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Today's Top News
Rush and Newt Are Winning
Yes, you read that correctly: If you doubt that there is a conservative inclination in the media, consider which arguments you hear regularly and which you don't. When Rush Limbaugh sneezes or Newt Gingrich tweets, their views ricochet from the Internet to cable television and into the traditional media. It is remarkable how successful they are in setting what passes for the news agenda.
The power of the Limbaugh-Gingrich axis means that Obama is regularly cast as somewhere on the far left end of a truncated political spectrum. He's the guy who nominates a "racist" to the Supreme Court, wants to weaken America's defenses against terrorism, and is proposing a massive government takeover of the private economy. Steve Forbes, writing for his magazine, went so far recently as to compare Obama's economic policies to those of Juan Peron's Argentina.
Democrats are complicit in building up Gingrich and Limbaugh as the main spokesmen for the Republican Party, since Obama polls so much better than both of them. But the media play an independent role by regularly treating far right views as mainstream positions and by largely ignoring critiques of Obama that come from elected officials on the left.
This was brought home at this week's annual conference of the Campaign for America's Future, the progressive group that supports Obama but worries about how close his economic advisers are to Wall Street, how long our troops will have to stay in Afghanistan, and how much he will be willing to compromise to secure health care reform.
In other words, they see Obama not as the parody created by the far right, but as he actually is: a politician with progressive values but moderate instincts who has hewed to the middle of the road in dealing with the economic crisis, health care, Guantanamo and the war in Afghanistan.
While the right wing's rants get wall-to-wall airtime, you almost never hear from the sort of progressive members of Congress who were on an America's Future panel on Tuesday. Reps. Jared Polis of Colorado, Donna Edwards of Maryland and Raul Grijalva of Arizona all said warm things about the president-they are Democrats, after all-but also took issue with some of his policies.
All three, for example, are passionately opposed to his military approach to Afghanistan and want a serious debate over the implications of Obama's strategy. "If we don't ask these questions now," said Edwards, "we'll ask these questions 10 years from now-I guarantee it."
Polis spoke of how Lyndon Johnson's extraordinary progressive legacy "will always be overshadowed by Vietnam" and said that progressives who were challenging the administration's foreign policy were simply trying to "protect and enhance President Obama's legacy by preventing Afghanistan and Iraq from becoming another Vietnam."
As it happens, I am closer than the progressive trio is to Obama's view on Afghanistan. But why are their voices muffled when they raise legitimate concerns while Limbaugh's rants get amplified? Isn't Afghanistan a more important issue to debate than a single comment by Judge Sonia Sotomayor about the relative wisdom of Latinas?
Polis, Edwards and Grijalva also noted that proposals for a Canadian-style single-payer health care system, which they support, have fallen off the political radar. Polis urged his activist audience to accept that reality for now and focus its energy on making sure that a government insurance option, known in policy circles as the "public plan," be part of the menu of choices offered by a reformed health care system.
But Edwards noted that if the public plan, already a compromise from single-payer, is defined as the left's position in the health care debate, the entire discussion gets skewed to the right. This makes it far more likely that any public option included in a final bill will be a pale version of the original idea.
Her point has broader application. For all the talk of a media love affair with Obama, there is a deep and largely unconscious conservative bias in the media's discussion of policy. The range of acceptable opinion runs from the moderate left to the far right and cuts off more vigorous progressive perspectives.
Democrats love to think that Limbaugh and Gingrich are weakening the conservative side. But guess what? By dragging the media to the right, Rush and Newt are winning.
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Show AllTo call the media 'conservative' in the US is insane. It supports every war, every theft by the bankers, every violation of the US constitution.
Gingrich and Limbaugh are Zionist clowns, diversions for the masses.
The media in the US is 100% controlled by the Zionists. They are the polar opposite of conservative.
Zionists? LOL! You'd think Israel was the 51st state? Get over this delusion. Not everyone thinks that Israel sits at the bottom of every political drama out here. Only those of you that are fanatics on the topic.
Correct that it's an overstatement.
If you believe that the Middle East is the vortex of the majority of problems in the world (not to mention the US), then indeed Israel is at the root of it.
"You'd think Israel was the 51st state"
No, merely a U.S. military base
So the Jews control the media (and probably everything else). That is a serious problem. Can you propose a solution? Perhaps a final solution?
You guys are always setting up the Anti-Semetic argument. Give it a break.
its more important to understand the media as being owned by five corporations
this article from the racist washington post is a real pile of crap
best part:
"In other words, they see Obama not as the parody created by the far right, but as he actually is: a politician with progressive values but moderate instincts who has hewed to the middle of the road in dealing with the economic crisis, health care, Guantanamo and the war in Afghanistan."
obama is a right wing nwo shill who has robbed the nation and given the cash to the bank - read david rockefeller and the boys
continues the illegal bullshit war on terrorism
but through the haze i can see why the right calls him a fascist and i cannot understand why the left doesn't
either way he is not the man we need, or woman for that matter
the obama express - with kissinger and bzrzeniski as the conductors needs to be derailed asap
i don't care who does it - left or right
I like what you say, ma g, but I do wish you wouldn't separate your phrases by double spacing. It makes my old eyes hurt and I often just skip your posts because of it. Just try using periods instead.
Sorry, but I think you have your definitions backwards.
Gingerich and Limbaugh = Zionist = Polar opposite of conservative??
"Conservative" and "liberal" have taken on strange dimensions, particularly in American discourse, in which neocons support neoliberal economics, conservatives do not conserve, and liberals seldom liberate.
But for 40 years or so, the people who have called themselves "conservative" in American politics have been more warlike, albeit narrowly, than most who have called themselves "liberal."
I'm glad you write "Zionists" instead of "Jews," but I'm still sorrier to see that Israel's violence has liberated this kind of antisemitic folderol.
Anti-semitism is always a nationalist, racist passion: Jews are held to be bad because they lack the purportedly "national" values. Today, anti-semites are pro-Israel because Israel (and Jewishness) are supposed to be roots of "Western" values -- capitalist, imperialist values disguised as democratic values.
One of the frequent tactics of rightwingers, conservative or liberal ones, is that Marx and Marxism is anti-semitic by quoting "On the Jewish Question" -- "See, Marx endorses a caricature of Jews!" -- looking for what can sound scandalous when removed from the question of political & human liberation.
"...but I'm still sorrier to see that Israel's violence has liberated this kind of antisemitic folderol..."
They'll get what they deserve.
For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind. (Hosea 8:7)
Details?
“Collateral Damage” by E. P Heidner, part I and II.
>>> www.scribd.com/people/documents/2169400-ep-heidner <<<
Mr. Dionne,
I urge you to use your column to push for a new and improved Fairness Doctrine so that control of the airwaves is returned to its rightful owners..THE PUBLIC.
I ask you to demand that the licenses to broadcast over the public airwaves be ripped from the claws of the large corporations who have proven themselves unworthy of this valuable and powerful weapon.
Additionally, please loudly advocate for the break-up of media monopolies using long forgotten anti-trust legislation. As we're learning from the banking disaster allowing any company to get too large is a danger to the country. Media companies are certainly no exception.
Mr. Dionne, just imagine if instead of having only four large media companies with similar agendas we had 50 independent ones. The lies that pushed us into Iraq would've been exposed. The war never would've happened. 1.1 million people would still be alive. $3 trillion dollars would still be in our Treasury.
I'm glad you're waking up, Mr. Dionne, to the tragic consequences media (including your newspaper) has wrought on our country and the world.
If you're serious about fixing the problem I'm sure we'll see plenty of columns from you on the above mentioned issues. Even if it may mean putting your job on the line.
Sincerely, CX-1
I second that, and add that there had best be a clause about election publicity. Let's write it so the Feds don't have complete control over it either, though.
Do you really think that Dionne is reading his article on Common Dreams? Or any of the people whose articles are reprinted here? Believe me: they don't; and addressing them as though they do just sounds really silly.
Actually, some do, and have responded to posts here.
Having said that, I would highly advise CX-1 to write to EJ Dionne at his email address (that's why he left it) - I think he has some valid points to make.
We simply must stop howling into the night here. Let's actually address people whom we want to convince.
The Zionist agenda is courting the conservatives because they are easy to control (show me the money); the reverse is not true.
Remember when predatory lenders and get rich quick scams ruled the conservative talk shows? Don't hear that no more. Now it's the "credit counseling scam people" advertising and supporting their shows.
Ironically, I have to agree with many things these people are saying about Obama! I wouldn't be surprised if the Ol' neo-cons regroup and make a showing in the next election.
It was all planned this way. The sheeple are led around because they don't see past their noses.
Lots of people in my town are dropping their advertising on radio because of it's obnoxious talking heads. The shows true supporters have to show their face then! It's the credit people, masquerading as a credit counseling service!
You 2? What do have in here today the crazy left? Israel, is NOT the center of the earth's political drama except for you morons. Get over it.
Rather than refer to my post above, I'll cut and paste:
Correct that it's an overstatement.
If you believe that the Middle East is the vortex of the majority of problems in the world (not to mention the US), then indeed Israel is at the root of it.
Re: What do have in here today the crazy left?
-----------------------------
Crazy Left? Are you kidding? Please be advised with V.I. Lenin to find out what real Left was once upon the time. The bunch of bosos on this site is really to the left of oBAMa, but who would not.
They are still dreaming about Final Solution. Fortunately theirs is the wet dream.
Like liberal and conservative, left and right get odd in American discourse. I'm not sure exactly what you'd have me understand, Purto, but Lennon was the leftist, and Lenin not. The interested may check his LEFT-WING COMMUNISM: AN INFANTILE DISORDER.
http://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1920/lwc/
I find the antisemitism here alarming, too, but I'm not sure why you see anything leftist in it.
I didn't say Israel, I said Zionism and the "left" only goes as far as the middle, I consider myself a Populist or Progressive.
By putting single payer and EFCA off the table and instead pandering to the GOP on more war spending and more privatizing everything along with more bailouts for the "too big too fail" giants of Corporate America, of course Newt and Rush are winning while we're all losing badly ! No wonder even working class liberals are purchasing more guns and ammo !!
Remember when these talking heads chastised anybody who did not lock step with the "President of the United States", labeling them as being non-patriotic for disagreeing?
Now they want to use those same airwaves to start a revolution with tea parties and protest because their party is not the majority. Tell me that the airwaves are not owned by their masters interests.
The media is saturated with lies! RIP lapdog media! You won't be missed.
Oh God, not another articla about Reps versus Dems, conservatives versus liberals, blah blah blah.
They are all the same. They are all owned by Wall Street. They all gave taxpayers money to their owners on Wall Street There is no difference between a Rep and Dem at this time in our nations history. Not one iota of a difference.
Articles like this one just perpetrate the status quo that has the masses believing that we have a choice, that someone represents our interests.
Our elected officials are all the same, owned by Wall Street banks. Rush versus Bill Maher, Obama vs McCain it's a divide and conquer game being run by the gangster banksters. We have no choice, we are being screwed by all the lying Democrats and Republicans!
While it is true that both Reps and Dems are managed by Wall Street, it is the difference between the team that pulls for Wall Street and the team that must be contained by Wall Street. When the GOP is in charge, the public is scrambling just to survive and there is little impetus for change. When Dems are in power, change becomes something that is just barely possible. It is the responsibility of the public to hold the feet of the elite to the fire with the continual threat of open class warfare that can bring about any real peaceful change. To moan about the divide-and-conquer strategy, which we all know, will do nothing to change the strategy. Unless you are strategizing for class warfare itself, this observation is self-defeating.
The article's main thesis isn't about Republicans vs Democrats. It is about the how the media has a right wing bias.
True, and we should keep our eyes on this fact.
Another thread shows how some Republicans in Congress want to take the media even further rightward by trotting out that worn canard of the left-leaning media. If this doesn't get our attention, I don't know what will.
There are fewer venues for the progressive voice. One that is still there (albeit, shrinking) is the letter to the editor of newspapers and magazines. If we aren't using it, shame on us! And if we think it doesn't make people think, we are the fools.
Sioux Rose
IVY: Good post, and your points are what I think are important here. It's as if the rightwing attack machine gets all the firepower (i.e. media access) so as to maintain the ILLUSION that there really is something to rant about in the form of genuine substantive differences between what Obama is implementing as policy and their particular interests. As if. This kind of smoke and mirrors is Barnum/Circus World meets Pavlov/meets 1984. It's an amazing hybrid of dazzling deceptions.
E. J. Dionne makes an excellent case in this article. However, to state that the media's right-leaning bias is "largley unconscious" seems naive to me. I believe the media talking heads are constrained from finding the truth because it could hurt the bottom line and offend advertisers. I feel sorry for the "reporters and commentators" that must adhere to the puppeteers in the boardroom or risk losing their jobs. ... Or could it be that these "reporters" are really that clueless? I don't think so.
As long as our media and Congress are bought and paid for by big business, we can't expect much from them that is truly progressive and democratic.
truejusticematters.blogspot.com
"largely unconscious" seems naive to me too.
MSM, Congress, Dems, Reps are all part of a gigantic circus.
Details?
“Collateral Damage” by E. P Heidner, part I and II.
>>> www.scribd.com/people/documents/2169400-ep-heidner <<<
Watch out, Obysmal! The fierce, wild eyed reactionaries, their bodies painted red, white and blue, gleaming with sweat, a bone through their noses and skulls hanging off their loin cloths, are gunning for you 24/7. They will stop at nothing. You think George Wanker Bush finished off the far right. That notion is as wrong as your wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the Geithner Plan; and neither your short pants, Buster Brown shoes or watered down Republican policies will protect you from the savages.
EJ Dionne is part of the MSM problem. This article is about four decades too late.
Still, it needs to be said.
They may be winning, but in the long run, the demographic they're winning with is shrinking.
Each of us just needs to make sure that we are so open-minded and tolerant that it rubs off on our kids, which in turn will rub off on any vestiges of hate that still remain with the children of right-wingers.
"Yes, you read that correctly: If you doubt that there is a conservative inclination in the media, consider which arguments "
I don't think many on this site doubts the msm is inclined, but around the world, what the US is doing is not "conservative"...ocnservative isn't perpetual war. Conservative isn't record debt and deficits. Conservative isn't an assault on civil liberties.
"In other words, they see Obama not as the parody created by the far right, but as he actually is: a politician with progressive values but moderate instincts who has hewed to the middle of the road in dealing with the economic crisis, health care, Guantanamo and the war in Afghanistan."
If Obama is "progressive", what does that make Bush? Obama is going further than Bush on record debt and expanding war into Pakistan and exceeding the expansive dictatorial powers to hide evidence of his crimes and lock people away at a whim.
The problem is that "middle of the road" in America is well to the right of all conservative parties elsewhere.
The most revealing revelation in this E J Dionne op-ed column from the Washington Post about right wing media bias came shortly after his description of the critique of some Obama administration policies at the CAF conference by Reps. Polis, Edwards, and Grivjala, and the analogy drawn between Barack and LBJ's Vietnam quagmire. Dionne wrote "As it happens, I am closer than the progressive trio is to Obama's view on Afghanistan."
We have been without Molly Ivins for several years now, rest her wonderful soul. E J Dionne, in my estimation, is probably the most consistently progressive-left columnist regularly published in the national circulation mainstream US press (comparable to Frank Rich over at the NY Times). If I'm overlooking some other major commentator due to my own subjective partisan blinders, please feel free to correct my myopia.
The point is, here we have a vivid, poignant example of just how far the "center" of the MSM spectrum has actually shifted to the right when it comes to the life or death issue of US militarism. Not even E J Dionne can bring himself to oppose escalation of the American force presence and the inevitable uptick in carnage in Afghanistan we all know looms on the immediate horizon. There is no voice - none - op-ed or otherwise - anywhere - in any mass circulation newspaper in the United States of America - that can be counted on today to routinely voice and implicitly legitimize the views of what remains of the American peace movement.
EJ Dionne is right. This double meaning is intended.
Bill from Saginaw
Paul Krugman, NY Times.
Rainborowe-
Thanks.
Dionne, Rich, and Krugman. All we need is a fourth for a decent game of bridge.
Bill from Saginaw
"the right is obscuring what President Obama stands for"
Please tell me, what does he stand for?
.
it always sounds odd when I hear Senators and Representatives complain about their hands being tied...I don't believe them, it just sounds funny to me...like, if you can't do anything about the nation's problems (single-payer, for example), who can? And, why can't you, again?Which brings us back to the garden...
Yup. The media is owned by corporations and there never has been a liberal corporation. And there never will be.
All the crap we are fed by them is just propaganda. Left or right, it's a way to turn the story back to the way they want it to go.
Kill you television and get to know your neighbors.
You are exactly right. I am so sick of hearing Democrats say that the right is on the wane, irrelevant, or even on the verge of extinction, when Americans are still having their view of things determined by Limbaugh, Gingrich, Cheney, et al. And this is something that could be changed simply by reinstating the Fairness Doctrine that Reagan rescinded in 1987, but Democrats have allowed Republican screaming to deter them from taking even that initial step. It doesn't help that Obama has praised Reagan and continues to maintain Reaganite stances on most things, from the military to top-tier capitalism. Until Democrats reverse Reagan's policies and quit pandering to the right themselves, it is Democrats who will become irrelevant.
EJ Dionne is still stuck in an old media paradigm; thus he sees the proliferation of douche bags like Gingrich and Scumbaugh on traditional corporate media. And of course, they are omitting serious progressive agenda items by concentrating on the latest stupid utterances out these conservative clowns pie hole's. Part of why is generational, EJ Dionne is one of those old media types who is invested in corporate media who's audience numbers are shrinking and who's demographic profile is graying...which is poison to those in the advertising department. In fact, EJ Dionne is a perfect reflection of said audience, as he is an old white guy as well.
Well, it doesn't matter because all we all ever do is haggle over them constantly. They are going to be relevant as long as they know we are pissing away our time haggling the left/right conundrum and not looking at them honestly:
They are dinosaurs. And I mean ALL the talking heads. Right/left, it doesn't matter. The earth is dying and all they can do is argue. They are becoming more irrelevant by the day.
The best way: turn them off and let's get out there and fix things. They sure as hell aren't going to help fix anything. Their job is to keep us arguing and fighting and ignore that while we do there are a million things we could be doing:
Plant a community garden.
Get to know our neighbors.
Walk to the store.
Buy locally.
Turn off the teevee.
Listen to local music.
Clean up a local water way.
Go pick up garbage.
Find a cause and get involved.
Go walk pets at the animal shelter.
Help out an elderly neighbor.
Go read books at the nursing home.
Chat with a homeless person.
Volunteer at the library.
Get involved in LOCAL politics.
Get to know an immigrant family.
The list could go on forever, but the real goal is to make them irrelevant. Actually, they already are. It's just taking us time to stop living their story for OUR lives.
Louise...
I think you take the cake with the most refreshing and inspirational post I have ever read on Commondreams...
The simple truth of the matter is that we don't need their approval or funding or laws to do what is Necessary to heal Gaia & ourselves...
It is the simple, quiet, free things in life that do more to transcend electoral & representative politics.... And be our own POTUS
If every one of us succeeded from the federal system... And became empowered to be our own sovereign nations unto ourselves...
We could create a coalition of the willing of those that create a more perfect union based on the universal declaration of human rights...
We could each take a silent pledge of allegiance to social justice & healthy stewardship of the biosphere & the essence of Earth charter...
Make a personal commitment to go on general strike and boycott of any labor or product or service by any entity profiting on exploitation...
Invest your time, labor, assets, and creativity into your community, cottage industry, local shops, farmers market, and your own education...
Grow yer own food, make yer own things... Simplify your life away from the dollar economy and invest in social capital thru microlending, barter, trade, salvaged & repurposed goods, appropriate technology, building with natural materials, and creativity over consumotainment....
Cicero: "Freedom is participation in power."
The U.S. system is too stratified and calcified for progressives to participate in any substantial and timely change of it unless they rapidly organize in terms of sheer numbers and media access. The younger, non-arthritic Left needs to be better funded, more organized, innovative and radical in terms of commanding attention to progressive ideals and ideas. An umbrella United Progressive Party would pool the resources of the thousands of scattered small progressive groups into a big enough voter bloc to achieve some serious national goals. It could co-opt the many progressive leaning Democratic Party support groups who are being told to shut up and tow the DLC corporatist line by the likes of Rahm Emmanuel while their voices and goals are ignored. Members of these groups are starting to realize they are being betrayed by a Democratic Party leadership that no longer has the excuse of significant Republican opposition in Congress: A Democratic Party approaching filibuster-proof status in the Senate that still caves in to every blast of hot air from Right-wing rant radio and every Big Money corporate lobbyist who strolls through the halls of Congress.
THE TIME FOR PROGRESSIVES TO UNITE IS NOW. The people of this country and the world have no more time to waste to solve the biosphere-threatening problems of our time. America with its wealth, technology and woeful record of exploitative resource wars owes the world a major contribution towards solving those big problems. Only well organized American progressives can compel this in a timely manner. They need a clearly articulated concise Party platform; a media arm funded and prepared to answer objections and attacks from other media, and they need to create/become their own media sufficient to target existing and potential progressive voters with a progressive message defended on progressive principles framed in a more accurate historical context that includes the proud contributions to American society made by over a century of progressive thinkers and activists. It's almost 2010, people. The clock is ticking and time is running out to prevent a global Malthusian Hell. There is no excuse for allowing this result and there will be few literate human beings left alive in another few generations to listen.
The greatest part of America and being American was when Americans rose to meet hard challenges because naysayers proclaimed they couldn't be met. Before progressive Americans dragged these dreams into existence most people refused to believe that workers had rights, that women could vote, that wilderness areas could be protected, that smallpox or polio could be defeated with public health vaccinations, that blacks could vote, that human beings could ever land on the moon. We can solve the big problems. All we have to do is be angry, proud and energetic enough to refuse to be told that we can't.
It was devilishly clever of the Republicans to take a page from Obama's book and start calling Sotomayor a racist--in the same way Obama's supporters called everyone and his brother a racist during the primaries.
Limbaugh's interview with Hannity the other day confirms Dionne's thesis. Limbaugh gloated over the fact that the media had made him a star even though he has no real power. His remarks made it clear that this, rather than getting at the truth, is what really turns him on, although of course he would never actually say that.
I'd like to see more stuff like the Hannity interview on CD. Give us a mix of progessive and retrogressive. Those of us who think Limbaugh is a total idiot enjoy shooting down his specific statements rather than just fulminating about generalities in the right-wing publications.
I used to regularly contribute to "American Thinker" until they started censoring my comments. Now you'll find only one of my dozens of comments on their site, even though most of them used to be there. I stopped contributing due to their censorship (unfortunately, not a surprise from a conservative group) and acquiescence to murderous threats by extremists against government figures, but it was really fun getting those conservatives to squirm. Sadly, they finally had to just shut me out because some of them can't stand criticism. No disrespect intended to the few associated with that site who actually do have open (if conservative) minds.
Metal, you are SO right. Unfortunately, Progressives are so splintered, they remind me of Will Rogers saying, "I don't belong to an organized political party. I'm a Democrat."