Blog posts by category: Dumbed down media
Category: Dumbed down media
Posted by Libby Spencer on Wed, Nov 4, 2009 at 5:30 PMZombie Lies - an ongoing series (UPDATED)
It's been a while since I've done a zombie lie post, and once again Fox "News" provides the fodder. As the Christian Science Monitor reports:
Speaking on the morning broadcast (see video at the link), Fox News host Martha MacCallum reported that President Obama opted to watch an HBO documentary about his presidential campaign instead of last night's election results. She said:
"Robert Gibbs, the press secretary, has been speaking with some reporters and he was asked, 'So why didn't the president watch last night?'"
"And Robert Gibbs said, 'Well, he was actually watching, you know, the HBO special about his year-long campaign and how it all went.' So he was watching that last night."
The problem with that? It's not true.
This false "report" was of course picked up immediately by every far right extremist outlet from Townhall to Newsbusters and various secondary bloggers. As CSM points out, even if they issue corrections now, the zombie lie is already stalking the internets and will never die. This is why we say that Fox is not a real news organization.
And by the way, for anyone who wants to accuse President Obama of being partisan, Mark Knoller tells me that he phoned the GOP gubernatorial winners Chris Christie, Bob McDonnell and the NY-23 winner Bill Owens to offer his congratulations.
Update: Fox did issue a correction later in the day. Major Garrett said he "misheard" Gibbs at the presser so just add this to the long list of Fox "mistakes." Funny how all their errors seem to be at the expense of Democrats.
Category: Dumbed down media
Posted by Libby Spencer on Fri, Oct 23, 2009 at 6:48 PMWhy it's important to call out Fox
I don't want to spend a lot more time on this silly kerfluffle over the White House and Fox but there are a couple of more good points to be made. Jamison Foser notes the Nixon comparisons are a few years too late. The analogy is much more appropriate to how the Bush White House illegally spied on Americans from Quakers to vegans and also journalists, going as far as tapping unfriendly reporter's phones. He also reminds us that Nixon contemplated having Jack Anderson murdered.
Meanwhile, Dan Froomkin has much more on the dispute between the Bush White House and NBC, including transcripts of the coverage that Bush was angry about. The big difference between what Bush did and Obama's mild criticism of Fox is that Bush was going after NBC for telling the truth, while Obama is going after Fox for repeatedly and obviously lying. But the most important point Dan makes about the misguided defense of Fox among the other reporters is this:
Allowing that kind of conduct to be called "news" does real news a tremendous disservice. And for those trying to restore a more reality-based political debate, calling Fox News out is a crucial step in counteracting or containing its noxious effect on the political climate.
In other words, we're not going to be able to have a reasoned debate on the merits of very important issues as long as one side is so deeply rooted in dishonesty.
Category: Dumbed down media
Posted by Mako Yamakura on Sun, Oct 11, 2009 at 5:39 PMGladney, Day 85 and counting.
An interesting story in a blog on an entertainment paper, which puts more questions before the facts we may or may not know about St. Louis. It's been almost 3 months without a single charge when we "know" four people beat a defenseless man on the ground, kicking him in the head, right? That's the fact?
No argument about the SEIU not being the greatest organization, but they're not thugs.
From the article:
"Ironically," adds King, "those yellow ["Dont Tread On Me"] flags the people wave so proudly--when we opened up those boxes, we had to sit there and remove all the 'Made in China' stickers from them. It took hours."
Wake Up America. Mako out.
Category: Dumbed down media
Posted by Libby Spencer on Thu, Sep 17, 2009 at 2:18 PMDancing with the Czars
If you watched the video I posted yesterday, you would have seen that quite a few of the 912 protesters are very concerned about Obama's "czars." And I have to give Glenn Beck some credit here. He may not be able to count protesters very well, but he seems to have the number of czars right.
Oh wait, he's talking about the Bush administration Czars, isn't he? Yes, Bush had more "Czars" than Obama has now and in fact, the label goes back to the early 80s. If you google Drug Czar John Walters, who was Bush's man, you get 297,000 hits. And of course, we all remember the GOP's outrage when Negroponte was declared Intelligence Czar and the media called Rove, Bush's Domestic Policy Czar. Those were the good times, eh?
The fact is, there isn't even an official government title called Czar of anything. This is mainly an invention of the media who found it easier to say "X czar" than "Presidential Advisor on X Policy." In effect, these "czars" don't have any special powers of governance, they merely offer advice.
I seem to remember the Bush administration excusing itself from all sorts of oversight under the premise that The President is entitled to get advice under "executive privilege" without disclosing it at all so the advisors would feel free to be candid. Shouldn't Obama be afforded the same privilege, or does that only apply to Republican presidents? In any event, I don't recall any outrage over Bush's Czars, and GOP Rep. Darrell Issa recently admited on Fox News that they didn't complain at the time.
Oh you didn't hear that part of the interview? Maybe it's because Fox edited it out of the footage prior to rebroadcasting it for the rest of the day. As I've said repeatedly, I'm all for legitimate dissent, whether or not it agrees with my point of view. But for crying out loud, can we stick to arguing about real things instead of hysterical " fake dangers" trumped up by our tabloid media, who use them simply to capture viewers?
Category: Dumbed down media
Posted by Libby Spencer on Tue, Aug 25, 2009 at 1:46 PMZombie lies about health insurance reform
There is really no nice way to say this. Fox "News" is lying to you. Repeatedly. Day after day. And here's the latest example. People, there is not a VA "death book."
If you can't see the video, Hannity started it with some "creative" editing and his fellow Fox bobbleheads have been promoting this lie heavily. They're claiming the VA is pushing veterans into suicide. This so-called "death book" is a pamphlet that describes "all" the end of life choices, including using every heroic measure to stay alive. It was created by the Bush administration, who were still using it as lately as December 2008. And it is not required to be used. The guidelines clearly say any similar material may be used in counseling. Interestingly one of its biggest critics on Fox, is selling his own version of the pamphlet on the internet. Can you say "self-interested pandering?" I knew you could.
Bottom line. End of life counseling is a good thing. Everyone should consider ahead of time how they want these issues resolved. And the biggest thing pushing veterans into suicide are the demons in their heads they brought home after repeated tours in Iraq, that were assigned at such frequent intervals that no human being should have to endure.
Category: Dumbed down media
Posted by Mako Yamakura on Sat, Aug 22, 2009 at 3:50 AMScaring a Town (Literally) to Death.
Standish, Michigan is not big. In fact, had I not been wandering around Saginaw Bay, I likely would never had come across its quiet elegance.
Apparently, Standish is now a center of "heated" debate, that when Gittmo closes, the leftover inmates of the USMC base will be addressed 48658.
The WaPo puts in their observations of the debate between Rep. Pete Hoekstra and apparently the fear of invasion and jailbreaks that obviously reek of racism, to be honest.
Not to fault those who really don't have the whole picture, but to imagine terrorists in a local maximum security prison is one thing, but bombings and terrorism around them?
Sad.
I've posted a bit on Florence ADX, the "SuperMax" of prisons, and the advantages it provides a town nearby where I myself used to live. It is home to likely the worst possible bunch of humans in existence today. But yet, no one stops by to bomb them, nor do they threaten anyone, unless of course, it's a movie script, and something that is obviously being sold hand-over-foot to the normal residents of Standish.
The idea here is that folks are scared of something that they've been taught, even indoctrinated, to fear without question.
Rep. Hoekstra's arguments, unfortunately, have really no basis of fact or precedent, but don't let me tell you that. Just take his arguments from his mouth, heck, let's let Boehner do it himself.
"The world did not suddenly become safe in January 2009. There are still terrorists around the world who are committed to killing Americans and destroying our way of life. A number of those terrorists are being held at the prison in Guantanamo Bay right now. If the Administration is allowed to proceed, they won't be there for long. In fact, they may be right here, in the United States."
Here's the irony.
A list of prisoners at ADX Florence.
I would suggest anyone who does read this blog from Standish, and is obviously and agreeably worried about terrorists in the US, to take a gander at that massive list that comprises Terror 101 in Colorado, just a few miles out from Canon City and Royal Gorge, literally the greatest place to enjoy the Rockies.
I mean, look at one of the most influential terrorists at ADX Florence, Rahmzi Yousif. Guess who his uncle is...Oh yeah, Khalid Sheik Mohammed.
If anything but hypocritical and fearmongering, the second question for Standish is the lack of state funds to continue operation of their own maximum security facility.
I myself did not pick up on this huge implication for Standish, but it was likely, considering the necessary funds for prisons were being cut.
And for Hoekstra, who apparently represents these fine people, a state of fear instead of real answers. Look folks, both sides of the aisle are really failing here.
From the article: "Moran said closure of the Standish prison on M-61 will deal a heavy blow the city's budget, mostly in the form of lost water and sewer revenues, and it will have a devastating impact on the Standish economy."
For a town the size of Standish, that prison is industry. Families depend on it.
So a closure, while necessitated by budget cuts, could be saved by housing special inmates who likely are there for life.
Is that worth the consequence of apparently, people from Dearborn invading Standish?
Is that the only "fact" that Hoekstra has to defend his fearmongering position?
Not only is this entire debacle a sad commentary on race, it's also this apparent failure of faith in folks who operate prisons.
Let's be honest, Rep. Pete Hoekstra thinks that terrorists can break out of prisons like supermen, because he's the one that elevated them to that insipid position. And I can't blame those who have only heard this nonsense, because they're honestly scared and need more info on the topic. I'd actually go further on a limb, and state that Rep. Hoekstra doesn't care if Standish survives, so long as he gets his state and national coverage for 2010.
Terrorists have been well-kept in serious lockdown in the United States for decades. In fact, the influx of money and support for those who truly act patriotic, and sacrifice themselves for the good of a nation, is astounding and well-rewarded.
Standish may literally be scared to death. Irony, it's their own US Rep. that's doing it. Remember that. Mako out.
Category: Dumbed down media
Posted by Libby Spencer on Fri, Aug 21, 2009 at 3:59 PMThe unbearable pointlessness of polls
Long time readers know I don't much trust in polls. A year ago, the pollsters were telling us that Hillary Clinton and the PUMAs were going to revolt and tear the Democratic National Convention apart. Didn't happen. Polling almost right up to election day was predicting that Obama was going to lose. Wasn't even close. The thing is any poll can be skewed by the wording of the question. A good illustration of that is in this clip from NBC's Today show, narrated by Chuck Todd.
So you see here that people were against the bill based on false information but when they read what is actually in it, 53% support the reform bill and only 43% oppose it. Which pretty much reflects the percentages of diehard supporters and opposers of President Obama in general. And probably the most important point in the poll, almost everyone agrees some kind of reform is necessary. Which the media glances over, when in fact what we desperately need is to come to a national consensus on what kind of reform is needed.
A couple of days ago, yet another poll by SurveyUSA put "support for a public option at a robust 77 percent, one percentage point higher than where it stood in June." However, I'm sure if you look around, it won't take long to find one that supports your point of view, whatever it is.
The point being, the media spends way too much time obsessing about opinions, both in polls and in their programming and far too little time actually doing their job, which is supposed to be informing the public about the facts. Of course, outrageous lies delivered with passion, raise ratings. Those boring old wonky facts, not so much. Just another reason we need to deconsolidate the media conglomerates.
Category: Dumbed down media
Posted by Libby Spencer on Sun, Aug 2, 2009 at 1:26 PMRaving for ratings
Frank Rich has an op-ed today that mainly looks at the connection between racism, ODS (Obama Derangement Syndrome) and the anger of the privileged white class over their diminishing status as the majority demographic in this country. But the real money graf on the media's abject failure to inform is this one:
You can't blame Obama if he's perplexed about the recent events. He answers a single, legitimate race-based question at the end of a news conference and is roundly condemned for "stepping on his own message" about health care. It was the noisiest sector of the news media that did much of the stepping. "Health care is bad for ratings," explained one cable anchor, Dylan Ratigan of MSNBC, with refreshing public candor. What a relief, then, to drop dreary debates about the public option and declare a national conversation about black-white fisticuffs. Especially when this particular incident is truly small beer next to the far more traumatic national sea change on race that will keep sowing conflict and anger long after Henry Louis Gates Jr. finishes his proposed documentary on racial profiling.
As Rich points out, "the only crime Obama committed at his news conference was honesty" but the media played it as a hate crime against the "oppressed white man" because race wars raise ratings. Meanwhile, most of America doesn't have a clue about what health insurance reforms are really being proposed, something that will affect themselves and generations to come, because policy is just too boring. Better for the bottom line to air "horserace" pieces about the fight between the parties than the actual specifics of the bill.
Seems to me the real crime here is media's abuse of freedom of the press.
Category: Dumbed down media
Posted by Libby Spencer on Thu, Jul 9, 2009 at 3:21 PMTabloid tricks
It used to be that only cheesy tabloids like The Enquirer, and its many defunct imitators, would put up sensational headlines to fool readers, only to have some ridiculously false or ho-hum article underneath it. Now it's standard practice for nearly all the major outlets in their ceaseless attempt to grab traffic from the internet. For instance USA Today runs this five alarm headline this morning. Billions in aid go to areas that backed Obama in '08.
It's not that this isn't true. Indeed, "872 counties that supported Obama have received, on average, about $69 per person, while the 2,234 that supported McCain received about $34." That's about 2/3 of the money. But the implication that it's some kind of political payoff is false, as the article makes clear, if you read it to the end. This has been happening long before the stimulus bill was passed. In fact, "from 2005 through 2007 counties that supported Obama 'collected about 50% more government aid than those that supported McCain.'" This, of course, was during the Bush regime, while the GOP still controlled the Congress.
In other words, the distribution formula may well have a political basis, but it has been in place for a very long time and has nothing to do with the Obama administration. Unfortunately, the tabloid gimmick probably worked. I'd bet USA Today got a lot of hits from it, so I doubt we'll see the end of this sort of trickery soon.
Category: Dumbed down media
Posted by Libby Spencer on Tue, Jul 7, 2009 at 6:10 PMBoehner and Wallace blow it on Fox
It's been a while since I did an edition of zombie lies. Now to be fair, maybe John Boehner really is so uniformed that he doesn't even know what's going on his own state. But even if that's true, when he told Mike Wallace on Fox News Sunday that there wasn't a single stimulus-funded road contract in Ohio, that was a lie. In fact the "Ohio Department of Transportation has OK'd 52 stimulus-funded road and bridge projects at a cost of nearly $84 million." And that doesn't include "six more stimulus road projects which will cost about $43 million" that were approved more recently.
I'm not sure what's worse. That Boehner apparently didn't bother to check on the status of the stimulus funded projects before he appeared on the show, or that Wallace was so unprepared that he didn't challenge Boehner's false remark. This is why our citizens are so uninformed. The media is supposed to do the legwork on this kind of research, so working class viewers who don't have time to track down every detail can get the truth. Even if it's an innocent mistake born of pure ignorance, I doubt either Wallace or Boehner will ever correct the record and another zombie lie will suck the life out of any intelligent debate on the issue.
