Did Top Dems Make A Dangerous Right Turn?
Some supporters say Clinton, Obama had nothing to gain by appearing on Fox TV
Presidential candidates rarely turn down a network television interview, especially on a highly rated program. But some prominent liberals are wondering why Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama agreed this week to sit down for interviews on the Fox News Channel, for years the highest-rated cable news network and the bastion of conservative TV news analysis.
The dilemma for the candidates: Is appearing on Fox a smart political move before Democratic primaries in two largely conservative states - Indiana and North Carolina - or not worth the effort to court what could be a small amount of persuadable Republican voters.
“I understand the need to reach out to different audiences,” said Robert Greenwald, the director of “Outfoxed,” a 2004 film that described Fox as a Republican mouthpiece. He also produces an online series of “Fox Attacks” videos that chronicle the network’s coverage of African Americans, Obama and Clinton. “But this is a decision that will have virtually no gain for Democrats.”
MoveOn.org Executive Director Eli Pariser said Wednesday that appearing on Fox helps to “legitimize Fox” as a news source.
“It’s a conduit for right-wing smears,” Pariser said, citing an unsubstantiated Fox report - later debunked by CNN and others - that Obama attended a radical madrassa as a child. Obama’s campaign criticized the charges as “malicious” and “irresponsible.”
Even though the story was debunked, being reported on Fox “allows these stories to get picked up by other mainstream outlets” and enter the national political conversation, Pariser said.
On Wednesday night Clinton appeared for the first time on “The O’Reilly Factor,” hosted by Bill O’Reilly, who has been a longtime critic of Clinton and her husband Bill’s administration - and a nemesis to much of the left.
But Clinton didn’t mention any previous remarks by O’Reilly Wednesday, nor the online petition drive on her campaign’s Web site, where supporters are told that O’Reilly “likes to take a few comments out of context and use them to smear broad groups of grassroots activists.”
Name-dropping Reagan
Instead, sitting face to face with O’Reilly in South Bend, Ind., Wednesday morning, she fielded questions about Obama’s former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, and her tax and energy policies. Clinton parried O’Reilly’s declarative questions (”You’re going to bankrupt the country with Hillcare,” O’Reilly said). She even name-dropped the ultimate conservative icon (”I learned something from Ronald Reagan,” Clinton said, citing a bipartisan commission he agreed to that would study Social Security).
Said Clinton spokesman Isaac Baker after Wednesday’s show aired: “Bill O’Reilly has a big audience, and Sen. Clinton is in the business of reaching out and talking to people even if they don’t agree with her 100 percent of the time.”
Obama’s appearance Sunday on “Fox News Sunday” with Chris Wallace was similarly affable despite the chill between his campaign and the show. After the madrassa report, Fox reporters said they felt the Obama campaign was “freezing” them out.
In March, Wallace began running an on-screen “Obama Watch” graphic - modeled in part on the Fox program “24.” It counted down the days, hours and minutes from the time in 2006 when Obama promised Wallace he would appear on the program.
Obama opened Sunday’s show with a Watch joke. “Well, it takes me about 772 days to prepare for these questions,” he said.
Organizers at MoveOn.org, the 3.2 million-member online liberal hub that endorsed Obama, weren’t so amused. They weren’t just ticked at Obama for appearing, but for not challenging Fox. More than half of the dozen-plus questions in the first segment of Wallace’s interview were based on some sort of racial premise, an attempt to marginalize his candidacy, Obama supporters said.
Neither a representative of Obama’s campaign nor of Fox News would comment for this story.
Liberal activists say that there is little to be gained by appearing on Fox. A study by Democratic pollster Mark Mellman found that 88 percent of Fox News viewers voted for George W. Bush in 2004 over Democratic Sen. John Kerry. (In a 2006 appearance on O’Reilly’s program, Kerry regretted not coming on “The Factor” during the campaign.)
But Sam Rodriguez - the former political director of the California Democratic Party who is unaffiliated with either candidate - says it was strategically smart for both candidates to appear on Fox this week, before the next two primaries.
Reaching conservatives
Indiana is an open primary, where independent and Republican voters can cast ballots for Democrats. And while the university-rich region around Durham and Raleigh is more liberal, Rodriguez said, “Most of North Carolina is full of conservative Democrats. And they watch Fox. Same goes for Indiana.
“They’re talking to conservative Democrats in these states - conservative Democrats who vote.”
While both states “are never in play in the general election” for Democrats, Rodriguez said the appearances may help sway independent-leaning Republicans and make them competitive in the fall. Swaying a few of those voters could also help increase turnout that could help down-ticket Democratic congressional candidates, he said.
Plus, as the primary race has tightened in both states, particularly in Indiana, “Both Clinton and Obama are looking at trying to get every possible marginal advantage,” Rodriguez said.
Mark Jurkowitz, associate director of the Project for Excellence in Journalism, said, “Even if conservatives are more likely to be regular viewers, there are certainly independents and moderates and liberals and Democrats who watch (Fox) and who Democratic candidates would want to reach.
“For obvious reasons, it would make sense for Democrats to develop solid working relationships with Fox reporters and on-air personalities.”
Indeed, toward the end of Clinton’s 20-minute appearance that ran Wednesday - the rest will air on today’s “Factor” - was a line of questioning about how Clinton’s personality compares to Obama’s. There, O’Reilly bonded with his guest.
“You’re a polarizing personality,” O’Reilly said. “You’re like I am and I hate to say that.”
© 2008 The San Francisco Chronicle
The Democrats have been right wing since the days of Jimmy Carter. Back in those days, historian Henry Steele Commager called Carter “the most conservative Democratic President since Grover Cleveland.” Years later, Clinton broke the Cleveland conservative barrier for good, and the party has been just another right wing party ever since. Gore Vidal said it best (this is a paraphrase): “There is only one party in the United States; it is the property party. The party has two right wings, one Republican and one Democrat.”
To make a ‘right turn’, they’d have to have been something other than ‘right’ in the first place.
3 right turns = left turn…two more to go!
I wonder if it would get the Dems’ attention if significant numbers of registered Democrats re-registered as Greens and started talking up Cynthia McKinney? Maybe then they would begin to understand.
How about Michael Moore attacking Nader on Larry King.
What a clown.
Everything Nader said about the candidates was right.
Samson (12:37) has already nailed it; there really isn’t much more to say about this trivial gossip-level article.
The article is intended as entertainment for those nitwits who haven’t yet figured out that the Democrats & the Republicans are partners. Who but an idiot would be saying, “Oh! Mervin! I’m so outraged — our Democrats are appearing on Fox!”
A discussion of the proper relationship between Fox & the Democrats is about as serious & worthy a topic, as a discussion about methods for removing shit stains from your toilet bowl. (In this analogy, the Dems would be the shit stains, & Fox would be the toilet bowl.)
Dems and Repugs are playing a dangerous game with preserving American democracy, and the lives of its citizens. They don’t seem to care that over a million people have lost their lives, including those in the military and all who died on 9/11; that the war is illegal . . . the list of crimes will fill volumes,
and no one is taking steps to hold the criminals accountable and punish them.
It really does seem Dems and Repubs have abandoned democracy in favour of a fascist dictatorship. They seem to forget that if the latter takes hold NOBODY including themselves will be safe.
What a tragedy! Might as well cancel July 4th!
My reading of Obama’s decision to go on with Faux News’ Chris Wallace is that if he either boycotted Murdoch’s network as a propaganda machine, or else went on the air primarily to dump criticism on Faux’s GOP demagoguery, he would be playing into the “cultural elitism” characterature line of attack against his candidacy. Turn your back on Faux, or ridicule their naked pretensions of “fair and balanced” broadcast journalism, and all you do is piss off the entirety of NASCAR America and guarantee that Faux will continually remind their viewers to take offense.
Hillary Clinton’s motivations for palling it up with Bill O’Reilly are easier to read and more straightforward, I think. Her campaign has been openly accepting the GOP cross-over assistance of Rush Limbaugh’s “Operation Chaos” effort to make mischief ever since the Texas and Ohio primaries. She won the formal endorsement of Scaife’s right wing newspaper on the eve of the Pennsylvania primary, and used an earlier press interview with that publication to stoke the fires of the Reverend Wright controversy, pandering squarely to Archie Bunkerville.
Personally, I think progressive candidates should draw a line between appearing on ostensibly “real news” Faux programming, versus pure personality-based partisanship infotainment like Rush, Bill, Hannity, et al. Give the devil his due, and take a pot shot when called for at the interviewer when things stray too far afield from legitimate news reporting.
Bill from Saginaw
Yeah, boy howdy, and if pigs could fly, wow, we’d live in a utopia.
We are now fully living in the movie “Network.” You can no longer tell the difference between game show hosts and politicians — as they slice and dice, chase and race for exposure and sound bites in a country where just about everything is up for sale playing out the worst of “Let’s Make a Deal!” No matter which door we pick, we will all will have to face the spoils for a government gone horribly wrong.
Why is this an issue?
… and more importantly because it is obviously an issue, Democratic pollster Mark Mellman is basically calling for political leaders to stick to their party’s own media pr firm, aka CNN for Dems and Fox for Reps.
Not only is he presupposing both networks are inherently and egregiously engaged in bias journalism and party politics he is suggesting that each party’s constituency should only be allowed to hear their talking points on their media network.
-James
http://thepoliticus.org
In that pis fly utopia, shit would be rained on us from above. Reminds me of how things work in the real world these days.
These are still the people who have done nothing serious to end the war; they’re among the ones who helped walk the economy to the edge of a cliff, giving it a push with a smile and a promise to make things better…when they have more power. They let our country torture people while they sit in back rooms with their staffers, discussing how to appear both tough and reasonable on terrorism, and how to support our troops.
And we’re shocked and awed that they find it important to cajole the NASCAR vote?
A media whore interviewing a political whore who is pimping herself to become a media whore. A circle-jerk if there ever was.
Hoa binh
Fox is not a conservative station. It is a fascist station. There is a difference. CNN is not a “liberal” station . None of the stations are. Fox is the worst of the lot. They should not be given any legitimacy.
Legitimately these stations should be the subject of armed attack in an anti-fascist civil war.
Hillary Clinton has been and continues to be a right wing politician. That anyone thinks otherwise is part of the ongoing indictment of our educational system and the general quality of critical thinking in this country.
Hillary is a candidate of the right-wing platform straight down the line, with the word “Republican” crossed off at the top in Crayola, and the word “Democrat” scribbled next to it with a little blue smiley face inside the “o”.
The idea here, I guess, is that people should be horrified that the Dems would appear on Fox. This presupposes that the Dems are “morally superior” to Fox — basically, the old “lesser evil” argument.
However, this is baloney, because the Dems are not less evil than Fox (ie, “Republicans”). They’re collaborators — like the relationship between the left paw and the right paw of the same monster. Why would anyone be surprised if members of a collaborator party sat down for an interview with the same folks they collaborate with, every other day of the year?
how many dead in Iraq today?
Vampires, cannibals and chid molesters may be a minority population in the United States, but our votes also count. Speaking on behalf of Fetish Prone Citizens for Equal Rights I wish to thank Hillary for reaching out to us this election year and letting us know that she is sympathetic to our issues. We are so tired of public intolerance and saddened that our No Pervert Left Behind initiative has been ignored. It is good to see that the Democrats “big tent” is large enough to embrace Americans in all their diversity, so that now white supremacists and demon worshippers and pit bull breeders and necrophiliacs and drunk drivers and wife beaters and trophy hunters and television hate mongers can all march together toward a future of brotherhood and mutual tolerance and the common goal of someday being rid of black people and Indians and homos and Muslims and Communists. Thanks Bill. Thanks Rush. Thanks Hillary. We’ll remember you on election day.
Garofoli sez: “Fox reporters said they felt the Obama campaign was “freezing” them out.”
In the sentence above, the quotation marks around “freezing” should actually be placed around the word “reporters.”
As to Clinton’s appearance, wouldn’t you expect a major donor and endorser of your campaign (Murdoch) to require a little quid pro quo for his support?
Not sure about Obama’s motivation.
“Bill O’Reilly has a big audience, and Sen. Clinton is in the business of reaching out and talking to people even if they don’t agree with her 100 percent of the time.”
fox entertainment news watchers disagree with clinton 100% of the time. All this does is get out the repug vote. Nothing pisses off repugs more than the mention of the name Clinton.
Tired of playing defense to conservative offensive media? Have a referendum to take back the public airwaves.
“Tired of playing defense to conservative offensive media? Have a referendum to take back the public airwaves.”
Public airwaves? Since when did privately owned FoIS transmitted data paid for by investors constitute a concern for the public?
You can’t just seize fox because the have no clue what the definition of journalistic integrity is. Don’t watch and boycott their sponsors if it bothers you that much. Government regulation is very rarely the solution.
-James
www.thePoliticus.org
What appears leftist to Americans inside the USA, looks far more like Nazi fascism to everyone anywhere else on this planet.
Brainwashed slaves constantly proclaiming the freedom that only exists in their imaginations, is how Americans appear from where I stand.
The political spectrum in the USA today spans all the way from conservative to KKK Nazi fascism. Conservative is as left wing as it ever gets.
I bet even Hitler would have been de-Nazified by the Americans if they had got to him before he died.
How do you say “good ol boy” in German?
G W Bush has successfully completed the fascist takeover of the US Government initiated by his grandfather in 1942.
Henry Ford, America’s number one Nazi, would be proud of the lot of them.
Wow, a ringing endorsement from Bill O’Reilly! That definitely ought to seal the nomination (for Vice-President on a Republican ticket)! Well, I guess Johnny Bomb Bomb can discard his list.
I am completely sick and tired of a President who refuses to talk with those he/she has disagreements with, and the appearence on Fox of Senator Clinton should show that she can handle herself in an adversarial situation with great aplomb. I did not see the Obama/Wallace show and cannot speak to how Senator Obama handled himself there but I would bet he did well.
Those like Mr. Pariser seem to echo the Bush philosophy of ignoring far too many. I am no fan of MoveOn, think the three principles political dilletantes, bored millionares who manage little of lasting import. But i certainly believe that the very best way to change peoples minds and shatter myths is by speaking directly to the problems and to those who need their perceptions altered. Far too many here fail utterly to understand the political process and how one changes minds and directions.
What more proof do liberals and progressives need? There is but one Party with two heads. Nader is right. There is little or no difference between the Republican and Democratic parties, both corporate parties that as Nader puts it, occupy Washington D.C.
There’s only one dance at the Democratic party and it’s ‘take a step to the right, take a step to the right…’
JEFFREY COURION: So well put.
VOXCLAMANTIS: It’s always a treat when you wax lyrical.
There is a truth to the “As above, so below” equation that most are not privy to. It is this: Time comes in flavors. It’s qualitative. Some would say the historical pendulum drifts both to the left and right. As to why the conservative nexus has taken such a big bite out of the somewhat once good ‘ole American apple pie can be explained by the astrological fact that EVERY one of the 5 outer planets, (their orbits range from 12 years to 248) have passed through Capricorn in the past 30 years. Currently, the astrological symbol for complete breakdown leading to potential renewal/rebirth/regeneration is passing through Capricorn.
There are 3 signs in each of the 4 elements. Earth tends to be the most conservative (Taurus, Virgo, Capricorn). If you are reading this and beg to differ, understand that your sun sign alone does not convey the totality of the complexity of who you are. Just as the characters in ancient Greek drama appealed to the CHORUS of the heavens, the imprint of this plurality of voices, or archetypal aspects of the self functions (in healthy people) as a Gestalt.
With respect to the expression of the 3 signs within any given element, they tend to express incrementally as is the case witnessed with music, as per its octaves. Capricorn, the highest embodiment of earth, represents status. A nation like India, that began under the sign of Capricorn, placed (and still does) enormous emphasis on status down to the point of a caste system. As currently wealth aggregates upwards and here in this intellectual clime as we witness the assembling of greater and greater powers of state that answer only to their elite masters, we realize that the egalitarian (circle) basis for democratic representation is being eclipsed by a top-down societal order where enormous punitive measures accrue to any who might disagree.
The point of the above is that factors akin to celestial clockworks have granted conservatives favor in the past 30 or so years… but the tide WILL turn. Unfortunately, since what happens above does not occur in a vacuum, the many potentially horrific challenges that BAD decisions (selfish, lacking vision, lacking humanity, etc) have set into motion cannot be avoided. On the plus side, necessity ever and always will act as the Mother of invention… be prepared to be surprised. Our hearts may break with what we see, but like the allegorical crack of the cosmic egg, whatever breaks gives rise to that which is ready to break through.
I was suspicious when I heard Hillary being interviewed by O’reily. I thought, what’s up with this? Soft ball questions being lobbed by a supposed enemy? Hillary bravely standing her ground against the sick pervert, O’reilly. It don’t pass the smell test, just another lame attempt steer the masses is the desired direction.
I didn’t hear about the Obama interview, but i find the news of it disturbing. If Obama is sold out, we are screwed. He was the only hope we had.
I suppose that if the Rev. wright got a job as an interviewer on Fox then Clinton and Obama would stop talking to the station?
“How do you explain your relationship with Bill O’Reilly? Do you denounce what Fox News has said?”
locust,
Great Post! LOL! I suppose they start on the left side of the room and work their way to the endless right. I hope the refreshment stand is not in the way.
pee eye double-ess on FOX. Don’t watch it, don’t appear on it, and if there’s a list of their advertisers somewhere, read it and buy none of it. Domestic America’s strongest play has always been economic boycott. Let’s play it again for Uncle Sam.
Voxclamantis: Maybe the most hilarious post I ever read. I hope you don’t mind that I copied and sent to friends.
Yes. . . why would any of the candidates appear on Faux News — and why would anyone be watching Faux News?
Btw, the O’Reilly audience is 70 year olds.
To since1492 (May 1st at 2:30 pm), who wrote:
A media whore interviewing a political whore who is pimping herself to become a media whore. A circle-jerk if there ever was.
Thank you. I hadn’t laughed out loud all day until I read your comment.
Fox news? An oxymoron if ever there was one.
After reading through all of these posts I’ve got my doubts anybody can relate to this, but throughout this campaign the one thing that’s stood out to me like no other has been how HARD it has been to find news media coverage about Hillary Clinton that isn’t anti-Hillary or at least, asks her some intelligent questions. Maybe you liked the debates, personally the questions most of the time just weren’t that good; I just plain _LIKE_ to see a candidate interviewed one-on-one from time to time.
I watch FOX noise as little as possible, meaning, never; but the snippets of this interview I watched online I thought were fascinating. Hillary’s been slammed so hard by media for so long during this campaign (anyone see the photo of Hillary on CNN’s home page today, said “Clinton vs. the coffeemaker”) (lame), that I suspect she just held her nose and figured, “to heck with it, maybe I can win over a few undecided’s.”
In short, I may have mixed feelings about seeing Hillary appear on FOX Noise but hey, on the other hand, at least I got to hear her answer a lot of tough questions and it made me feel GOOD to hear her stand her ground about increasing taxes of rich guys like “BillO.” It will probably be the first (& last) time we will ever see a Clinton appear on FOX.
With such “canned” ideas FOX would have a field day with it.
On the other hand if they used the opportunity to shock the fascist watchers of FOX with some sobering truth it might of been worth appearing on FAUX.
Siouxrose - A very evocative post. I don’t know much about astrology, but somebody on CommonDreams posted a reference or link to an article by Benjamin Lee Whorf (1897-1941) called “The Relation of Habitual Thought and Behavior to Language.” Was it you? The article was 20 pages long, and daunting for me, having only a moderate interest in linguistics. Whorf worked for the Hartford Fire Insurance Company, and became an authority on Mayan and Aztec civilizations and American Indian languages, notably Hopi. He contrasted the fundamental differences between the concepts of space, time, form and matter in European vs Native American cultures.
Westerners think of time in spatial pictures, so that it can be a thing and therefore also be a commodity. The Hopi do not think of it that way at all, and their language does not have a natural way to express that view, or any view which spatializes time - as per: I will sell you a box of peanuts and an hour of my time. Hopi time is a “latering” of what already is, so that for the Hopi happenings do not pass away in time or repeat in time, but rather accumulate and gather energy, richness, vitality and creative viability. Flavor, if you will. For the Hopi, retold stories have great power because of this, just as karma has the power of inevitability for Eastern language and thought. The divergence between the self definition, cultural mission and historical impact of the people of these two linguistic persuasions has been very dramatic. For one, stewardship, for the other, empire.
Although I believe in them, I am a little suspicious of cracking cosmic eggs. Pere Teillard de Chardin loved the trenches of WWI because he believed that the fire and horror of it was the appearance of the breaking through of the next cosmic event, the reign of Christ. As it turned out, it was just another chlorine leak in mankind’s perennial historical routine. Enough to break your heart right there.
Sorry to get off topic. It’s an old thread.
I’m now on a Common Dreams watch list, so I can’t relate to the premise of ‘bad media’ as my comments get moderated on this ‘liberal forum’!
Common Dreams: Please tell us what the forbidden words are and I promise not to use them!
It’s late in the thread, but Military or Market-Driven Empire Building: 1950-2008 must be read.
Many moons ago, I was a fledgling reporter for a radio station in a mid-sized U.S. city… eventually working my way up to the position of TV anchorman in one of the top 20 markets in the nation.
The entire time I worked the news desk, I prided myself in providing BOTH sides of a story, and making sure that the IMPORTANT stories took the lead over “fluff” like “which Hollywood star was picked up for DUI last night.”
Year after year I have become more and more alarmed by the systematic destruction of real NEWS… because without REAL news, we are destined to collapse as a free nation.
The purpose of REAL news is to inform the public regarding what is going on in the world, so the public can make informed decisions regarding their government, economic and social structure… and the so-called “mainstream news” today is failing miserably on that score!
The ONLY solution to the problem is for people to organize, and then loudly boycott sponsors of these so-called “news entities”.
As long as it is profitable for Fox News, Rush Limbaugh or Bill O’Reilly to disseminate their lies they will continue. If it no longer pays to FEED the propaganda machine, the machine will corrode and die under it’s own weight.
I propose that we circulate a LIST the sponsors of the worst offenders, so that the enlightened people in this forum will better know the enemies of truth and justice.
We need to spread a list of ADVERTISING SPONSORS that PAY for the continuing propaganda and celebrity fluff that is poisoning and/or diluting our news media… and we need to actively and effectively BOYCOTT EVERYONE ON THE LIST… including the Pentagon.
Hellary has finally “found herself” at Faux News. MooveOn wants more “liberal theater” from O’Bama, not truth.
For some weird reason, there seems to be a real market for hate, it probably is the chief product that Fox sells.
Read Adolph Reed.
I listened to Barack Obama and his wife being interviewed by Meredith Viera last night on Countdown! By the time it was over I was furious! It was one of the obnoxious interviews I have seen recently. The type of questions she asked were designed to trip him up! She played the ‘Wright’ card to the hilt. Only showing how utterly petty the MSM has become. They can’t even talk about real issues anymore just garbage like Wright! It was sickening to watch. It might not have been quite so bad if I had ever heard of her doing the same to John McCain! Asking him hard questions about his associations with Reverand Hagee and Rod Parsley two hate mongers from the Fundamentalist Christian corps. These people’s views are more frightening than Wrights are! But, I haven’t! It just simply reaffirms my belief that there is nothing constructive that can be found on main stream news programs anymore. Which is why I stopped listening to them years ago. So you can bet that neither candidate will come out the winner in this slug fest. Why anyone bothers with these hate filled people is beyond me????
“Did Top Dems make a dangerous right turn?”
No they just exposed that there is no difference between “the left”and “the right” for umpteenth million time.
Their all whores folks.
Sorry to shock you ,but if the people continue to play their deadly right /left game your chains will only tighten.
Provoice - I would certainly agree with your term “fluff media”, as this form of news media is becoming ever more prevalent in the UK as well. My wife has become increasingly frustrated at my ranting at the television. I crave intelligent programming, incisive documentary, and most importantly, news reports, which are not 90% celebrity gossip, worthless chit chat between news readers or self congratulatory features about their own entertainment programmes.
I think, that because of the way news has been trivialised, the general populace are not aware of the horrors which the rest of the World face on a daily basis.
Wolves :
http://www.wolvesbook.com/
VOXCLAMANTIS: I much appreciate your response, always layering these discussions with evocative reflections. I would give credence to the Hopi view for several reasons, one being, the witness of tree rings. They are used to analyze past weather patterns. In a sense the TREE tells the story of time through its rings. That leads me to a second point, that time is based on our earth circling. All the planets, like a fabulous set of intertwined clockworks, revolve.
I have a line in a children’s book that I believe constitutes a signature lifework (it’s an allegory of the Zodiac, a way to introduce to children a basis for identity transcendent of the authoritarian/commercialized “one size fits all” model) and in it I relate that a great many grand things are round… the shape of a nest, a woman’s breast, the life-giving womb, the caterpilla’s cocoon-like tomb, etc.
Our intellectual conceit in this era is based on the presumption that mankind has progressed, that science has solved a great many things. Some of that is true, but it’s always dangerous when arrogance bordering on hubris sets in. In Deepak Chopra’s book, “Merlin,” he relates that time repeats, but each time a new nuance crops up. That reminds me of the thesis related in the brilliant film series, “The Matrix.”
One of the most powerful things I’ve ever read that helped shift my perception away from the dogmatism of Western academic training were the books channeled by Jane Roberts, offering the voice of SETH. One of the points that stands out was when Seth explained that mankind was not always so locked into body, gross materiality, as is the case now. Prior generations would look upon an object and see it as an extension of themselves. Thus there was no vocabulary separating the viewer from the object being viewed.
Although the National Geographic story some years back on the gentle tribe in Mindanao, the Tasady, I believe was discredited (?), there, too, similar insights were revealed. For instance among members of this tribe there were no words to characterize violence or competition.
I’ve also read that Carlos Casteneda’s work was discredited, but I feel that it was probably a source in the league with “Fox news” who attempted to do so. I can’t imagine an imagination capable of embracing the sorcerer’s world to the extent Casteneda did, without some actual exposures. I’ve participated in some rituals with shaman and medicine men and what the Hispanics call Santeros/Espiritistas and truly when you see the world transformed before your eyes you recognize the malleability of the senses. As the Eastern mystics properly note, this physical plane is the world of illusion, Maya.
Or as our beloved Shakespeare noted, “There are more things in heaven and earth than dreamt of in your philosophy, Horatio.” Indeed! I’m glad that you and I are open-minded enough to recognize that there are yet to be discovered knowable unknowns! What is life without a passionate engagement of the quest to uncover mystery!
The candidates (and Democrats generally) should treat FOX NEWS as what it is: a propaganda tool no better than PRAVDA was in the Soviet Union. This is no hyperbole, but a fact. They should just say bluntly that what FOX puts out is not journalism, period. Just like George W. Bush and Dick Cheney should be shunned as nonpersons and never, ever approached by any Democratic President once they leave office. No photo ops, nothing.
I think the point here is that your valiant “progressive ” candidates are pandering to the likes of Bill’o and The View while you all ponder on which savior will sweep you from the wrath of the manchorian candidate.
excuse the spelling it’s friday evening and I’m not looking it up.
“Reverend Wright” is the media strategy for swiftboating Obama. And yet they somehow manage to do that without looking at what Reverend Wright actually says. They cant have the public reading what he actually said, because at least some of that might just start to make sense. Instead, they have to keep focusing on just a few words, and continuing to use them to smear Obama. While at the same time, they manage the pretense of fairness and objectivity. Our media is one big propaganda machine.
This nonesense about FOX NEWS is really pathetic and cowardly. Yes, foxnews is neocon. EVERYONE KNOWS THIS! So why does it matter if Obama or Clinton go on? Why not try and reach out to the Foxnews viewing audience, that’s exactly what they should be doing!
Simply going on a network doesn’t mean you agree with the views of said network. Grow up already.