Timmeh is finally opening his big poppa bear arms to bloggers:
Wow. That is really representative of…um…something:
In the United States, the Bush era has summoned up — arguably for the first time in this country’s history — a mass secularism that looks to Europe and sees a model for America to follow. […]
America’s secular turn actually began in the 1990s, though it wasn’t until 2002 that two Berkeley sociologists first noticed it. In a paper in the American Sociological Review, Michael Hout and Claude S. Fischer announced the startling fact that the percentage of Americans who said they had “no religious preference” had doubled in less than 10 years, rising from 7 percent to 14 percent of the population.
This unexpected spike wasn’t the result of growing atheism, Hout and Fischer argued; rather, more Americans were distancing themselves from organized religion as “a symbolic statement” against the religious right. If the association of religiosity with political conservatism continued to gain strength, the sociologists suggested, “then liberals’ alienation from organized religion [might] become, as it has in many other nations, institutionalized.” (emphasis added)
I don’t know what NBC is on about, but — much like with Glenn Beck’s shitty show — it ain’t ratings.
Related posts:
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- Racist Article in Spy Journal Calls for Killing 100,000 Muslim “Zealots”
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In Quasi-Sorta-Defense of the Washington Post’s Torture PieceActually, Just, No
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Oh well, epu’ed so I will park this here:
Connie Schultz (Sherrod Brown’s wife) and a columnist in her own right is being interviewed on NPR. She is going off again on blogs and says she paid too much attention to them, that they aren’t factual, trade in gossip, nobody reads them, etc.
She overlooks that Brown voted for the Military Commissions Act and that this went through the blogosphere like wildfire and was an important reason he was pulled from the BlueAmerica list and lost support in the blogosphere. I guess that fact got lost in all the gossip.
These people who discount blogs and yet are obviously obsessed by them grate on my last nerve.
Dick Cheney controls Tim Russert.
-GSD
From the TPM link above;
I can’t believe Jane left out the best part.
Lol.
A friend said something to me last week about a t-shirt that says:
“Liberal is a Holy Word”.
I like it a lot. Gonna do up a design and make one.
Dick Cheney controls my contempt for Joe Lieberman, which will never subside.
I don’t know. I think as with the Coulter piece, NBC is trying to pump its ratings short term by going the Jerry Springer/ confrontational route. I believe it is a tacit admission that they are getting out of even the pretense of the news business in everything except maybe their nightly broadcasts where they will keep at least the pretense going for now.
NBC=Nuts, Bushies and Coulterites.
-GSD
Maybe they will throw in Kate O’Beirne. Doesn’t she blog over at The Corner?
I believe it. I’m one of those people.
It’s one thing to believe that spirituality is evidenced by a desire to do right things for right reasons. It’s another thing to believe that spirituality is best measured by the number of people you kill, torture, rape, mutilate, starve and otherwise make miserable and/or dead.
The compassionate conservatives have hung so many millstones (i.e, negative associations) around Christianity’s neck that French and German secularism looks heavenly by comparison.
The only Christian novel I would read at this point in time would have to be a scathing satire of Christianity as practiced by America’s political class. Where are Jonathan Swift and Mark Twain when you need them?
I don’t know about the ratings thing. Randi Rhodes made some good points today saying that many of the “sponsors” on these shows don’t sell anything we can buy, sponsors like ADM and oil rig companies. They sponsor the shows so that they can control the content. It isn’t about ratings it is about controlling the public discourse—to make sure that there isn’t any.
Granted that Randi often rants on and on, but this makes a lot of sense to me. If I recall NBC is owned by GE.
clearly NBC (nepotism before competence) has a thing for press the meat, but the concept is flawed and does not correspond to news. reporters do not make news voluntarily. or should that be, never did in the past? what really strikes me is, who cares what news people say on the television about events in the real world? it is one of the best contradictions because it has so many conflicting aspects. each of which negate the others when applied together.
honestly, how could anyone watch this with sharp objects in the room?
Speaking of bloggers, and given the subpoenas that came out today and the revelations about Darth Cheney all week, which one of the big news programs has Glenn Greenwald lined up as a guest – or better yet, an ongoing analyst?
Wolf? Chris?? George??? Buellar????
is it just me or is the comment refresh a nightmare hang up zone?
Is it just me or does that girl behind Ann Coulter in the Matthews (revolting) video look just like the same kid in the Sanjaya video who was phonily (heh, word?) crying her eyes out when he was singing that time?
I’d really like to know who is behind these decisions at NBC and why they’re being made.
Digby pointed out another NBC-related propaganda issue on 6/25 (my emphasis added)
AMY GOODMAN: Who, in particular, would say this?
JOSH RUSHING: You know, I pick on FOX a lot. FOX reporters would do it. But NBC did it, as well. Those two were probably the worst about it, because those two were the most competitive about wanting access.
Access to Dick Cheney and his military contracting business?
Michael Harold @ 13
Well, not about America’s political class, but about religion as politics: Raising the Stones by Sheri Tepper. Not easy to get ahold of, but a terrific shredding of the, um, lesser aspects of Judeo/Christian/Islamic beliefs (and the general topic of ridiculous beliefs).
Dick Cheney controls Tim Russert.
-GSD
I sometimes suspect that the Bushco thugs are like that old Sci-Fi story where the aliens ate the human and then took over the husk.
Of course with Timmeh the alien and human both could inhabit the same body quite comfortably. Heh!
I believe it is a tacit admission that they are getting out of even the pretense of the news business in everything except maybe their nightly broadcasts where they will keep at least the pretense going for now.
Hugh
Well good luck with that NBC. I haven’t watched NBC since the early 90s, and haven’t watched ANY corporate cable news since the late 90s. Except that little spot in there about 9-11-01 and that didn’t last long.
The corporations need the right-wing base to turn out in ‘08 to prevent a veto-proof Congress AND a Democratic president. As a result, we are due for 18 months of:
1. A smear campaign the likes of which you’ve never seen (the real reason Matthews put Coulter up: his corporate masters said so – plenty of progressive writers outsell Coulter and you don’t see them with repeat engagements on the MSM).
2. Lots of fundie ass-kissing.
Look at the bright side – we’re in a target-rich environment!
Randi Rhodes on Air America today pointed out that “it ain’t ratings” (i.e., viewer likes and dislikes) that currently drive program content, but the sponsors who advertise their product around these programs…and the threat that they’ll stop forking over their advertising dollars if the “message” is not to their liking.
Sound familiar?
This is the same dynamic at work in politics and campaign contributions, but in the case of the media, with fat cat advertisers pulling the puppet strings of the programs on television…and even radio…literally blackmailing those airing stuff over our publicly-owned airwaves.
And Supreme Court in a 5-4 decision the other day okayed that this blackmailing should continue.
This is why I think the Fairness Doctrine, even if reenacted, will not do much to change what the “culture of corruption” conservatives have done to monopolize our publicly-owned airwaves, unless provisions are included addressing this “advertising dollar” blackmail scheme.
Just as the greediest citizens among us will continue to corrupt our electoral system as long as campaign finance reform remains unresolved.
RevDeb @ 14
While I don’t discount Ms. Rhodes’ comment totally, I’ve been on the other side of this situation (many years doing communications for a company that had a LOT of defense contracts AND owned some TV stations) and to tell you the truth, there wasn’t really much energy put into trying to persuade The Public about anything.
These companies target people they refer to as “decision-makers” and, believe me, the great unwashed masses who spend hours in front of the tube (even if the tube is cable news) ain’t them. These companies buy their influence from the DMs DIRECTLY, not indirectly. They host private and expensive weekends at resorts and spas (54 holes at The Greenbriar, anyone? followed by single malt and cigars, ‘natch) where the captains of industry are invited to rub shoulders with the Capitol’s and the Pentagon’s finest while their little women are whisked off for massages and shopping with Congressman’s so-and-so’s little woman. If it’s a really important weekend, some Japanese or Euro bigwigs might even be included (especially if the party’s at The Masters or the US Open). Decisions are made and contracts are prepared and signed weeks later.
Of course candidates are considered and accepted or rejected, too, and checks are made out and delivered according to The Word from whichever K Street firm is on the payroll. (My company employed John Sununu, father of the current senator, for megabucks. I don’t know how much good he did, as the company was dissolved in spite of its billions in defense contracts.)
Timmeh may be proud as punch to be hosting a show aimed at decision-makers, but the people who are funneling money his way are just doing it to show the flag in a small way. MTP doesn’t even cost much with the kind of money they’re used to doling out and the likes of Russ, Tweety, and Company flatter themselves if they think they’re directing the discourse that runs the country.
You want to get a Congressman to do something for ya? Get him in a foursome with the top two people from your company and one of those dudes from the Senior PGA tour (who make more money whoring for Corporate America than they do winning Senior tournaments). By the time the group gets to the 19th hole, the Congressman’ll be posing for pictures with his good ole pal Fuzzy Zoeller (or whomever) and his vote’ll be in your pocket.
BANNED – at least Mark Twain is banned in the schools for … archaic language.