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beskeptigal
SFN Die Hard
USA
3834 Posts |
 Posted - 09/05/2004 : 03:51:50
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I'm not one for conspiracies but the news reporting of the 2004 campaign is really making me question my better common sense.
How did the supposed poll numbers change by 10+% over night? Just who did Time and Newsweek poll anyway? I just find that very hard to believe.
Clearly the news coverage is looking more and more biased toward Bush all the time. The Republicans know how to make better one liners to put on the air I suppose, but it came across very one sided. How are they selecting which sound bites to air. They showed Kerry today making a sort of round about statement on Bush's job record in contrast to the Spitball comment that was played over and over.
So is Kerry not making better sound bite material or is the mainstream news media picking worse statements to air?
And I have heard several stupid people interviews describing the 1/2 million people protesting as something akin to a few unemployed hippies who like to "attend these things".
The newspapers are starting to have coverage that isn't getting on any of the TV stations. That wasn't true for a while. The papers had longer pieces, but not much extra. They certainly had better coverage of the marches.
I just hope the independent news media becomes the mainstream news soon. I have heard more real news just by listening to Democracy Now and a few other programs than is carried by 24 hours a day of the other crummy stations.
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
Posted - 09/05/2004 : 04:29:39 [Permalink]
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It's 'cause spitballs are more interesting than drab, ordinary people being out of a job. No entertainment in that and you can't easily spin it to favor Republicans.
I get all my news on-line (don't watch much toob at all). It's a lot more reliable.
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist! 
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Gorgo
SFN Die Hard
USA
5310 Posts |
Posted - 09/05/2004 : 04:41:37 [Permalink]
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| The media is extreme far-right wing just allowing criminals like George Bush and Dick Cheney any air-time at all. |
I know the rent is in arrears
The dog has not been fed in years
It's even worse than it appears
But it's alright-
Jerry Garcia
Robert Hunter
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Renae
SFN Regular
543 Posts |
Posted - 09/05/2004 : 07:19:15 [Permalink]
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I was listening to Air America yesterday (online, because we don't get it on radio in Seattle) and I have to admit: it was boring. Now I'd rather have something pointy and on fire inserted in my left nostril than to listen to Rush Limbaugh, but he IS more colorful and interesting than what I heard on Air America (and what I hear from the few liberal radio shows left). Emotional, confrontational stuff generally sells better than thoughtful, reasoned stuff.
I don't see a conspiracy so much as I see greed.
Further, the Republicans have mastered the art of manipulating the American public's emotions. They're frighteningly good at it. The best explanation of this I've read so far (Called "Dick Cheney and the Reptile Brain"):
http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0817-13.htm
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Gorgo
SFN Die Hard
USA
5310 Posts |
Posted - 09/05/2004 : 07:32:56 [Permalink]
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| I heard Cheney, and I think Zell Miller say, something to the effect of, "we will defend our country, and we will not ask for permission." In other words, "we don't give a shit about international or domestic law, we'll murder whoever the hell we want to and you're not going to do anything about it." People love this mindless nonsense. Those that aren't religious fanatics are using the religious fanatics for their own gain. |
I know the rent is in arrears
The dog has not been fed in years
It's even worse than it appears
But it's alright-
Jerry Garcia
Robert Hunter
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Chippewa
SFN Regular
USA
1496 Posts |
Posted - 09/05/2004 : 14:47:13 [Permalink]
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quote:
Originally posted by beskeptigal
...Clearly the news coverage is looking more and more biased toward Bush all the time. The Republicans know how to make better one liners to put on the air I suppose...
I think the present mindset of the TV news media allows for a tendency for overall political reporting to lean toward the right, either consciously (Fox) of unconsciously. The news networks these days have an attitude toward balanced reporting, which means: always balancing what they perceive to be equal time for all opinions. But even if some of the opinions are looney, they get equal time if they're loud and blunt enough. This attitude finds its core in advertising. The news media in the States today, dutifully reports the news, but in politics it is ever conscious not to offend viewers, even if those viewers are so wacko that they deserve to be offended. The news channels sell advertising and they want maximum ratings. Even wackos buy things. TV news clumsily (Fox) or artfully report a political story so as to maintain equal footing for both conservative and liberal viewpoints. But what if the right or left happen to be completely wrong about an issue? Doesn't mater. They report the speech, statement, blunder or achievement in such a way that all sides are heard from.
The rightwing makes use of this attitude with their favoring of blunt, lowest-common-denominator sound bites, such as: "The economy is getting stronger." - George Bush. (A moronic statement made without further explanation.) However, Bush, Cheney and others can say anything they want because this will be followed by an analysis wherein an invited more articulate Republican dignitary will deny the actual statement and reinterpret it with political spin aimed at John Kerry.
The rightwing also tends to bellow more than the left (or middle). So they will object more ferociously to anything deemed unfair. Even the most professional cable news outlet, such as CNN, in a effort to be fair, will invite the rightwing counter charge to anything that could be perceived as helpful to the Democrats. The Democrats in turn will tend to explain, while the right moves on to another attack or objection. The attacks are remembered more that the explanations. So this results in the news media leaning toward the rightwing.
Reporting today tends to legitimize even the most dangerous aspects of the far right by allowing their "opinions" on equal footing with what are deemed liberal, moderate, conservative or mainstream views. A scary far-right that Biblically believes the world is doomed and might do less than their best efforts to prevent catastrophe if it somehow conflicts with their view of prophesy, happens to be running the country at this time.
If the Democrats were arguing that the earth is round, and flat-earthers in the White House had co-opted patriotism and the Republican party, the news media would be providing equal time to flat-earther opinions after every science story so as not to offend flat-earth viewers, and Fox would change their logo to accommodate a flat-earth with the America flag proudly waving above.
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Gorgo
SFN Die Hard
USA
5310 Posts |
Posted - 09/05/2004 : 15:27:24 [Permalink]
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Mike Malloy is more of a Rush Limbaugh of the left. Not that he's as big a liar as Rush, but that he is loud and emotional.
quote:
Originally posted by Renae
I was listening to Air America yesterday (online, because we don't get it on radio in Seattle) and I have to admit: it was boring.
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I know the rent is in arrears
The dog has not been fed in years
It's even worse than it appears
But it's alright-
Jerry Garcia
Robert Hunter
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Dude
SFN Die Hard
USA
6891 Posts |
Posted - 09/05/2004 : 15:52:43 [Permalink]
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| We don't have a real press corp. We have a tabloid press corp. |
Ignorance is preferable to error; and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing, than he who believes what is wrong.
-- Thomas Jefferson
"god :: the last refuge of a man with no answers and no argument." - G. Carlin
Hope, n.
The handmaiden of desperation; the opiate of despair; the illegible signpost on the road to perdition. ~~ da filth |
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gezzam
SFN Regular
Australia
751 Posts |
Posted - 09/06/2004 : 02:43:56 [Permalink]
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I trust Zogby polls more
http://zogby.com/news/ReadNews.dbm?ID=857 |
Mistakes are a part of being human. Appreciate your mistakes for what they are: precious life lessons that can only be learned the hard way. Unless it's a fatal mistake, which, at least, others can learn from.
Al Franken |
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Cuneiformist
The Imperfectionist
USA
4955 Posts |
Posted - 09/06/2004 : 08:50:58 [Permalink]
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quote:
Originally posted by beskeptigal
I'm not one for conspiracies but the news reporting of the 2004 campaign is really making me question my better common sense.
Is there a "vast right wing conspiracy"? Perhaps conspiracy is too strong a word, but in short, the answer has to be yes.
It has been well documented that the RNC its spin points to hundreds of concervative talk radio stations all over the country. An excellent example of how powerful the system works can be seen in the Al Gore "I invented the internet" lie. (See the Daily Howler's summary here.)
A nice (albeit slanted) book on the subject is Rampton and Stauber's Banana Republicans, where they outline quite clearly how conservatives have created an amazing network of think tanks and media outlets to send out a coordinated message.
This is all helped by the mainstream press, which feels obliged to present a "balanced" picture of things. Thus, for example, global warming remains a debate as scientists on the payroll of conservative think tanks step out and make claims about how dubious the global warming science is by disembling and distorting the facts.
It probably also doesn't help that most of the main stream media are owned by mega-corportations. How often is NBC going to report about legal problems related to GE? And is ABC's 20/20 really going to look closely at anything Disney does?
I could go on, but I'll stop here. I'm not about to argue that Karl Rove runs America or anything, but it is clear that the RNC and various neo-conservative elites to have a very effective system for spreading their propaganda-- much greater than the DNC or liberal elites.
As Paul Krugman noted in his The Great Unraveling, "yes, Virginia, there is a vest right-wing conspiracy. It's not even especially hidden: anyone with a modem and some spare time can inform himself about the network of institutions that systematically harass prominent liberals and bully news sources that don't toe the line." |
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jhee
New Member
Cayman Islands
5 Posts |
Posted - 09/10/2004 : 20:08:17 [Permalink]
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conspiracy?? what conspiracy??
Who controlls the weather? That's what I want to know. |
"get on, get off or get out the way!" |
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Cuneiformist
The Imperfectionist
USA
4955 Posts |
Posted - 09/10/2004 : 20:15:17 [Permalink]
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quote:
Originally posted by jhee
conspiracy?? what conspiracy??
Who controlls the weather? That's what I want to know.
From current events, it's tempting to think that it's someone who hates Florida... |
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BigPapaSmurf
SFN Die Hard
3192 Posts |
Posted - 09/11/2004 : 06:22:06 [Permalink]
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| It wouldnt be an elction without conspiracy, its almost required of a winning candidate. |
"...things I have neither seen nor experienced nor heard tell of from anybody else; things, what is more, that do not in fact exist and could not ever exist at all. So my readers must not believe a word I say." -Lucian on his book True History
"...They accept such things on faith alone, without any evidence. So if a fraudulent and cunning person who knows how to take advantage of a situation comes among them, he can make himself rich in a short time." -Lucian critical of early Christians c.166 AD From his book, De Morte Peregrini |
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