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I have been in the habit, when confronted by particularly egregious (not you, Egregious!) examples of GOP/Media Complex tomfoolery, to invoke the name of Upton Sinclair. These past few weeks have been chock-full of reasons to do so.
Where do I start? Well, there's the "mainstream" corporate media's Lord of the Flies act on the Reverend Jeremiah Wright, which they gleefully engaged in even though they never expressed anywhere near this level and duration of manufactured hissy-kabuki outrage at John McCain's spiritual guides John "Katrina was justified and Catholicism is the Great Whore" Hagee or Rod "racist and proud of it" Parsley. Don't believe me? Just check Google: Searching for "obama wright" gets 1,280,000 hits, with the top half-dozen being for major media outlets like ABC News and the New York Times. "mccain hagee" gets 1,020,000, but none of the top cites are from major media outlets -- they're all either from blogs or the Columbia Journalism Review; in other words, places from which the average American doesn't usually get his or her news. And "mccain parsley" gets a measly 74,700 links, with most of the most-cited links again belonging to blogs and not ABC, CBS or anywhere else most non-blog-savvy Americans might hear about it.
Speaking of coddling McCain, we have Big Media's determination to 'disappear' any evidence that contradicts the image they've so lovingly upheld of him as a Serious and Knowledgeable Foreign Policy Guy. And when I say 'disappear', I mean it: Not only did a fair number of media outlets either ignore the "Iran backs Al-Qaeda" gaffe, or pretend that he simply "misspoke" when he's been repeating this lie for a long time, and not only have they largely looked the other way when he repeated it again after being publicly corrected by his BFF Joe Lieberman, but they've actually gone out of their way (h/t Atrios) to falsify the record to make McCain look better:
Discussing Sen. John McCain's false claim that Iranian operatives are "taking Al Qaeda into Iran, training them and sending them back," CNN's Wolf Blitzer falsely asserted that McCain "quickly corrected [it] after some prodding from his Senate colleague, Joe Lieberman." Blitzer then aired a spliced video of McCain's misstatement immediately followed by his "correct[ion]." In fact, as The Washington Post reported, it was later in the press conference when McCain was "[p]ressed to elaborate" on his claim and after he reiterated that "Al Qaeda is going back into Iran and receiving training and are coming back into Iraq from Iran," that Lieberman "stepped forward and whispered" in his ear. McCain then corrected himself.
But for that special peg-the-disgust-o-meter kinda feeling, I think we may have to select the GOP/Media's resuming its favorite activity of the past twenty years: grabbing at Bill Clinton's crotch. ABC's Brian Ross started it, but soon all the usual suspects were piling on, and of course justifying it by claiming that the public had forced them to do so by expressing an allegedly unquenchable interest in eleven-year-old nookie. (Yes, Mistah Kurtz was part of the fray, though he tried to simultaneously pretend he was above it.)
Oh, and why do I like to invoke the name of Upton Sinclair? Because of something he first said in 1935: "It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it." It's become ever more obvious lately that the salaries of major American journalists and newsreaders depend on their not understanding a lot of things.
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Good morning Phoenix Woman!
what the hell is going on at Disney they they want more REPUKELICANS to grace the oval office….why does Disney hate American kids,and the whole planet? ask yourselves ,ask your friends
morning, PW & pups
What a wonderful quote and ever so accurately describes our ‘choose not to get it’ media.
Need to pop out to Trader Joe’s in a few minutes but will be back
The ‘media’ has had almost 8 years of ‘looking the other way’ when it comes to the idiot that Cheney propped up as Prez.
What is it? 303 days? This nightmare HAS TO END!!!!
Mickey Edwards’ take on the Cheney “So?”WaPo
yes and good morning…i really do wonder who is running DISNEYs anti dem bias
Does anyone known where I could find a list of the allegedly offensive things that Reverend Wright is supposed to have said? Thanks in advance.
Morning, everyone! The third day of spring sees about six fresh inches of snow on the ground where I live. How ’bout you?
My dad had a 6th grade education but he made “The Jungle” required reading for me.
and yeah. disney is bogus. they took alot of shit for being to accomodating to gays and maybe they’re just trying to “clean up their image” to satisfy the ignoramuses who complained. i dunno what’s up with the big mouse.
no snow in fl.
Morning PW.
In LA, it’s sunny and windy. Whole long wall of pink jasmine on the neighbor’s fence has got my allergies going big time. But, I’m not cold.
Good Morning!
no snow here…i call BS on this paragraph
I do not blame Dick Cheney for George W. Bush’s transgressions; the president needs no prompting to wrap himself in the cloak of a modern-day king. Nor do I believe that the vice president so enthusiastically supports the Iraq war out of a loyalty to the oil industry that his former employer serves. By all accounts, Cheney’s belief in “the military option” and the principle of president-as-decider predates his affiliation with Halliburton.
Darth has joined the ranks of the SUPER rich from this war of aggression,and so have his pals
Mornin’ Phoenix Woman and Firedogs
can not tell you how often I’ve referred to Sinclair in the last 7 years - an american giant -
gotta go sell some pies - have an FDL day y’all!
Edwards is way late in coming to this conculsion but he came to it. I would believe others are too. He still can’t let go entirely of his old buddy.
I don’t know of a list, but his church sells CDs.
time for you to go to the Farmers Market?
hey there!
Can we get a Disney boycott going? Please?
On another front, my local paper actually put together a very thoughtful article on the Wright controversy, employing an interview with a local minister who, when he served as youth pastor at a suburban Chicago church, used to take his confirmation class to Wright’s church. Why can’t the mainstream media do something this thoughtful?
304 Clusterfuckin days left according to my handy dandy George Bush calendar.
He’s fading daily.
By summer he should be seeing rigor mortis set in.
OT: Pat Buchanan channels Kipling:
PUKE!
Cheney receives order of merit, the Abdul Aziz Sash, for service to the state, from the Saudis.
It’s all beginning to make sense now.
If we win the White House, the press will do to Obama or Clinton what they did to Bill for eight years. They will paralyze him/her with constant false attacks that emanate from the bowels of the conservative attack machine.
I wish there were more progressive Democratic politicians who were talking about a crack down on the modern corporate media. If we don’t get them under control, I don’t think our policies have any chance of becoming law.
I wonder what is up with Time Warner, they keep Glenn Beck on the air and he makes me sick.
Im all for that…they are big HYPOCRITS….they want your babies FROM THE CRADLE…and support WAR MOMGERS …just say no to DISNEY and the other mindbenders…yes i saw prwviews of BODY OF WAR last night…go Moyers…Go Donahue,and the lady documentarian
Straightshooting campaign reformer John McCain illegally opted out of public financing because it was no longer convenient and exceeded its spending limits this week. This is another story that the press has suppressed because it conflicts with the narrative they have constructed for him.
ooopsie,…they support War MONGERS!!!!!
I find McCain’s embrace of Hagee reprehensible, but let’s be real. There’s no way Hagee is McCain’s “spiritual guide.” To try and equate their relationship with the Obama/Wright relationship is just silly. If you want to defend Wright, fine, but statements like that just undermine your credibility.
I don’t WANT to know who the candidate’s spiritual advisors are- keep it in yer pants!
Oh I don’t know. I can imagine King Abdullah saying to his staff: Give him that bath towel, call it something fancy, and then get this grasping nutcase out of here.
Yupper.
Sunny and windy here in San Diego too. Wisteria are starting to bloom.
I’m wondering though, how much the blogs influence conversations. I know that people are interested at my work, and discuss issues with me. At first, they’d say no way, can’t be true. Then I’d show them the information on the good blogs, and how well referenced everything is. They trust me now. When is the Sybil Edmunds information going to get out there though? My dad is really brilliant and reads the LA Times, Newsweek, and New Yorker, that I know of, and he hadn’t read anything about Sybil.
LOL. Over at Glenn’s site, William Timberman gives out kudos for “inspired typos”. If you had been referring to Coulter, I think WAR MOMGER would be entirely appropriate.
PW,
I love how you prove media bias with a simply google search stat.
This should be in the face of every media outlet and their pundits.
Good work. Clever.
Sybil has names to name and they reach right up there and she can point to hard evidence.
They will not let this see the light of day.
You people are so slow. w is descended from royalty so he deserves to be an autocratic ruler and he knows it. Apparently you don’t understand that. cheney has a right to be the supporter of the unitary executive because he knows things that you don’t. After all, he has access to all secret information. The children of the well-to-do class should not be in the military fighting all of these romantic wars (if w were younger, he would be right there with them.) because when the world has fully capitulated, those young people will need to be ready to be in charge.
I agree with ChrisO #27. There is no real comparison of Obama’s and McCain’s spiritual advisors. McCain hasn’t been attending any church for 20 years. I recall he actually blasted a number of his now endorsers in the last presidential primary.
Blasting the media for coddling McCain is fair, but don’t dilute your argument with a false comparison. It does weaken an otherwsie valid arguement.
I believe that the name you want is SiBEL Edmonds.
Oh! my! goodness! Did y’all see this one?
http://missoulian.com/articles.....news10.txt
Wants to run as a (D) yet appears to be well and truly tetched!
Been off-thread most of morning; apologies if you’ve already seen here or elsewhere.
a must read from truthdig
Yahoo
Posted on Mar 20, 2008
Truthdig / Zuade Kaufman
By Gore Vidal
I can recall that day in the 1930s when a “news” (sic) magazine appeared in Washington, D.C.; it was called Newsweek: meant to be a counterbalance to Time Magazine’s uncontrollable malice. In due course the two became sadly alike as Vincent Astor morphed into Henry Luce: Was it something in the water? I once asked Henry Luce why he called Time a news magazine when it was simply Uncle Harry’s means of venting his rage (this was 1960 or so) at liberals, and “degenerate art” like the plays of Tennessee Williams—he had no answer. At Newsweek Vincent Astor was far too stupid to answer any such complaint. Now here we are in the Newsweek of 2008, and it’s still lousy. There have been a few decent writers in between that were less nutty than today’s Newsweek hacks.Related Links
http://www.truthdig.com/report....._the_dead/
ok
Re: McCain challenged: he doesn’t the difference between Shia and Sunni also…
About 3 inches here in NW Indiana. When I got up it was still snowing lightly, but the sun has been out brilliantly for the past couple of hours.
McCain appears to be a senile or mentally challenged prevaricator who has no moral compass and is simply a power freak and will say and do anything for attention and to be close to power.
I don’t think he could touch someone like Obama in a REAL debate. But don’t expect a “real” debate.
Remember Bush in the debates? hahhaha
I wouldn’t waste a penny on MSM anymore.
Luckily we have the WWW to source information and learn what’s shakin.
The MSM is nothing but propaganda for the capitalists who run america.
Morning Loo Hoo.
Wish we lived closer. We could meet for brunch.
i agree…he ha s FATAL AMBITION
Concisely put.
and to Jim White @18: you should read that Gainseville Sun article again — not thoughtful — almost feeble!
and to all: In 2004, ‘… no white America, no black America….’ — In 2008, ‘… white America, black America….’ — paraphrases of a charismatic politician.
Finally, for over a year, Barack Obama pretended to be absent during and, to some degree, ignorant of the vitriol being spewed in his church. The main objective of his speech was to quash the growing realization of his denials among his supporters and his detractors. It appears that he did not discuss this with any members of his church’s clergy or congregation contemporaneous with the sermons.
Oh for gawd’s sake. Nutcase! (Blue cheese salad dressing recipe?)
I thought he didn’t know the difference between Shiite and shinola.
I went to that article in the Gainesville paper. It is nice that the pastor took the time and trouble to write a letter to his congregation, explaining to them why the reaction was so over the top. I wish more pastors around the country would follow his lead.
Relatedly, have you all seen the video clip of Chris Wallace dressing down the Fox morning people for their coverage of Wright? It’s a hoot! Sorry, no link. You can get there from TPM or Andrew Sullivan.
“…he doesn’t the difference between Shia and Sunni also…”
______
Hey, like whites/blacks/_____________, they all look alike anyway.
I suspect there is plenty of vitriol in lilly white churches as well.
Who cares?
Don’t go to church, you won’t have your mind polluted with vitriol.
Me too. Twould be fun.
You are spot on with this IMO. I think we’re going to have to do something about the media consolidation that has taken place, and bring back the fairness doctrine. The MSM whores are such a large part of the problem.
I don’t know the difference between shia and sunni.
Could someone explain.
PW,
Great post! Please, please keep on this track, since this is perhaps the most crucial issue facing us at the moment. Without control of the message machine, many fewer Repubs would be elected, and they would not be able to carry out their plans for Death and Destruction throughout the world.
It is essential that more of electorate understand what’s happening on the BigMedia front, and you expose the real story so well and hopefully are showing more and more people the light.
I’ve started feeling BigMedia within the last day or so is realizing they’re probably going to have to deal with a President Obama. They tried some old tricks again in the last couple weeks, and he’s seemed to come out of it even stronger. Hence all of a sudden, we have Pox Newz anchors criticizing their own coverage, Tweety Matthews singing Obama’s praises, and Politico saying he’s got it wrapped up. Are you f-ing kidding me?!?!
Predictably, many are falling for the Kabuki. I read through a thread at Obama’s site and it was filled with people falling for the Chris Wallets crap yesterday, “welcoming” the Fox anchors. Jeezus, we still have so far to go, but posts like this and others you’ve done certainly help wake people up to the fact the BigMedia is exists soley to push BigMoney-approved storylines on the electorate in order to keep BigMoney-approved candidates in office.
You are spreading the false assertion that Obama’s church spreads hate. Why are you doing that?
PW,
Your final Upton Sinclair quote is why media bobblehead pundits simply are blind to reality.
But isn’t that the point of having THAT pundit class? They can only see the world as the execs know they will. No litmus test required for the job. Just show you portfolio of investments.
Loo Hoo: Exactly. For most people, if it wasn’t on the evening news or drive-time radio, it didn’t happen. That’s why I emphasized the difference between the blog and MSM cites in the Google searches.
Not to be argumentative, but there’s more vitriol spewed here than at the church I attend.
From my experience anyway.
“It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it.”
Related to the above, Brevard County, FL had more foreclosures than home sales, in January or February, maybe both months. Anyone else with such a poor real estate market?
PS Brevard County is where Kennedy Space Center is located.
Ding!
Bonkers this may be they setup for the coming take down.
We was fooled, he talks the talk but there’s no there there. All hat and no cattle. Let’s turn to an adult finally.
How will they do it in defiance of what popular sentiment is about the man who can think?
Hello PW
Thank you for the sinclairian linkfest! Helps in fortifying the arguments we must make.
and demi
if you’re still around, thanks for Keb’ Mo’
been listening to lots of him all morning :)
I don’t know why we’re even debating these things anymore when our now presumptive candidate has already shown us the way: call, write or otherwise get the attention of those that would belabor all these distractions with the phrase, “Not this time!” Tell them we want to talk about the economy, healthcare, where the war is leading to, how we want our government to obey the laws and follow the Constitution, etc. But be sure they know it’s because we believe in Obama’s “Not this time!” We need to let them know on no uncertain terms that we’ve “Had Enough!” and will no longer tolerate their perversion of public discourse. Period!
My Mom and Dad lived in Brevard county before i moved them to Vegas. I sold their house last year, and to a huge haircut in doing so. Glad to be outa there.
SanderO: http://islam.about.com/cs/divi....._sunni.htm
And here: http://www.npr.org/templates/s.....Id=7332087
I am reminding you that, at the very least, Obama silently sat through it and equivocated about his inaction, which belies his ‘uniting message.’
It seem like Everyone is taking the Rev. Wright’s comments out of context.
They are old sermons. He has retired.
I’ve heard a lot of comments by members of that congregation in the past week.
And, by out of context, I mean unless your were a in the congregation then and had been following his preaching, and you were part of that community, you shouldn’t be making gross generalizations about that church.
So, I agree with you..
Although it may not have been intended, I thought the footage of McCain’s trip was pretty pitiful. I actually think McCain would be an improvement over Bush, if the worst occurred, but he and his two sidekicks looked pretty bad. Although McCain used to be a fighter jock, the pictures of him in body armor and the extreemly longbilled red baseball cap had about the same effect as Michael Dukakis in the tanker’s helment. His brief presser made me think, “Please let those three onld and aging guys get out of the sun and back to their recliners.” Liebermann whispering to McCain was reminiscent of Nancy Reagan’s role during Ronald Reagan’s second term. And I don’t know what Lindsay Graham was doing, making faces and talking to the ground.
I haven’t any real experience what goes on inside of churches when they do their sermons. I do recall the old fire and brimstone stuff from school.
I assume that the pulpit is still used for political purposes. Wasn’t that what the moral majority was all about and using these “family values” voters to swing elections?
So glad you’re enjoying Keb.
Ding, ding, ding.
From: A Responsible Plan; Restore Public Trust in Media
Obama silently sat through it
Sat through what? Please state it directly. What are you accusing the church of? And please provide links.
By the way, what candidate are you supporting for President?
Thanks PW, you rock!
Issues?????????? discussions of substance by and in the MSM? Are you nuts? Neva gonna happen.
Smut, smears, sex scandal are what gets ratings.
We allowed the media to be turned into Page 6.
Can we have our airwaves back please?
Can we have a free (from corporate control) press please?
I am sorry about losing money on the house, but it is not likely to improve, KSC will be laying off 3,000 workers in 2010 when the Shuttle is retired.
Oh, shoot! Thought I had passed that along to you….but may have been someone else who expressed interest subsequently. Choose a thread on whose end I can attach it and will do so immediately, Didn’t keep the notes I added to it for the Lake; will try to remember what those were.
Morning, Phoenix, et al…
I’ve wondered where all the “upton Sinclairs” have gone, and I think they’re probably out there…but once they saw what was going on in the newsrooms of America, they went by their ethics and got the hell out.
Not at my church.
We each have our own opinions, but we should probably at least try to keep our verbalized ones limited to hands on experience.
That makes us more genuine.
What is feeble about this, from the article:
The argument is that Wright’s sermons need to be viewed in their entirety and in the context of how sermons are delivered in different churches.
I would take that a bit further and contrast Wright’s sermons with those of Falwell, Robertson and other fundamentalists. Wright, in his “God damn America” statement, was calling for damnation of America for where it had gone wrong in not caring for the poor or in waging ill-advised war. He then adds “God bless America” when it does the things in line with what he sees as the teachings of Christ. I think this is the soft landing Bachmann is speaking of and has been largely ignored in the media portrayal of Wright’s sermons.
Falwell, by contrast, says America is rightly damned for not persecuting gays. Which preacher would you say does a better job of following the message of the Sermon on the Mount?
I’ve said a few times this week that liarman is to mcIsane, what nancy was to ronnie.
Wow. Via Think Progress, an anonymous republican put a hold on judicial nominees.
Leahy’s letter to Bush:
We get it back by:
1. Fairness Doctrine reinstated and strengthened.
2. Undoing the “deregulation”of ownership and putting those safeguards of not allowing conglomerates.
With all due respect - rubbish. I opine about what I read and have very little practical experience. And when I do it is essentially anecdotal and would be dismissed.
We engage in debate and discourse and we don’t need to pass a litmus test of “having been there”.
The same BS about “experience” is raised in the presidential race.
What is important is the education of the person and their critical thinking skills and their ability to approximate objectivity in their decision making.
A simple search can reveal how out of context the various Wright quotes have been in the BigMedia. One of the lines that everyone’s repeating is a quote Wright was reading from someone else, which he made very clear when reading it.
Thankfully, Obama hasn’t used the typical Repub response to anything like this, and simply whined that Wright’s quote were “out of context.” Obama used it as a “teaching moment” for the country. Just brilliant. Anyone with kids understands that “teaching moments” are what life is all about.
I sometimes work with people like Wright, and have understood the different world they grew up in and understood and respected the strong language they use. My life has been much easier in regard to some of these issues because of the blood, sweat, and tears of Wright’s generation and before, and I approach problems much differently because of it. Again, Obama covered these dynamics perfectly. What a breath of fresh air!
Absolutely! I would also like to see truth in advertising rules that would force Fox News to repeatedly and publicly state on their network that they advocate conservative Republican rule.
From my reading of the citation. I don’t care for the Shia approach.
But I don’t believe in theocracies so it is moot. Obviously moslems believe themselves to be a “nation”. A nation to me is a secular creation.
The clips and CDs speak for themselves. Obama has admitted his acquiescence. Look up ‘belie’.
I am supporting the more experienced and competent candidate, Hillary R. Clinton. However I will vote for either Democratic candidate in the Presidential election, unless both screw up badly (in which case, I’ll probably write in McGovern once more).
I saw Keb open for Ray Charles several years ago. Just Keb and an acoustic guitar on a huge outdoor stage, and he tore it up!
The media wouldn’t know how to do context if it was staring them in the face.
Calling for the damnation of america is empty rhetoric. Who cares?
The US media doesn’t do a good job of covering America. More and more the BBC is reporting the things we need to know. Like the attempted White House Coup in 1933, or the My Lai Tapes, a collection of recordings from the investigation into the 1968 massacre recently found in the National archives.
Thank God for the internet and many sources of information, or we’d be in worse trouble than we are now.
The clips and CDs speak for themselves.
No, the clips are grossly out of context. I’ve watched extended portions of those sermons. And you certainly haven’t mentioned anything else from those CDs.
It’s shocking how you are willing to smear an entire church and its congregation based on a few short clips cobbled together by Fox News and ABC.
I opine about what I read and have very little practical experience.
But, if you only know what you read, then you are taking someone else’s opinion for what it’s worth.
And we go on and on about how the msm is rubbish.
You can’t eat your cake and have it too.
What is the threshold for “experience”?
How would the experience of any of the candidates inform their work as president?
Experience is not as important as education and critical thinking and honesty.
Hillary is honesty challenged it seems. She’s been caught in several serious truth telling episodes. She is smart. But I don’t think of her as honest.
McCain is dumb as a fence post, by his own admission.
Obama seems bright and inspirational, but largely only a potential. I think he has enough experience when you consider: Lincoln, FDR, JFK who had little experience but rose to the occasion.
From OpenCongress:
Actually, I thought it was pretty useful rhetoric in pointing out what he liked and didn’t like about America’s actions.
I’m grateful that others here are talking about CONTEXT.
That’s part of critical thinking.
I’m not a fan of fire and brimstone stuff and theatrical deliveries, and not particularly religeous in any conventional sense, but I think clips of Moses, in the old testiment, telling the chosen people all that was going happen to them if they didn’t stop messing around with false idols and other infractions, might have sounded pretty similar.
The BBC is still pretty weak on Presidential campaign politics and generally follows the story lines created by the US media.
A little humor, I had a professional job at Kennedy Space Center and for a while my office was in a converted railroad car! No windows, but they did but in a door for us.
Amen! I really think that all this New Media came together just in time. It was getting dire, where the DLC infiltrators had almost completely taken over the DemocratIC Party. If the trends of the 80s and 90s would’ve been allowed to continue unchecked, I think it would’ve required a violent revolt down the road to restore some semblance of the Constitution.
Let’s go back to Pull up a Chair. Thanks!
That would be one FINE day, eh?
I can personally testify to the fact of leaving a newspaper job because I had qualms about the “reporting”. I wasn’t going to sign my name to a report that I didn’t feel did justice to the subject at hand…especially if it were biased.