It's the equivalation, stupid

How are the Repubs and MSM going to chip away at the emerging Democratic majority?

As James Carville might have said, if he weren't busy throwing Howard Dean under the bus: it's the equivalation, stupid.

Since the advent of "Nightline," cable news, and Ronnie love — and the end of the fairness doctrine and something we used to call "shame" — the news game has been a game.

And the name of the game is making everything into either a horserace (tilting the field in favor of the undeserving) or a star-spangled army-recruitment poster.

And, oh yes, MSM includes NPR:



This canard has been a standby for journalists of both types — lazy and rightwing-biased — for some time.

Again, I quote from Paul Glastris's superb 2004 analysis of faux polarization:



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I gather that you don't read the posts here at DU.

Care to guess how many "I hate Rahm" threads are active right now? (Hell, I never even heard of Emanuel until 3 weeks ago -- now I'm defending him.)

Care for some Michael Moore bashing? Choose your thread ....

And let's not forget the endless tirades against the Eeeeevvvviiiillll MSM that so strongly represents the right. You know, the same media that the right claims represents the left. And your inclusion of NPR in your rant is a total howler.

But, hey -- who can argue that divisiveness is a right wing invention?

1. "I gather that you don't read the posts here at DU."

Wrong. I read a lot of posts at DU.

2. Care to guess how many "I hate Rahm" threads are active right now? (Hell, I never even heard of Emanuel until 3 weeks ago -- now I'm defending him.)" Care for some Michael Moore bashing? Choose your thread ....

DU debates about Dem leadership are "inside baseball," and surely not something Cokie could reasonably claim the public is weary about. Fer crissakes, Democrats have been practically invisible in the MSM since day Bush saved the twin towers. How is the public tired of their "divisiveness" either internally or vs. the GOP?

3. And let's not forget the endless tirades against the Eeeeevvvviiiillll MSM that so strongly represents the right. You know, the same media that the right claims represents the left. And your inclusion of NPR in your rant is a total howler. But, hey -- who can argue that divisiveness is a right wing invention?

If you can't see the rightwing bias in today's news media, which rabidly aided and abetted a war waged on blatantly trumped-up pretenses, and if you can't smell bullshit in the GOP whine of "liberal media," my words here will be of little help to you. Enjoy your howling, sir.


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This is your howl, sir, not mine.

So, you want to take this to a national level? Lets. Do you deny that Nancy Pelosi bitterly insulted the President in the weeks prior to the election? Did you miss Kerry's tirade against the President when he botched his joke?

That's just two, and there are dozens and dozens of examples.

And, yeah, I agree with the Rightwing Controlled Media Who Treat Us as Buffoons that this kind of crap in nonproductive and I'm tired of it. And I most certainly won't let you pretend it's coming from only one side. If you want it fixed, start by setting a good example.

...can be found here: http://mediamatters.org/

When a party defiles this great country in the innumerable ways the GOP has during the Bush II years, I would say that Pelosi and Kerry should be a whole lot more shrill than anything I've heard out of them.

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... the MSM, and the GOP it loves, maintain a series of lies and rhetorical tricks that enable the worst administration and Congress ever to run roughshod over truth, justice, and the American way.

We shouldn't accept the easy but untrue framing that casts the left and right as equal parties to the debasement of American politics.

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When Kerry insulted the hell out of Bush on a daily basis -- calling him lazy and stupid -- in public, national forums, he was absolutely contributing to the problem. Pelosi calling Bush a liar and incompetent repeatedly on national television was adding to the problem. Yes, the GOP and particularly the Bush administration are pure scum, liars, and deserving of no respect from anyone. They have had full cooperation from the media for 6 years. However, to even suggest that this is a one-way street is pure fantasy.

Refusing to accept the role that relative rightness, wrongness, etc. play gives an unfair advantage to the wrongdoers.

People who are routinely wrong, malicious, incompetent, corrupt, and so on should bear the full brunt of our criticism and contempt. It makes little sense to me to say "Johnny, please play nice with the bully that murdered all those Iraqis, let our real enemies run free, raided the national treasury, let New Orleans drown, despoiled the environment, and cheated and lied about everything."

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They will probably claim that Kerry, and Pelosi, both insulted bush, without saying that what the two Dem leaders said was the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

Then it'll be argued that the playing field has been level all these years and Dems are just as guilty as the radical republicans.

Yep, the framing that the Democrats are the same as the Publicans is plain old poppycock!

No offense to my good friend Buzz, but it was getting a little lonely in here. :)
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Hey, the liberal light is always on at the Vast Left-Wing Conspiracy. Please stop by and say "hi!"