Comments on: Right Now: The Tea Party Protests

[starleo146]

To some foreigners, the U.S. news media?s early coverage of the Iraq War had the feel of what might be expected in a totalitarian state.

"There have been times, living in America of late, when it seemed I was back in the Communist Moscow I left a dozen years ago," wrote Rupert Cornwell in the London-based Independent. "Switch to cable TV and reporters breathlessly relay the latest wisdom from the usual unnamed ?senior administration officials,? keeping us on the straight and narrow. Everyone, it seems, is on-side and on-message. Just like it used to be when the hammer and sickle flew over the Kremlin." [Independent, April 23, 2003]

Bush?s Slide

Bush skeptics were essentially not tolerated in most of the U.S. news media, and journalists who dared produce critical pieces could expect severe career consequences, such as the four CBS producers fired for a segment on how Bush skipped his National Guard duty, a true story that made the mistake of using some memos that had not been fully vetted.

[starleo146]

Yet, despite the evidence of that, the major American news media mocked Hillary Clinton when she complained about a "vast right-wing conspiracy."

After Clinton survived impeachment, the national press corps transferred its hostility toward Vice President Al Gore in Campaign 2000 , ridiculing him as a serial exaggerator and liar, even when that required twisting his words. [For details, see our book Neck Deep.]

Then, when George W. Bush wrested the White House away from Gore with the help of five Republican partisans on the U.S. Supreme Court, the drumbeat of hostility toward the American President suddenly disappeared, replaced by a new consensus about the need for unity. The 9/11 attacks deepened that sentiment, putting Bush almost beyond the reach of normal criticism.

Again, the right-wing media and the mainstream press moved almost in lockstep. The deferential tone toward Bush could be found not just on Fox News or right-wing talk radio, but in the Washington Post and (to a lesser degree) the New York Times -- and on CNN and MSNBC. [For details, see Consortiumnews.com?s "America?s Matrix."]

[starleo146]

he stage was set for the Republican "revolution" of 1994, which put the GOP in charge of Congress. Only in the latter days of the Clinton administration, as the Republicans pushed for his ouster through impeachment, did a handful of small media outlets, including Consortium news.com and Salon.com, recast the war on Clinton as a new-age coup d?etat.

[starleo146]

So, while criticism of Republican presidents -- from Ronald Reagan to the two Bushes -- had to be tempered for fear of counterattacks, almost anything could be said against a Democratic president, Bill Clinton or now Barack Obama, who is repeatedly labeled a "socialist" and, according to Beck, a "fascist" for pressuring hapless GM chief executive Rick Wagoner to resign.

The Clinton Wars

The smearing of President Clinton started during his first days in office as the right-wing news media and the mainstream press pursued, essentially in tandem, "scandals" such as his Whitewater real-estate deal, the Travel Office firings and salacious accusations from Arkansas state troopers.

Through talk radio and mailed-out videos, the Right also disseminated accusations that Clinton was responsible for "murders" in Arkansas and Washington. These hateful suspicions about Clinton spread across the country, carried by the voices of Rush Limbaugh and G. Gordon Liddy as well as via videos hawked by Religious Right leader Jerry Falwell.

While not accepting the "murder" tales, mainstream publications, like the Washington Post and the New York Times, often took the lead in pushing or exaggerating Clinton financial "scandals." Facing these attacks, Clinton sought some safety by tacking to the Right, which prompted many on the American Left to turn on him.

[starleo146]

Meanwhile, the American Left never took media seriously, putting what money it had mostly into "organizing" or into direct humanitarian giving. Underscoring the Left?s fecklessness about media, progressives have concentrated their relatively few media outlets in San Francisco, 3,000 miles away -- and three hours behind -- the news centers of Washington and New York.

By contrast, the Right grasped the importance of "information warfare" in a modern media age and targeted its heaviest firepower on the frontlines of that war -- mostly the political battlefields of Washington -- thus magnifying the influence of right-wing ideas on policymakers.

One consequence of this media imbalance is that Republicans feel they can pretty much say whatever they want -- no matter how provocative or even crazy -- while Democrats must be far more circumspect, knowing that any comment might be twisted into an effective attack point against them.

[TheMasses01]

Not surprised Georgia was well represented, in Georgia Good Lord they are the leader in right wingers, look who they voted for in the election Palin and Mc Bush. can you imagine what a mess we would have had had they won. He said,"I am not a economy expert.
Posted by starleo146
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Many of the major cities had decent turnouts.

"By and large, the Washington press corps continues to function within a paradigm set in the 1980s, mostly bending to the American Right,"

I am not so sure about that though. Most networks are pandering to Obama.

[starleo146]

Watching Glenn Beck of Fox News rant about "progressive fascism" -- and muse about armed insurrection -- or listening to mainstream pundits prattle on about Barack Obama as the "most polarizing President ever," it is hard to escape the conclusion that today?s U.S. news media represents a danger to the Republic.

By and large, the Washington press corps continues to function within a paradigm set in the 1980s, mostly bending to the American Right, especially to its perceived power to destroy mainstream journalistic careers and to grease the way toward lucrative jobs for those who play ball.

The parameters set by this intimidated (or bought-off) news media, in turn, influence how far Washington politicians feel they can go on issues, like health-care reform or environmental initiatives, or how risky they believe it might be to pull back from George W. Bush?s "war on terror" policies.

Democratic hesitancy on these matters then enflames the Left, which expresses its outrage through its own small media, reprising the old theme that there?s "not a dime?s worth of difference" between Democrats and Republicans -- a reaction that further weakens chances for any meaningful reform.

This vicious cycle has repeated itself again and again since the Reagan era, when the Right built up its intimidating media apparatus -- a vertically integrated machine which now reaches from newspapers, magazines and books to radio, TV and the Internet. The Right accompanied its media apparatus with attack groups to go after troublesome mainstream journalists.

[starleo146]

Even Fox says a few hundreds ...
Posted by abbe91 at 2:03
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Hahahahahahahahahaha!
Try thousands.
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4,000 in Atlantra alone .......................
Posted by TheMasses01 at 2:21 PM : Apr 16, 2009
+ report abuse + permalink

Not surprised Georgia was well represented, in Georgia Good Lord they are the leader in right wingers, look who they voted for in the election Palin and Mc Bush. can you imagine what a mess we would have had had they won. He said,"I am not a economy expert.

[starleo146]

honestly believe these right wingers are a threat to our national security, and to take there precious leader Bush's Patriot Act and start arresting them for treason.
Posted by starleo146
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You are confused I see.
You folks seem to be missing the point. They aren't protesting current high taxes. They are protesting the taxes that will become necessary to cover the over-the-top spending proposals in the budget. Government services come with a cost, and that cost is taxes. In reality they are protesting the proposed deficit spending which is at record levels. The protests for the taxes exclusively will likely follow later. This has nothing to do with any former Presidents. That's just a lame fallback for the commie wannabees.
Posted by TheMasses01 at 2:13 PM : Apr 16, 2009

MAY I ASK WHERE WERE THESE PROTESTERS WHEN Bush was president, exactly they loved every minute he was there running the deficit up to 3 trillion dollars, gave him everything he wanted so do not give me that milarky. Obama is trying to straighten it out, and it would just kill theses right wingers if he did it. Just what do you think these protesters did but make fools of themselves. Glen Beck Hannity, and Limbaugh all these fools that never, never have good to say they want Obama to fail and will not stop till the do just that . they are a threat to all of us with their crazy beliefs that will destroy us all before it is through

[TheMasses01]

Even Fox says a few hundreds ...
Posted by abbe91 at 2:03
-----------------------------------
Hahahahahahahahahaha!
Try thousands.
------------------------------------
4,000 in Atlantra alone .......................