Friday, February 12, 2010

Illiberal Media


This article makes an excellent -- if obvious -- point. Here's a portion:

What if, in 2006, at Yearly Kos, the first annual convention of liberal bloggers and their readers, organizers shelled out $100,000 for former Vice President Al Gore to address attendees? And what if the same organizers booked as an opening-night speaker a fringe, radical-left conspiracy theorist who'd spent the previous year pushing the thoroughly debunked claim that some Bush White administration insiders played a role in, and even planned, the 9-11 attacks. What if the speaker (also proudly anti-Semitic) received a standing ovation from the liberal Yearly Kos crowd?

Given that backdrop, and given the fact that the 9-11 Truther nut had for weeks bragged about his chance to share the stage with Gore, do you think the press would have demanded that Gore justify his association with a hateful conference that embraced a 9-11 Truther? Do you think pundits would have universally mocked and ridiculed Gore's judgment while condemning the Yearly Kos convention as being a hothouse of left-wing hate? Do you think Gore's appearance would have become a thing?


(In case you don't feel like reading the linked article, its point is the ways in which the media failed to cover the recent Tea Party Convention.)

The media have become like the Congressional Democrats. They've allowed a false narrative to drive debate and are either unable (in the case of the Ds) or unwilling (in the case of our vaunted media, those defenders of truth and balance) to set it right. In each case, they've let dishonest characterizations stand unchallenged. When it's in Congress, we get paralysis. When it's the media, that let themselves be talked into no longer doing their jobs, lest they be decried as "liberal" (because, to question and to demand facts, to call out liars is, y'know, elitist and liberal; and gods help us if reporters get all truthy on us), we get teabags.

[While we're at it, I wonder when some media person will ask Kit Bond or any of the other RWS™ types who are hyperventilating about trying terrorists in US courts, under US law, about this case.] [On the other hand, why bother: there are already so many examples of the stupidity of the argument that you'd think it would have died by now. But not here. Not as long as Foxbaggers are around and the rest of the media are AWOL.]


6 comments:

  1. Sid, I am still reading your rants. The Unworkable post was excellent. So good that I decided to reference it for a post on SERMO...There is a discussion ongoing about D4PC (Doctors for Patient Care) www.doctors4patientcare.org

    Gary L

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  2. Thanks, Gary. Glad to know you're still lurking.

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  3. You Tell em Sid!!! The Marxist Stream Media's not Marxist enough..
    Seriously, I tuned in one of the Presidents Pressers by accident, thought it was the Gay Porn Network for all the Fellatio that was happenin..And how much FOX News DO you watch every day??? Sounds like Some Retired Surgeon needs an "Intervention"...or get someone with Techno Skills to go into the V Chip and block it...
    I get my News mostly from the Atlanta local Stations, cause I just can't NOT watch a good Apartment Fire, or Courtroom scenes of Orange Jumpsuited thugs bein arranged..If you want real "Fair&Balanced" reportage, try Deutsche Welle, I like the German version, but the English is OK, if a little dull. Sure you might have to listen to 25 minutes about the Mehrwertsteuer, but there Mideast reporting is 1st rate...

    Frank, "the first step is admitting you have a problem", Drackman

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  4. FRank ..you are ...HILARIOUS ..in a sometimes obnoxiously,insightful way and yet endearingly so. :)

    Love the banter between you two! :)

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  5. Did you read Eugene Robinson's column on Sarah Palin at that Tea Party? Calling her out for giving no specifics, just, y'all can trust me 'cause I'm just folksy and all that.

    He countered her masterfully, and then said, There's a label for people who don't want to tell you how they're going to do a job that needs to be done, just trust them--(and then he said, Sarah, you might want to cover your ears here)--it's elitism.

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  6. Guess I missed that one, Alison. I'll dig it up. A novel definition of the word; still, any way of pointing to her emptiness can't be bad.

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