Since I don't own a TV, I don't watch TV "news". So you might say I am a bit out of the loop. I always knew Fox News was a sensationalist heap of crap . . . but I guess I had no idea just how virulent and dangerous it has truly become.
Posted by zmann
Oct 26 2009 - 10:16pm
Check out the Glenn Beck clips from last Friday, he went even more insane than usual. He's the most dangerous one.
Too bad you don't have a TV because in the 21st Century, the Revolution WILL be televised.
Posted by mahannah
Oct 26 2009 - 5:56pm
The music bed is insulting and useless.
Posted by Galenwainwright...
Oct 26 2009 - 6:13pm
Latest from Minitru:
War is Peace. Freedom is Slavery. Fascism is Communism.
It will very entertaining to watch the US implode.
Posted by walt
Oct 27 2009 - 6:33am
Glad that all the suffering, misery and injustice that is and will continue to befall so many millions of average Americans as this nightmare unfolds is so entertaining for you.
Progressives take such offense at being called elitist by the Right wing media. Yet this comment is so shamelessly and unsympathetically elitist in every sense of the term.
I guess you are set financially, have solid health care and have no worries about ending up in a body bag in the Middle East, huh? You're covered. You're OK. Well switch on Fox and watch the show.
There will be no Progressive movement until its members get a grip on reality ... not reality TV, but the day-to-day reality experienced by "them" - the tired, the weak, the hungry, the unhealthy the disenfranchised, etc. You know the cast of millions on your own private TV show.
Posted by xallanmillerx
Oct 26 2009 - 8:19pm
If these guys are the scary right leg of reaction, Obama and the mainstream Democrats are the left leg. Without both legs, reaction would fall. Obama's and the Democrats' capitulation to the health insurance and pharmaceutical industries on single payer, the investment banks on the bailout, big business in general (remember the Employee Free Choice Act and card check and the attack on the UAW?), the militarists and military contractors, etc., clears the ground for the right. Since the Democrats aren't resisting, and in fact are leading the charge on some of these attacks, where are common people in the middle going to go? To the right, that's where! To stop this, and resist, we need an effective grass-roots political movement, a third party independent of the Democrats that effectively fights these interests. Liberals who produce videos like this without criticizing the Democrats are running cover for Obama and the Democrats, who are in turn running cover for investment banking, the health care industry, big business in general, and EFFECTIVELY contributing to the growth of the right. Think about it!
Posted by dumbo
Oct 27 2009 - 2:22am
Maybe you are right ... but: just watch the massive resistance
that Obama is facing for the mini steps is trying to make.
People are really afraid ... otherwise they would not be willing
to buy the shit they are served at Fox and others. Coming up with
spots that present a "fully" progressive agenda as you are asking
for ... would simply not work at all. With spots like the one
here you might have a chance to get some people start thinking.
Just a bit more radical and left ... and you are overboard. 99%
of your target audience would stop watching after 5 seconds.
It aint enough to have a good message. You have to reach people
where they are NOW; and not start where you would like them to be.
Posted by anney
Oct 27 2009 - 3:07am
I disagree strongly, Dumbo.
I don't think Obama is facing "massive resistance" from the people but rather from entrenched political corporatism and its interests, which it will fight WARS to maintain. The majority of people aren't resisting the health care public option, for instance. We aren't supporting the taxpayer bail-out monies being used to line the pockets of the CEOs -- we're very angry about that. We are not supporting Obama's continuation of Bush's torture agenda at all or his continued violations of and contempt for international human rights policies set into place by Bush.
Americans may not agree about the details of how to repair the damage done to America by the Bush administration, but it's ridiculous to say that heading left or going progressive would not work at all. That's false and misleading. Returning America to its Constitutional framework is not a matter of liberalism but rather a necessity if we are to continue as America, and I don't know anyone rational who wants the Constitution overturned and right-wing forces to conquer us all.
We can explore a "left agenda" after we have restored America to its Constitutional foundations, not claim that their restoration is a "move to the left". I don't allow ANYBODY to set the discussion framework on such false and mistaken grounds and am suspicious of anyone who wants to cast the discussion in these terms.
Posted by zmann
Oct 27 2009 - 6:29am
Nicely stated.
Posted by dumbo
Oct 27 2009 - 7:40am
So why dont people stop watching FOX news then?
Why are they buying all the books from the right wing hate preachers?
If the "main stream" is much closer to sanity than "main stream media" ...
why does "main stream media" still sell?
Posted by walt
Oct 27 2009 - 7:27am
First off, I HAVE been thinking about it, for years. And I fear the scenario you describe now more than ever, and for exactly the reasons that this clip implies.
If the two-party system does collapse as you seem to want it to, think of what will happen to us simply because of what you are seeing in this video, the rise of Conservative [sic] or more accurately Fascist media. How can you possibly think that only Progressives and Liberals will split off to form a new alternative “third” party? Once the system is crashed there won’t be three, there will be 30 new parties. Some will be Christian based, some Muslim. Some will be environmentalists, but some will be anti-immigrant. Some will be corporate shills and others flat-out Fascist, that’s really Fascist not what Glen Beck calls Fascist.
What do you think will become of all those militias and tea-baggers, all those Fox News followers, all the Bill Kristol intellectuals and the rabidly high-strung anti-intellectuals in the South? What of all the disaffected and expertly propagandized Americans who take guns to Town Halls and are buying guns in huge numbers now that our Chief Executive is an African-American?
Do you honestly believe that the bright light of wisdom inherent in “your” progressive agenda will suddenly blind them all and they will come around? Or do you think they will coalesce and form into their own Right-wing coalitions, take control of Congress and invade Muslim countries with racist impunity and the full financial support of the Military–Congressional-Industrial Complex? Will they then be strong enough to make common cause with the Pentagon and nuke Iran or China or anyone we’re scared of or pissed off at and … drag us all into Hell?
Or is the Apocalypse what the so-called Left wants as much as the Right does?
There will be no liberating democratic movement in America until moderates get their heads head out of the sand and liberals get their heads head out of their asses. Moderates have to stop fantasizing that the bad stuff will never happen to them and this will all pass and we can soon go back to watching life pass us by on our flat screen TVs. Radical Progressives have to stop believing we can smash the state and form a new progressive utopia without opposition. Pipe dreams all.
I’m offended by the suggestion that this country has gone along for all these hundreds of years with a political leadership that knew nothing and that suddenly WE have all the answers. Whether it’s the self-imagined “Wealth Creators” [sic] otherwise known as Thieves of Wall Street or the Radical Revolutionaries ready to install an elite Vanguard Party to save us all … it’s all just a wagon-load of horse shit.
What the two-party system does is force compromise among competing interests and unite them through common cause. The two party system doesn’t work you say? Then FIX it God Damn it like every generation before us.
Why do you guys think it will be easier to take over the entire system than it would be to take over the Democratic Party? The ones in power don’t work for us? Fire them! And do not elect any more millionaires!
There aren’t enough viable candidates? Then become one. Stop dreaming. Do something. People are dying. And time is running out.
“Democracy is the most chaotic, confusing inefficient … and BEST political system on earth.”
12 Comments so far
Show AllSince I don't own a TV, I don't watch TV "news". So you might say I am a bit out of the loop. I always knew Fox News was a sensationalist heap of crap . . . but I guess I had no idea just how virulent and dangerous it has truly become.
Check out the Glenn Beck clips from last Friday, he went even more insane than usual. He's the most dangerous one.
http://mediamatters.org/search/index?qstring=beck&from=10%2
F23%2F09&to=10%2F24%2F09&tags=&tags=&tags=&tags=&tab=clips
Blah, too long a string, but oh well.
Too bad you don't have a TV because in the 21st Century, the Revolution WILL be televised.
The music bed is insulting and useless.
Latest from Minitru:
War is Peace. Freedom is Slavery. Fascism is Communism.
It will very entertaining to watch the US implode.
Glad that all the suffering, misery and injustice that is and will continue to befall so many millions of average Americans as this nightmare unfolds is so entertaining for you.
Progressives take such offense at being called elitist by the Right wing media. Yet this comment is so shamelessly and unsympathetically elitist in every sense of the term.
I guess you are set financially, have solid health care and have no worries about ending up in a body bag in the Middle East, huh? You're covered. You're OK. Well switch on Fox and watch the show.
There will be no Progressive movement until its members get a grip on reality ... not reality TV, but the day-to-day reality experienced by "them" - the tired, the weak, the hungry, the unhealthy the disenfranchised, etc. You know the cast of millions on your own private TV show.
If these guys are the scary right leg of reaction, Obama and the mainstream Democrats are the left leg. Without both legs, reaction would fall. Obama's and the Democrats' capitulation to the health insurance and pharmaceutical industries on single payer, the investment banks on the bailout, big business in general (remember the Employee Free Choice Act and card check and the attack on the UAW?), the militarists and military contractors, etc., clears the ground for the right. Since the Democrats aren't resisting, and in fact are leading the charge on some of these attacks, where are common people in the middle going to go? To the right, that's where! To stop this, and resist, we need an effective grass-roots political movement, a third party independent of the Democrats that effectively fights these interests. Liberals who produce videos like this without criticizing the Democrats are running cover for Obama and the Democrats, who are in turn running cover for investment banking, the health care industry, big business in general, and EFFECTIVELY contributing to the growth of the right. Think about it!
Maybe you are right ... but: just watch the massive resistance
that Obama is facing for the mini steps is trying to make.
People are really afraid ... otherwise they would not be willing
to buy the shit they are served at Fox and others. Coming up with
spots that present a "fully" progressive agenda as you are asking
for ... would simply not work at all. With spots like the one
here you might have a chance to get some people start thinking.
Just a bit more radical and left ... and you are overboard. 99%
of your target audience would stop watching after 5 seconds.
It aint enough to have a good message. You have to reach people
where they are NOW; and not start where you would like them to be.
I disagree strongly, Dumbo.
I don't think Obama is facing "massive resistance" from the people but rather from entrenched political corporatism and its interests, which it will fight WARS to maintain. The majority of people aren't resisting the health care public option, for instance. We aren't supporting the taxpayer bail-out monies being used to line the pockets of the CEOs -- we're very angry about that. We are not supporting Obama's continuation of Bush's torture agenda at all or his continued violations of and contempt for international human rights policies set into place by Bush.
Americans may not agree about the details of how to repair the damage done to America by the Bush administration, but it's ridiculous to say that heading left or going progressive would not work at all. That's false and misleading. Returning America to its Constitutional framework is not a matter of liberalism but rather a necessity if we are to continue as America, and I don't know anyone rational who wants the Constitution overturned and right-wing forces to conquer us all.
We can explore a "left agenda" after we have restored America to its Constitutional foundations, not claim that their restoration is a "move to the left". I don't allow ANYBODY to set the discussion framework on such false and mistaken grounds and am suspicious of anyone who wants to cast the discussion in these terms.
Nicely stated.
So why dont people stop watching FOX news then?
Why are they buying all the books from the right wing hate preachers?
If the "main stream" is much closer to sanity than "main stream media" ...
why does "main stream media" still sell?
First off, I HAVE been thinking about it, for years. And I fear the scenario you describe now more than ever, and for exactly the reasons that this clip implies.
If the two-party system does collapse as you seem to want it to, think of what will happen to us simply because of what you are seeing in this video, the rise of Conservative [sic] or more accurately Fascist media. How can you possibly think that only Progressives and Liberals will split off to form a new alternative “third” party? Once the system is crashed there won’t be three, there will be 30 new parties. Some will be Christian based, some Muslim. Some will be environmentalists, but some will be anti-immigrant. Some will be corporate shills and others flat-out Fascist, that’s really Fascist not what Glen Beck calls Fascist.
What do you think will become of all those militias and tea-baggers, all those Fox News followers, all the Bill Kristol intellectuals and the rabidly high-strung anti-intellectuals in the South? What of all the disaffected and expertly propagandized Americans who take guns to Town Halls and are buying guns in huge numbers now that our Chief Executive is an African-American?
Do you honestly believe that the bright light of wisdom inherent in “your” progressive agenda will suddenly blind them all and they will come around? Or do you think they will coalesce and form into their own Right-wing coalitions, take control of Congress and invade Muslim countries with racist impunity and the full financial support of the Military–Congressional-Industrial Complex? Will they then be strong enough to make common cause with the Pentagon and nuke Iran or China or anyone we’re scared of or pissed off at and … drag us all into Hell?
Or is the Apocalypse what the so-called Left wants as much as the Right does?
There will be no liberating democratic movement in America until moderates get their heads head out of the sand and liberals get their heads head out of their asses. Moderates have to stop fantasizing that the bad stuff will never happen to them and this will all pass and we can soon go back to watching life pass us by on our flat screen TVs. Radical Progressives have to stop believing we can smash the state and form a new progressive utopia without opposition. Pipe dreams all.
I’m offended by the suggestion that this country has gone along for all these hundreds of years with a political leadership that knew nothing and that suddenly WE have all the answers. Whether it’s the self-imagined “Wealth Creators” [sic] otherwise known as Thieves of Wall Street or the Radical Revolutionaries ready to install an elite Vanguard Party to save us all … it’s all just a wagon-load of horse shit.
What the two-party system does is force compromise among competing interests and unite them through common cause. The two party system doesn’t work you say? Then FIX it God Damn it like every generation before us.
Why do you guys think it will be easier to take over the entire system than it would be to take over the Democratic Party? The ones in power don’t work for us? Fire them! And do not elect any more millionaires!
There aren’t enough viable candidates? Then become one. Stop dreaming. Do something. People are dying. And time is running out.
“Democracy is the most chaotic, confusing inefficient … and BEST political system on earth.”
- George McGovern 1970
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