I am afraid for this country because of our inadequate, complicit, incurious media.

Because of the idiotic talking heads like David Gregory...to just mention one for now. I watched part of his show tonight on a video clip, where Pat Buchanan was acting like the fool he is and Rachel Maddow went after him. She even lit into Dana Milbank, who richly deserved it for his column today.

But she is only one person. Harold Ford, our beloved DLC chairman (Not DNC chairman....yet) really saw nothing wrong with things they were saying about Obama. Said to the effect it was part of running for office.

It shouldn't be. Opponent attacks are one things, but a lazy, complicit, incurious media is something else entirely. That is the kind of media we have now.

I have almost quit watching any cable news, but when I do turn it on awhile I am stunned at the absolute lack of informed minds I see. They only parrot words, usually the latest talking points from the right wing. I hate to say lack of intelligence, but I see some of that as well.

They should all be embarrassed.

CNN and MSNBC are just like FOX now basically. Countdown is still better than the others, but it is only one show. It is just about all we have. If I had seen Milbank's face on there tonight I would have turned it off as well.

They are only getting started. Their job appears to be to get McCain elected, qualified and capable or not. Doesn't matter to them at all. Not one bit. They have their jobs to do, and they will do them. The script is written.

Today was the worst, because we could see in one moment Karl Rove labeled with contempt by a House committee. We knew it would not go anywhere because Nancy Pelosi says it won't. I guess she is no different than any of the others....afraid of the administration and the powers that be.

Fearful of what they might do if cornered.

Yet...to make it worse today we saw one of the more "enlightened" (usually) reporters simply cross the line. He used the talking points that were started by Karl Rove this last week. Dana Milbank just took them and ran with them.

In Wayne Slater's blog today he said that says Rove started the "arrogant Obama" stuff and the media fell for it.



Even the printed media is starting to just print things that are not true. This week a Florida newspaper had a stunning headline.

Florida newspaper declares we are winning in Iraq...only a few "scattered battles" now.

This was the day before the new outbreak of suicide bombings in Iraq.



There was no counter view, no disagreement, just the one article.

Last Wednesday Howard Dean was on with David Shuster. Shuster told him the economy was better. To Dean's credit, he disputed him....but how in the world did we get to this place where our most respected reporters and journalists just print or say whatever comes to mind.



The talking heads know we are not winning the war in Iraq, they know the economy is not better. Yet they just keep on saying things like that.

Maybe the TV cable and network news stations have decided to present opinions and editorialize, just like the new head of the Associated Press is going to do.

Ron Fournier and the AP...changing from factual reporting to opinion and bias?

Don't forget that Fournier was once asked to be part of the McCain campaign, is known to have exchanged buddy buddy emails with him. We can only imagine which direction the AP would be likely to go.



Newspapers have sections for news, opinion, editorial. They need to be kept separate.

I foolishly thought that maybe the talking heads would not be so bad this election year. It was so horrible in the previous election years with the spin for Iraq before and after, it was so hard to see our candidates put down and a fool like Bush elevated.

Looks like it won't be much better, maybe even worse. In April a couple of the CNN female reporters were rambling on, and they admitted that they at that moment were receiving the GOP talking points on their blackberries... and that one of our candidates was using them.

It is worse than it was in 2002 and 2004 because now we know the truth, the media KNOWS the truth, and the world knows the truth. Our media is choosing to lie and spin, and I find it scary.

COLLABORATEUR.

...John McCain

The solution?

BUST THEM UP - DEconsilidate them. And reinstate the Fairness Doctrine or something similar. Legislate that only a certain percentage of their funding can come from private profit and that a certain percentage MUST be provided from the public.

Of COURSE no one will do that. It might FIX the problem - and apparently not enough people want that to happen. Democrats would rather ignore THAT elephant in the room, too - along with the entire herd of the others. (ie: election fraud, bu$hit's high crimes, treason, and human rights abuses, etc. etc.)

...they've had lots of practice over the years and they're only getting more blatantly fascist.

I don't think they're "uniformed" as much as deliberate black ops.

mccain. It could be done..anything can meet their waterloo.

If a nation lets corporations run amok without responsible regulation, they'll regress toward lazy and juvenile instincts- which are essentially the mean.

Setting standards to comply with (in return for rewards recieved from advantages that we the people grant) is how our fathers and mothers dealt with this (add a grand or two, depending on your age).

This ain't the 1st time that the financial industry has screwn us all (and itself) -nor the first time that flunkies and newsreaders curried favor through reprehensible behavior.

They're really not that hard to deal with- all it requires is a little understanding of what's gone down before- and the will (politcal fortitude) to apply those hard lessons to what's going on today.

Because if the media were doing its job, then Bush couldn't get away with his crimes.

And in addition, the bobbleheads on The View presented a complete Obama smear that has been DEBUNKED (that the "stolen prayer was leaked for PR") as truth, and used it for Elizabeth Hasslebeck to launch into her "Obama is manupulative. This speaks volume about his character". Never mind that there are Democrats on that panel...they were too uninformed to counter with anything. As much as I hate to admit it, millions of people (ugh), especially women, watch that show and would think that that was truth presented to them. Motherfuckers. It's bad enough the journalists are irresponsible, but we have to deal with shit like The View.


Oh yeah, and Katie Couric was on, and Elizabeth said "Your husband is cute!" Uh, her husband passed away, brainiac. Was she talking about her boyfriend?


And as a Katie Couric sehway , more media irresponsibility. From her wikipedia..

"Also in April 2007, in a "Katie Couric's Notebook" titled "Is America ready for a President who grew up praying in a mosque?", Couric's video cited a Los Angeles Times article which reported that according to childhood acquaintance Zulfan Adi, Obama had "prayed in the mosque."<25><26> The video was later taken down from CBS's website and the transcript amended with "In a later Chicago Tribune article, however, the source said he was not certain whether they prayed together."<27> In doing this Couric or her staff replaced a controversial statement for which there was some evidence (the Tribune article reports "Obama occasionally followed his stepfather to the mosque for Friday prayers, a few neighbors said."<28>) with an error (the Tribune article says merely "Zulfan Adi, a former neighborhood playmate of Obama's who has been cited in news reports as saying Obama regularly attended Friday prayers with Soetoro, told the Tribune he was not certain about that..." which doesn't actually contradict what he had said earlier).<29>"

can be traced back to the fear of God, as set forth by the author of the 'book of genesis'.

The corporate media is smart enough to hire stupid hacks who will do ANYTHING for $$$$$$$$$ and fame. Where are the Walter Conkrites of today? They don't exist anymore.

Corporations own our media and they have a vested interest in electing a corporate President. And unfortunately, there are two many low life hacks like Scarborough and gang who will sell this country down the river for a buck.

But look at the other adjectives I used in the text of the post. :-)

Either way, not good. Thank goodness for Countdown and people like Olbermann and Maddow who we desperately needed, and did not have in 2000. Look what happened to Dan Rather? A man of his stature POOF, because he told a story about Bush that the RW didn't like.

Excellent work MF.

Sure, you'll get clueless idiots like Charlie Gibson or those dolts on Fox n' Friends, but I think that most of the prominent media is pretty smart. Ethical? No way. But smart, in a con-man type of way.

So I changed it rather than explain.

for standing up for himself against McCain's stupid Britney ad.

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2008/07/did-obama-accus.html

I swear I believe they pride themselves in their inanity.

one must be an unsufferable fool....which he is.

:hi:

sadly! :(



:hi:

internets, something is wrong with the MSM.....

They are clowns, the lot.

I come here less and less because the reality of what is happening and what has happened to this country during what I now see as a coup, is not something that will be validated by the powers that be in any American media. Not only that, no candidate--Rethuglican or Democratic--will change things. Thus,the hopelessness.

We are in too deep now, and the coup is too far along.

I never thought that I would see a time in this country when there was no body that had the ability to set things right. But this is that time and I don't expect things to change soon. So I have essentially quit complaining, I avoid the liars and their lies and take solace in the fact that at least I know that they are lying. My biggest fear continues to be that for every lie that I know that they are telling, there are ten more unlike me who don't know that they are lying and who accept what they are told without question.

I weep for America. The Depression we are in is not just economic. We are bankrupt in more ways than one.

I feel better when I see Obama speaking...then I see how the media goes after him and I feel hopeless again.

Every time you tune into those blathering bobbleheads, you make them stronger.
You're giving your eyeballs to their advertisers.
Every time you tune in, the network gets paid.
The network then figures "Oh, madfloridian must like us!"
Quit giving them your damn eyeballs!
You don't need to "know what the enemy is doing."
That's not why you tune in.
You need to marginalize and eliminate the enemy.
Seriously, stop watching that crap!
The only way we are ever going to get out of this mess is to stop giving the shysters our god-damned money!



This has been a public service announcement from the Spirit of Howard Beale...

With my new found time I'm taking software classes over the internet. Getting more work done. Enjoying summer.

Why do I need to waste my time listening to Pat Buchanan, of all people? I can scan posts here if I want to know what's going on.

(with the exception of Olbermann and Maddow). Corporate media (they are corporate lackeys, not journalists of any description)represent the interests of their corporations, pure and simple. They are company boys and girls. They are after the $$$$ and the big houses and "high life" of power and don't give a damn about the nation and its people. If you look at Campbell Brown's background, for example, you find a party girl. She's now a party woman running her gums on CNN.

NBC is full of good-looking, shallow RNC news readers. All they care about is themselves, their career, and their income potential. Lying is part of the game.

My husband still watches the corporate media. That's the only way I see all the fools. I get my information elsewhere.

I guess their lying is becoming more obvious because they are getting SO desperate to promote the RNC. The RNC has pretty much run this country into the ground, so it's getting harder and harder to sell those ideas and their lame-o presidential candidate to the public.

Several years ago, When Gwennie was given the opportunity to load her panels 2/1 with Repubs, we stopped watching. You know when a man of Jim Lehrer's stature has gone over to the dark side, it's a pretty sad state of affairs.

The cable channels are ridiculous. We've never watched them.

Once in a while we turn on The News Hour and can see just how far it has slid. David Brooks
gets away with incredible, factually incorrect statements. Lehrer doesn't challenge him at all.

The lie and spin dominates the airwaves. It is impossible for democracy to function without
an informed electorate. The Repubs know that and that's why they've seized the airwaves
to churn out their propaganda 24/7.

I fear we're living through the decline and fall of America.

I have stopped yelling at the TV. I read my news and it is bad enough and now even the News Hour is disappointing most of the time. I will still try to watch BBC. Lies are told as if they were gospel truth and I no longer can stand it.

I stopped watching a long time ago; if I'm gonna be on the computer all day anyways....:)

It's was weird how my outlook on life improved. Mind you, I can get :wtf: :grr: by reading but I unlike hearing the same bs for hours I can read something else.

Today's conservative press that stands in for an MSM presents falsehoods and lies. Their approach for furthering their message is to hide the truth from their viewers/readers, or to distort what they are forced to cover. It is a dark approach used by criminal regimes in dictatorships around the world throughout history.

About 20 years ago, wedged between the Watergate scandals and Bush 1, Liberal ideas were reported openly in the press as a result of several factors. The popularity of shows like All in the Family and Mash raised public awareness of what was wrong with society. The evils committed by the repugs under nixon raised the profile of reporters revealing the truth to the public. A liberal MSM was all about truth and letting the public truly make their own interpretations.

As Colbert has said: Reality has a Liberal Bias.

The conservative press, by definition, cannot show reality as it would cause them to cease their existence. As long as the msm remains conservative or repug, it will be a danger to the country's wellbeing because of the necessary distortions, lies, and diversions it will need to throw at their customers.

And the media knows exactly what they are doing. They know exactly who butters their bread and they are going to do their damn best to make sure Obama fails.

That is where citizens like the rest of us come in. We may not have multi-million media conglomerates at our disposal, but we've got legs and feet to go door-to-door, as well as other communication methods.

Campbell Brown

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x3709058

Bush's corporate ho PRAVDA is everywhere.

much. Once again you are bringing attention to a very important issue.

And yes, they are lazy and they're not curious. I wonder how much of that is because that is what journalism has become over the past couple of decades or if that is what they are told to do by their corporate superiors.

And how do we change it?

for Boooosh, not once, but twice and he lost both times anyway; But our intrepid corporate media were able to pull off a win for him anyway and that is how much power they can bring to bear. They are part and parcel of the cabal that brought legitimacy to the lying cheating and conniving it took to fake a win and put clothes on a naked idiot presiding over an all too obvious farce.

He and that talking head were saying how McCain's celeb ad might hurt Obama.

They did not even sound like they meant it. They were mouthing platitudes and talking points.

Karl Rove is still with us.

I don't know how you can watch it.

http://therealnews.com/t/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=49&Itemid=84

I stumbled upon this group last year - it was called then Independent World Television and their goal was no corporate control and no government control (content or dollars in both cases). Their mission statement and the list of people supporting the idea were just amazing and I had very high hopes for them and actually donated to the cause.

I check in on them occasionally to see how they're doing. I'm sorry to say that this site is not as compelling as the one they had last year and they seem to have scaled down their vision quite a bit, but maybe that's the realities of the marketplace kicking in.

At any rate, they are hoping that enough people will care enough about real journalism to subscribe to a venture that actually supports that cause. I don't know if they will ultimately succeed, but as I said, I think they are on the right path. If the current corporate controlled media doesn't give you what you need - then create something that does.

What amazes me about the MSM, is how they purport to be about "news" and journalism and we all know now how untrue it is. They are a corporate controlled infotainment source that also works as the mockingbird arm of the current administration. Now that all has been revealed, there really is no need to watch them. So, now I don't. I used to watch Hardball EVERY SINGLE NIGHT and now I don't. Why should I? And now that I have broken my habit, I am much happier.

I still watch the Sunday Morning news shows because you get to see the newsmakers and politicians themselves even though they have to slog through the preconceived talking points of the hosts and pundits. We watched Obama with Brokaw on Sunday on MTP and said that the title of that show should have been "Defend Yourself" with today's guest Barack Obama.

And it sucessfully helped to put this clowning failure in office, twice. Against the nation's real vote and its best interest.
---------------

Rise of the 'Patriotic Journalist'

By Robert Parry
October 20, 2005

~snip~

In the late 1970s, conservative leaders began a concerted drive to finance a media infrastructure of their own along with attack groups that would target mainstream reporters who were viewed as too liberal or insufficiently patriotic.

Richard Nixon’s former Treasury Secretary Bill Simon took the lead. Simon, who headed the conservative Olin Foundation, rallied like-minded foundations – associated with Lynde and Harry Bradley, Smith Richardson, the Scaife family and the Coors family – to invest their resources in advancing the conservative cause.

Money went to fund conservative magazines taking the fight to the liberals and to finance attack groups, like Accuracy in Media, that hammered away at the supposed “liberal bias” of the national news media.

Reagan-Bush Years

This strategy gained momentum in the early 1980s with the arrival of Ronald Reagan’s presidency.

Spearheaded by intellectual policymakers now known as the neoconservatives, the government developed a sophisticated approach – described internally as “perception management” – that included targeting journalists who wouldn’t fall into line.

http://www.consortiumnews.com/2005/101905.html

Long book, scary as hell. Took courage for Brock to write it. I still go back read it with shock and awe.

we are powerless divided. If the ppl of this country unite, the corrupt politicians, corporations--everything--would be at peril. They can't stand for that.

:hi:

BOTH parties are compromised and complicit in this. Anyone who isn't is marginalized or assassinated either character or actual. Of course the media is going to parrot the fascist line, that's their job, that's what they are paid to do. The idea of a critical press is a joke, it's dead. The only reason they let Keith do his show is to provide the illusion of freedom and counterpoint.

The MSM only needs just enough truth to keep people coming back.

Money and expediency in the pursuit of money is the objective of todays 'News Reporting'.