip.

-GSD

Holy crap. I just spent an hour reading last night’s comment thread. What a ride.

Had the gadfly not landed in the soup, the thought provoking commentary would not have evolved.
Where’s the Ghostman?

Ms. Hamsher, you’re a peach. You too, Christy.

These bed wetting republicrooks (borrowed term) are fucking hilarious these days. Even the dumb ones know the jig is up.

Oops – the last sentence should read as follows: As time goes by, we can add more names to that list of writers and journalists. (missing punctuation)

Sorry if this has already shown up, slightly OT, but check out Crooks and Liars:
http://movies.crooksandliars.com/Unclass2.mov

The corporate media also doesn’t know how to deal with the changes the medium is going through. They know that big changes, sea changes are on the way. They are afraid and therefore they attack at what they percieve the threat to be.

-GSD

Ronald Reagan worked very hard to make greed a virtue. He started this whole ball of dung rolling. Let’s give him a big hand.

AOL non scientific web poll on Colbert.

Were his jokes appropriate?
Yes 65%
No 35%
Total Votes: 174,118

-GSD

Dr DJ Z at the top hit the issue right on the head. I think many of today’s so-called journalists are only working as such as a stepping stone to a better paying gig. I believe this is the primary way that the corporate ownership of media has been able to quietly exert political influence over our discourse. While the actual reporters are doing the leg work, the research, the interviews, etc., it’s the talking heads that make huge money and get access to all the right social affairs. Thus, the incentive to be a hard-hitting journalist is completely gone. At best, it may spawn a book deal, but also likely a lot of notoriety among the ruling class. It’s just one more example of the biggest benefits going to the least deserving, a hallmark of the reverse meritocracy created by American conservatism. Only in the case of corporate owned journalism, they’re messing with our entire political system.

Who do people still respect for their reporting? I can start with Murray Waas, Seymour Hersh, and Christy and Jane. I’d like to hear about others.

Newspaper people are accustomed to telling people what to think, not to the dialog of the internet.

For those of us who have spent some time in this interactive world, it’s natural to, oh, look for a response pane at the end of a news article.

Those of us who write blogs or who have participated in internet discussions are accustomed to dealing with people who disagree with us, sometimes disagreeably.

Media people have not had these experiences, and their egos have blossomed in the hothouse atmosphere of no response. Burn the letters. Delete the e-mails. There, see, we’re the ones who know what we’re talking about.

Then, suddenly, people from non-organizations with bizarre names are criticizing. People here have noticed that many of the shocked, I tell you, shocked articles are by people who seem never to have read a blog.

AND OTHER PEOPLE ARE LISTENING!

Anyone would get indigestion.

I’m referring to original reporting, not cut and paste.

jrs, I saw that film and it is just great. Already sent it to our lovely hostesses, everyone should check it out. Nice to hear Barbara Jordan’s words again. I’d like to hear them now and louder.

read richard cohen today for a classic example of whining dc establishment.
what a wanker.

It might all be moot soon. Noron reported last night how the WH Press Corps cubby holes are being renovated, no doubt with new and improved NSA technology. AND there is a serious proposal to ban cameras from the briefings. So, why even bother to have the press corps anymore? They are going to a new free speech zone and Tony Snow, a FOX news personality will be going it alone on TV. He can make his case directly to the American people without that annoying bunch of WH Correspondents asking troubling questions. It’s perfect.
Well, well, well, if only Colbert had known the WH correspondents were about to become obsolete he might have given a requiem rather than a sermon. Poor babies. They reported themselves into extinction.

Gussie @ 24
The invasion of Afghanistan seemed to bear this out–the administration did a singularly good job removing the Taliban.

IMO this is just another of the major myths of Bushco.

They never defeated the Taliban. They allowed the leader to escape. The Taliban has always controlled most of the country outside of Kabul and Kandhar. They rounded up countless innocent Afghans and shipped them off to Gitmo. The opium trade is back in full swing.

Soldiers from the coalition are still dying there.

The Taliban are making a comeback in people’s hearts and minds.

Bushco didn’t do a good job in Afghanistan. And before they were finished, they were off to Iraq. Now we have two major messes to clean up instead of one.

Tool of the Week.

Nancy Pelosi for her bold decision to stand pat on congressional sleaze. Way to draq a line of difference between the two parties Nancy.

http://www.rawstory.com/news/2….._0504.html

-GSD

Stories I’d like to see the MSM do:

1. How, exactly, did a male prostitute become part of the White House Press Corps? Who signed off on the paperwork and why? (Okay, I can guess the “why?” part, but I’m still curious about the “who?”)

2. What really happened on the day that the vice-president shot an old man in the face? Suggestion: Try interviewing the people who were there. Start with the hunting guide and the ambassador to Switzerland.

Everone please read this run-down of Rove’s current situation by DUer “Justice is Comin”..
http://www.democraticundergrou…..15;1099147
excerpt:

Think about this. What was new that Rove could have possibly told Fitzgerald or this grand jury that he hadn’t already told the last grand jury? NOTHING!!!! He’d already shot his wad with everything he could come up with, and he thought he was in the clear because of only the Libby indictment. Yet he’s back for the 5th time before a new grand jury as soon as Fitzgerald gets back to town !! All he could possibly have been doing is desperately trying to put more lipstick and rouge and eye shadow and wrinkle cream on that same pig. I think Fitzgerald is having a literal field day catching him in one lie after another, and knowing he gets in deeper with every appearance. Just giving him more and better evidence each time to use in his trial.

https://www.workingforchange.com/Order/index.cfm?OrderFormID=8

Not-So-Happy Mother’s Day

This Mother’s Day, President Bush and his wife Laura will take joy in their daughters. They’ll also take an untenable stand to continue an
unjust occupation of Iraq that has caused thousands of mothers to have their joy replaced by unspeakable grief. Mothers who have lost sons and daughters in Iraq will mark Mother’s Day as one more painful reminder of an irreparable loss.

But they will not be alone.

On May 14, mothers of fallen and wounded soldiers, including Cindy Sheehan and women from Iraq and Iran, will gather in front of the
White House for a 24-hour-vigil to honor the dead and demand an end to the occupation.

* SPECIAL OPPORTUNITY: Send a Flower

Send a Mother’s Day rose to Washington, D.C., and let the mothers of the fallen and wounded soldiers know that you stand with them and
against the war. Organic roses will be presented to the mothers and tied to the fence outside the White House as a memorial to the dead and a call for peace.

Sorry, tried to reformat, but no go.

There are other actions at actforchange.com which is linked to Working Assets. Roses are $3 and any extra sent will go to Code Pink.

For the record (or whatever), here’s my letter to Richard Cohen follwing his WaPo review of the Colbert performance:

Dear Richard,
So how bad would things have to be to justify someone saying something sharp to the president of the United States? Would we have to be sliding from democracy into dictatorship by “signing” fiat? How about if we had a government that lied us into one absurd, brutal war and was gearing us up for another? What if the extreme edge of the religious right — you know, those people who would have guys like you and me for breakfast — had taken over the public face of the Republican party? It’s not like the stakes are high enough to justify some public scrutiny or anything.

You know, it takes no courage to suck up to sitting king, but try to imagine what life is going to look when this gang is gone and the subpoenas — for corruption and illegal wiretapping — are thick on the ground. Are you going to be proud that you played good little soldier in the twilight of a shameful era. You can insist that “truth to power” is a tired phrase, but if you honestly look at the Washington Post and the rest of the neutered press, it’s clear that the power to tell the truth is more diminished than any of us have seen in our lifetimes. Glad you are so comfortable in the new Pravdasphere that all that’s left to do is pick away pesky flies like Stephen Colbert. But most of us are really frightened for our country right now and you’re right about one thing: that is so not funny.

yoderman, your link doesn’t work.

But thanks.

I like to call this bit:

Flip-flopping Pickles

http://images1.americanprogres…..20.240.mov

-GSD

Its the allure of $$$ and fame that has killed the MSM credibility and nobody knows how to dish $$$/fame like the GOP propaganda machine. Great stuff.

Following up on #7 – can we dust off the word “fascism” and put it into regular circulation? I know it’s a buzz word but, hey, if the right can still red-bait after all these years, cant we at least call it like it is? The coordinated attack on journalism is nothing if not fascist. David Neiwert and others have laid out the case in spades. It only remains to promulgate it in a compelling way.

Sure quacks like a duck to me. Here’s an excellent short essay that serves as a useful template for assessing the arrival of fascism: “Fascism Anyone?” by Laurence W. Britt:

http://www.secularhumanism.org…..britt_23_2

And I would say that the current taboo on using the seven-letter “F” word is itself a result of the growth of fascism in America. This is a censorship problem, but one whose solution will open a great many new doors, because once it is “acceptable” to call fascism, um, fascism, then we can begin to have a functional national conversation about what to do.

Please do this, it is so important.

41% of this country is uninsured, and there is a bill going to the Senate to cut funding for mammograms. I was a local project manager for 5 years for the MA program that came from this funding and it SAVES LIVES. It is linked to income and is usually managed at the state level by Depts of Public Health. This link is at the American Cancer society. I urge you to follow up on this today, this is the health care budget cuts at work and this is a very effective way to help. The ACS carries a lot of weight with legislators.

ACS letter

I take exception to this statement:

“The invasion of Afghanistan seemed to bear this out–the administration did a singularly good job removing the Taliban.”

The Taliban wasn’t removed so much as they crossed back to their base in Pakistan and bided their time; Now they are back and have more local support than ever……
But if you rely on MSM, you wouldn’t know that.

Al Franken’s Lies And The Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair And Balanced Look At The Right is an example of the difference between what many Americans, including some conservatives, want from the news and what we’re getting now. The constant flow of right-wing propoganda alleging that there’s a “liberal media” out there is partly responsible for the current right-wing slant. There’s precious little to counter it with, Franken’s book and James Wolcott’s Attack Poodles book are the only ones I can think of. I think the media-watching blogs are starting to address this imbalance, and that’s part of the reason for the whining.

There’s also the conservative bias of the people who own or run most of the news organizations in this country. What can be done about that, I’m not so sure. Based on what’s happening with the Washington Post, it almost appears that these folks would rather ruin a good news organization just so it will produce the propoganda they want. The only way I see to counter that attitude is to either buy those companies from them or start our own.

These days, I get most of my TV news from the BBC and PBS. There are very few American newspapers in my bookmarks list, and there are even fewer that I’ll buy at the newstand.

“Liberal” NPR reporter this morning said that Congress (In total) must shake off the (Abramoff) Lobbying Scandal. Then, a whiny voiced person said that the dems don’t have any power, so they weren’t guilty of accepting bribes (presumably, if they had power then the would take bribes, but they don’t have power, so they don’t take bribes). The segment closed with the reporter saying that the DEMS would have to prove it (that they are not taking bribes) to voters in November. End of report. If it were FAUX News, that would be one thing, but it was freakin NPR!

Damn liberal media at work trying there best to turn us into socialists and communists.

I’m gonna go pick myself up by my bootstraps now.

zennurse: I would add the names of Frank Rich and Paul Krugman to those who continue to do extremely good writing about our country’s current situation. I know they’re both technically considered pundits rather than reporters, but I routinely find a number of cogent facts in their columns that have suprisingly (OK, not surprisingly) fallen through the cracks on the reporting side. Not to mention Rich’s and Krugman’s context and perspective, two commodities in very short supply among the MSM these days.

I can’t believe that CNN is putting Glenn Beck on TV! This is sick! I don’t care much for CNN anyway, since I find almost all of their on-air talent to be tasteless blowhards, but Beck is beyond crap. I remember him saying that all the members of the 9/11 commission should be shot. He quickly said that he was just kidding. Good joke, eh? Love that Republican humour. Tell me the one again about the guy on the doggie leash with the underwear on his head and three days worth of shit in his pants, please!!

Hey zennurse, where do you live? If you’re in the DC area and are interested in getting involved in some Extreme Peace activities, let me know.

peace,
jim

Robert Parry at ConsortiumNews.com has written extensively about this; the right wing media tilt is not just carrot, it’s also stick — any reporter who tells the truth about the right wing GOP bullshit puts their career in danger.

Gary Webb wrote about the CIA and the Contra/Cocaine drug trade. His reporting was completely accurate, except for one tiny dot he connected — he said that the drug importation was official CIA policy, which could never be. Importing drugs is always unofficial CIA policy, even when they are in it up to their eyebrows. For his journalistic sin, The NY Times, LA Times, WaPoo, and his own paper, the San Jose Mercury, hounded Gary Webb out of the business and destroyed his career. He shot himself not long ago; but it is the MSM that killed him.

Robert Parry worked at Newsweek, and reported on a different aspect of the same story — he too was shown the door for the crime of honest reporting.

No matter that CBS has video of cargo planes unloading bales of drugs at Homestead AFB is South Florida — anyone who tells the truth about BushCo and the GOP Gangsters puts their jobs at risk.

Which is why the Jane Hamshers of the Lefty Blogosphere are such a threat to the Corporophilic Media — they can’t control us.

Kenji @ 7:53 am (#46) – Well said. Your comment certainly expresses my fears about this country. I’m not afraid of terrorists – most of the are somewhere else and there are plenty of things more likely to kill Americans before their time. This absurd expansion of government power and the attendant abuse of that power is what I’m afraid of.

Well, that and all the halfwits in this country who think this is how things should be.

Many of us are with zeppo way up thread, there is no greater source of despair in all we face than the collapse of a free and vigorous press

Those who hold the reins of power in Government and Corporations are doing exactly what the Founders expected them to do – run buck friggin’ wild for power – our lynchpin, our safety net, was to be the accountability and transparency provided by the Press – so important it is called out in the very beginning of the Constitution -aaahhh!

Two words for the WATB’s screaming about those mean bloggers -

Ben Franklin

While running for the Pennsyvania Assembly, the Press and Pamphleteers called him everything but a child of god -

an excitable lecher, stole his ideas on electricity from others, sought a Royal Governorship, bought his honorary degrees, etc. – and refused to sue as he was advised

when unsure whether he was prostituting himself by running some questionable material – he went home, ate only bread and water, and slept on the floor to see if he could survive as a principled journalist

this medium here is all we’ve got and I pray everyday it survives

Jim, sadly I am not in DC, though other firedogs are. I’m on the North Shore of MA in lovely Gloucester, home of the Fisherman and Gortons fish sticks, a declining fishing fleet and a nice multicultural and pretty democratic community.

I would deeply love to participate in some extreme peace activities, and will ask around on the MA blogs I have recently found. RevDeb may know about such, she’s nearer the Cape, I think.

Thanks, though. Maybe I’ll be in DC October 29 for the huge antiwar event; it would be so ince to connect then.

Dale-
When I was on TimesSelect, I loved reading Rich and Krugman, but I had to wean myself and now settle for the snippets I can find online. I agree with you, they actually did some light reporting, especially when things seemed to be under the radar of the major news.

zennurse,

Gloucester is one of those real American places I’ve dreamt of visiting, but haven’t gotten to. Something about old fishing ports.

When does Beck’s CNN gig start? Can we time some opposition around that event? Savage was stupid enough to do himself in, but Beck is going to play his game more cagily.

DIG-BEE, DIG-BEE, DIG-BEE, DIG-BEE!
MAR-TEE, MAR-TEE, MAR-TEE, MAR-TEE!

“Do we have a voice?
Do you know the sound of thunder?
Can you imagine that sound if I ask you to?
Ma’am, listen to the THUNDER!”

(i love that quote, somebody over at D-Kos always uses as their tag-line.)

wonder what would happen if Colbert and Digby went up against Ann Coulter and Hitchens. Would that Bill Maher would make that foursome his panel before the season is out…….

zeppo (#11):

with a slight revision, your picture is an echo of Slim Pickens riding the bomb out the bomb bay doors of the B-52 at the end of “Dr. Strangelove”. Very apt.

wrt Afghanistan and our failure there too:

By CARLOTTA GALL
Published: May 3, 2006

TIRIN KOT, Afghanistan, April 27 — Building on a winter campaign of suicide bombings and assassinations and the knowledge that American troops are leaving, the Taliban appear to be moving their insurgency into a new phase, flooding the rural areas of southern Afghanistan with weapons and men.

Lt. Gen. Karl Eikenberry, center, met on Thursday with elders of Uruzgan Province, Afghanistan, urging them to support reform efforts.

Each spring with the arrival of warmer weather, the fighting season here starts up, but the scale of the militants’ presence and their sheer brazenness have alarmed Afghans and foreign officials far more than in previous years.

“The Taliban and Al Qaeda are everywhere,” a shopkeeper, Haji Saifullah, told the commander of American forces in Afghanistan, Lt. Gen. Karl Eikenberry, as the general strolled through the bazaar of this town to talk to people. “It is all right in the city, but if you go outside the city, they are everywhere, and the people have to support them. They have no choice.”

(snip)

The Bush administration is alarmed, according to a Western intelligence official close to the administration. He said that while senior members of the administration consider the situation in Iraq to be not as bad as portrayed in the press, in Afghanistan the situation is worse than it has been generally portrayed.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05…..fghan.html

Good news for Yearly Kos goers:

Las vegas just says no to the Patriot Act

Vegas news

Money controls the media. Media controls the message. Whoever controls the message controls the people. The undereducated and fearful component of the American populace, is especially easy to control. If the progressive movement prevails in winning back the government, it still has mountains to move to break the grip of big money on the press. But unless the media returns to principled and independent crafting of the message, the ugly scenario that we are living through now will repeat itself again and again.

When Bush and the MSM respect the presidency, then Steny Hoyer and Richard Cohen and all the other media sheeple can tell us to respect the president. Not before.

(#33) Just like a lot of the officer class in Viet Nam. Pretty much the same careerism thing. Disgusting.

You see the MSM starting to sing a different tune recently. They smell the blood in the water and some of them have started turning on peabrain. It’s up to us to remember who they are, just like we’re giving the liss to the DINO’s.

ck — Thanks for “corporphilic”; of course, they’re also coprophagic.

I did chafe when I read Digby’s assertion that “we” have been “veritably silent” over the last several decades.

FAIR has been around for 20 years now with precisely the kind of press criticism and activism that have caught fire in the netroots in the last few years. They’re still doing bang-up work, and their weekly (downloadable) radio show is a must-listen. It pains me that more people in Left Blogostan seem never to have heard about them: http://www.fair.org

I meant “corporophilic.”

My e-mail to Richard Cohen:

Mr. Cohen:

You are confusing Stephen Colbert, the person, with Stephen Colbert, the persona. Mr. Colbert was at the dinner in the same persona you would see if you watched The Colbert Report on Comedy Central. Colbert-the-persona specializes in “truthiness,†which he (the person) defines as something that sounds like it could be the truth, but isn’t.

Two years ago, our president made a “joke†out of looking for the non-existent WMD – the ones he and his administration built a case for war on – remember that? Military men and women lost their lives – and are continuing to die – as a result of this president taking us to war on a false premise. He made a big joke about looking for WMD under tables and desks. Did you or any of your compatriots take him to task for this very unfunny and unseemly “joke?â€

As far as this president and this administration are concerned, there isn’t a whole lot to laugh about. We’re three years and over 2,400 deaths into the war, which shows no signs of ending. Gasoline prices are through the roof. Wages have fallen for the fourth year in a row. The president is using unprecedented power, usually illegally, to intrude on the lives of Americans. The deficit is, as my teenager would say, ginormous. The Medicare prescription drug program is a disaster. Corruption is running rampant through the Republican Congress. White House officials are under indictment, or threat of indictment, for stonewalling and lying about the disclosure of classified information about a CIA agent. It’s ironic, isn’t it, that a few people could be so concerned about respecting a president who has done little but champion the causes of the wealthy over the interests of working men and women, and has shown shockingly blatant disregard for the laws and principles that are the underpinning of this country.

So, tell us, please, how do you poke gentle fun at this president and his administration, and at the DC press corps which has been stunningly absent from the front lines of truth, with a few exceptions? And explain, please, how there was no outcry at the Don Imus performance when Clinton was president? I don’t recall the press corps getting all huffy and indignant about Mr. Imus’ contribution to the Clinton-era dinner.

With the president’s approval ratings circling the drain, it might behoove you to contemplate the possibility that the only people who feel the need to lambaste Mr. Colbert are those who were the subjects of Mr. Colbert’s roast, and those who still cling to the belief that this president is doing a fine job. By all accounts, this is not a lot of people.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
I feel a little better now. :-)

For anyone interested in the myth of victory in Afghanistan, the best article I’ve seen is at
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20060327/parenti .
(Might be member-restricted)

Here are the last couple of paragraphs, perhaps worth reading as US troops pull out:

Toward the end of my stay I meet a European “contractor” who is in fact a Western intelligence agent in charge of several important dossiers pertaining to Afghan security. All of this is confirmed through Afghan intelligence sources. But my “contractor” friend maintains his pretenses and I remain respectful of that, and we proceed with otherwise very frank conversations.

To my surprise, this agent to the great powers, this builder of empire, is the most cynical person I’ve met my whole trip. Highly intellectual, he talks of Afghanistan as doomed, a hostage to history and to the idiocy, arrogance and Iraq obsession of the Bush clique. He passes me a series of “red gaming papers”–intentionally dissenting analyses of the Afghan situation written by and for the coalition.

The papers paint an arrestingly bleak picture of Afghanistan as a political “fiction,” a buffer state that no longer buffers, a collection of fiefdoms run by brutal local warlords. The coalition’s mission is portrayed as a fantasy game managed by sheltered careerists. One of the papers is by an American. It ends on this note: Nothing short of an open-ended blank check from the United States will keep Afghanistan from returning to chaos.

peace,
jim

From Digby’s post, quoting Thomas Crown at RedState (whoever the f*ck he is) :”I repeat: Should the entire American Left fall over dead tomorrow, I would rejoice, and order pizza to celebrate. They are not my countrymen; they are animals who happen to walk upright and make noises that approximate speech. They are below human. I look forward to seeing each and every one in Hell.”

Which is hate speech, pure & simple. Substitute “left” with “black” & re-read that piece.

These people should thank their lucky stars they’re not in post-Mussolini Italy, or post-Vichy France. Should the Democrats take power, there would be a line of heads impaled on spikes from the Capitol to the Lincoln Memorial.

I’m just joking, just like mAnn Coulter does, right?

Parenti’s article did a lot to dispel the myth, Jim. Thanks for posting the link– hopefully more people will see it. ;(

If this Military/entertainment complex has a philosophy it must surely be corporatism.
( The ‘ F’ word in other words according Il Duce )

Just found some more on the red fascist roots of a lot of these brownshirts…Poison roots of the poison tree
Buckley was a hot commodity on the far right. And the political pedigrees of the men who joined with Buckley to found National Review were, if anything, even more radical. Editor William Schlamm, a brilliant Central European intellectual, had once been a communist. Editor James Burnham, one of the most significant and neglected figures of the conservative movement, was a former Trotskyite. Other highly educated former communists, including Whittaker Chambers, also floated around the fledgling conservative movement. There is an inherent attraction among intellectuals for extremist positions—witness Christopher Hitchens lurching from youthful Trotskyism to his own very personal version of neoconservatism.

http://www.washingtonmonthly.c…..brunn.html

In terms of ideas, the neocons have proven far more seductive to George W. Bush and Dick Cheney. It was neocons who banged the drum for Wilsonian intervention in the 1990s

The Washington press corps reminds me of my mother. When I was a young firebrand and making something of a name for myself in local politics, my mother would sob, “It’s OK for you to say these things and go on your way, but I HAVE TO LIVE WITH THESE PEOPLE!!!” That’s the presstitutes’ rationalization for why they are forced to color inside the lines when dealing with the DC establishment.

i really hope you do a post about fuckwad richard “i am a funny guy…& i have a thirteen inch penis” cohen!!!!

Excellent Letters to Cohen, Anne and Kenji.

Gannon/Guckert News Whore and Deadeye’s face shooting incident – those would be extremely interesting and colorful stories.

Too bad the MSM sucks right wing teat.

Something quite relevant to the subject of the present thread, via Raw Story:

http://www.rawstory.com/news/2….._0504.html

Vermont AP bureau chief was also fired for allowing reporter to contribute chapter to Dean profile

05/04/2006 @ 11:20 am
Filed by RAW STORY

Yet many reporters contributed to Dean book, paper finds

The fledgling alternative news site The Vermont Guardian has obtained the termination letter which sent Associated Press Vermont Bureau Chief Chris Graff packing earlier this year.

Graff’s firing stirred immediate controversy. At the onset, it appeared that the AP had fired Graff for releasing a column to the wires written by Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) criticizing government secrecy. The column was quickly pulled; The Guardian reports it was part of a package for Sunshine Week, which aims for transparency in government.

The letter, however, reveals that the AP also came down on Graff for allowing a reporter to contribute to a book about Howard Dean. But the Guardian found that several other Vermont reporters contributed to the book without incident: “Darren Allen, the bureau chief of the statehouse bureau for the Rutland Herald and Times Argus, John Dillon, a reporter for Vermont Public Radio, and David Moats, the editorial page editor of the Rutland Herald.”

The Guardian posted a PDF of the firing letter. The paper’s editor has provided RAW STORY with the text of the letter as well.

(snip)

It’s time for the media establishment to suck it up, and stop blaming all of us when we call them on facts that they get wrong. Inaccuracy is not something to defend in a bunker.

Not accurate .. it’s LONG PAST TIME !

What ouor pathetic media haven’t figured out yet is that there is no conservative movement in this country.
Real conservatives are an endangered species. What we instead is an angry, Bush-lovin’ fascist cult that somehow managed to fool the media into calling it “conservative.”

PeteCO (#74):

i went over to Red State and read the little idiot’s post. i think that this “guy” is a middle school student, possibly of college age. of course that doesn’t excuse the Red State monitors for letting this kind of malicious drivel out into the ether. he/she is probably part of the spawn of the brood responsible for jonah goldberg, part of the reagan era emptying out of mental institutions.

I did find a local chapter of Drinking Liberally, that I am going to drop in on next Wed. Maybe that will cheer me up. During my regular job, I work in a branch of the Federal Government. No, don’t blame me for anything the Bushies are doing. We just do airplanes. But the 20% of us or so that are on the left side of the fence tend to keep our heads down. I can’t tell how many times I have had to bite my tongue when everhearing a conversation in the men’s room or in the hallway. Really depressing sometimes. That’s why I really like reading what is going on here. It helps me maintain some kind of contact with like thinkers.

If Jane or Christie are reading this, thanks so much for the job you and other bloggers like you do. You folks are great.

They hired fucking Glenn Beck? You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.

Wish I were kidding, deadlyshoe. SIGH He’ll have an hour-long show on Headline news, I’m told.

Couple thoughts – CKR @ 55, the MSM seem completely unfamiliar with a tiny litlte tome titled “The Cluetrain Manifesto”, which describes what a lot of us have been doing in work lives since the early 90s, and its implications for poltics (especially blogs). It definitely dovetails with CtG.

Agree with Dale @ #56 about Rich and Krugman. Also am convinced that Krisoff is doing important work on envionmental issues, and also humanitatian issues.

ck @ #57 – heartbreaking stories, which definiitely underscore the size, menace, and venality of The Beast.

As for blogs, I’ve found Christy and Jane’s explanations of the DETAILS and RELATIONSHIPS among PlameGate players enlightening and engrossing. I feel as if I actually learn something when I come here — which is part of why I keep coming back.

I have yet to see anyone on the fever-swamp, right-wing blogs really dig into a legal document, or an indictment, and EXPLAIN its significance: what do those terms mean? why are they important? It’s great to have a resource that helps me LEARN and that’s what attracts me to FDL, as well as to Kristoff’s articles. Okay, it’s not all high-minded. I LOVE the snark!!!

However, explaining things with the level of detail and expertise offered here at FDL requires a lot of prior knowledge. Some reporters are lazy jerks. However, I think that too many of the reporters came out of “J-Schools”, they have VERY LITTLE expertise in any field, and so they are easily swayed by avaricious politicos like the Bushies.

I once heard an excellent analysis of degraded news from a (retired) news guy. He’d worked for an NBC affiliate, and for an unusually long number of years – so he remembered all the dirt that the Mayor had done 6 years back, whereas his glib and perky competitors had no clue — so they just reported “… the Mayor says…” They may as well have been selling cars, for all the depth and background they brought to ‘reporting’ and yet they sure were cuter than the 60-ish, graying guy who actually know the local history and the players. For the old guy, his town was his COMMUNITY. For the perky twit, it was a MARKET.

To buid on that point, journalsim degree has become a default major for twits. There’s no requirement that a journalism major be combined with anything challenging like biology, or chemistry… and we see some of the results. BTW: Kristoff was an Ag major, and also belonged to FAA (Future Farmers of America). Which means that he had to produce results, judge them, and search out best methods… hardly the types of activities that the Bu$hCo creeps were spending their teen years on. But Kristoff is an exception in news reporting — too many ‘reporters’ probably spent their teens on the cheerleading squads, or organizing the proms. And we see the results.

farhender (#82)

No, Thomas is not just a commenter. He is one of a small group of moderators you *run* Red State. For a comment from a regular poster, check out this reply to someone who obejcted to Thomas (in polite terms, before getting banned):

My support of the death penalty, By: Tbone

is based upon the concept that certain offenses against society are worthy of forfeiture of the offenders life. Unfortunately, that concept has become limited to the taking of anothers life. I, on the other hand, am quite comfortable of including acts that denigrate the society as a whole. Traitors easily are included in my parameters as are character assassins, abortion practioneers and their apologists, and those who would lie to gain power to corrupt. Consequently, be glad I’m not King or Thomas would have his wish substantially fulfilled.

Envisioning when all that is Left is the Right.

Why is it that I always find something Jefferson said that is appropriate for today? Seems the blogosphere is the public assembly of our day, while the MSM is not really a public assembly.

“Public assemblies, where every one is free to speak and to act, are the most powerful looseners of the bands of private friendship.” –Thomas Jefferson to George Washington, 1784. ME 4:217, Papers 7:106

I love Digby’s comments. So tired of the imperial media living in their altered reality. They have been listening to themselves for so long that they are shocked SHOCKED SHOCKED when they hear the truth. And let’s face it, the left has been in a funk since the early 70’s. But the times have changed, and our “solutions” are needed to addressed these times. It’s hard for the rich and pampered to realised that paying 40$ for a fillup is hard. But the stock market is doing fine, what are people complaining about. It’s our job to wake everyone up. And, even though it is frustrating, we are doing a good job.