Primera!

By the way, I heard a report on NPR this morning in which they were comparing Romney's and Fuckabee's records vis a vis clemency and the death sentence.

They said that "critics have pointed to Huckabee's tendency to grant clemency to inmates who have found Jesus..." Two words not mentioned in the report: Wayne and Dumond.

And you know, that's the way these fuckers are going to spin it: "Huckabee pardoned Dumond because he found Jesus - all you DFH's hate Jesus."

Such bullshit. For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, Huckabee released a convicted rapist to get back at Clinton. The rapist went out and raped and murdered another woman. Read the Murray Waas article.

Fucking NPR.

The MSM are afraid that if they start to really do some actual journalism, they will lose their entree onto the Beltway Cocktail Party Circuit.

I didn't know that eating rubber chicken and cocktail weenies on a stick in tomato sauce was more important than how many of our kids dying in Iraq for no reason; how Americans are drowning in the economy, or the fact that the POTUS is a lying, walking bucket of pus.

Fool me once...hell, I was never fooled by the putz-in-Chief...

Actually, the tipping thing is kind of important.

...And you know, that’s the way these fuckers are going to spin it: “Huckabee pardoned Dumond because he found Jesus - all you DFH’s hate Jesus.”

Pardoning Dumond because he found Jesus is a problem in and of itself... Let's just 'pray' they try to spin it in that direction! ;)

Just heard on tv that Dennis Kucinich's brother was found dead today. He was only in his early 50s. They didn't give the cause of death or any other details.

If I begin to write what I am thinking of the media these days it would be nothing more than a cursing rant.

Big John @ 8:

Do you think the style of press coverage is a fashion or a conspiracy?

If it is a fashon, who makes it fashionable? If it's a conspiracy, we are fubar.

i wouldn't call it a conspiracy.

it is a business model.

american ignorance is key to the ruling powers. it is just good for business. keep up the consumerism, distract with newsertainment, and keep people thinking that everything is hunky dory in the world.

if the news media actually worked to inform americans, i truly believe, things would be a lot different right now--in a good way.

the media would rather keep the actions of corporations, and their foreign policy dictates, quiet.

Instead of covering the real issues like health insurance, the Iraq war, torture and the economy—they seem fascinated by haircuts, lapel pins and dinner tips.

John, what did you expext? The MSM was asked to distract the public for an EXTRA YEAR during this "election campaign."

What you call "election coverage," I call Media Filibuster for Impeachment.

L.A. Confidential @ 12:

pissed off patricia @ 11:

Just heard on tv that Dennis Kucinich's brother was found dead today. He was only in his early 50s. They didn't give the cause of death or any other details.

If I begin to write what I am thinking of the media these days it would be nothing more than a cursing rant.

This story probably won't see much but Jamie Spears will be dominating the MSM for the next three weeks.

I just flipped by three cable news channels and every damned one of them was talking about Britney's sister. All at the same time.

The story I was looking for is the power sub-station that just blew up in Jacksonville Fla. CNN announced the story but said they would monitor it. I was looking for details and all the hell I got was gossip and bullshit.

The people of the MSM, 'the press', cover what they themselves think is important, hairdos, makeup, clothing, gossip, shopping.....as for 'experience', they have none, why should they attach importance to it?

The MSM doesn't care what Dodd or Edwards or any others think about the issues. They have decided that the nominee will be Hillary or Obama. This is all just theatre scripted by the MSM and We the People don't matter one whit, we are just the unwilling audience.

Watching morning Joe this morning, they showed Bill Clinton wandering away to mingle with the crowd over and over, which he always liked to do... I think it is because he really likes people but Joe said it was because he wanted to make it about himself.... And he says he counts the times that Clinton says "I", now when you are asked a question how do you go about not saying "I think"... And I don't think Clinton says "I" as much as Joe does, he should rerun his program and count his own I's.....

Preacher Boob @ 19:

The people of the MSM, 'the press', cover what they themselves think is important, hairdos, makeup, clothing, gossip, shopping.....as for 'experience', they have none, why should they attach importance to it?

All the MSM is focused on right now is turning children into a market commodity. Obedient drones-workers-consumers. Much of the MSM has managers who were born in the MTV era ordering around kids who came of age during Windows 95 era.

Thats why Spears and Hilton and other schlock is always the biggest stories. At least in the Internet media.

The standards are way to low.

someone should put on camera 'miss' chris matthews being gangbanged by his man his repiglican man crushes .......thompson, mccain, bush, etc .. with all their cum spluttering from his mouth as he launches into yet another women hating vomit about clinton .. then the agenda of the corporate media would be obvious for all to see

QuakerLady @ 10:

What I want to know is - How come we only see Hillary and Obama every time we turn on the TV? Why aren't the lesser contenders such as Sen Dodd ever interviewed. While the others had "more important" matters to deal with in Iowa, Sen. Dodd actually took the time to return to Washington and filibuster for FISA? I wish we'd see a lot more of John Edwards and Dennis Kucinich, et al. It's as if the media are selecting the final nominee for us. The MSM drives me crazier than O'Reilly, Hannity and Rush combined...........And that's saying something.

You said it with It's as if the media are selecting the final nominee for us... that's what's going on. Glad you saw it for what it is... time to share this news with everyone we know and let it grow like a grassroots movement. Then perhaps the other candidates will be seen and heard.

God, I wish we would stop calling them "mainstream media (MSM)". Call them what they are: corporate media (CM). We are the mainstream, and corporate media does not represent us.

CM is intentionally trying to rig the elections and rig public sentiment to go with only people who represent CM interests.

Go to the rural Midwest and stay a week, read the newspapers, listen to local radio, and watch local television. It is a republican world in those parts, even for locals who have computer access. In one section of Ohio, I heard Limbaugh and Beck on three or four different stations at the same time, within a 60-mile radius...and not one progressive station.

If you tune to a local pop station, you'll hear how "blessed" they are because of "Jesus". Huh? When did religion become a mainstay of pop radio in rural America? The newspapers tell you vote republican for "balance"; Democrats are just inept and incompetent.

The masses have been successfully manipulated by corporate media. They actually think this is "normal".

We are screwed until the corporate media monopoly is broken and destroyed.

The tipping thing? The minor detail was less important than the fact that the Clinton campaign outright lied about it and felt the need to exaggerate in order to quell the criticism.

It was almost the straw that broke the camel's back.

pissed off patricia @ 24:

The presidential race is being treated like it's of no more consequence than American Idol. Who wore what? How did their hair look? Who makes the best speech? Who did the most bizarre thing this week? It's insane!

No one takes anything serious anymore. It's about instant gratification. Me me me.

Samson- @ 13:

Big John @ 8:

Do you think the style of press coverage is a fashion or a conspiracy?

If it is a fashon, who makes it fashionable? If it's a conspiracy, we are fubar.

i wouldn't call it a conspiracy.

it is a business model.

american ignorance is key to the ruling powers. it is just good for business. keep up the consumerism, distract with newsertainment, and keep people thinking that everything is hunky dory in the world.

if the news media actually worked to inform americans, i truly believe, things would be a lot different right now--in a good way.

the media would rather keep the actions of corporations, and their foreign policy dictates, quiet.

Delightful, I love it. For example...9/11 was not a conspiracy, it was a business model...PERFECT!

The Associated Press asked the presidential candidates to name their favorite electronic gadgets.

Their answers:

DEMOCRATS:

New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton: iPod

Former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards: iPod

Illinois Sen. Barack Obama: BlackBerry

New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson: BlackBerry

Wow I better vote for Hillary because she uses IPOD. That means she's just like me.

Duhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Old Billy @ 3:

By the way, I heard a report on NPR this morning in which they were comparing Romney's and Fuckabee's records vis a vis clemency and the death sentence.

They said that "critics have pointed to Huckabee's tendency to grant clemency to inmates who have found Jesus..." Two words not mentioned in the report: Wayne and Dumond.

And you know, that's the way these fuckers are going to spin it: "Huckabee pardoned Dumond because he found Jesus - all you DFH's hate Jesus."

Such bullshit. For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, Huckabee released a convicted rapist to get back at Clinton. The rapist went out and raped and murdered another woman. Read the Murray Waas article.

Fucking NPR.

I heard this too, thanks for bringing it up. You do have to watch NPR sometimes, they generally don't want to offend their corporate sponsors. I went to the NPR site once to call out Mara Liasson once on some load of bull story she had and actually did get a response. I'd go to their site and mention this about Dumond and how Mr. Holy Hypocrite was complicit in this sordid affair. They need to hear from us.

Bud @ 40:

Lollimom @ 31:

God, I wish we would stop calling them "mainstream media (MSM)". Call them what they are: corporate media (CM). We are the mainstream, and corporate media does not represent us.

CM is intentionally trying to rig the elections and rig public sentiment to go with only people who represent CM interests.

Go to the rural Midwest and stay a week, read the newspapers, listen to local radio, and watch local television. It is a republican world in those parts, even for locals who have computer access. In one section of Ohio, I heard Limbaugh and Beck on three or four different stations at the same time, within a 60-mile radius...and not one progressive station.

If you tune to a local pop station, you'll hear how "blessed" they are because of "Jesus". Huh? When did religion become a mainstay of pop radio in rural America? The newspapers tell you vote republican for "balance"; Democrats are just inept and incompetent.

The masses have been successfully manipulated by corporate media. They actually think this is "normal".

We are screwed until the corporate media monopoly is broken and destroyed.

I like your idea of calling it the CM. I think I'll start using that - thanks!

CM=Rebranded Pravda. The CM cares about message control and manipulation first, journalistic integrity second. And you are right about the rural Midwest. The propaganda is ridiculous. Fortunately I have XM and can listen to Air America instead of the phony holy rollers.

An email I sent today:
Subject: Corporate News Means No Real News Where Impeachment is Concerned | BaltimoreChronicle.com
Date: December 19, 2007 8:17:30 AM EST
To: editor@baltimorechronicle.com

http://www.baltimorechronicle.com/2007/121807Lindorff.shtml

It seems since Pelosi and Reid ran away from impeachment as an option, the claim is that they would be accused of getting nothing done in Congress if impeachment clogged the airwaves.

Getting what they HAVE done appears little more than an expression of Stockholm Syndrome as they cave in, buckle, give it up and a war based on lies and botched is amply funded while ground is lost in Afghanistan, Osama bin Laden walks free, the environment is destroyed, health care is in ruins, the media are consolidated into the hands of a few, the rich get MUCH richer, the subprime loan debacle widens and deepens, and the crime of outing Plame, destroying torture tapes, extraordinary renditions, the shame of Guantanamo, torture tactics like waterboarding, lying, stealing (Halliburton), raping, pillaging and murder are the norm of this Administration.

And this is just the SHORT list.

And the media, including what I now refer to as National Propaganda Radio (NPR) are complicit, as they have been since the get-go of the war preparations for Iraq (the lies of yellow cake only one of many, but the most obvious, the lie of a link between Hussein and bin Laden/al Qaeda). The White House press corps has been a joke forever (with one notable exception: guess who).

So why should we be surprised? We no longer live in a democracy. Unless it is the type that Bush I brought to Kuwait in the LAST manufactured war in the region: a new "form" of democracy previously known as the oligarchical caliphate.

I am sure that Verizon, my carrier, will no doubt be sending this to Cheney's Homeland Security or some such institution for review and addition of my name to whatever lists they may be preparing for their future efforts in destroying our nation.

One wonders if the Democrats are suffering more from cowardice or the fear of complicity exposed? Or merely the reactions typical of victim of bullying repugnicans (a/k/a, Stockholm syndrome as note above).
George

L.A. Confidential @ 39:

The Associated Press asked the presidential candidates to name their favorite electronic gadgets.

Their answers:

DEMOCRATS:

New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton: iPod

Former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards: iPod

Illinois Sen. Barack Obama: BlackBerry

New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson: BlackBerry

Guess I'm behind the times when the older folks have ipods and blackberrys and I don't have either one.

The reason why the MSM is devoting so little time to issues is explained by a statement Bill Clinton made a couple of months back. He said, "When the focus is on issues, the Democrats win. When the focus is on personalities, we lose."

right on! @ 29:

QuakerLady @ 10:

What I want to know is - How come we only see Hillary and Obama every time we turn on the TV? Why aren't the lesser contenders such as Sen Dodd ever interviewed. While the others had "more important" matters to deal with in Iowa, Sen. Dodd actually took the time to return to Washington and filibuster for FISA? I wish we'd see a lot more of John Edwards and Dennis Kucinich, et al. It's as if the media are selecting the final nominee for us. The MSM drives me crazier than O'Reilly, Hannity and Rush combined...........And that's saying something.

You said it with It's as if the media are selecting the final nominee for us... that's what's going on. Glad you saw it for what it is... time to share this news with everyone we know and let it grow like a grassroots movement. Then perhaps the other candidates will be seen and heard.

Mostly what I see is Hillary being bashed for what the MSM (not Hillary) declared her to be ("inevitable") & Obama pretty much not saying anything but a few platitudes. He's usually just a glowing, glossy 8x10 or a file footage loop with Oprah. He's now, in their opinion, the inevitable one with Hillary just not getting the message to quit now. Dodd got interviewed by Alison Stewart on KO's show because of the FISA event. Edwards is making the rounds a bit. But mostly it's nitpicking Hillary to death & saying virtually nothing about the others except that they're not the "evil, inauthentic, cold, calculating, mean-spirited, corporate, shrill, vicious, shrewish, aging" Hillary, "the closet lesbian."

Fox & Fools this a.m. accused Hilllary of planting every single friend & acquaintaince from her past who've been showing up to see her at recent rallies. To paraphrase the guy who's not Steve Doucie, "She's so cold & calculating, it's not believable that she has any friends living in Iowa let alone supporting her candidacy. They're trying to make her look like a warm person but nobody's buying it. It's all a set up." They even trashed Mrs. Rodham for saying nice things about her own daughter. A mother can't say nice things about her daughter anymore? Yeah, they can but not if they're Hillary's mom. What does anyone get out of opinionated b.s. like that presented on the tip of a long knife or rusty hatchet? Do nutjobs like Tweety & Tucker ever think that their scarey, irrational hatred of Hillary is backfiring on them?

The eventual nominee will have even worse done to them than has been & is being done to Hillary? That's not possible. The eventual nominee won't be asked "diamonds or pearls?" The nominee won't be judged on their so-called cackle, their suits & ability to age without grievously offending everyone. Any production of their office records (or curious lack thereof) won't be given a second thought. The nominee won't laughingly & with impunity be called a bitch/dick. Unless the nominee is Hillary.....in which case, they'll just continue doing what they've been doing to her which is not even remotely close to "journalism." If they think they're doing a favor for their pick(s) by targeting only Hillary, they're sadly mistaken. Aren't they supposed to be professional journalists reporting the facts so we can decide who to vote for?

Umm, white people?

Glenn Greenwald has a great post on the media coverage (or lack there of) during this election campaign. It is well worth reading it in full!

Excerpts:

Media hostility toward anti-establishment candidates

(Updated below - Update II - Update III - Update IV - Update V)

Digby writes that the media is not merely obsessed with dreary "horse-race" coverage, but that their coverage even in that regard is profoundly flawed. In particular, she notes that two of the most significant "horse-race" political phenomena of the year -- the extraordinary fundraising by the Ron Paul campaign and the massive popularity of Mike Huckabee's candidacy among Republican voters -- are receiving scant attention, at least scant analytical attention, from our political press.

There is no question that the media has paid far less attention to Ron Paul and Mike Huckabee than the respective successes of their campaigns merit. To that list, though, I would add a third candidacy that has received far less media attention than it merits by all objective metrics (polls, stature and money): the John Edwards campaign. In 2004, Edwards was the party's Vice Presidential nominee, came closer than anyone else to beating Kerry, and has continuously been very near the top of Iowa's polls. Yet the media has all but ignored him -- it's Clinton v. Obama in their World -- except to mock him on the pettiest of grounds, from his hair to his house.

SNIP!

It is very striking how little Edwards' substantive critique of our political system has penetrated into the national discourse. That's because the centerpiece of his campaign is a critique that is a full frontal assault on our political establishment. His argument is not merely that the political system needs reform, but that it is corrupt at its core -- "rigged" in favor of large corporate interests and their lobbyists, who literally write our laws and control the Congress. Anyone paying even casual attention to the extraordinary bipartisan effort on behalf of telecom immunity, and so many other issues driven almost exclusively by lobbyists, cannot reasonably dispute this critique.

Yet because that argument indicts the same Beltway culture of which our political journalists are an integral part, and further attacks the system's power brokers who are the friends, sources, and peers of those journalists, they instinctively react with confusion, scorn and hostility towards Edwards' campaign. They condescendingly dismiss it as manipulative populist swill, or cynically assume that it's just a ploy to distinguish himself by "moving left." In the eyes of our Beltawy press, the idea that our political system is "rigged" or corrupt must be anything other than true or sincerely held.

SNIP!

The most recent manifestation came in the form of Harvard's Center for Public Leadership National Leadership Index. The ongoing survey included interviews with 1,207 adults nationwide and focused mostly on leadership issues, but also asked people their impression of the media, and specifically, how the media is covering the campaign. The results?

[T]he press receives the lowest ratings of all. This is troubling, because democracies rely on a vibrant, probing, and trusted press. This year, we dig more deeply into the public's views on news media election coverage. The key finding: Americans' lack of confidence in the press stems from deep unease about bias and editorial content.

According to the survey:

* 88 percent agree that the news media focuses too much on trivial rather than important issues

* 92 percent say that it is important that the news media provide information on candidates' specific policy plans, but 61 percent believe that the news media is not providing enough coverage of policy plans

* 67 percent say that coverage of embarrassing incidents or mistakes that make a candidate look bad is not important, but 68 percent say the news media is providing too much coverage of embarrassing incidents and mistakes

The conclusion was painfully obvious: Citizens claimed they were getting "exactly the type of campaign coverage that they want the least," according to the report. [Emphasis added.]

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2007/12/19/establishment_candidat...

Get these bastards off our air waves.

The MSM is a disgrace. I am sick and tired of seeing HC and Obama and no one else. Who anointed them, anyway. The MSM, that's who. Those with REAL accomplishments, like Dodd, Biden and Kucinich and rarely mentioned. What's with that?