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http://www.newscorpse.com/ncWP/?p=16586How The Media Got EVERYTHING Wrong About Cantors Primary Defeat
Posted by Mark NC on June 14, 2014 at 1:51 pm
Last week a tsunami of shock washed over the Washington press corps as the second highest Republican in congress was swept overboard in a primary race against an unknown Tea Party opponent. Eric Cantors embarrassing loss has sparked debate as to how such a powerful GOP leader could have been caught looking. Unfortunately, the media contribution to the debate is rife with speculation and error.
First off all, the characterization of Cantors opponent, Dave Brat, as an outsider who sprung from the grassroots to slay Goliath is a reflection of the shallowness of the research conducted by the mainstream media. Thom Hartmann went deeper and discovered that Brat was on the radar of the billionaire Koch brothers long before he launched his allegedly underdog campaign. Koch-affiliated financiers endowed Randolph-Macon College with half a million dollars to seat the Ayn Rand disciple as a trickle-down economics professor. Then, when the campaign commenced, radio talk show hosts like Laura Ingraham and Mark Levin took the baton and fervently promoted Brats candidacy. Ingraham and Levin are just a couple of the radio talkers who are sponsored by Koch front groups like Americans for Prosperity.
This brings us to the second point. The media repeatedly cast a spotlight on the campaign spending differential between Cantor and Brat. Cantor raised more than $5,000,000 compared to Brats $200,000. Many reporters latched onto the amusing anecdote that Cantor spent more on steak dinners than Brat spent in total. However, what they failed to take into consideration was the value of the airtime contributed by the likes of Ingraham, Levin, Beck, Limbaugh, Fox News, et al. It could cost a couple of hundred dollars for a thirty second spot on a high performing radio program. Extrapolate that to twenty or thirty minutes of direct advocacy by the the programs host every day for a month or two and you could easily have exceeded Cantors budget for broadcast advertising.
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Fourth: Tea Party supporters were quick to jump on Brats win as evidence of a Tea Party resurgence. In just about every other race this cycle, the Tea Party challenger lost to an establishment incumbent. With Brats resounding victory, they claim to have regained their mojo. But the only way they can make that argument is if they forget that they lost just about every other race this cycle.
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So Dave Brat won a peculiar contest in Virginia where he had hidden support from billionaires and an opponent who was widely disliked. Then he disappears and refuses to speak to the voters he hopes will be his constituents. Its been three days and he hasnt held a post election press conference. And yet the press continues to misrepresent the realities that produced the results of this election. Its a state of affairs that proves that Cantor wasnt the only loser last week. The voters and others who rely on the media to provide useful information and analysis also lost. But they should be used to that by now.
spanone
(135,823 posts)think of their power. it's awesome. they are in people's homes 24/7.
what they say becomes the truth, whether it's the truth or not.
Cha
(297,154 posts)BlancheSplanchnik
(20,219 posts)They ain't in my home, at least. They're toxic waste.
Cha
(297,154 posts)BlancheSplanchnik
(20,219 posts)And damned depressing, too. Not just the "if it bleeds it leads" mentality, but the phony cheer, the hype, the shiny happy bullshit.
Yecch
freshwest
(53,661 posts)OMISSION of facts is a tried and true way of pushing the message, too.
And that is what they did here, because they are NOT trying to get it right!
Agreed with all the media complaints above, guys.
BlancheSplanchnik
(20,219 posts)Have been for ages. They know exactly what game they wanna play.
Cha
(297,154 posts)I'm so damned optimistic.
elleng
(130,865 posts)Egnever
(21,506 posts)Cantor left himself vulnerable and the Combination of that and the right wing radio idiots carried brat to victory.
Having said that I bet it will never be anything but immigration in most of the main stream media.
The moons all aligned for brat I couldn't be happier about it.
emsimon33
(3,128 posts)Frustratedlady
(16,254 posts)The clue was that Brat was a professor teaching Ayn Rand, as I had read on DU that the brothers were trying to pull that in Florida to get their agenda spread through the young students. We put 2 and 2 together and figured the Kochs had their noses in it somehow and were his primary sponsors.
The stink remains in the air whenever they are involved. Probably has to do with all those chemicals they've dumped illegally over the years.
summerschild
(725 posts)Maddow & team had already dissected the polls versus immigration but they didn't sound at all like they knew about the Koch connection to Bratt.
Man I'm sick of these people.
Frustratedlady
(16,254 posts)It is the Kochs' method of promoting their agenda to the young people so they will have more "soldiers" backing their monetary methods to gain more wealth.
If I remember correctly, they had 3 areas they were interested in backing. Finance and science but I can't remember the other. Perhaps the environment (green energy and climate change).
My brain isn't totally engaged tonight. Too much work outside in this beautiful weather, which is finishing up nasty.
Uncle Joe
(58,349 posts)Thanks for the thread, babylonsister.
bearssoapbox
(1,408 posts)They laughed and thought I was joking.
He has the koch stain and stink all over him.
I do love it when the eat their own though.
Snarkoleptic
(5,997 posts)The video gets interesting at around 1:18
"EXPOSED: Brat won with Dark Money"
Uncle Joe
(58,349 posts)Cha
(297,154 posts)Turbineguy
(37,319 posts)and used as useful idiots. I wonder how much they will like being played for fools.
AlbertCat
(17,505 posts)..... North Popelina (formally North Carolina) in no time!
They too are being punished for voting for Obama.
BlackM
(26 posts)I can't help but think that it took more than just dark money and right-wing media to pull off Brat's victory - the GOP vote-fraud machinery is well oiled, and this was only a primary, an easy to fix fight.