Media Matters sums up the Breitbart/Sherrod case:
Here's the thing though; "Is Breitbart washed up?" isn't a question anyone in the media is asking today. It's all about the White House and the NAACP and Shirley Sherrod, as if this hoax just dropped out of the sky without anyone behind it -- a sort of fraud with an immaculate conception. As the video shows, some talking heads got a few shots in, but that's about the extent of it.
There is no question that someone in the administration reacted irrationally to a video put out by a well-known serial liar. And that's something we really need to discuss. But at the expense of talking about the serial liar himself? I don't think so.
The media is absolutely saturated with bullshit pollution from hacks like Andrew Breitbart. If the administration falling for it is such a bad thing -- and it is -- then why is it that the media falling for it is not? Is it serving the public well? It is not. Case in point:
Why didn't Americans know they got a tax cut? Because media outlet after media outlet featured bullshit artists shrieking about how Obama had raised taxes. And those claims were very rarely challenged.
This would be an excellent time for the media to start some sort of self-examination and figure out how it is exactly they could extract their collective head from their collective ass. And they can start by reporting on what a fraud Andrew Breitbart really is and why they take people like him seriously.
UPDATE: I'm not going to repost it here, but check out Rachel Maddow's take on FOX News' coverage of this thing. One day, they were all "Racism! She's racist! RACIST!", the next they were all "shame on the media for jumping the gun on this story."
It makes my head hurt. Do FOX News viewers drink more than most people? Someone should do a study, because I'd almost think they'd have to. How could you fall for obvious crap like that and be sober?
UPDATE II: the New York Times demonstrates exactly what I'm talking about here with an editorial that takes the administration to task, but doesn't mention Breitbart even once. Apparently, the edited clip just spontaneously came into existence and no one is to blame for it.
Here's the thing though; "Is Breitbart washed up?" isn't a question anyone in the media is asking today. It's all about the White House and the NAACP and Shirley Sherrod, as if this hoax just dropped out of the sky without anyone behind it -- a sort of fraud with an immaculate conception. As the video shows, some talking heads got a few shots in, but that's about the extent of it.
There is no question that someone in the administration reacted irrationally to a video put out by a well-known serial liar. And that's something we really need to discuss. But at the expense of talking about the serial liar himself? I don't think so.
The media is absolutely saturated with bullshit pollution from hacks like Andrew Breitbart. If the administration falling for it is such a bad thing -- and it is -- then why is it that the media falling for it is not? Is it serving the public well? It is not. Case in point:
CBS News, Feb. 2010:
Of all the very information that came out of the recent CBS News/New York Times poll, one question stuck out, that of taxes.
Here's the poll question: "In general, do you think the Obama Administration has increased taxes for most Americans, decreased taxes for most Americans or have they kept taxes the same for most Americans?"
The answer:
" 24 percent of respondents said they INCREASED taxes.
" 53 percent said they kept taxes the same
" And 12 percent said taxes were decreased.
Why didn't Americans know they got a tax cut? Because media outlet after media outlet featured bullshit artists shrieking about how Obama had raised taxes. And those claims were very rarely challenged.
This would be an excellent time for the media to start some sort of self-examination and figure out how it is exactly they could extract their collective head from their collective ass. And they can start by reporting on what a fraud Andrew Breitbart really is and why they take people like him seriously.
UPDATE: I'm not going to repost it here, but check out Rachel Maddow's take on FOX News' coverage of this thing. One day, they were all "Racism! She's racist! RACIST!", the next they were all "shame on the media for jumping the gun on this story."
It makes my head hurt. Do FOX News viewers drink more than most people? Someone should do a study, because I'd almost think they'd have to. How could you fall for obvious crap like that and be sober?
UPDATE II: the New York Times demonstrates exactly what I'm talking about here with an editorial that takes the administration to task, but doesn't mention Breitbart even once. Apparently, the edited clip just spontaneously came into existence and no one is to blame for it.
Logging you in...
@shivabeach · 767 weeks ago
GriperBlade 70p · 767 weeks ago
@abwrites · 767 weeks ago
GriperBlade 70p · 767 weeks ago
mdanz · 767 weeks ago
Chompsky documented this idea and brought it to light in the book, "Manufacturing Consent."
The media is now in the business of manufacturing dissent.
And U.S. based corporations, through the leadership of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, who recently vowed to inject $50 million into Republican mid-terms, are hoarding $1.8 Trillion dollars from the American economy, while making demands that read like a terrorist's ransom note, are squeezing America further, while the media keeps asking of the Obama administration, "where are the jobs...?"
It doesn't take a tinfoil hat to see what's been going on.
From the no-strings attached TARP, which most Americans do not realize was initiated under Bush, to driving the getaway car for a super 'goat-fucking' douche like Breitbart, there's a concerted effort to be as useless as possible in the realm of information, fact-checking, and even into job creation.
This administration has put women, children, the elderly, the sick, the unemployed, small businesses, and the disenfranchised, otherwise known as the American people, in a better position than they were just 18 months ago.
Left-leaning ideology, even in our form of government, and even in the minimal doses we've seen, will always be the enemy of the masters of the universe who will always use every tool in the box, including corporate media memes, especially, to destroy people-based policies that protect them from greed and exploitation.
Breitbart is just another tool to that end.
"Failure" is the order of the day, everyday.