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TechnoratiDrowning Out the Noise Machine
Journalism is breaking my heart. Or should I say, “journalism.”
Hate-mongering media extremists have captured our news networks and are using the public’s platform – our airwaves – to pick off progressive leaders like Van Jones and misinform the American people.
Nothing new there, of course. But it’s especially outrageous that the same networks that didn’t challenge the rush to war with Iraq and Afghanistan now host right-wing talking heads suspicious of healthcare reform who help spread absurd lies about “death panels.”
Fox news anchors prompt “tea party” crowds to cheer on camera to dramatize a reporter’s live feed, and CNN routinely airs a program with Lou Dobbs that vilely attacks immigrants night after night.
In the meantime, “moderate” voices in the media are mostly silent and fail to properly cover this insanity or simply tell the truth on the nightly news. Print media routinely report on TV’s faux news segments, adding legitimacy to propaganda.
New target: media diversity and localism
Since their success ousting Van Jones—who was President Obama’s Special Adviser for Green Jobs at the Council on Environmental Quality—media hacks like Dobbs, Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, and Bill O’Reilly are turning their attention to another “enemy of America”—media diversity and localism.
Yes, you read that correctly.
They’re now targeting Mark Lloyd, the FCC’s new chief diversity officer, by claiming that Lloyd has a secret plan to take over the airwaves. Lloyd’s real goal: making sure that that news actually reflects the issues that affect local communities. It’s the kind of overhaul we drastically need in a country dominated by a media elite.
This goal is actually the cornerstone of communications policy in the United States. The Communication Act of 1934 mandates the FCC to promote localism, diversity and competition in media. What’s new here is that the FCC is finally willing to pursue this policy.
According to Media Matters, Beck has targeted Lloyd in at least 10 Fox News programs since August 14. Early this month, he asked his Twitter followers to “[f]ind everything you can” about Lloyd.
This smear campaign is supposed to make us think that more voices in the media, more coverage of the local issues we care about, is actually bad for us. “They’re trying to do this back-door route with diversity… to shut you up by shutting us down,” Limbaugh told his listeners.
People like Limbaugh want us to think Lloyd is part of a plot to kick conservatives off the air, even though conservative talk radio accounts for 91 percent of all talk radio programming produced by the five largest media companies. Print media have latched onto this “story” like a barnacle.
Too serious to ignore
If Bill O’Reilly has ever said anything true, it is this sentence from a mid-September broadcast: “Fox News and talk radio are now setting the [national] conversation.”
Civil rights and public interest groups across the country are now pushing back. The organization ColorofChange.org has started a campaign to get advertisers to abandon Beck’s show. Nearly 300,000 people have signed a letter to advertisers, and 62 companies have now pulled their business. Dozens of mostly Latino organizations have joined a campaign at BastaDobbs.com, which calls on CNN to get rid of Dobbs.
And more than fifty groups have signed a letter to the FCC asking the agency to stand in support of Lloyd and media diversity and localism. (Full disclosure: The letter was produced by Free Press, the nonprofit organization where I work.)
But these efforts aren’t enough. We need an all-out grassroots movement to create systemic change in our media system. Here’s how you can fight back:
1. Increase your support of independent media and public media to extend the reach of news outlets offering true investigative reporting and thoughtful discourse.
2. Help secure Net Neutrality to safeguard Internet freedom. We can’t let corporations control the only platform on which everyone’s voices can be heard equally.
3. Become the media: join local news ventures in your community.
4. Call on Congress and Obama to adopt a national journalism strategy and offer policies that create new ownership structures, a journalism jobs program and increased funding for new public media.
The answer isn’t censoring people like Beck–it’s more speech, more voices and more opportunity. If we can’t take away Beck’s megaphone, we’ll have to drown it out.
45 Comments so far
Show AllIf left to their devices, these wackjobs will send us straight back to The Dark Ages where they will rule supreme, reinstate burnings at the stake and enforce it all with pitchforks and lighter fluid.
The media controls most of the votes and thus the government. If the neo-con Fascists control 91% of talk radio (I thought it was more!) then guess what kind of government you're going to have. (It's rheotorical) Some how Establishment friendly Liberals (due to their media programing, lack of deligence, and peer group conformity) still believe there is some kind of functioning journalistic standards. Go read Project censored and see if you can figure out what's going on here. (Parenti's book on the media is also a good start.) They lie by ommission, commission, and overwhelming spin. They don't hate you, they just hold you in contempt as their economic victims. Name a famous investigation and odds are its Rightwing biased. "Watergate" is a good example. It was a CIA preemptive strike on Nixon after his "Bay of Pigs thing" blackmail threat to expose the JFK assassination to get them to call off the FBI (also complicit), and we have an ONI plant as an investigative reporter for Wash. Post Editor Ben Bradley, former CIA agent in Paris '47, not to mention the fact that the prime operative was CIA agent in charge of Internal Investigations, James McCord, who's M.O was running prostitute ring set ups. Wouldn't you know they had one running out of a DLC empty office there. Also McCord indicated in his newsletter what a threat Nixon was to them. Meanwhile, the Chair of the Joint Chiefs, Adm. Moorer, was running an espionage spy ring out of the White house basement on Kissinger and Nixon. (Remember Nixon's Secret plan to end the war?) All the "burgalars" were CIA vets except the patsy Liddy) Heard any of this in the "mainstream" media? There's much more than this, and it goes to assassinations, cover ups and military control.
So there's your media for you, and you can throw in most of the "mainstream" influenced alternative media as well. We need to stoop being their willing stooges and stop trying to please our peers. If you can't have truth you can't have justice, and without that, you can't have any democracy. You can have a Plutocracy thought, much like the one we have.
Fighting fire with fire just makes a bigger fire! Take nuclear weapons, for instance. Take waterboarding torture. By adapting the unjust we become unjust. The simplicity of this line of thinking sometimes escapes those with the fight fire with fire mentality. Take "Lil" gw-bush league and his cronies, for example.
Might as well try to stop the wind from blowing as stop the rotten propaganda the right wing conservatives are throwing at us every day. It is a spreading sickness and may eventually lead to violent actions, so be prepared. We have many people that are loaded with weapons and ammo and are waiting for someone to light the fuse. We nay have bigger problems ahead than deficits and health care.
Michael Powell, the son of Secretary of State Colin Powell, did a real number on the FCC.
I've had to unplug my TV to compensate.
Or just develop moan deafness.
If all the bad behaviors and bad tactics that Henry8 predicts will cause political advocates to loose - actually guaranteed them loosing, the right would have self-destructed years ago.
Instead, as we see, the right has flourished and grown more powerful precisely by doing all the bad things Henry says (or implies) the left should never do.
I could more easily agree with Henry's advice if he had said that no one should use vile and dishonest tactics in politics. And if he had pointed out how such tactics, when used in the context of an artificially narrow-owned national news media, such as we have now, are usually not only successful, but also almost impossible to counter by the less media-powerful dissenters.
The word "loose" rhymes with juice, and is the opposite of "tight." The word you wanted was "lose" which rhymes with "booze" which the constant incorrect usage of these words makes me want to guzzle until I am either very tight, or very loose and lose consciousness, depending upon how much juice I add to the cocktail. Misuse of language does not make you look intelligent.
"If all the bad behaviors and bad tactics that Henry8 predicts will cause political advocates to loose - actually guaranteed them loosing, the right would have self-destructed years ago."
All their actions and tactics are not bad. But I would point out that they do not control Congress or the White House now. They did lose because of what they were doing and their abuse of the Constitution.
"I could more easily agree with Henry's advice if he had said that no one should use vile and dishonest tactics in politics."
I'd be glad to say it, but boy, THAT would be naive to expect!
I'd actually say that every time someone tries to use lies to foster their agenda, the American people usually find it out and reject it or them or both. Unfortunately a Democratic Republic with real freedom moves at a glacial pace most of the time. But just as now, speed usually results in mistakes if it is not absolutely needed.
"the right has flourished and grown more powerful precisely by doing all the bad things Henry says (or implies) the left should never do."
Not advice, just my opinion....which is good advice (LOL)! Seriously, if we continue along the paths this Congress and President are heading down so far, I see little difference between them and the Republicans thery replaced. In which cae I'll say now and I'm sure to repeat, unless they change...its going to be an loe fashioned ass whupping in 2010 and 2012.
You-all watch loosing them bad words on folks now, Hank.
bardamu
We all is going to keep a tight rein on it! (LOL)
A number of the more prominent "TalK Radio" hosts tried to get Canadian stations to carry their shows.
These shows were carried a few months and then dropped because NO ONE was listening.
Just tune them out.
Thanks for the information about what happened in Canada when the "Talk Radio" programs were carried there. I didn't know that!
The most simple way to cut off at the knees these douche bags is if they do not make money for their corporate masters. Said money is made from advertising revenue. It should be consistently restated that these corporate shills are preaching to a minority who led their putative party to electoral disaster. Another point that needs to be made is the demographic composition of the audience of these morons: GRAYING. That demography is one of the most undesirable in advertising, even if in the short term, they are enough to sustain a show. Thus it is imperative upon progressives to speed along the inevitable decline of this audience to where they are fringe media along the lines of Big Band Music radio stations. Money talks, bullshit walks.
one of the interesting things to me at this point in time is the attitude, not of the graying, but of the young...
my son and his friends are 15-ish, and they have grown up with Star Wars...
the underlying premise of the Star Wars world, the evil, overwhelming, Empirical domination of the entire known universe versus the good, underdog, Rebellious forces of the victimized, is deeply ingrained...
my son and his friends are all firmly on the side of the Rebels, and fully expect to see engagement of a similar nature in our lifetimes here on this planet...this is hard to argue, given current trends and technologies...the United States, among others, has done much to easily be seen as the evil Empire...
many of you may write this off as social fluff, but I think the underlying philosophical construct is important, and could have positive, far-reaching effects as we move forward...something, perhaps, George Lucas never intended...
A very good point and analogy. While younger people did vote in record numbers last year - and not for Republicans - they nonetheless voted for a Democrat, which as anyone with eyes and ears and an IQ above 80 knows is just about the same thing as a Republican. Until the American sheeple - of all ages - finally GET the basic truth that the Dems and Repubs are two sides of the same corporatist party, there will never be any "change you can believe in" here.
Now, if those young people who grew up on Star Wars could just start voting third party......
"When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag, carrying a cross."
Sinclair Lewis, "It Cant Happen Here", 1935
I believe its fair and true comment.
Just to let you know -- the "Big Band Music" DJ at the station where I used to work is a progressive! If he had hair, though, he would be graying, but he would not fit into your demographic composition.
Be careful of your generalizations, Nate. At age 65 I've been a progressive all my life, thanks to my father's progressive thinking. I also have many progressive friends in my age category.
I believe external realities, events, and relationships have much more to do with peoples' way of thinking than age does. Why didn't you include the demographics of "illiteracy" and "poverty?"
Have you ever read any of Dave Lindorff's writings on his blog? He's also in what you call the "graying" demographic. Check out his blog entitled "This Can't Be Happening."
"Be careful of your generalizations, Nate. At age 65 I've been a progressive all my life, thanks to my father's progressive thinking. I also have many progressive friends in my age category." -- FrankS
I agree -- I am 57 years old, and have been a progressive all my life. My grandparents -- both were progressives -- shaped my views of life and politics. And, like you, I have countless friends who are close to my age who have similar views to mine.
Let me expand on the 4th suggestion here: "Call on Congress and Obama to adopt a national journalism strategy and offer policies that create new ownership structures, a journalism jobs program and increased funding for new public media"
What I would propose is to treat Journalism like religion. The same First Ammendment that gives Churches protection from the USG (and tax exemption) also guarantees the Freedon of the Press.
Make media organizations tax exempt including the salaries of the editors and reporters, etc. BUT, ONLY if they are stand-alone companies, spun off from the corporations that currently own them. Not "firewalled", not held in blind trust. Severed from their corporate masters.
Some, like the local New London Day, can be the product of foundations, some will want to stay commercial (and their ad revenue would not be taxed), but none may be the PR wing of another corporation.
In an ordinary business environment, Glenn Beck would have been off the air when ColorofChange got UPS to pull. That that didn't happen, that Beck is still on, shows the hand of Rupurt Murdoch holding the strings.
When you see egregious lies being trumpeted, day after day, even after they've been debunked decisively, you can figure that this is the line that the Corporations want you to believe. Because, in a real newsroom, fact checking would squash those stories and eventually lead to someone needing to find a new job.
By shearing the Media of their Corporate control, we also shear the Corporations off of their monopoly on the Megaphone.
Let me expand on the 4th suggestion here: "Call on Congress and Obama to adopt a national journalism strategy and offer policies that create new ownership structures, a journalism jobs program and increased funding for new public media"
--------------
No offense but I have to laugh. Call on Obama? Is this the same Obama who can't even bring a public option to the healthcare disaster? Seriously, you assume that the guy actually cares about stuff like this and democracy and justice and the people that put him in office.
To paraphrase a character in the movie 'The Untouchables':
You use logic, They use fear.
You uses a megaphone, They use an LRAD sound cannon.
Until the progressive, liberal, left is willing to use the same tactics and methods that the Limbaughs and Bushes of the world use, they will lose.
It's like showing up to a gunfight with a white flag.
These people are bullies. They do not fight fair. They never will.
Fear, intimidation, lies, violence and mindless rage are their hallmarks. They tap into a primal willingness to do anything it takes to win, no matter what the cost to themselves or those around them.
And until the left is willing to match them hit for hit, blood for blood, they will continue to win.
Great post. Couldn't agree more.
In 1996, I happened to be working in radio when the FCC, with Clinton, deregulated the industries. Within a short time, corporations began buying up smaller, less powerful stations/newspapers, etc., growing by leaps and bounds. As an example, Clear Channel began with a handful of stations, and increased to 1248 stations. BTW, Clear Channel organized pro-war rallies during the buildup to the invasion of Iraq on March 19, 2003, and Clear Channel employees were required to attend. Employees who spoke out against the invasion were fired.
Following the 1996 deregulation, the news narrowed, along with the “choices” that the corporatists continuously extol with their slick sales pitches, choices that actually divide down into fewer choices, and less competition in the marketplace, while institutionalizing a startling homogeneity and conformity. Various styles of music, and entire shows that played to smaller audiences – e.g. jazz, Broadway, cabaret, folk, etc. – lost their slots due to their lack of commercialism. Of course, reduced airtime means fewer people hear the music, CD sales plummet, musicians have fewer gigs and lose recording contracts, etc. It’s a domino effect that just keeps rolling downhill. Thousands of individuals lost their jobs, but the corporate executives grew their bottom line and the stock market rose, didn’t it?
The effects of media deregulation quickly rippled across the country. For instance, on January 18, 2002, Minot, North Dakota suffered a growing and dangerous ammonia spill when a train derailed. Right away, the authorities called the radio stations so that DJs and newscasters could alert drivers on their way to, or from, work to bypass the area. However, no one answered the phones at any of the stations. Later, the authorities discovered that when Clear Channel took over the radio stations in their area, they fired most, or all, of the employees, and piped in music, along with chatter that was supposed to pass for news. Minot, North Dakota had a gargantuan disaster on their hands, and no way to communicate with the public.
By law, the individuals/corporations that license the public airwaves from the FCC are required to give back to the communities, and to be civic-minded, with actual airtime devoted to the local communities they serve – including local news, public service announcements, and warnings such as the one I outlined in this post, as well as voices from the community -- a diversity of voices. Instead, the new owners, the corporations, act as if they are beholden to no one and bound by no laws.
Finally, “we the people” – millions of us -- stood up and said ENOUGH! We stopped that next round of deregulation, but I’m sure the corporations haven’t given up their fight for even greater power to control the message.
In 1995, when I began to read about the plans to deregulate in 1996, I intuitively felt that "we the people" would be the big losers. I tugged on the shirtsleeves of everyone I knew, and my friends, along with some professionals in the business, shrugged me aside as over-reacting. Over the years, I have written dozens and dozens of letters to the FCC and to my elected officials on these same media issues, and I do support net neutrality, as well as independent media, etc.
"The answer isn’t censoring people like Beck–it’s more speech, more voices and more opportunity. If we can’t take away Beck’s megaphone, we’ll have to drown it out." -- Megan Tady
I agree that censoring people like Beck, etc., is NOT the answer -- but "drowning them out" doesn't sound like much of a solution, either. Does the author mean progressives owning more stations, or does she mean ramping up the volume? I'd like to hear what Ms. Tady might propose since she took the time to write this article.
The beginning of the solution starts with understanding a basic, but unfortunately, little understood, fact: corporate media serves corporate interests. If they ever did, they certainly do not now represent the "4th estate." I don't think it is really about more speech or censorship. It is about credibility and legitimacy. Our challenge is not louder speech, but to challenge the credibility and legitimacy of the MSM or corporate media. The solution, as a poster above wrote is to "tune them out" because they are telling you lies - and that is their job. Corporate media is a critical pillar in maintaining the status quo of power relationships, that is, keeping the demos (we the people) out of power.
A good point, but you are forgetting that, unfortunately, the vast majority of Americans are - as most of the rest of the world knows - just not all that bright. They are lazy, apathetic, ignorant, nationalistic, materialistic American Idol-watching consumers. Does that sound a bit harsh of me? Go out on the street, go to a grocery store, go to a mall, and ask a few questions of the average Americans you run across. Ask them if Iran is a "bad" country that is a threat to the U.S. Ask them if medicare-for-all is a good idea. Ask them if George W. Bush was a decent President. Ask them what Habeas Corpus is. Ask them if they think torture is o.k.
They are sheeple. You say "tune the corporate media out." But that requires free thinking, and a basic understanding of certain truths about our government, about the reality of the corporate structure of the MSM, and to be objective and open-minded about learning uncomfortable truths about America in general.
Sorry - most sheeple just don't have the brains or the inclination for such things.
"When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag, carrying a cross."
Sinclair Lewis, "It Cant Happen Here", 1935
RE: "the vast majority of Americans are - as most of the rest of the world knows - just not all that bright. They are lazy, apathetic, ignorant, nationalistic, materialistic American Idol-watching consumers"
They are that way because it is in corporate interests (and elite power) for the American polity not to be engaged politically, which would require a meaningful, contextualized, and critical understanding of the world. That is why the MSM doesn't call us citizens, it refers to us as "consumers". Americans aren't stupid, just ask about baseball or football stats, they'll have all kinds of detailed knowledge and analysis at the ready. Incidentally, the sports page is the only part of the corporate news that is reliably true!
Excellent post. I'd like to hear real suggestions for solutions myself.
Henry8: Thanks!
Anyone that wants to censor someones elses speech or right to speak is below the pale.
If our ideas are not better we will lose, if we are not honest we will lose, if we cannot accept critisim or the idea that someone opposing us on something is right we will lose. If we will not listen to the majority we will lose. If we do not use truthful language we will lose. If we don't keep our promises we will lose, if we try to subvert the Constitution we will loser. If we live by a double standard we will lose.
[Anyone that wants to censor someones elses speech or right to speak is below the pale.]
Depends on what they're saying now doesn't it? If you shout fire in a crowded theater, you're not exercising free speech (unless of course there is a fire in that theater...).
If you think that speech that prompts a riot to break out is fine and dandy, I take issue with your belief. The nutballs like limbaugh, o'reily and other right wing talking heads are pulling the same stunt that led to the genocide in Rawanda. I don't think that's a legitimate exercise in 'free speech', what they're doing is an exercise in creating a riot.
If I said something that was blatently untrue, that I knew or should know is a bloody lie, I'd be held accountable for slandering or libel. Why doesn't the likes of rushie ever have that to fear?
"Depends on what they're saying now doesn't it? If you shout fire in a crowded theater, you're not exercising free speech (unless of course there is a fire in that theater...)."
I took that as a given, but of course you are right, there are instances where free speech is curtailed and rightfully so. As in the example you sited.
"If I said something that was blatently untrue, that I knew or should know is a bloody lie, I'd be held accountable for slandering or libel. Why doesn't the likes of rushie ever have that to fear?"
They can be held accountable for slander or libel. But not for giving opinions. I can't say for certain that they don't "slander or libel" anyone, I listen just enough to hear where they are week to week. Beck not at all, can't handle listening to him. But so far I've not heard anyone libel anybody.
Yes, it is exactly free speech. I don't believe for a minute that they are going to start any riots. Their listening audience as far as I can tell don't even go to town halls or tax protests....they just say "Ditto"
They do the same thing politicians do, twist the truth, use half truths, give a different interpretation of the facts and lie at times. But they are free to do so and should be. Frankly in my view its Pelosi, Reid and Waxman that is more dangerous than these guys right now.
"Why doesn't the likes of rushie ever have that to fear?"
I'd say they have a lot to fear. How would you like to live your life like a lot of these people apparently do? Or to pander to them? Always afraid of anything new, etc. I am NOT saying that all their listeners are bigots or racists, not by any stretch...but bigots and racists tend to go ot the extremist fringe. How would you like to have dinner with those folks?!
I don't fear them at all, they have always been with us.
I have always thought that your right to an opinion ends where my nose begins. By that I mean that if your opinion is likely to get my nose broken you don't have a 'right' to express that opinion. And if that opinion is resulting in people getting beaten and shot, well, that's a lot like someone who yells fire in that crowded theatre.
Sure the crazies have always been around, and I'd hate to be in the shoes of someone like beck, rush or o'reily, but it seems that the crazies are been taken a bit too seriously as of late. Yabbering on about how Obama is a Nazi-Socialist who's going to do all the evil things that Bush did, but do them in a better way because he's really some foreign born plant from Kenya...
It's a nasty thing. Suppressing free speech is abhorrent, and really isn't something I approve of, but I do see a need for the suppression of speech that leads to people committing violence. It's almost like the porn debate, I can't really define exactly what makes it obscene, but I do know it when I see it...
Sorry my reply took so long, it was due to the update on cd yesterday...
Noble sentiments, and totally naive. In your imagined world, no honest, intelligent, thoughtful person ever gets killed by some thug with a gun. Just the other day in Chicago an honor student was beaten to death. I call that losing.
No, sometimes you have to fight fire with fire. Limbaugh, O'Reilly, Beck, etc...they're nothing but bullies with most of the guns, so to speak. They need to be publically humiliated. The Daily Show does a great job, but we need more.
Kane Jeeves
Nobel? Naive? Not at all. Those are the things I try to live by. Whats wrong with that? That thugs presence on the street is another discussion
altogether.
Do you honestly think by getting in the gutter with your enemy you will win? You simply beconme them. Of course you can fight fire with fire, but you cannot fight lies with lies...the truth will always surface. It always has.
The very idea that Limbaugh, O'Reilly, Beck, etc had anything to do with the beating death of that student is patently absurd and a perfect example of what I was saying. Attributing any of Chicago's problems to them is absurd for that matter.
Yes they have an audience of millions of people, but there are many, many, many more millions that don't listen to them at all. Lies and censorship won't get you a win. Truth, honesty and keeping your word usually do.
Now if you are suggesting more shows with a different point of view, pointing out their lies (and its not all lies, when you are agitating you have to throw in some truth here and there), their bad policies, etc....I'm with you there. But I'm not with anyone that would do what they do.
Again, you use nice words, and I'm guessing you're very young. I can appreciate your desire to be honorable. Find George Lakoff's article from awhile back on CD. He much more eloquently expressed what I was trying to say. Basically that we can fight back without necessarily sinking to their level. Obviously we should try to be as honest as possible. But if you think remaining "pure" like you suggest is all it takes I think you're naive. But again, see George Lakoffs article on messaging.
As far as my reference to the Chicago incident, you missed my point. That was just an example of how being an honest, intelligent person (the honor student) doesn't really mean much if your enemy has a gun, or is willing to resort to violence. It's an analogy to the Limbaugh/Beck types who use outright lies, smears, etc. i.e. "guns" to fight.
Oops! Early sixties, ran a sucessful business, ex Marine officer, line officer two tours in VN, been to most of the world and done a bit of volunteerring since selling my business and retiring. Which of course only proves I'm not young.
Duty, honor, country is far more than a slogan to me and for me.
I'll look up Lakoff's article, thanks. Got any idea which month or week?
I see by "pure" you mistook what I was trying to say. Of course its not all it takes, I am just saying you canot go to your enemies level, no matter the provocation (if possible). If you see your friends head on a spike you want to kill everything in sight and put their heads on a spike, but if you do, there is no difference between you and they win. And even they see that. The people certainly see it.
I will still say countering lies with lies or calling the truth lies will fail. People find it out sooner or later. Extremists will never change and thats what these folks are, just as they have a mirror image on the left. But they are small minorities that scream the loudest. Most people do not listen to Limbaugh or Beck. Most of the audience for O'Riley and Hannity are the same listeners. They no more represent Conservatives than Bill Ayres represents Liberals.
"As far as my reference to the Chicago incident, you missed my point."
Sorry, I did miss it. Yes, anyone that believes that being non-violent, being unarmed, loving your fellow man, using gun control, etc, will protect them from someone that is violent, they are indeed naive fools. That poor kid was beaten to death with 2X4's.
Henry8: I agree with the points you make in your post.
“Fox News and talk radio are now setting the [national] conversation.”
*****************
Baloney--Not my conversation. Drowning out the noise machine is the wrong solution--not listening to or watching it is the way to go.
Poet
Poet.....
Correct. "not listening to or watching it is the way to go." They are not setting the National conversation at all.
Poet: I agree -- I am not a part of that conversation, either. I don't tune into those programs.
We can't just "drown it out" with volume -- the bad guys own the megaphones and have the capacity to overcome most opposition. People like Keith Olberman and Rachel Madow are doing the right thing, but they're preaching to the converted.
The creative people need to find ways to undermine the Limbaughian people in the minds of the great muddled middle -- no easy task. If I knew how to do it I'd be doing it.
But Rushglen Dobbs Reilly and that ilk aren't that smart. If the creative progressives get beat by them, then all is utterly lost.
Another grassroots strategy is to contact the advertisers who support these shows, cite specific offenses, and complain.
The best way to counter the bottom feeding Clusterfaux crew is to improve education in the USA. A strong mind cant be swayed by their nonsense.
"The only means of strengthening one's intellect is to make up one's mind about nothing, to let the mind be a thoroughfare for all thoughts." - John Keats