Big Media is afraid; very, very afraid
This the most under-reported news of last week. When confronted by Jen Granholm in an interview on Current TV, Politico‘s Joe Williams admitted Big Media is terrified of rightwing extremists:
How they live with their conscience is less clear. But what is clear, when the oligarchs are done with us, they'll go after them. Eventually, they'll lose everything too. Sadly, by that time, it will be too late for all of us.
[More posts daily at the Detroit News.]
“And there are many who would agree with you that it is false equivalency,” Williams allowed, “but nonetheless, one reason why that still sticks and still maintains a presence in most newsrooms is not only because of integrity of individual journalism, but also because the conservative Republican message machine is very, very good at vilifying people who they believe have crossed the line into advocacy, who have done a number on what they believe is their fair and objective way of looking at things and looking at the White House agenda.”It's not an unreasonable fear. The far right, have successfully taken down more than a few journalists who dared tell the truth. But, as Tommy Christopher says:
The press needs to realize that when conservatives whine about “liberal bias,” what they’re really complaining about is an absence of conservative bias. Until they do, things like the plainly obvious GOP sabotage of the economy will continue unchecked.The problem is, until the media grows a spine and stands up to wingnut bullying as a united body, they will continue to be little more than marionettes for the far right's party line. It's understandable in a way. Most of these guys are making a more than decent to cushy six figure living from being good soldiers for false equivalency. They have families and fancy lifestyles to support.
How they live with their conscience is less clear. But what is clear, when the oligarchs are done with us, they'll go after them. Eventually, they'll lose everything too. Sadly, by that time, it will be too late for all of us.
[More posts daily at the Detroit News.]
Labels: declining America, Media, Oligarchy, Wingnuts
posted by Libby Spencer at 9:32 PM
4 Comments:
99.9% of the time I am in full agreement with you and your sources, but in this story I think we may break company.
The line "when conservatives whine about 'liberal bias,' what they’re really complaining about is an absence of conservative bias" could be just as easily reversed. The left has gone just as berserk as the right in many cases.
The problem isn't left or right, it is extremist left or right. Polarization has wedged our ability to compromise, and compromise was the avenue to growth and success for too brief a period of our history. Ike Eisenhower and Jack Kennedy lived at the perfect time in our history, and both epitomized the good America we could be.
Jack Kennedy died likely because of underlying political hatred, but we will never know for certain. The only certainty is that our political system jumped the rails in November of 1963 and we have never since been able to get it back on track.
Humanity is a tribe. Some of us look different, or believe different myths, but we are all part of the tribe. If we cannot learn how to get along in spite of those differences all of tis debate is for nothing.
I don't deny there's some amount of left wing hysteria Mule Breath, but it's not nearly as organized or united, and most importantly, the media isn't afraid of left wingers calling them conservative. They probably welcome it because it pleases the extreme right that they're pissing off liberals.
And how many of them brag that they say what they say just to "piss off the Liberals"
Yes, we should see ourselves as all one tribe, but it's not in our nature and you can see it when you look at our hairy cousins. When any tribe gets too big they/we have to start subdividing because we desperately need a group to go after; a group we can approach with a no holds barred mentality and perhaps humans are worse than chimps in our desperate need to form warring tribes.
Yes, sure, there is extremism everywhere -- I think it's another basic, inborn human need and it helps us feel important to paint ourselves blue and burn the town when our team wins -- or loses, but at the moment, the pseudo-conservatives are in the ascendency and are far better at harnessing the passions of the mob than ever before. The media see a profit in this in the short term and who in America thinks in the long term?
Fogg! So good to see you. Hope you're feeling better. And well said, as always.
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