TPM put together a devastating video that stands as an indictment of the depressing incompetence and lack of professional standards of cable tv "news" hosts.
Every one of the cable hosts caught on that video misinforming their audiences without checking the facts owes the American people a profound apology. If the industry had an ounce of integrity, a lot of folks would be fired for this.
The context was the cable news hosts’ self-righteous condemnations of Barack Obama for saying something described as "presumptuous," after the Washington Post’s Dana Milbank took out of context Obama talking about his candidacy symbolizing hopes for America.
Milbank’s "quote" was reported from hearsay; he wasn’t there. Others who were there report a different statement, which when put in context is completely opposite from the interpretation the cable hosts assumed, repeated and piously condemned.
What Milbank reported Wednesday:
Inside, according to a witness, he told the House members, "This is the moment . . . that the world is waiting for," adding: "I have become a symbol of the possibility of America returning to our best traditions."
And here, via Media Matters and HuffPo’s Jason Links is the context for what Obama said:
[O]ne leadership aide said the full quote put it into a different context. According to that aide, Obama said, "It has become increasingly clear in my travel, the campaign — that the crowds, the enthusiasm, 200,000 people in Berlin, is not about me at all. It’s about America. I have just become a symbol."
As Media Matters documents, the latter statement is consistent with what Obama has said many times. Among those shown in the TPM video, it fell to MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow (with help from Smerconish) to sort out fact from fiction. As usual, Rachel gets it right (h/t Nicole at C&L). As for the rest . . .
I thought I was beyond further discouragement, further disgust at the media, but after watching this video — and it’s painful to watch if you’re old enough to remember what news used to be — I can’t imagine how we can elevate America’s political discourse until every one of these arrogant nitwits is removed from our tv screens and held up to public ridicule for the harm they do to our country.
Video via TPM
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Media Integrity? two words destined never to be in the same sentence unless it’s a denial of same.
The real surprise here was that Smerconish actually agreed with Rachel and lightning didn’t strike.
Oh, and morning Scarecrow and everybody.
Actually, Smerconish has been quite the booster for Obama, so it’s not that surprising.
What I enjoyed was learnign that his nickname apparently is “Smirk”, which fits him and indeed the entire genre of “Cable TV Gasbag News” to a T.
Have the assholes noticed the cocky egotistical hubris attitude of George Bush over the last 8 years…or Dick Cheney? Wow! What a bunch of cocky egotistical hubris lying stinking media we have for not noticing that!
Morning Brendan. It seems that everyone else slept in. Are you going to the Shakespeare in the Park tonight?
I love how it’s Fox News & Joe Scarborough mainly on the same table in this video. Cudos for doing that!
Mornin’, Scarecrow and RevDeb
Media integrity. Is that like military intelligence? In addition to their blind allegiance to Beltway CW, they’re just plain lazy and dishonest. I read Milbank’s column yesterday after seeing the teaser on WaPo’s homepage. What a crock. He must be looking to replace Broder after the old geezer fades away.
You’re gonna love this one Deb:
The McCain camp slams Obama for “playing the race card.” So the NYT seeks out someone from the Clinton campaign for a comment and who do they find? Howard Wolfson, who, in this quote seems to validate the charge. Am I reading this right?
As Atrios would say, “just shoot me.”
very painful to watch. very discouraging.
well, good things there is global warming ’cause Canada is sounding better and better. Man, have they been just waiting to jump all over Obama
Thank goodness there’s at least Rachel
The Friends of McCain (aka MSM) strike back
Good morning from Cleanth to RevDeb.
Are you UU? In my youth I belonged to the very great Arthur Foote’s congregation. Sort of “high church” Unitarianism.
I’m just turning in, m’self.
After decades as a news junkie–before I retired in March, I was a weekly newspaper editor and columnist for 28 years–I quit TV ‘news’ cold turkey earlier this year. For me, it was the old one-two of the ABC candidate tag-team conducted by George and Charlie, combined with the military ‘analyst’ scandal that led me to say both enough and never again.
I never really equated those on TV programs with actual journalists; they’re entertainers trying to increase their own ratings who present something that might look like news, but which really isn’t. But when they couldn’t meet the minimum requirement of truth and truthfulness, instead of truthiness, I was done.
So, no, I’m not surprised at their current and continuing willful ignorance and propensity to simply lie since this is pretty much the same bunch who admired (and really, they still do) W for being authentic and a nice guy and someone they really, really wanted to be their buddy when he was nothing but a jumped up frat boy and total failure as a human being who has never had an original thought in his entire life.
It wouldn’t be so much of a big deal if the media, both the real press and TV ‘news’ weren’t so vital for the maintenance of the Constitution in present circumstances, especially in the absence of the U.S. Congress, which has decided the job they signed on for, and took an oath to perform, is too hard and way too frightening to actually, you know, DO.
i had “hardball” on yesterday. barnicle is a bigger tool than the rest. it was cringe inducing. otoh andrea mitchell has stepped up with some integrity at long last, so perhaps a bit of hope.
Scarecrow and other Lakers. here is a propposal I made in 2006 that sank like a stone. Are we ready to act?
Perhapas the Lake shouls take this idea and refine it and run with it.
MOM is pissed and she’s revoking your cable privileges.
MEDIA OVERTHROW MANIFESTO, MOM
It’s time to hold the cable news networks accountable.
Are you ready to make a sacrifice for liberty? Can you live without Trading Spaces, Junkyard wars, The Weather Channel, Animal Planet, Nick-At-Nite, etc.?
It’s a small price to pay for monumental impact. All it takes is commitment and action. Commit then Act!
PROPOSAL
The left is searching for more meaningful modes of demonstration and social protest. Thousands have taken to the streets to no avail, but millions can rock the media from their Barcoloungers.
We can make a powerful statement about the fact that our American Media Outlets have been transformed over the last four years into little more than a mouthpiece for this administration.
KING GEORGE boasts of catapulting the propaganda. I say it’s time to burn the catapults.
One needs a calculator to keep track of all of the lies and distortions promulgated buy this administration and spread and supported by the 24 hour news media, or as I like to refer to them; the “red meat machine”.
What’s worse, they have robbed me of my pride in being an American citizen. They have robbed me of my belief that America stands for right not might.
It makes me increasingly sad that we must now say
I NO LONGER BELIEVE ANYTHING MY GOVERNMENT TELLS ME.
The worst thing ever to happen to this democracy was the death of the underground press. While it is true the underground press gave life and form to the great myth of the ‘Liberal Press’, it did serve to keep the conservative fourth estate honest, for if they themselves did not question the abuse of power, someone else surely would. Who holds MSNBC, CNN, or that bastion of fair and balanced reporting FOX News’ feet to the fire? They have absolutely no accountability if they are not accountable to we the people, the consumers of their product.
My dear fellow liberals of a certain age,
do you remember the word BOYCOTT? Many of you like minded kids are too young to remember some of the great boycotts of the 60’s and 70’s, when citizens banded together to secure rights for migrant workers, support unions and keep safe everything from porpoises to fur bearing animals. All of these things were accomplished outside the aegis of government and strictly through the power of people to flex their enormous economic muscle.
We stopped consuming the products that were destructive to the lives of people and animals and we won some battles. I know many people who to this day do not eat tuna, or grapes, many more who have become vegetarians, or won’t wear fur.
No one has to take to the streets, no one has to get hurt and we can get a great amount of satisfaction, and possibly create change, if we hit these propagandizing, hate mongering, pseudo news networks and their owners like Clear Channel where they live…….
IN THE POCKETBOOK.
CALL TO ACTION:
We are proposing a boycott of the cable news channels, not simply by turning off the set or changing the channel, but by pulling the plug. For the month of _______________, I would like to see all like minded citizens CANCEL YOUR UPPER TIER CABLE SERVICE. In most cable services CNN, MSNBC,FOX news are in the upper tier of service, and not your basic cable.(* I’ve checked this out. You can cancel your upper tier service and still retain your basic cable service and cable modem) It may cost you a few bucks to cancel and then re-up, should you choose, but imagine the impact.
If we act en-masse, we can disrupt their ratings, cash flow and mouthpiece during the upcoming election cycle.
Best of all, it’s legal, safe and effective. We will be able to demonstrate our political power, number, and flex our consumer muscle. Don’t forget it’s not just about the ratings, it’s about the money.
Some will argue that advertisers and the cable services themselves will suffer from this type of action, to you I say….yes, some will get hurt but that’s what will guarantee the instant success of this boycott. It will surely get their attention and fast. It will get us an airing for our complaints and maybe even some of the respect our opinions deserve. Who knows… they may see the error of their ways and try to win some of us back…but ain’t that America?
Won’t you join us in this enterprise. CANCEL YOUR CABLE NEWS CHANNELS IN THE MONTH OF __________________?
The right wing media has already fired the first shots in the Culture Wars,
We say it’s time to return fire.
So what are we to think about today’s story that an anthrax scientist committed suicide? From the LA Times.
I almost choked when that one came up on my RSS feed yesterday! And it was on McClatchy!!!!
There is no hope.
I also saw that after last Sunday’s shooting at one of our churches, Atrios switched to “Please just kill me.” Maybe because the crazies are now really out to shoot libruls.
Thanks wingnut media. Thanks a lot!
Nice to see how the entire government-controlled machine works.
One false “quote,” then Wash, Rinse, Repeat.
When they make up a narrative about how Iran attacked some element of our Naval forces, the nuclear response will already be over before the truth behind the lies is known, and it will be your government-controlled media that will have enabled the first-ever offensive nuclear strike in the history of planet earth.
Hold them accountable:
http://plungerspeaks.blogspot.com
If Obama ends up in the WH I’d recommend the network and cable stenographers be relegated to the rear row in the WH press room. The stenographers for WaPo and NYT get to stand outside the door. The Nation, Mother Jones and progressive bloggers get the front row seats, along with Helen, although it sounds like Helen’s reporting days may be coming to an end.
Payback’s a m*****f*****.
Thank goodness there’s at least Rachel
Hasn’t msnbc yanked her off the air after she created a new hole for buchanan’s @rse with a hot poker?
I am, but I don’t talk about that much here. Arthur Foote was one of the greats, so I’m told, but that was before I got into the movement. We’re still around, ya know.
Welcome to the lake and I appreciate your bringing that background and perspective. Perhaps I’m naive, or just forgetting, but I remember the days of Cronkite, Howard Smith and Huntley/Brinkley as different — we trusted those people. Did I imagine that?
Remember – it was the mainstream media leadership who were attacked with Anthrax in the aftermath of 9/11…and they’ve been dutifully complicit ever since.
Good morning, Scarecrow.
Looking at what passes for the press today, I find myself wishing that the First Amendment had provided some definition of “the press”. I think we’re pretty safe in assuming that the founders did not have the current garbage heap in mind when they formulated this amendment.
Hasn’t msnbc yanked her off the air after she created a new hole for buchanan’s @rse with a hot poker?
wow -that musta been one very big poker, if ya get my drift.
Too bad we can’t vote them out of their jobs.
The movie Broadcast News always comes to mind—pretty boy with no brain becomes anchor, producer goes crazy, she actually had standards.
Got a call from an NPR program person about a show they were to tape last night for airing tonight on the shooting. I declined to be on it (as there was no reason for me to talk about something that happened to people somewhere else) and told here that I gave up on NPR and PBS a while ago because of the Bushie influence on the CPB. She was startled. Oh well.
Great idea. Hope you get some followers.
Got rid of “cable” years ago. Never miss it at all, especially with the advances in Internet video where I can just watch clips I’m interested it.
Instead of getting pissed and discouraged, each of us needs to be sending this link to friends and family who still consume Conglomerate Media. We will never restore the Constitution unless we wrestle control from the Conglomerate-controlled message machine.
I read in one account that the FBI investigation didn’t go anywhere until the leaders of the team that leaked Hatfill’s name were replaced. I’m old enough to remember when the FBI had top notch people and if they got on your trail you were toast. Now they’re too busy chasing neocon boogeymen to concentrate on real criminals and such. Sorta like the local heat busting potheads cuz they’re less dangerous than killers or armed robbers.
He (Milbank) must be looking to replace Broder after the old geezer fades away.
Did you mean to say “after somebody notices that the old geezer *has* faded away?”
Want to know the entire truth about your government-controlled media?
Read this breaking news article – then ready every subsequent comment and follow every link posted by those commenting:
http://rawstory.com/news/2008/….._0801.html
We can vote them out of their jobs by pulling the plug on them.
are you sure that you should have been trusting them?
Marcy and Duncan are on it. Duncan always amazes me with his ability to both cut to the chase and dig up just the right item from the way back machine.
Suicide? as Marcy said
Digg ain’t workin’. Page not found.
of the two sentences you quote from marcy, i agree with the second but not at all with the first.
I think we need a full and open investigation of the whole thing by someone we can actually trust. Don’t know ho that would be tho.
Thanks, please feel free to send the manifesto around to anyone you think would be interested, Problem is, it needs to be coordinated so that there is a specific time frame. That is why I am looking for a force like the firepups to take this up.
With satelite service MSM is part of the basic service.
Congress will be on vacation for the next five weeks and hopefully will be available locally. One of the bills they should be working on upon their return is the one giving the MSM protection from revealing their sources. Lets push for an ammendment that would mandate an ombudsman for those organizations that claim to be news organizations and that these ombudsmen refute the bull in the same time slot that the bull was meeted out.
Well, since Shrub became such good buddies with his ex-KGB pal Putin, who’s to say Barnacle didn’t adopt some of the KGB’s methods. Or maybe Barnacle created his own version of SMERSH.
I just dugg your digg, SD
Oh, it did go through. Far out. Went through all that process to get it set up and then it crapped out on me.
Wouldn’t you be willing to cancel your service for a month or even two to get the desired result? We keep waiting for someone else to do the policeing, holding their feet to the fire. What about our feet? We are the ones we’ve been waiting for.
Vote for Scarecrow’s post at reddit too!
No, it wasn’t your imagination. Those guys–at least most of ‘em–really were journalists. More to the point, their bosses allowed them to do actual journalism and they were generally trusted because they told the truth most of the time. And they got pissed off when they were lied to. Just reference Cronkite’s reaction to LBJ, Nixon, and the lies that got us into Vietnam, and then kept us there while 50,000 or so of my generation were killed for no apparent reason.
Nowadays, everybody on TV secretly wants to be FOX ‘News’ and get a piece of those lucrative ratings, truth and substance be damned. Even when their lies are uncovered they stick by them, try to cover them up (the analyist thing), or embroider on the story even further. If there’s any good news, it’s that FOX is starting to take ratings hits, but it’s far from certain it’s because people have seen through their distortions. Rather, it’s more likely because of GOP fatigue, and FOX has tied their fortunes to the right wing that is currently in disrepute.
Can’t somebody please just report the damned news? As the late great Stengel wondered, “Can’t anybody here play this game?”
Turned in my cable box years ago. When TV goes digital next year I’ll be out Moyers on Fri nights and baseball on Sat afternoons. Thank goodness for radio and the intertoobz.
That must have been at one of the games the Yankees played in Washington against the Senators. As bad as the Senators were I hated the Yankees. Still do.
As maddening as PBS and NPR can be, they’re still the best of the current lot. Which is sort of depressing when you come to think about it.
When we’re Up North trying to track down the wily walleye, pick raspberries, and eat at supper clubs, we listen to the public radio station at the Lac Courte Oreilles Reservation, which has some NPR stuff, but also a lot of Public Radio International material, which is usually pretty good.
I guess the thing is, these days you have to listen to lots of sources in order to discern what the hell the truth is…or even what it MIGHT be. Which is pretty much what informed people are supposed to do anyway. It’s just so aggravating when you hear deliberate lies passed off as truth, and they assume you’ll simply believe it.
If it were a large enough movement I’d join in.
Not much of a fan of the actual game, but I like the words that come out of baseball. I think Stengel made the comment concerning the Mets, but am too lazy to use the Google to find out.
I see the jobless rate has now reached 5.7%. And General Motors only lost $15.5 billion last quarter, while Exxon Mobil profits were $11.7 billion.
Glenn, as usual has his laser beam on the story of the day. The last 2 paragraphs which link tidily into the subject at hand—media culpability in perpetuating lies:
between this video, and the callers this morning on CSPAN (you don’t have any blue eyed guests on anymore), I’m wondering, is it too early to switch from grape juice to wine?
Leadership begins with each of us. I don’t know how to start a movement. I just have an idea that action is better them words, words, words.
And is Exxon using those profits to find more oil, build offshore drilling rigs, look for alternative energy sources – no – they are buying back stock
Actually I disagree. Because they are so trusted, most intelligent people think they speak the truth—which they do some of the time. The problem is that unless you are news junkies like us who read further into stories and find out more of the facts you don’t know that NPR and PBS are also spewing forth propaganda. To me that’s more dangerous than the others who are more apt to be taken for the clowns and shills they are. NPR and PBS still have the veneer of respectability but it’s just that, veneer. Except for Bill Moyers, that is.
Better than the cables, yes, but here’s a frequent problem I have with PBS NewsHour. A few nights ago, Judy Woodruff has on two guests to discuss the report about politicization of the Justice Department. For some reason, they thought balance would be a reporter who described what the report said and former Republican hack who said, “well that’s a concern, but it wasn’t so bad and after all, they did release the report after investigating themselves, so let’s wait before jumping to conclusions . . .
Rivkin I think. Here’s another example of the same thing, after the Supreme Court’s last Gitmo decision.
I don’t hear anybody in Congress asking how the oil companies are coming up with these outrageous profit figures. Price gouging or price fixing, anyone?
IMO what you do talk about here is very interesting and you always have, from my perspective, important and well-considered points. I enjoy seeking out your comments!
As the Old Duffer said, apparently in one of his lucid moments, “Trust but verify.” That was the day when most people read newspapers and so had something with which to compare what they heard on TV and radio. So what trust TV newsers had back then was actually earned.
I wonder about Dana Milbank himself. What the hell hit him? He had been pretty much a regular on Countdown, verifying much of Obermann’s viewpoint. Then, suddenly, this article. I haven’t seen him since. It seems to me that much should be made of his article, based on a second hand report of a fairly complex statement. He took that tenuous basis and constructed a really malicious article about a candidate for President of this critically challenged nation.
Forgive the bad typing folks. broke a finger last week and am really messing things up.
i disagree about npr. i think their news programs are far, far more dangerous than fox news. at least with fox a significant portion of the population knows it’s bs. but npr pretends to be something different and imo their reporting during 2002 helped make our torture policy accepted and helped prepare the ground for the iraq war.
Some PBS stations carry Amy Goodman
You’ve already taken the first step. Cesar Chavez built the United Farm Workers, in his words, “[o]ne person at a time.”
Agreed.
This ‘balance’ thing is what is killing the news business, and they don’t even seem to realize it. I seem to remember the motto of one weekly newspaper was to “Get the news and raise hell.” Or as Harry Truman said, “I never gave anyone hell; I just told the truth and they thought it was hell.” You can’t just give two sides of every story because there ARE NOT two sides to every story. The earth is round. Period. It’s the job of journalists to get at the truth and they’re not doing it.
Y’know, I am trained, and by inclination too, a dispassionate scholary observer and analyst. (No ivory tower snark, please!)I find it increasingly impossible to take this cogent stance in the face of what W and cronies have done to destroy this country. There are a lot of this sort more in the world. And yet, although the blood boils, as it were, what is one to do? I am being converted back to the activism of my youth and come increasingly to believe that Jane and Marcy et al are on a good track, albeit quixotic I fear in my worst moments. Sign me up!
Off to swim in the great capitalist cesspool.
Be good to yourselves, and all other living things.
Namaste
democracy now! is not produced by npr. it comes from pacific radio – which is the closest thing we have to a real public radio. no gov or corporate $, supported entirely by listener donations.
but that’s part of my point. the newspapers should NOT be used as the gold standard of what is true. the gold standard is my own eye witness account and more importantly, primary source material where ever possible…. which we now have some limited access to via the internet
To my way of thinking, this argument is akin th the “lesser of evils” argument against which, as Firepups know, I inveigh.
I helped design and wire-up the first public radio station in my area decades ago, and it sickens me to see what has become of most public radio. Busco have co-opted them. And NPR news is right-wing propaganda; I cannot bear to listen to it nowadays. Here we do have a sassy “people’s radio service”; it carries such as Amy Goodman and multi-cultural, multi-lingual programming, and is relatively well listener-supported. As you probably are aware, Bushco want to do away with these sorts of relatively low power fm stations. The local public radion empire is always lobbying and testifying against these types of radio. Phony arguments about channel interference; as if a 50 watter can harm a behemoth of 100,000 watts and more. Wonder why? /s
Remember I. F. Stone? How we need him now!
For those born too late for his very important Weekly, there is a fine recent biograhy by Mona MacPherson about Izzy Stone entitled All Governments Lie.
Ding, ding, ding!
G’mornin’ all.
Here’s another example. The WSJ is slamming McSame and Aravosisis getting some glee from just that premise. But the reality is that the WSJ is only slamming their boy because he was straying off the reservation on tax cuts. Were it about anything else, they’d be praising him to the heavens. But since it is Murdoch’s paper now, the fact that they deign to utter nasties about McSame makes him giddy and might lead others to believe that there’s some integrity at the WSJ.
Smoke and mirrors.
Wall Street Journal article asks: “Is Obama Too Fit to be President?”. The svelte, health conscious candidate is ‘not one of us’. 66% of US citizens are overweight and 32% obese. So this makes Obama unqualified to be President!!!
Selise, I saw yours after I posted. For the second day running I have been up all night with FDL. Sheesh, I only checked in for what was to be a quick perusal last night!
Anyway, I certainly agree your take, NPR actually makes me sick. I very rarely tune in to them any longer.
W and his minions put the fear in them and they responded with alacrity: “Yessa mastah!”
You give the newsreaders waaaaayyyyy too much credit, Scarecrow. They are following their scripts. Written behind the scenes. Those are the people who should/must also be held to account.
Ever watchful. No delay in pushback, that’ll be our challenge between now and 11/4.
Meanwhile, I expect Tula will have a few things to say later about MSNBC’s reporting that WalMartis strongarming its employees not to support the Democrat.
My solution when someone tries to dictate who those they employ can vote for? I vote with my feet. But then I’ve been a Target shopper anyway.
And let’s hope he *never* shows up there again. :-( Smarmy twit!
As Lao Tzu is supposed to have taught: “Quick grasping loses.” And also that he/she “who loses after almost winning ought to have seen the end from the beginning.” He also advised that the longest journey starts with a single step. You seem to have taken that first step, and are on your way!
You could do much worse than to go back and look at the methods of organizing people pioneered by the late, great Saul Alinsky. There are some Internet articles about him, too.
I don’t disagree about now; I was talking about back in the Good Old Days when newspapers actually competed with each other for news and when the wire services (quaint term!) did too. My family always got at least two newspapers, one the semi-local daily (we lived on a farm) and the other a pretty conservative (I later found out) Chicago daily on Sunday. And we weren’t unusual in our rural community. That was supplimented with radio and later TV news, so my dad was pretty well informed and could make informed judgements on what he believed to be true. I would say there is no “Gold Standard” today; you’ve got to shop around and pay a LOT of attention. Which is where the Toobze come in.
Sorry Christy, certainly did not mean to leave you out. I’ve been on FDL all night and morning and am feeling the effects. I jus cain’t help m’self,lalala :-) Today’s resolution: no media. Need time for my own writing and work.
Do you remember, Selise, how Pacifica also got scared and, for a while, pulled the plug on Amy Goodman? For a time it was “Democracy Now! In Exile”.
I stopped shopping at Target too when I learned that they have an opt-out policy for their pharmacists and EC. Haven’t been there for a couple of years. Shopping gets harder the more values you care about and stand up for.
Brava for your words today, RAMA. Great to read you.
This notion, RAMA, is not limited to the media, MOST of the public, ‘believing’ that they are ‘fair-minded’ embrace the canard that there are always two ’sides’ to everything. Although there is general agreement that the sun rises in the east, the fact that approximately 20% of the American public ‘believe’ that the sun orbits the earth is, apparently, not a ‘problem’ for anyone. One does wonder how large a portion of those 24% who ‘believe’ that George talks to God are comprised of the 20% …
Afterall, our American mythology reinforces this two-sided notion, two political parties, for instance, are deemed sufficient to cover all needs and ‘interests’, and I couldn’t tell you how many people, even today, will say that they seek the best ideas from both ’sides’, which ‘best’ they claim to be, about ‘equal’.
As to the Earth being round, perhaps all the data is not yet in. It could be a vast conspiracy, akin to global warming, the ‘experts’ remain divided.
:~D
BTW, welcome aboard, good morning to you and everyone else.
I have a good impression of Costco. They appear to treat their employees better than most, and do not banish unions.
Target is like family in these parts here.
Is IKEA “clean”?
Well that was educational. Essentially,
FoxNews = MSNBC = NBC = CNN = …
Please folks do not refer to any of the above as Main Stream Media (MSM). There is absolutely nothing “Main Stream” about the Corporate Media (CM). The CM is wholly Right-Wing driven for the benefit of one party, who will in turn legislate for the benefit of the top 1% of America and the many foreign interest who share the same financial stake as the top 1%.
dunno any more. BuyBlue shut down a while ago. I know about Target’s pharmacy because of a PP web site that no longer shows that information—but did. They do list the pharmacies that did an about face on the opt out when the heat went up, but Target is not mentioned for reversing the opt out.
Wish I knew. Can’t imagine that any retail or wholesale enterprise is “clean.” But Costco rates high for a lot of reasons. Wish there was one closer to me but it is within a reasonable driving distance, just not within the regular radius.
Wow, I just read Glenn and that story….I’m still shaking.
For us here in the DC metro area, in addition to the anthrax attacks, we had the snipers which just ratcheted up the fear level. Though they turned out to be pychos, the psychological damage was done. A lot of people, myself included, were living in fear. I distinctly remember gassing up my car and surveying the area for lines of sight so I could avoid a shooter if I needed to.
But getting back to the post…yeah, Milbank misled us, but ABC news is covering up for murderers and, yes, terrorists.
…and another reason not to shop at Wal-mart: Wal-Mart mobilizes against Democrats: report
and mail carriers are still wearing rubber gloves. Still.
What struck me about this latest echo event was how similar all the different wingnut pundits’ comments were, as if they had all gathered for coffee before Morning Joe and decided on their wrods in some sort of consensual cable spin orgy.
Kerry’s swiftboating is the last time I noticed this poorly disguised collusion between competing media conglomerates. If not for TPM’s crystal-clear video expose’, it would not be nearly so transparent.
I don’t know abou the rest of you, but I would suspect there’s a secret meeting room somewhere in the bowels of cableville, where these talking heads (asses?) gather to plan their mischief, and they are obviously writing their own material.
No writer worth their salt would so willingly co-opt the words of others, these are the Ailes’ among them, talentless bufoons who imagine themselves as journalists, the same people who plagiarize and rip off others when they write their class papers in college.
If my “mutual agreement” suspicions were wrong, you would see at least a vague attempt to reframe the words, from one TV channel to the next, but as Josh’s crew has exposed, there’s very little differentiation between these media copycats’ versions. Not only is it bad stewardship of the 4th Estate, it is lousy journalism.
Just more proof there really is a vast right wing conspiracy threaded throughout the entire media tapestry, and the co-conspirators aren’t smart enough to cover their pernicious tracks.
but if you didn’t have any way to check on the newspapers, then i submit you really don’t know how much propaganda you were getting – even in the golden days of cronkite on cbs.
didn’t the pike commission find (in the ’70s) that news organizations including cbs were giving cover to cia operations? is that much different than the pentagon scandal this year? serious question – i haven’t studied the matter.
Good Morning Scarecrow and Firedogs,
about that Milbank fella -
these people cling tightly to their archtypes and templates with sadly few exceptions -
I mean c’mon, Broderella is their Dean, you have ‘avuncular’ (Russert’s aspiration), ‘crusty but benign’, ‘gritty’, and the always present ‘very serious’ . . .
although he clearly fancies himself ‘devastatingly witty’, Milbank is a Dandy, the Foppish One – good for a chuckle and a bit of gossip as you wait your turn in the cocktail weenie line . . .
Quoting what “Obama really said” is the exact same thing that you are condemning the pundits of doing. Nobody recorded what was said. TPM wasn’t bothered when the talking heads were bashing Hillary Clinton and calling race dog whistles. They were cheerleading. Now the shoe is on the other foot, the MSM heads are beyond disgusting but use them when it is good for you and knock em when it doesn’t suit your needs. These aholes were the hosts of several debates too. How is it possible that they are supposed to be objective about it when clearly they have a dog in the fight. All of them seem to have taken sides one way or another. The media is over, they are responsible for lies about Gore, Kerry, both Clintons. Did you expect them to change for Obama? Thats what Hillary was trying to tell us but we didn’t listen.
If you’re looking for some data on the earth’s on-going problems, you’ve just got to read Dr.Raymond Bernard’s “The Hollow Earth,” one of the most wonderfully crackpot books ever. I’m surprised he hasn’t been a guest on cable news, especially when they do one of their periodic UFO frenzies.
But back to your point, a typically maddening ploy the media uses when covering virtually every issue is to couch the arguments in partisan terms. When the Katrina thing happened, the MSM always suggested Democrats complained about the Bushies’ response, when their own reporting usually showed the complaints were pretty bipartisan, especially with folks on the ground. The moron Lott comes immediately to mind.
And Sen. InHofe is married into the Walmart family
thank goodness…. hatch is finally off my c-span2 feed. i’m feeling better already.
whitehouse up now talking about the energy crisis. i think exxon is on whitehouse’s axis of evil.
Good morning Cbl.
Please stop spreading rumors that the Republicans would hand out talking points to anyone in media, who would then dutifully spread them. Bill O’Reilly said it wasn’t true.
I think it’s time for us Cheetos eaters to target Scarborough for a little tough love, online.
Anyone have an email address for this schmuck?
whitehouse:
exxon spends $1 on green research for every $3 on advertising about green research for every $10,000 of profit. this is the biggest sham in the world
But no one will be fired, and they’ll all do something like it again, and probably several times, before November.
Selise, the only person who has managed this known to me was Izzy Stone. I recommend to all here to familiarize themselves with the methods he used to dig so much out of his close reading of the media.
There is also a wonderful movie about Izzy and his ways. Too knackered now to hunt up the title. It is fairly famous, at least in our sorts of circles.
yeow! good mornin’ baby.
Great Points. I also noticed how it is one perpetual loop after another. Starting yesterday and throughout this morning the loop is Obama is playing the Race card.. Even though he isn’t and McCain’s staff is the one bringing race into the picture. It is on amplified loop. There appears to be collusion amongst the industry.
fyi – Walgreens has fired it’s pharmacists for failing to dispense Plan B.
the fired pharms. sued. – court never decided primary questions, just told Walgreens another Pharm. could do it, but that the company was obligated to fill the prescriptions
Yes, but the hope is that they might feel a teeny bit of remorse once in a while and actually try to do better. I can’t tell you where that optimism is coming from, because there’s little objective support for it.
All I can do is shame them with a few words. The country gave up on putting people in stocks and throwing rotten fruit at them long ago. I’m trying not to be nostalgic.
The media is not Obama’s mommy and daddy. He has to stand up for himself and make sure HE controls the daily news cycle, not McCain. Otherwise, he’s destined to eventually live out his days in the Kerry wing of the Dukakis Old Folks Home.
There is–and was–no perfect way to discern what the truth of any specific issue is. My point, which I may not have made clearly enough, is that there was a lot more competition in the news biz back then which I believe was more likely to lead to accurate reporting. Major cities had several dailies, and many smaller cities had two competing papers, plus the weeklies that provided real competition, too. And the emerging electronic media had to match those efforts, providing yet another check and a balance, too. I think it was healthier than today, when a few major companies control both print and electronic media. Infallible and problem-free? Nope. Trustworthy? Sorta. Sometimes. More than now.
Hardly.
They squeeze their suppliers the same way WalMart does.
Yep. The Republican party has been following its Southern strategy for decades; Rove has used it for several elections, and his clone is using it now, but still the media pretends it’s not happening.
Eugene Robinson has a column on the “race card” and who’s playing it. And TPM took Jake Tapper to task for his head in sand view of the same point.
McCain has run an absolutely wretched campaign. It would already be in the dustbin if it were not for the relentless support of the media. I think it is an important question: Why are the media more interested in seeing John McCain elected than even most of the Republican Party?
That’s a great question and if you ever get an answer please let us know. I can’t figure it out – what’s in it for them and don’t they have any concern about making the Dems angry since the Dems are likely to be in charge of the Congress and the WH. Oh, wait…the Dems don’t get angry. Sorry
How embarrassing for stupid people acting smart.
Hmmmm, today’s Gallup tracking poll has Obama at 45%, McCain at 44%. Amazing what a few days of negative attacks will get you, especially when they go largely unanswered.
Am I audacious to hope that the Obama campaign will get their act together when it comes to fighting against the low road of the Republicans?
Wow that Eugene Robinson piece was excellent. Thanks for the link.
since they kind of cut the legs out from under lots of groups of people who would have helped them fight back
. . . . . oh well.
Ahmen to that!
Sorry but I found the Dana Milbank editorial interesting. And for the record and editorial IS personal opinion not news. Allowing eight companies to own our news sources does not encourage accurate, investigative and non biased reporting. They are the talking heads for powers far greater than the events of the day. Tim Russert made 5 mil a year to lie to us about a war and we gave him a state funeral.
Yes the table is set: vote for white McCain, because who wants an uppity Negro showing us up. We new it was going to be about fear and we are there. Can Obama recover or is this going to bury him?
How stupid.
I agree with Robinson.
Obama needs to play hardball in return. Trying to be above it all is not going to work.
No pulling of punches. No respect for McCain’s “service”.
Attack!
The mainstream media (MSM)is a whore, beholden only to its owners and advertisers. It’s only allegiance is to audience figures, for setting advertising rates. When can you all get that straight? A pretension is made that facts or straight news is one of their principals, but it just aint so. That was proven by the Judith Millers of the world. So to feel upset or angry about the lies the media tells is a waste of emotion. Until an Administration gets the FCC and Congress that has some shred of integrity, nothing will change. Besides, with all the cutbacks there are now no brakes on what mistakes the MSM will be making. Sensationalism sells news abd sometimes gains audience. That’s all, folks.