Category Archives: Media

Nausea And Palin Are Synonymous.

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Snarky Sarah doesn’t like President Obama’s speeches.  She calls them nauseating, probably because he’s using big words she doesn’t understand – like ethics and civility.

In the past four years nobody has epitomized snarky attacks more than Palin.  From the time she burst onto the national political scene at the 2008 Republican National Convention, she has shown a mastery of disgusting and cheap attacks that few possess.

Of course, anytime anyone struck back, she cried foul.

Now she’s outraged that the pro-Obama super PAC, Priorities USA, has attacked Romney’s role in Bain Capital.  She has accused the PAC of coordinating its efforts with the Obama campaign and she demands an investigation.  She has even accused the mainstream media of “prostituting themselves for a job, for interviews, for access to the Obama administration…”

Hmmm…you sure you want to go there, Sarah?

Instead of finding issues with the Obama campaign, the investigation just might reveal the extent of the coordination between GOP super PACs, Fox News Channel, the Romney campaign and you.

Poorly Disguised Racism.

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Ever since Barack Obama was elected president, conservative white people have decried his lack of patriotism.  They say he is a socialist.  They say he was born in Kenya.  They say he is a Muslim.  They say he does not believe in American values and American exceptionalism.

Considering that his policies reflect those of former President Clinton and, in many cases, former President Bush, one may only conclude that the reason conservatives feel this way is that he is black.

There are other signs of growing racism in politics and the media.

Fox News Channel has recently questioned the patriotism of a US Olympic gold medalist for not wearing a flag-themed uniform during her performances.  (Nevermind that several decades ago it was considered unpatriotic to wear clothing mimicking the American flag.)  And, although few of the US athletes have worn clothing of red, white and blue, only one athlete was singled out…Gabby Douglas, the first African-American to win the all-around in Olympic gymnastics competition.

Coincidence?  I think not.

It’s no more coincidence than the fact that the mass killings in Wisconsin have received relatively little press compared to those in Colorado, Arizona, Texas and West Virginia.  Could that be because the victims in Wisconsin were Sikh immigrants from India and other parts of south Asia?

When Will It Be The Right Time To Talk About Gun Violence?

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In the immediate aftermath of mass shootings, conservative media and the National Rifle Association quickly state, “This is not the time to talk about gun violence.  We need to focus on the victims.”  The NRA also issues a press release reaffirming its stance that guns are not the cause of the shootings.

Within days, the media attention turns to the shooter and what led him to become a mass killer.  Then the public attention is distracted by other more important stories such as the latest celebrity divorce, the latest celebrity arrest or the latest sensational trial.

The debate about senseless gun violence gets lost in the process until the next mass shooting.  Then the process is repeated all over again.

With each shooting, the national outrage is diminished, especially if the victims are not white “innocents.”  (Notice the difference in media coverage in the aftermath of the shootings in Wisconsin compared to the shootings in Colorado, Tucson, Fort Hood, and West Virginia.)

Racism aside, when will we ever have a national conversation about hate speech?  About hate radio?  About the violence that pervades virtually every aspect of our culture?  And most importantly, about the easy availability of increasingly lethal military-style weapons?

There will never be a better time than NOW!

Where Are The Real Newsrooms?

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The HBO program called Newsroom is terrific!  It portrays a news program that transforms itself from “human interest” style, ratings-driven drivel to a program dedicated to telling the truth.  In other words, it’s recreating the style of news that we enjoyed before the repeal of the Fairness Doctrine.

You see, under the Fairness Doctrine, broadcast media were bound by law to serve the public interest; in other words to tell the truth.  If a network or station failed to prove that it failed that standard, it could lose its license.

Yet it wasn’t necessary for news reporters such as Edward R. Murrow, Daniel Shore, Harry Reasoner, Walter Cronkite, David Brinkley, Chet Huntley and Dan Rather.  They needed no such incentive to tell the truth.  They were true newsmen.  They were not bound by ratings or the need to be first.  They were bound by the need to be right.

Unfortunately, when the Fairness Doctrine was repealed, that commitment disappeared.  Networks canned most of their news gathering staffs and focused on ratings.  At the same time, the mouths of Rush Limbaugh, Michael Savage and others were unleashed to hammer away at their political opponents by telling any lies they found necessary.  Fox News Channel was created to fill the news void with innuendo, lies and half-truths on behalf of the GOP.

It can’t continue.

The job of a real newsroom is to tell people, not what they want to know, but what they need to know.  So enjoy HBO’s Newsroom while you can.  Listen to Jeff Daniels and imagine how much better off this nation would be if there were real news anchors like his character.  Imagine a new Fairness Doctrine that would chase liars like Limbaugh, Savage, Hannity, O’Reilly, Beck and company back into the swamps and caves where they belong.

Imagine an informed electorate.

In Nobody We Trust.

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A new Gallup poll shows that just 21 percent of Americans have a “great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence in TV news – a drop of 25 percent since 1993!  And only 25 percent expressed confidence in newspapers.  But these numbers should come as no surprise when Teapublican nitwits such as Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann have long decried the “lamestream” media.  Indeed, the right has been trying to kill the messenger since the 1970s during the Nixon-Agnew administration.

Of course, among right-wing idealogues, there’s no lack of confidence in Fox News Channel despite a Fairleigh Dickinson University survey that found that those who rely on Fox News Channel for news are less informed than those who watch no TV news at all.

In reality, the US news media have earned their lack of trust.  Since the major networks succumbed to the ratings chase in the 1980s, they have emasculated their news gathering operations and replaced real debate with screaming talking heads from each side of the political spectrum.

Radio is even worse.  Since repeal of the Fairness Doctrine, commercial radio has been taken over by right-wing lunatics such as Rush Limbaugh.

And, as subscribers abandon home-delivered newspapers in favor of on-line versions, publishers have been unable to devote resources to traditional news gathering.

So where can Americans turn for reliable news?  I’d suggest National Public Radio and the BBC.  Both are politically neutral organizations with large news gathering operations.  But, in reality, most people will continue to ignore the news (except for the most sensational stories) or turn to (gasp) the Internet for information.

As a result, I’m not hopeful for our future.

Fast And Furious Lies.

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In 2010, Sen. John “McNasty” McCain, Gov. Janet “Finger Wagging” Brewer and many other Teapublican politicians vilified immigrants in order to be elected.  The only things that have changed for 2012 are the candidates and the scare tactic.  Since the Supreme Court gutted SB 1070, the focus has turned to Fast and Furious.

Fast and Furious, of course, is the name of the ATF program designed to stop the flow of guns into Mexico.  In case you don’t know, it’s illegal for anyone in Mexico outside of the military or police to own a gun.  So the drug cartels have made Arizona their personal gun store.  Arizona’s gun laws are so lax that anyone over 18 can buy as many guns as they can afford.  All they have to do is pass a quick background check.  And, if they want to avoid the background check, they can go to any of the state’s hundreds of gun shows and buy guns with no questions asked.

Is this a great state or what?

As a result of this lunacy, Mexican cartels have shipped drugs into the US in exchange for cash and guns.  This arrangement has been so successful, Mexico claims the resulting gun violence has resulted in the deaths of 47,000 Mexicans since 2006!  And that’s despite the fact that ATF has seized more than 68,000 guns over the same period.

How do you think Americans would react to the deaths of 47,000 of our citizens as the result of lax Mexican laws?  That’s more than double the number of deaths from 9/11 every year for 6 years!

But Teapublicans seem to not care about those deaths.  Instead, they have their teabags in knots over the death of a US Border Agent who was shot with a gun that was being tracked by the ATF.  Obviously, any such death is horrible. But it seems our Teapublicans also view it as an opportunity.  So based on the flimsiest of evidence, they have set about politicizing the ATF and the Department of Justice.  They have used it to attack Attorney General Eric Holder and President Obama.

Now Katherine Eban has exposed the truth about Fast and Furious in an investigative report for Fortune magazine.  In short, the article places the blame for the “failed” operation on a bureaucratic Assistant US Attorney and Arizona’s insane gun laws.  It also appears that the so-called “whistle-blower” was a recalcitrant and incompetent subordinate with a grudge against the ATF Division leader.

As for “gun-walking” and a supposed cover-up?  It appears those were merely the figments of Teapublican imaginations repeated by a lazy and biased media.  The entire controversy could have been avoided if either the press or the Congressional Oversight Committee had been more focused on finding the truth than scoring ratings or political points.

More Evidence That Mainstream Media Are Not Liberal (Or Fair).

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ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox’s Sunday morning “news” guests between June, 2011 and February, 2012 have been 70% Republican, 86% men and 92% white according to the monitoring agency, Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting.  This is particularly revealing since Sunday morning programs are some of the most-watched programs for government and business leaders. 

These statistics are a reflection of those who are deemed to be most influential in our government.  And since they are given more access to promote their agenda on national television, they are allowed to gain even more influence.

So tell me again, Sarah Palin, Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum, et all.  Exactly where is this liberal “lamestream” media you constantly whine about?

The Freedom To Fail On Your Own.

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There’s a long-standing attitude of individualism in the US that causes people to inherently dislike any form of collectivism, such as collective bargaining through labor unions.  As I wrote in a previous post, we come from a long line of independent-minded people; people who were pushed out of Europe by dictators of all ilks, from royalty to the Roman Catholic Church.

Unfortunately, corporations and their lackeys on the right have been able to exploit this inborn streak of independence to extract money from us.  They have used a combination of lobbyists, campaign contributions, exportation of jobs, and right wing media megaphones to undermine labor unions and pit workers against one another in order to maximize profits while minimizing wages and benefits.

As a result of the propaganda, far too many Americans equate labor unions with socialism or communism.  Many poor and middle class workers vote for candidates that will continue the pattern of withdrawing employee benefits, eliminating pensions, depressing wages and foreclosing on homes.  Now they are turning their attention to the “entitlements” – Social Security and Medicare.

Yet many of us will continue to support corporations out of the fear of losing our jobs, misplaced loyalty, or the determination to “make it on our own.”  What these people don’t understand is that any individual’s disagreement with a large, heavily capitalized corporation is not a fair fight.  A retail clerk cannot fairly negotiate with a big box retailer.  An assembly line worker cannot win against a large manufacturer.  A maid cannot fight a large hotel chain.

The only chance they have to improve their position and their wages is to band together.  Individuals, no matter how hard they work, are far more likely to fail on their own than to make it on their own.

Liberal Media, Huh?

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If you’re a media observer, as I am, you may have noticed a change in the political coverage over the past several weeks.  The majority of stories are now about Mitt Romney’s rallies and statements.  The few stories about President Obama have been largely negative – showing his decline in the polls or supposed “gaffes” by his campaign.

Another more subtle trend is to refer to President Obama as Mr. Obama.

It seems that the narrative has become “Mr. Obama is a nice man, but he has failed to live up to his campaign promises.”  Never mind that he has faced the most obstructionist Congress in history.  Never mind that the right wing media has blathered endlessly about his “socialist” policies.  Never mind that the Teapublicans have rallied the nation’s racists into a hateful fever over the birther “controversy.”

The “liberal” media seems to have accepted the right wing propaganda that, since the economy has not rebounded quickly, we may as well let Mitt Romney have an opportunity to lead.  They don’t even discuss the fact that Romney’s policies are nearly identical to those of the presidential predecessor who drove our economy off a cliff.

The “lamestream” media seem too partisan, too lazy or too brainwashed to do their jobs.  Wouldn’t it be refreshing to see a network news reporter ask a question that’s as insightful and penetrating as Jon Stewart or Stephen Colbert?

It’s a sad fact that our comedians are now better reporters than most of our journalists.

The Teapublican Book of Lies.

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You know those things Teapublicans present as facts that just never quite make sense?  The ones that are repeated day after day on Fox News Channel and right wing radio?  The conservative ideas that have been tried and failed, but keep coming back?

I’ve taken 50 of those so-called “facts,” researched them, and presented my findings in a new book:  The Teapublican Book of Lies.  It’s a sort of handbook for debates with your conservative friends and family members.

Pardon the shameless self-promotion, but you can buy the book from Amazon.