There Is A War Going On For Your Mind

"Media mavens mount surgical strikes from trapper keeper collages and online magazine racks
Cover girl cutouts throw up pop-up ads
Infecting victims with silicone shrapnel
Worldwide passenger pigeons deploy paratroopers
Now it's raining pornography
Lovers take shelter
...

There's a war going on for your mind

Industry insiders slang test tube babies to corporate crack heads
They flash logos and blast ghettos
Their embroidered neckties say "Stop Stitching"
Conscious rappers and whistle blowers get stitches made of acupuncture needles and marionette
strings

There is a war going on for your mind " -- Flobots

I was surprised to find DU all in disarray yesterday and it seems because the media has mounted a surgical strike. They've taken these words from President Obama:

"The Public Option, whether we have it or we don't have it, is not the entirety of healthcare reform, this is just one sliver of it, one aspect of it"

And without any confirmation from the White House or journalistic confirmation, they've turned this statement into a signal. That signal, they say, is that Obama is willing to drop the Public Option as a requirement. After they reported this, they then asked about this comment directly, Secretary Sebelius answered that the Public Option isn't the essential element, that cost control and competition are the goal, and the Public Option was the current means to get that. This comment was taken further to mean that the Administration doesn't believe a Public Option is required.

But you have to look before this, where Republican Senators, over the weekend were saying there weren't the votes in the Senate for a Public Option and that they would be stripping key elements from the bill. Of course, they have no leg to stand on making comments like this, but this was their signal for the media to pick up the message and turn it on the administration.

Within hours of Sec. Sebelius making this comment, Secretary Gibbs spoke out that the President will not support the bill without a Public Option. Later, the White House corrected Sec. Sebelius's statement, saying she misspoke. Many at DU here fell victim and it was even plastered on the headline of DU for a very long time. The media wins this battle for your mind.

And that's exactly what has happened here. Returning to reality, we know that there will be no bill without a Public Option. The Republicans and Media can say all they want. But besides a single payer system, there is no other way to provide healthcare to those who can't afford it and no way to control costs. A bill without a Public Option will never get Democratic support in Congress. And right now the Democrats are the majority. Despite this reality, you've allowed the media to influence you.

Remember, there is a war going on for your mind. Stay vigilant.

this was the headline in my Va. Pilot this morning. It's a NY Times article by Sheryl Gay Stolberg, It was too upsetting for me to read, but, with what you are saying then maybe I can relax.

50 or 100 little groups, none of which has the power to effectively negotiate reasonable prices, can be safely ignored by the corporations.

Thanks for this, I'm not giving up. The president is out there saying a public option is not the sum total reform and people are running away saying it's gone. I don't think so. Put it in perspective.

Thanks, I needed that.

Unrec for utter naivete.

than your mind is seriously infected.

:hi:

and then say my response speaks for itself?

I'd say that shows how you care about the truth. The reality here, and most here at DU know it, is that the Media is trying to control the message. And it's not in our favor.

It was a trial balloon. It does not take years of following politics to spot it.

If you can't see that, even from the excellent example the OP gave, then it is you who are naive.

REC.

:silly:

Do you disagree that the media over-covered the plants at the town hall meetings and it caused the approval ratings to go from 72 percent to 47 percent in one week?

I was listening to WNYC an NPR news-talk show this morning and it became very, very clear that this is an organized propaganda effort. There was a guy from Forbes (?) saying that the administration had dropped PO and that it was off the table. He was also giving lots of RW talking points, and it occurred to me that it was obvious that the RW wants us to think PO is off the table but it isn't. They want to drive a wedge between the Democrats and their base, and most of DU is falling for it.

There is no evidence whatsoever that the Democrats have abandoned PO yet.

He didn't even mention the "Public Option".

media talking points. I am surprised at how MANY DUers spout even RW talking points, not even just the MSM spin.

I've never been so disappointed in democrats in my life as I have been reading some of the garbage that is posted here as if it were truth.

and they will do whatever they have to do to accomplish that goal and that includes spreading lies with the help of the media.