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Jamison Foser of Media Matters has a fantastic summation of the lack of balance in the media that is a must read this morning. (Found it via Atrios, and I'm most grateful. It is a wonderfully put together read and set of links.) Here is a portion that needs further emphasis:
It's easy enough to look past the obvious, if unintentional, double standard. After all, if the public isn't well-served by the sort of inane, substance-free mockery and derision to which the media have subjected progressives in recent years, such treatment of conservatives would merely even the score, not necessarily constitute a move toward more responsible treatment of serious issues. So we might see the lack of sophomoric taunting as a positive.That would be a mistake. The political media aren't becoming more responsible; they're simply continuing to direct their scorn at Democrats and progressives. Just this week, media have hyped purported Democratic disarray while downplaying or ignoring altogether GOP infighting; falsely suggested that Nancy Pelosi is as unpopular as President Bush; asserted that Democrats -- who do not yet actually control Congress and won't until next year -- are "starting to feel some of the pressure" of catching Osama bin Laden without explaining how Bush and the GOP let him get away; and suggested that Nancy Pelosi, who hasn't even become speaker of the House yet, is already "damaged goods." Meanwhile, Trent Lott, who has as good a claim on being "damaged goods" as anyone, is the beneficiary of a media whitewash of his history of associating himself with racist organizations and ideas. Fox News, not typically known for subtlety or for downplaying controversy, told viewers that Lott "ran into a little bit of difficulty, but now he's making a comeback." Yes, that unpleasantness about his suggestion that America would be better off had a segregationist been elected president is behind him, and Lott is now ready, we presume, to act as a uniter, not a divider. Right.
Go and read the entire, glorious essay. Jamison is a treasure, and this is one of his best in a string of great ones this year. After you read it, you'll need a laugh -- because it's incredibly frustrating to see the entire media imbalance spew laid out in meticulous detail and then not be peeved -- so I'm including a link to Bob Geiger's round-up of the best in editorial cartoons. Some great ones this morning.
What can we do about the media issue? Short of continuing to call them on bullshit and pressuring them at every opportunity where it is needed, I'm stumped. Maybe we should throw a soiree with some cocktail weenies...now that's an attention grabber, I hear.
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Fitz!
Hehehe. Zed!
ROOTZ!
near-Zed!
and, of course -
Christy!
(and congrats to witchywoman on the race to the zed!)
Where da ya get them cocktail weenies? Are they the little canned “Vienna Sausages” or are the better gourmet cocktail weenies available.
My advice is, keep doing what you’re doing.
If you consistently throw a better party, somewhere else, the kool kidz will bend to your will. They can’t help themselves, it’s in their DNA.
Look at it this way — the pundits look down on politicians because they believe pols only exist to provide raw material for themselves. And now what have you gone and done? You’ve turned old media into something which only exists to provide raw material for you.
And they’re hating it.
I saw a swell chaffing dish at Costco yesterday— if I pick up one of those and a few pounds of weenies- then I’m in business? Oh yeah- the twenty gallons of wine!
rwcolw@5..in my part of the country they are called “vi-eee-nee” sausages.
I think it was in the Screwtape Letters that the demon whispered in the ears of otherwise well-intentioned people and convinced them to step over the line in myriad small ways that caused them to commit small mean acts of hate and deception. The result was to create a toxic environment of misery. This is the vision I have of Rethuglicans whispering to their media contacts and framing the story about the newly elected Democrats. How else would you end up with MSM stories of the first woman Speaker of the House denigrating her with the sexist terms “damaged goods” and “Nancy Shrew.”
kirk murphy @ 3
Thank you, kirk (blushes modestly)
It depressing me too. We’ve developed a presence on-line. You Tube is hot, at least until the corporate interests of Google screw it up. Perhaps we need to develop our own Internet radio and TV station. People seem to be migrating towards the Internet for that sort of thing.
REDD!
“What can we do about the media issue?” asks Christy.
Fight like hell for control in 2008 and remake the FCC into a sane body. Oh, hahaha, who am I kidding?
The latest news on the LA Times front is that a consortium of billionaires in the area is proposing to buy not just the Times but the entire Tribune syndicate. Word is they intend to dismantle it. The Times would again become a stand-alone paper. I say dismantling is a good thing.
Billionaires buying it is not necessarily a bad thing, at least when one of them is David Geffen. I think. What do any of you know about him a and/or his politics?
Read Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media, by Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky, 1988 and 2002.
Just read it.
Then figure out how to make the internet stay free.
The figure out how bloggers survive without advertising or stay edgy with advertising.
Cause there’s no way to change the existing institutions. There is only the 500 channel universe, the internet, and narrow casting.
Luckily, 100,000 blog visitors a day to places like this or Kos or MyDD can produce a legion of people changing the memes.
But the blogs have to be the new media. Without the internet to aggregate and inform, the fascists will always win.
A lot of the stuff that irritates the most- goes right over the heads of most people- THEY DON’T SEE IT, HEAR IT, SMELL IT, OR TASTE IT.
Nancy Pelosi, for example, probably has about 15% name recognition. America doesn’t know (or care) who the hell she is- let alone who she supported for majority leader.
Makes it hard for the media scumbags to score many points with this bullshit.
Two more examples:
Headline on MSNBC right now: Liberals plan to ram measures through Congress
This headline on CCN has been changed since last night: Liberals make wish lists…
Yesterday it was front-paged and said: “Abortion, gay rights top liberals wish lists.”
The liberal media myth is the biggest crock going.
Go Blue!
There are enough liberal and lefty blogs now where a coherent effort would be able to produce a truly alternative daily news source. With a bit more effort, it could even be printed, or formatted for printout on one’s home computer.
There are now liberal and lefty content providers on the international, national, state, and local scene.
The major news media simply are — whether people remember it or not — structurally organized to oppose liberal and progressive policies and philosophies. This is not some conspiracy theory. It does not require the awareness or conscious consent of the individual reporters and editors. It is a business model — and their business is to propagate an idea of reality to Americans.
That means the business of the news media is ideology. When your product is ideology, those people engineering the ‘wrong’ product for your owners, shareholders, and relatedly involved businesses are quietly or openly gotten rid of, in large part.
It’s like wondering why all the major news media tend to push as hard as they can for an anti-union, anti-corporate regulation slant.
The Republicans have done them a favor: given the news media a public excuse to insult and demean liberal and progressive ideas — now since the Democrats are ‘in power’ their hatred of liberalism and progressivism can be clothed as ‘good government’ watchdogging.
Note that the hatred hasn’t changed; the excuse has.
Sure, some of the US’ uppermost classes and corporate powers grew to fear the consequences of Bush Jr. Republican misrule — they have a lot of money invested in the US, and it’s where their families grow up.
But that’s like wanting to get rid of an incompetent set of executives.
It doesn’t mean that suddenly they’re willing to part with their standard hatred of liberalism and leftism.
They will back the next war on command, and the next war, and the war after that. Whether it’s a direct invasion & occupation like Vietnam, Panama, or Iraq, or a ‘covert’ subversion of a terrorist army such as the Afghan Mujahedeen, the Nicaraguan ‘Contras’, or Mozambique’s & Angola’s UNITA and RENAMO murderers. The major media will back them.
They will back the next ‘trade’ deals which harm laborers here & abroad, as well as transferring regulatory authority out of the hands of citizens and into unelected panels of corporate flacks operating autonomously.
The major news media are never, ever, ever going to turn and be ‘our friends.’ They are companies, corporations, businesses, and businesses do what their business models lead them to do.
People like us either wake up and realize that we are fundamentally opposed to the control of news by a small number of highly ideological corporations, or we continue to be astonished and surprised when the news media we would really, really prefer to trust keeps being stupid and hateful towards liberalism.
I’m not sure how the blogs effect much- although perhaps they do. How many people read the blogs? Less than 20%? And of those, how many would ever read a blog that they didn’t know in advance that they agree with.
Most of the blogs seem ta be preachin to their own choir- so while they are invaluable for organizing activities- they aren’t really any kind of antidote to the main stream media for “news”.
Mommybrain @ 12
the Westside LA folks I knew thought You’re So Vain is about him…
Democracy Now! is an amazing media outlet, beholden to no corporation.
http://www.democracynow.org/about.shtml
No cocktail weenies here @ FDL and many other great blogs or there.
lisadawn82 @
11
Our little Phoenix Air America has morphed into Nova M Radio network. They have two stations right now and more in the works, they have put together investors and working on building progressive radio in the red markets.
http://www.novamradio.com/
They have Mike Malloy on every weekday evening which you can stream or podcast.
Buy the package- unbundle it- and sell off the pieces– lots of money has been made that way in the past. Not a bad plan.
I ordered the LA Times to get some decent political coverage (the local paper is a hopeless gooper rag)..Uhfortunately, at about hte time I ordered it- the Times decided to lay off national politics in it’s opinion page. Apparently they don’t want ta annoy Orange County… I need ta cancel the damned thing.
The sad thing is it’s not just the national media. One of the big hurdles we faced in Voisin’s campaign is that it’s a huge rural district and without the money to match Walden ad for ad we get creamed out there where people don’t use the internet at all and/or haven’t discovered the best the net has to offer on getting oneself informed. It’s all tv and newspapers still and they are owned by right-wingers.
Carol had her interview with the Bend Bulletin (one of the two biggish cities in our district) and the guy was clearly doing the bidding for his corporate master, interrupting her before she could even finish answering a question. Needless to say, the editorial he wrote was biased, incorrect, and fed into the stereotypes the readers already hold. I just don’t have an answer for how to overcome that. We all wrote LTE’s, but even though some get printed, they also have control over not printing the ones they don’t like.
Media–can we invite them one at a time to talk with us? It worked really well with Keith. He got me to reconsider my opinion of Norah O’Donnell.
Not everyone is hard core on the right. We might be able to get a dialogue going with some of them.
Let’s keep the momentum we’ve generated and build on it as we move toward ‘08. Just like Bush & Co. behave like they’re perpetually campaigning, so should we.
We in the blogosphere are the watchdogs, and as the media continues its lazy, spoon-fed version of events we must keep-up and increase our vigilence. I’m fighting them all the way to ‘08!
To Katymine @ 20 - Thanks for that info. I’ll have to look into it.
What might be helpful is to read whatever’s available on how average americans form their political opinions… Surely there’s some good stuff out there- and if we were familiar with it- we might be able to find a way to actually influence mainstream opinion…
It ain’t Rush- and it ain’t blogs and it ain’t cable news- those are places where people go AFTER they’ve made up their minds.
We need to take back the media one step at a time. I used to not watch or read local media and then I decided what I was doing is giving it to the Rethugs, letting them win. So I watch one news channel for a week, note when the screw up and call, send emails and letters.
Now as much as I hate wading through the AZ Republic(ian), I do the same there. Call them on their sh*t and provide facts for my points.
Start small, just your local TV channel, hold their feet to the fire and let them know that they are biased and that you are listening and paying attention.
rwcole @ 17
I’ve read somewhere (don’t remember exactly where) that it’s more like about 2%.
1,337 DAYZ AND THE KILLIN’ GOEZ ON AND ON AND..
Citizen Hardin Smith:
“What can we do about the media issue?”
I would like to suggest that all the resources of the blogs should be focused on maintaining and institutionalizing net neutrality…then let nature take it’s course with the evolution of communications and the devolution of corporate-cable news and information. (Net neutrality is a wedge issue that ken coalesce the right wing libertarians on our side.) If things are left to where they are now goin’ (and the corporate oligarchy is not gunna let go without a fight)corporate cable networks are gunna be 24 hr shoppin’ outlets and daily newspapers are gunna be weekly (read Sunday) advertising sheets.
Allowing the web to evolve and to keep the economy of the web “laizze fair” is the key to a democratic future.
KEEP THE FAITH AND KEEP PASSIN THE AMMUNITION!!!
rwcole @
21
RW, I’m a newspaper brat. My dad moved all around, working for different papers, politicians, etc. He was on the editorial board of the times in the late 70’s and 80’s, when the vested interests in LA were screaming about how liberal the paper was.
I canceled my subscription to the Times on my way to YKOs this summer. I had finally had enough of their right tilt and political pandering. I feel naked. A good paper delivered to my door has been a part of my life for more than 50 years.
Now I make do with online delivery. But my browser doesn’t do a good job with the La Times, so my relationship with them is over for now.
What are we tryin to influence?
Well here’s a typical battle- Clusterfuck’s in the Nam sayin stupid things and makin a general nuisance of himself… Maybe 25% of americans know that he’s there. Those who do will form an impression- somehow- of what he’s up to from bits and pieces of information that they pick up during a busy day. Do they think that he’s over there workin hard ta make america free from North Korean nukes? - or do they think that he’s screwin the pooch again in a hopeless effort.. It is the SPIN of the MAJOR stories that makes the difference- often the HEADLINE.
Did y’all know that the English news channel of Al Jazeera was launched on Wednesday and that no American cable or satellite provider is carrying it?
I did not know that, we, as a nation had blacked it out until I read MFI’s blog.
Sad, that.
Are we Americans too soft to see all sides of an issue? Are we unable to stomach what is being done in our names and with our tax dollars? How will we ever be truly informed and how on earth will we ever win “hearts and minds”?
We should be able to have access to all information and propaganda (we certainly have enough of it right here in the USA!) in order to discern fact from fiction.
Mommy- too damned bad- used ta be a hell of a newspaper.
Make every headline editor a progressive- and give the story content to the goopers- we’ll kick their asses.
angie-
Funny- Clusterfuck has convinced america that the devil runs Al Jazeera. Most americans dropped a load in their pants when they heard that Blair had given em an interview..
If any cable company offered em to subscribers- some goopers would bomb em- seriously!
Pew 2004 study - found as of November 2004, 27 percent of the 120 million adult Internet users in the U.S read blogs. Cannot find anything more current right off the cuff.
What I see is the influence, you NOW have bloggers eg.. Christy & Jane in CNN and other shows, you have so called news shows “checking out what is on the blogs” so it is occuring. Just look what occured Nov 7th with the bloggers election coverage. We are taking baby steps but there has been influence. We just need to keep at it.
1,337 DAYZ AND THE KILLIN’ GOEZ ON AND ON AND..
rwcole:
First, Clusterfuck is in SE Asia because his en loco parentus wants ‘im outta the country (remember Tricky Dick and the China visit). He can’t do any damage from out there (certainly the Vietnamese and the Japanese and the Chinese and the Koreans know what an ineffectual pile of shit he is) and he can’t get any support back domestically…he’s toast and he’s only goin’ further south.
The linchpin in the power machine politically is in the Senate, ken Reid intimidate Lieberpunk enough ta keep the Democratic majority (or seduce Collins into turncoatin’). If the Dems keep the Senate, the next two years will be spent gettin’ the Green Jacket sized for Al Gore.
KEEP THE FAITH AND TAKE CARE OF EACH OTHER, THE RIGHTS YOU SAVE MAY BE YOUR OWN!!!
Norske
Yeah I think Joe will stay dem…
If he was younger he might consider goin gooper- but not if he wants to ever get elected again in Connecticut. He’ll try to get some concessions of course- but in the end, I think he’ll stay–if he goes- then the Lamont experiment was VERY expensive.
Egregious, I like your idea about engagement with selected members of the MSM.
Some of the rock stars are too far gone, like Timmeh, but there are lots more out there who might be considered B list.
One thing we should all learn from the last six years is the power of the presidency..
The president has the opportunity to WRITE the news- through the manipulation of his daily schedule.
Clusterfuck realizes that when he GOES somewhere- it’s an event that HAS to be covered- even if it’s below the fold- so he’s ALWAYS goin somewhere.
Next dem president should be payin attention.
rwcole @
35
rwcole, the admin has managed to demonize everything “over there”. They even tried to bomb Al Jazeera “over there”!
rw at 38 — the bulk of the seats open in the 2008 elections are GOP — and the odds of them maintaining all of them with two more years of the Shrub to go are not so great. Lieberman will factor that into any consideration, I’m sure, because he’d be switching over to a party likely to get its ass waxed again in a scant two years. And he knows it.
Redd– Yeah- it would not be impeccable timing to become a gooper today..just in time ta get a shower in the loser’s locker room.
How about we take some of them off the air?
Why don’t we start with Fox News?
That is what we should do: a massive letter writing campaign to the cable providers, explaining our objections to underwriting — however indirectly — GOP propaganda that misrepresents itself as news. Polite letters, requesting that the Carrier remove Fox News from their lineup, adding that we feel strongly enough to cancel our service altogether if that’s what it takes to deny our support to this odious enterprise.
How many people watch the channel? Their viewership on a good night, as I understand it, is in the hundreds of thousands. So how many million letters would a cable provider need to receive to make them take notice of the level of anger out there? One million? Two million? If a million people cancel their cable, that’s something like 50 million dollars a month removed from the corporate cashflow. (Basing that on my 50 buck-a-month bill.) That amount of money, even spread among several companies, shows up on a quarterly earnings statement.
This is about money. It has always been about money. The people who refuse to count the votes ALWAYS count the dollars. So we have to find creative ways to suck our dollars back out of their system.
And that is what I propose. Any other ideas?
Joe has his ass waxed? What a narcissist!
Fox News seems to be on every television in every public place.
Twist-
Well yeah but it don’t take much wax to remove the one hair on his ass!
Twist– Yeah puke inducing ain’t it?
At this point the power of blogs comes not from their being a primary news source for the masses (though that day is inevitable, just as TV started out as a novelty for the rich), but for their influence on the kidz themselves.
We call them “kidz” but it’s not much of a joke. They really are kidz, who see the world as junior high writ large. What this means for us is, while we as grown ups fear for the well-being of out nation and the world, their deepest, most abiding fear is simply that there is another, cooler party going on somewhere and they aren’t part of it.
Craving admiration, they fear ridicule and exclusion, and this is how we tweak them. We push that button, and keep on pushing it until they fall in line.
In much of the world BBC World News is available and it’s excellent! I’d dump CNN and MSNBC (except for KO ; ) in a heartbeat if I could get it.
BBC World is the BBC’s 24-hour international, news and information television channel, launched on January 1995. Programming includes BBC News bulletins, documentaries, lifestyle programmes and interviews. Its main global competitor is CNN International, though it also competes with other major news broadcasting companies.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBC_World_News
Mommybrain, the LA Times site seems to work for me with the Firefox browser (on Mac and MS)…
The punditocracy (except for outliers like Krugman) are socially connected. Like most socially connected groups in our economically stratified nation, the pundits share economic circumstances: they’re wealthy.
One successful model for changing the policy decsions of socially connected wealthy powerbrokers comes from the campaign for economic sanctions against apartheid South Africa. The campaign changed corporate behavior when the emotional costs to the powerbrokers became too high. Corporate board members got sick of their spouses (mostly wives) and children beating up on them at home about South Africa.
I’m wondering what hooks (not cognitive, but emotional) will work on the insecure lot of sheep bloviating in opinion columns and tv studios.
Something along the lines of the REAL kewl kids are laughing at them (the reason is almost immaterial - the narcissists drawn to media pundit work are such empty shells that any derision is intolerable.)
MSM spews fountains of outrage about the bloggers out of fear (and envy) - the eyeballs leaving the Nielsens are opening to the internets.
The flow away from MSM and towards Net/Blog space gives us the perfect dynamic to exploit these deeply insecure people.
RW-I agree, it is puke inducing. Especially because it is ridiculously biased.
Coz– Hell CNN international is very good-
It’s no trick to give the europeans the news coverage they want- americans just don’t want it..
Twisted Martini @ 46
AND I make a point to make them change it.
In the gym, I demand something else, hotel common rooms, I actually turn the channel and glare at anyone just to make my point.
I refuse to sit in the airport waiting areas where the propoganda stuff is on and express my objections to the gate attendants. They have actually turned off TeeVees when I demanded a “quite” area.
When the Nelson poll calls I let them know that NO Fox channel is on at my house EVER.
egregious @
23
Isn’t this what Peter Daou calls closing the triangle?
Seems like a good plan to look into, asking columnists to explain or defend their essays. It would take some real sweet talking (Siun?) to get them aboard. Real time feedback and all. Would give us a platform to praise our friends and as to those who are not so friendly it would allow our front pagers to insert that oh so snarky phrase “Mr X was invited to to comment on this article but declined”.
My preferred to do list for the upcoming congress:
* Reinstitute the FCC fairness doctrine
* Insure net neutrality
* Begin antitrust hearings
* Begin corruption investigations
* Begin legislation for federally funded campaigns
Pile on if interested…
katymine @ 36
exactly. there is no end to this and we cannot let up now. we may be tired and want everything to be o.k. now but it’s not. what can give us the courage and hope to keep going is the knowledge that it’s really exhausting to lie, no matter how much money you’re getting paid for doing it. norah loudmouth and rush limpbough may have absolutely no guilt about taking the stances they take and shilling for despicable, selfish psychpaths and idiots but it’s still wearing to deliberately twist the truth day after day, week after week. that’s our advantage, but we must remember that and keep vigilant.
we do have the truth on our side - if we are determined and willing to recognize it no matter where it may lead. we must continue to kick arse and take names. and remember, one victory is just that, and nothing more.
katymine @ 36
Katymine - YES!
I’m happy to see Christy and Jane on the teevee, but what really matters to me is what story the teevee is telling - and who writes it.
The US MSM have such pitifully narrow pespectives - FDL and other blog voices forced MSM to encounter different narratives.
I think the blogs can have influence out of all proportion to their numbers.
The corporate-funded right wing Wurlitzer proves that concept - they’ve largely determined MSM narratives for decades.
We progressives can do the same. Because we’re not in this for wing-nut welfare, we do it more stylishly, rapidly, and efficiently than the ‘wingers.
Ahhhhh…yay. I’ve finally gotten the bird feeders filled back up again. There was going to be a chickadee mutiny if I let it go another few hours. Having not felt well the last few days, they were getting low on all the choice bits…and the vocal male chickadee was giving me what for this morning. “Oh, lazy human. Where are my peanut chunks?”
rwcole @ 53
rw,
I’ve got DISH and they stopped carrying CNN International a long time ago. I miss Rosemary Church’s dimples! LOL
Dems will be concentrating on two things in the upcoming congress-
1) Getting some legislation passed that the majority of americans want..(eg minimum wage)
2) Sending some burning boats in Clusterfuck’s direction– stuff that most people want but that he will be forced to VETO (eg stemcell research)
This is how it’s done- make the fucker look like a right wing fanatic–not difficult.
(of course there will be lots of fun “vestigations” too.)
No way any real progressive legislation makes it through the entire legislative process and around the Clusterfuck veto. Ain’t gonna happen.
Twisted Martini @ 46
start complaining about that to the establishments that show fox.
The issue I have reinstitute the fairness doctrine is that means that I would have to be subjected to the wingnut radio talk show host on Air America to have a fair and balanced programming.
What I want is Truth. That what they has to have some basis in fact and truth. They just cannot “Make Sh*t Up”. It is the MSU method of reporting that just pushes me right over the edge.
This is a very important question. We can’t just snipe from the sidelines. TV news has a very large audience and people believe what they see there.
We can break up the media conglomerates. Don’t allow corporations to own massive numbers of media outlets. We need something like the fairness doctrine for both radio and TV. Force networks to present all sides. We can revoke licenses from propaganda networks like Fox News. There is a lot we can do legislatively.
OOO RAAH Katymine, good for you!
rwcole @ 61
I hope the Dems have the accompanying sound bytes lined up–”Look, most Americans want this. Bush and the GOP oppose it. They’re out of touch with the mainstream. They’re too extreme for America…”
Sound familiar? The main difference will be that it would be true.
Twisted at 46 — I seem to remember reading somewhere that a lot of the establishments that have FOX on, have it because Fox cut a deal with them: we pay for your tv and hook-up, but you run Fox, and Fox only. Someone here asked about it in a Panera or some other place that had Fox on 24/7, as I recall. Anyone else remember this — or perhaps you are the person who posted this in the comments and can fill in my memory blanks this morning? (Horror of horrors, while I’ve been fighting off this stomach ick, I haven’t been able to drink coffee. It’s not the caffeine, it’s the warm steaming mug o’ yummy tasting liquid, and I’m seriously missing it!)
On a somewhat related note about media conglomerates, the carpet bombing of our kids that takes place on Disney channel and Nickelodean makes me mental. They just sledgehammer the music and shows with the same stable of kids over and over again.
It’s really up to the dems to do something about the media issue- and it’s up to us to tell em what we want done..
If Clusterfuck goes unchallenged on a daily basis in is asshole assertions- then americans assume he’s right.
If the president of the United States stands up and says “Iraq is goin well and if we have little patience- then we’ll have a great victory” (for example) and no one says otherwise- then most americans will assume he’s telling the truth- but if five dems stand up right after the speech- grandstanding effectively to get coverage- and say he’s full of shit- well then that’s a VERY different message that the guy on the street’s gotta deal with.
I’m headed to Panera right now, so I’ll check it out!
Coz … while I can’t get BBC World TV, I listen to BBC World Service radio every night and as I wake in the morning … they are a very valuable news source (though with their own problems) and actually cover the “world” rather than us-centric topics only. A major improvement over sources like npr.
And don’t forget the streams of Mosaic at LinkTV for Middle East news, from the source, uncensored - and now Al Jazeera English which can be streamed online.
Not only do we need changes in US media, it’s essential that *we* expose ourselves to sources from outside the MSM … we recognize the slant of coverage of US politics but so often miss the slant when the same sources cover the rest of the world.
rwcole @ 53
rw,
i think you’re framing that the wrong way. american corporate interests don’t want it. some americans wouldn’t want it, but it could develop a good following if given a chance. especially if what they broadcast proved more accurate and truthful than the rest of the networks, and we know that wouldn’t be very difficult to do. just imagine all of the truly intelligent talented people they could get to work for them.
Christy it might be true in sports bars that Fox Sports network pays for the TeeVees and hookups. I know when Paul Allen had his 24/7 sports network in Portland Oregon, they were paying for installation of HD TeeVees in the local pubs.
BTW, usually sports TeeVee is separate from the entertainment side, actually the entertainment side pays the sports side to put on programming. They try to be very neural so that they can appeal to all types regardless of their policical leanings. My boyfriend is a freelancer for ESPN MNF this year and NBA last year.
fahr
My guess is that CNN international would go broke within a year in this country.. BBC is on PBS- but gets very little viewership.
Wonder how much money Fox News actually makes– anyone know? Does Murdock break out the figures- here’s a guess– NOT VERY MUCH!
OUTFOXED (Complete 1h18m): http://video.google.com/videop.....q=outfoxed
Christy Hardin Smith @ 67
Actually, I have noticed this trend of running Fox News in doctor’s office waiting rooms too.
Kiddo- that’s ta increase business- Fox makes em sick and the docs charge to cure em.
Egregious - the idea of invited reporters on for interviews is very interesting … I’ll give that a thought and chat with the team about it. Thanks!
rwcole @ 40
No, only Republican presidents can do that. The media beat on Bill Clinton every day for eight years. Right after the 1992 election, Mary Matalin was all over the airwaves claiming Clinton was illegitimate because he got less than 50% of the vote.
The mainstream media is an enemy of the progressive movement. We must reassert control over their influence (which means allowing independent voices to flourish, not controlling their message directly).
Another thing we can do is force networks to properly identify who their guests are. Transparency is essential.
Bill O’Reilly is doing intellectual jujitsu in trying to prove that there is no relation between Fox Networks and Fox News.
This from a dill-hole that alleges a charitable donation from George Soros is tantamount to anti-American marching orders from Soros for any website that has even talked about Soros.
Between Bill O, Rush, Coulter and company the rightwing punditocracy is looking pretty pathetic.
-GSD
My brother who has listened to Rush for 18 years says now Rush has become unlistenable.
-GSD
Rob
Nothin’s absolute- but on a ten point scale- the president is always a ten and the out of power party is no better than a seven. If they control NOTHING as the dems have for four years- then they rate no more than a three. It’s the bottom of the barrel.
rwcole @ 74
it would take longer than a year. my guess is that it would take around five years. in a sense it’s like starting a restaurant, only on a much bigger scale of course. the word has to get out. people’s habits have to change. if all you have to do is to click a button to get the truth you will do it.
BBC isn’t an american shop, and it has it’s limitations and point of view as well.
GSD–That’s interesting. Any detail?
I have been thinking for some time that the Rushjob doesn’t work when on the defense (defending the status quo Clusterfuck)
GSD @ 82
18 years? Whew!
the democratic “wave” of 2006 considered in concert with an honest examination of the US corporate media and their slant towards regressives and the cult of republicanism, leads to several undeniable conclusions:
1) george bush would not have been close enough in 2000 to trigger the Florida and SCOTUS shenanigans that resulted in bush’s selection to the position of POTUS in 2000.
2) the invasion of Iraq would never have happened if the known questions and deceptions of 2002 and 2003 had been fully aired by the media and the public was aware.
3) george bush would have lost in a landslide in 2004 if the American people had not only been well informed of the lies and deceptions leading to the invasion, but if they also knew of the unwinnable position the US had at that time.
This means the US corporate media is fully culpable in the human disaster that is Iraq today - they were a full partner in facilitating it happening.
The personality types inhabiting the cult of republicanism have been among us since the dawn of humanity - they are like cancer cells floating around the body of humanity. We all have cancer cells within us, but they are held in check by our body’s defenses. But the disease metastasizes if the host’s defenses are weakened.
Humanity’s defense mechanism against the like’s of george bush and the cult of republicanism, saddam hussein, fascists, dictators, totalitarians, etc. is the truth. When the truth is suppressed on a massive scale as US corporate media has been doing for a generation to denigrate democrats and liberalism in favor of the cancerous cult of republicanism, then enormous manmade disasters and crimes against humanity such as what we currently have in Iraq, result.
.
fahr-
Well neither is CNN International…The news is mostly about the WORLD- with the emphasis on Europe- so there are stories on- for instance- the most recent strikes in Paris. I don’t think there are enough Europeanites in the US to make it go 24 hours a day. Have you watched it?
“Some people say…” http://www.metacafe.com/watch/.....ed_part_5/
I was looking for the link for Al Jazeera English and stumbled across http://www.vdc.com/ which provides tv online - they have Al Jazeera and Democracy Now … and Pentagon TV - eek! … and my all time fave, NasaTV which is a much with a very slick video viewer for $8.95 a month. Not bad, eh?
Al Jazeera English also can be watched on REAL (but I personally hate the whole REAL bit) and JumpTV which offers an astonishing selection of international TV packages - http://english.aljazeera.net/N.....A36665.htm
We progressives also have amazing allies and resources.
The brightest message crafters I know of form the SmartMeme project:
One of the toolsets I’ve learned from SmartMeme is to think about change campiagns in terms of “points of intervention“. [Four points live in physical space; two points live in conceptual space].
In a campaign targeting Fox:
An airport TV tuned to Fox is a “Point of Consumption”;
FOX HQ [or the FOX bldg on Sepulveda and Ohio in West LA - near all the national news outlets’ LA crews - hint hint] is a “Point of Decision”;
The Hilton corporation - and every other business that chooses to air Fox on their premises - offer a “Point of Decision” in the boardroom and a “Point of Consumption” at every TV they order tuned to Fox;
The regulatory process/Congress are targets for campaigns targeted at the “Point of Potential - the conceptual space where future scenarios are developed;
Fox hurts us - and the planet - through their impact on the other point in conceptual space: the Point of Assumption. As the SmartMeme folks view our campaign, the Point of Assumption is the realm in which we challenge inaccurate beliefs and deliberately created mythologies. this is where the heavy work of meme-crafting with the goal of changing social values takes place.
[just an example of using the SmartMeme tools; “Points of Assumption” is one of several valuable concepts they share on their worksheets page.]
OfT: DeLay 4th quarter replacement Shelley Sekula-Gibbs’ first week goes un-swimmingly:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/.....01552.html
heh.
He is a liberal dude too. I don’t know how he has done it for so long……
Sort of the Howard Stern syndrome..”what will he say next!”
My bro says that when Limbaugh came out with his “carrying water” coments it was sort of a shark jumper.
Limbaughs’ self-proclaimed stock in trade is that he “tells the truth”. Yet he just admitted that he’s been lying about politics because he supports one side over the other.
So much for his “truth” claims, and he’s the one admitting to the breach in trust.
I have noticed with other conservative friends that as the Bush machine swirls into the cesspools of history that they have a tough time listening to the likes of Hannity and Limbaugh because they just never admit flaws.
My bro said Limpy was supporting Mark Foley to the end……
-GSD
TeddySanFran @ 92
And the MSM thinks Pelosi had it bad. 8-P
Lou Costello @ 89
Oh, damn, if that doesn’t just make my blood boil. My grandmother once went into Lord & Taylor’s for a pair of gray shoes and was informed by a “veddy, veddy” saleswoman that “they are not wearing gray this year.” Grandma drew herself up, fixed the saleswoman with a beady eye and said “And who, pray tell, are ‘they?’” Why can’t the MSM ask similar questions to the “experts” and “pundits” that babble on and on??? WHO SAYS SO? GIVE ME A CITATION, PLEASE… There. Now I feel better. /temper.