Spiritgirl, June 4 at 6:15 pm #

I must admit, that I am biased when it comes to the MSM - or as I affectionately call them the “info-tainment industry”!  I realized a long time back that these corporate people have no need to explain objectively the pro’s and con’s of any issue.  The “journalists” are too busy fretting about their own “celebrity”, and their corporate handlers are too busy distracting Americans from the real issues so that they can continue milking the corporate oligarchy that used to be our representative democracy!
**********************************************

SpiritGirl and MaryT raise two great points: 1) the American people are not being fooled anymore 2) the Dims’ spineless ineptness at manipulating the media is overshadowed by the Re-thugs’ mastery of it.

SG makes the additional point that news and analysis has been replaced by info-tainment to get ratings and this ties to FT’s point about right-wing ownership of the MSM.

All this means is that the years of Left reporters working for Right publishers but STILL having the freedom to write has been replaced by a different paradigm:  “News” as a profit center.  Now it’s not getting the scoop because the scoop gets the ratings, it’s skipping directly to marketing to get the ratings EVEN IF IT MEANS SUPPRESSING IMPORTANT NEWS!

OTOH, there’s the Fox model: Have a so-called news organization follow the 20’s and 30’s European model and function solely as the propaganda arm of the right wing of the Re-thug party.  But, funny thing—Fox’s lying and blatant twisting and promotion of the WORST extremists has back-fired.

In the face of nominal unemployment touching 10% (it was 9.4% yesterday) many people no longer believe the crap they’ve been fed by Fox.  If you are out of work and are defaulting on your mortgage, you’re not going to believe Limbaugh, Hannity and O’Liely when they say a) things aren’t so bad b) government shouldn’t help YOU (only the banks) and c) it’s really all your own fault anyway so you’re only getting what you deserve.  Yeah, things aren’t bad for Limbaugh—that slob is STILL pulling down $50 million/year to spew his venom into the airwaves.

When reality is hitting you in the face and pocketbook you no longer believe the bullshit that tells you it isn’t what you think it is.  Or, as I love to quote Chico Marx foreshadowing Rush, Sean and Bill…“Who you gonna believe? Me, or your own eyes?”

BTW, the REAL unemployment rate is much, much higher, because the nominal rate doesn’t count people who have used up their benefits, or have taken part-time jobs, or are working multiple jobs and are out of their industry and skill set.

If you do not agree with the corp. elite’s view, why support their puppet politicians and their media stooges?

Starve the beast!

Resist anything they want you to do. Do not buy their goods or services. Exchange via flea markets or friends and family. Barter or try and do without. Do nothing that will keep the gangsters who robbed you, devalued your equity and skimmed off the trillions and leaving behind the wormy “derivatives.”

Starve the beast and keep a guarded eye on their mainstream media. They are counting on keeping their loot and your poor memory.

Starve the beast and refuse to cooperate.

The corporate media is only too happy to allow Newt, Cheney, and Rush to draw us to the right. It suits their political agenda and it sells “entertainment news.”

At this juncture, probably our country is cooked anyway.

Lobbyists are all agents of the plutocracy and Congress won’t escape favoring the interests that finance their campaigns.

With powerful union forces gone, politicians barely even pretend to represent the people. Money drowns out our voices and Obama is slowly forgetting or gradually backing down from progressive causes.

Health care reform is sunk and short-term-minded leaders don’t have the mental capacity to see the future that the plutocracy is taking us to.

It won’t be pretty for the middle class.

JP,

I’m afraid you’re right. I don’t watch Fox but I do watch too much CNN and MSNBC and they give way too much airtime to not only Gingrich and recaps of Limbaughs show, but throw in Tancredo and Delay, the former and bigot and the latter who should be in jail. The right likes to complain about the “liberal” media, but that is a farce. The media is very much middle right centered not middle left. And of course the worst network of the three, Fox News is right-right, with not only a slew of right wing guests but host who are right wing - it is a right wing love fest. CNN and MSNBC need to get a better roster of guests and MSNBC needs to dump Pat Buchanan. He is a real embarrassment with his bigoted views.

How the Far Left has always aided the Far Rights goal of Destroying a Dem President- here we go again.
Don’t get me Wrong I am not advocating the same blind following that was afforded W.
But I am saying is more often than not the Far Right uses Left points against US. It goes well beyond scavaging old arguements made by the Left about W’s admin. They jump on any current discourse to use as proof of ‘Failure’. Rush has taken on a far left Attitude about the Military dissing both Powell and the Navy Seals. He will soon be a War protester too, blaming the entire fiasco on Obama… “Forget the last 7 years of Screw ups in Afghanistan, it’s the last 5 months have doomed US to failure.”
Come on Lefties we all know the far Right has no cognitive skills of their own- they plagarize their every thought…Now they are taking Ownership of Your points too. You are not only providing them talking points, you are Writing their Daily Scripts!
Heres the Point the Left should be diligently Expounding - Obama was handed the end results of Decades of Screwed up policies on foreign relations, economic stratedgies, healthcare, Industrial and financial profiteering… and he is dong the best anyone could do to untangle the cluster f*cked Web that has been weaved for the last 1/2 century.
Will his solutions be perfect- No. Will they Solve every problem -No…But it is Progress headed in the Right Direction.
I have the inclination to Bitch slap not only the Far Right, but also the Far Left.both are nothing more than hyterical Screaming ‘Me Mes’ who are so blinded by their own self Righteous zealotry they have never offered up ANY reasonable or viable ideas.The Repugs were not the only Ones ‘kicked of the island’ during the last election. Sit down and shut up and actually listen for once.FYI-both your Ideas and “nay saying” has been Overwhelmingly Rejected in the last campaign season.We are not going to Screw over the Afghani Citizens again by rapid haphazard withdrawl.We are not going to just Free every person in detention (some DO deserve to be there). We are not going to unhook the insideous bloodline fed by WallStreeeters into our economic Life.Gay Marriage may never be nationaized,but Gay legal unions could be. Gays in the military is not the issue- It is any of those who are unfit to serve and dishonor the uniform(and the country) which is the True issue. We can not magically convert over to renewable energy, or nationaized medicine and We are not all becoming Vegans!By the Way the release of those Torture photos to the General public,is an egregious act against those detainees rights to privacy and dignity.
There are No Magic Wands Nor Tooth Fairies. This all encompassing situation is screwed up and has been for a very long time!Stop helping the ones who created this mess or are trying to bury the Cat Shit for their ‘fearless leaders’ by laying the blame to all our Woes on this New Democratic President.
Newt & Rush are ‘winning’ only because the Far left is aiding them in their attempt to misconstrue the Facts, derail any real progress and Blame everything on the Democrats.

E.J. Dionne’s viewpoint is consistent with anyone who mistakenly believes they live in a democratic republic, rather than a fascist plutocracy.

The genius of the American Reich has been its propaganda apperatus, modeled after that of Joseph Goebbels. The big lie, the sentimental homily, the slightly-annoyed pov, the scapegoat, the victim mentality…it’s all there, naked and butt ugly. American media or the Goebbels hour…it’s all the same.

I can’t say I agree with you 100%.  First off most of the polling data show that Americans are ahead of both Congress and the loud-mouthed talking bubble heads that are given volumes of media coverage.  Yet the MSM wonders why, people are no longer “reading papers”, and getting much of their “news” from the internet, and yes - Jon Stewart.

I must admit, that I am biased when it comes to the MSM - or as I affectionately call them the “info-tainment industry”!  I realized a long time back that these corporate people have no need to explain objectively the pro’s and con’s of any issue.  The “journalists” are too busy fretting about their own “celebrity”, and their corporate handlers are too busy distracting Americans from the real issues so that they can continue milking the corporate oligarchy that used to be our representative democracy!

Folktruther: ’[I]t is crucial for the population to develop its own media and truth consensus.  This is a precondition for political activity because now the US powerstate has dispoweved the American people who cannot unite against the power structure. ...

Maybe a viable strategy is to politically unite cooperatives, including across national boundaries, to form a media and truth network. ...’

The curious indulgence of the ruling class for right-wing claptrap of the sort Limbaugh purveys seems rather odd to me.  I suppose they think people who believe in stuff like that are easier to manipulate, but I’m not sure that’s so.  Leftish urban types seem quite willing to be led by the nose, whereas some crazed old guy out in a garage in the woods could be unpredictably cantankerous.  At least the ones I’ve met have been.

In any case you are right: if we’re not going to be constantly deceived we need a different kind of media, of truth-creation.  I thought people had learned something from the way the war in Vietnam was created out of lies, but the willingness of the people to support the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq show that that something was not much.  There is a lot of work to do.

I cannot help thinking this is enabled by the positions Obama is taking. He is constantly veering to the right so the center is not where the voters stand but where the extreme right stands. 
Obama wants comprise but he is the one compromising, not the Gingrichs (I leave Limbaugh to the rabid blood thirsty religious fanatics) and his band of right-wing extremists.
However, the final failure sits squarely on the shoulders of Congress and this for thirty years.  Congress, sold to the lobbies, Congress voting away its own powers, caving to the executive branch…Congress BETRAYING the American citizens for money and petty prestige positions. It is Congress who voted away the regulations on the Press, the visual media, the banks, trade, jobs and human decency.  We have had one commission after another, toothless kittens lapping up their milk; these hapless parasites bowing and scraping to their masters. 
There are days when I think that if there is another mealy-mouthed commission with “the honorable gentlemen” I’ll toss the TV out the window. They take us for fools, pick our pockets and obey the military-industrial complex whom they serve.

But the question now is where does Obama really stand?

Astonishingly, the journalistic hack Dioone actually raises a crucial issue here.  The American ruling class that owns the mass media traditionally has been overwealmingly Republican, perhaps until Obama, and the media is funded by the advertising of business. Therefore the media continually pulls the American truth consensus to the right, focusing on right wing issues by right wingers and ignoring the populations major concerns.  this has created a mainstream truth consensus in the US that is pathologically irrational.

Dem leaders must work within the truth consensus, or be sleazed in the media and denied funding by the ruling class, which destroys their political careers.  With the uniions destroyed by globalization, the US population have no independant truth base to counter the right wing sleaze.  The progrressive truth is thus maintained in the media by conservative truthers like Dionne, whose political function is to neutralize the mobilization of the US population.

That is why it is crucial for the population to develop its own media and truth consensus.  This is a precondition for political activity because now the US powerstate has dispoweved the American people who cannot unite against the power structure.

But how can this be done?  Truth requires money, and the population has less and less relative to the Educated classes.  People somehow must develop an independant basis for constructing a people ideology necessary to integrating the American people.  Anarcissie has suggested cooperatives, but they must be united and integrated in some way politically to form a viable alternative.

Maybe a viable strategy is to politically unite cooperatives, including across national boundaries, to form a media and truth network.  I am just thinking out loud here; I have no experience whatever with cooperatives.  But it is the only historical approach that I can think of that may be politically viable.