James O’Keefe has made a name for himself over the past year with his guerrilla journalism. He’s exposed ACORN, Planned Parenthood, and NPR. Here’s a video of a speech he gave recently:
Yeah, this guy really sounds evil. Isn’t this what free journalism is all about? Journalism is supposed to expose the truth. Big media is group think. Big corporations are in bed with both parties and the media protects the status quo.
What does the left think of O’Keefe?
This is the price for exposing the truth. Remember when “speaking truth to power” was important to liberals? This country needs more journalists like James O’Keefe.
Tasty at the ballpark, but downright disgusting when packaged as news.
There are various ways to describe the traditional media in America. By traditional, I mean the media that dominated American newsgathering and dissemination for most of its history, first with the metropolitan daily papers, then radio and finally weekly newsmagazines and the big three television networks: ABC, NBC and CBS.
To some degree, the first all-news cable network, CNN, was and is part of this traditional media mix. But it was the forerunner of the New Media, which has successfully fragmented the monopolistic hold traditional media had on reporting news.
The most common term used to describe traditional media is Mainstream. This misses the mark, however, because it is increasingly irrelevant and no longer in the mainstream of American life. Conservatives derisively refer to it as the Lamestream Media, the Dinosaur Media and the Drive-By Media, among others. Liberals, on the other hand, tend to hang onto Mainstream. I suppose it’s comforting to hearken back to a day when news was controlled by the elite few whose opinions were developed in the vacuum of academia, Manhattan, Chicago and Los Angeles.
I think this will be my last post about this issue, but here we are four days from the tragedy in Arizona and there’s nothing really left to know about Jared Loughner. His motives have been endlessly dissected and there are zero ties to any right-wing ideology. That doesn’t stop Newsweek from running this:
The Missed Warning Signs
A 2009 study warned that the rise of right-wing extremism could spur violent attacks. But the report was attacked by Republicans, including now-Speaker John Boehner.
Two years before the Tucson massacre, the Department of Homeland Security warned in a report that right-wing extremism was on the rise and could prompt “lone wolves” to launch attacks. But the agency backed away from the report amid intense criticism from Republicans, including future House Speaker John Boehner.
Huh? Does Newsweek exist in some parallel universe where Jared Loughner is Sarah Palin’s husband? Hot Air is all over this 20 paragraph article, but don’t be too upset. The author gets to the part about there being no connection to the right in paragraph 19. Newsweek took the train to Crazytown a long time about, but it’s still unbelievable to see it. Allahpundit has more:
This story was written not by a Newsweek staffer but by a reporter from the “nonpartisan” Center for Public Integrity, which has been criticized for years for taking money from, among others, Soros’s Open Society Institute. I mention that fact reluctantly, only because at this point the Soros angle is a red herring. After all, there’s nothing in this piece that isn’t perfectly in keeping with the disinformation about Loughner being spread by various other media outlets over the past few days.
Political opportunism isn’t anything new and thankfully most Americans are smart enough to see through this attempt by the media to smear the right. 57% of Americans believe that political rhetoric and the shooting are unrelated; however, 42% of Democrats believe the rhetoric is related to the shooting. We hear a lot about Birthers and some of the stupid things people on the right believe, but 42% believe in something with no basis in reality. 42% of Democrats are either too stupid, too lazy, or too brainwashed to get to the truth on this issue. Unfortunately when Newsweek publishes articles like this it makes it so much easier for people to remain uninformed.
The current political climate isn’t extreme. I touched on what would be the liberal blueprint for the Obama administration back in October 2008.
Can anyone see where this is going? If Obama is elected in a month is this going to be the standard defense for Obama? The opposition is just racist?
…..
It’s amazing to me that the press continues to hang charges of racism and divisiveness on McCain when Obama talks about “typical white people” and refers to rural Americans as bitter, clinging to guns, and religion or antipathy. I’m not sure how Obama expects to bring people together, but it’s obvious the press is doing all they can to tear people apart.
The left is automatically programmed to believe that any opposition to Obama cannot be rational. It can only be explained by ignorance and racism. It’s easy to look down at your opposition if you think they’re stupid. They ridiculed Reagan and Bush for being dumb. Now that the left is obsessed about the President’s race they can project their faux moral superiority over the phantom racists who exist solely on the right. Despite what the left believes they simply can’t wish away what happened during the Bush administration.
Is there anything more hilarious than reading liberal journalists interpretation of the current political climate? The current political climate is simple: The economy is suffering under the the highest period of unemployment in a generation, the Congress is corrupt, and the legislation passed during the past two years is unpopular. That’s all there is to it. You don’t have to have a Master’s in political science to figure it out; however, the Associated Press doesn’t appear to have a clue.
Congress passed an $814 billion economic stimulus package soon after President Barack Obama took office, tapping a staggering sum of money to avoid a full-blown depression. Democrats have trumpeted the gains from that effort, but know it’s not enough for restive voters. “Americans still see themselves in a ditch,” said House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer.
The two other landmark acts of this session were the health care overhaul, a giant step toward universal coverage that had eluded presidents back to Franklin Roosevelt if not Teddy Roosevelt, and the Wall Street accountability act.
Obama has also signed into law at least a dozen other pieces of legislation of significance. They include:
- Making college loans more affordable.
- The Cash for Clunkers program that helped rejuvenate the auto industry.
- New consumer protections for credit card users.
- Making it easier for women to challenge pay discrimination.
- Increasing federal regulation of tobacco products.
- Cracking down on waste in Pentagon weapons acquisition.
- Making attacks based on sexual orientation a federal hate crime.
- Giving businesses tax incentives to hire unemployed workers.
- Tax credits for first-time homeowners.
So where is the love?
This is the reality the mainstream press lives in on a daily basis. It’s really a bizarro reality. It’s a world where the Democrats saved Americans from another Great Depression, a college education is more affordable, businesses are hiring, the auto industry is rejuvenated, and credit card companies aren’t gouging customers.
Liberals simply think if you believe that a piece of legislation is going work then it works. ObamaCare is already a disaster. Insurance premiums are already going up. The American auto industry hasn’t been rejuvenated. College tuition is still skyrocketing. So-called journalist Jim Abrams needs to get his head out of his ass and take a look around. His article isn’t news. It isn’t smart. It’s just a talking point for the DNC. This is the state of journalism at the Associated Press.
The current political climate isn’t comparable to the ’60s. When the Democrats passed LBJ’s Great Society the legislation was popular. None of the Democrats’ “accomplishments” in this term have been popular. Popularity be damned; they passed the bills anyway. Americans hate pork, but the Congress passed an 800 billion dollar “stimulus” bill filled with pork. President Obama promised to eliminate pork, yet he signed the biggest steaming pile of pork ever conceived. I know this is shocking to liberals, but when you pass legislation that’s unpopular the price is an electoral massacre.
Jim Abrams may believe it’s because the Democrats haven’t done enough, but believe me they’ve done way too much. These bureaucrats have been in power for four years too long. Hopefully, the Republicans learned something. Democrat Light isn’t going to cut it.
How much longer can MSNBC stay on the air? For all the whining about FOX (some of which is justifiable) MSNBC is now the most politically biased network. Perhaps that’s why independent voters are moving towards FOX.
There is one bright spot for progressives. Apparently younger people love watching Colbert and the Daily Show. Is it really that surprising young people are so hideously ill informed about issues when those type of shows are their news sources? Yes, they are funny, but they’re not a good source of information. Just because a 23 year old male watches Jersey Short today doesn’t indicate how they will vote in the future. At least I hope not.
Why does Microsoft allow their name to be attached to the “liberal news network?” It’s baffling to me that Microsoft would continue to have their brand associated with Olbermann, Matthews, Maddow and the rest of the leg-tinglers at that network.
The left pulled together every ounce of its faux outrage when it learned that Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. contributed $1 million to the Republican Governors Association. I wonder how they feel about the fact that 88 percent of 2008 contributions by TV network execs, writers and reporters went to Obama and Democrats?
The Democratic total of $1,020,816 was given by 1,160 employees of the three major broadcast television networks, with an average contribution of $880.
By contrast, only 193 of the employees contributed to Republican candidates and campaign committees, for a total of $142,863. The average Republican contribution was $744.
This is hardly a shocking revelation to anyone who pays attention to the news on any network beside FOX. Most journalists lean left and despite their best efforts to remain objective their coverage tilts left. That’s why the Washington Post is so desperate for a race riot or anything they can cover that’s damaging to conservatives. I wonder how much these agents of change give to charity in comparison? Hmmm…
“The jaws of power are always open to devour, and her arm is always stretched out, if possible, to destroy the freedom of thinking, speaking, and writing.”
John Adams
Ever since people started reporting on and analyzing the news on the Internet and other new media outside the traditional media outlets, the traditional media has been going through its own version of the Kubler-Ross Five Stages of Grief…
Denial… “This can’t be happening.”
Anger… “Who the hell do these pajama-clad people think they are?”
Bargaining… “Okay. We hate you, so we’ll start doing the same thing.”
Depression… “Our business model sucks and we’re going out of business.”
Acceptance… “Everything will be okay since I can get a federal bailout and have the feds regulate and harass my competition out of business, all in the name of some nebulous public good!”
Fake but accurate: When traditional "journalists" are sure something's true but have no evidence, it's time to go to Kinko's! Image from michellemalkin.com.
Whenever a high-profile blogger gets it wrong, jumps the gun or takes something out of context, the traditional media launches into “I-told-you-so” mode, most recently and notably with the Breitbart/Shirley Sherrod fiasco. However, when one of their own does it, there’s nothing to see (Rathergate).
The traditional media would like nothing better than to consolidate their power in such a way that everyone but the traditional media is held accountable for their actions. I think they call it “accountability journalism,” or what I like to call “baby talk.”
This begs the question: who fact-checks the fact-checkers? Who holds those who wield the sword of accountability accountable? What the traditional media desire is a monopoly on accountability, which is convenient for a demonstrably biased group advancing specific political and ideological agendas. As “gatekeepers” they will ensure the unwashed masses stay outside the gates. Safely inside the gates, the gatekeepers can do whatever the hell they want. Who needs transparency when the gatekeepers are so ethically and morally pure?
Was Breitbart held accountable for posting an out-of-context video? Certainly. Now that the entire video is out and people can see it for themselves they can make their own judgment about it without a monopolistic “accountability” filter designed to tell them what to think.
Fake but accurate: Filmed from multiple angles with hundreds of cell phone cameras recording at the same moment, not one person has come forth with evidence that Tea Partiers screamed racial epithets at black Congressmen who purposely walked the gauntlet to incite the racism that supposedly infuses the Tea Party movement. The accusation may be fake, but the traditional media decided it was accurate so there was no need to verify the veracity of the claims. Now that's accountability journalism!
By the same token, when the media reported with absolute certainty that the N-word was hurled more than a dozen times at black legislators purposely running the Tea Party gauntlet on Capitol Hill, the blogosphere cast serious doubt on this assertion. The traditional media’s reaction? Ignore the evidence and mindlessly repeat a lie since it fits their worldview and narrative.
The traditional media believes the Tea Party is racist, primarily because the Tea Party opposes the first black president’s agenda. In the traditional media narrative, opposition to Obama equals racism. So if A=B is true, then naturally the stuff we make up, C, is true, even if it really didn’t happen.
Rathergate was based on the same thinking. Dan Rather and his colleagues at CBS believed that George W. Bush was a nincompoop and a shirker so they didn’t waste any time double-checking the documents sent to them by a dubious source that helped prove the point. When the documents were shown to be obvious forgeries, Rather and the traditional media circled the wagons. Their final defense? Fake but accurate! I don’t know about you, but I prefer news that’s genuine and accurate.
So, while the traditional media whines and moans about the lack of accountability in the blogosphere, talk radio and Fox News, we’re actually living in a time of hyper-accountability. You can’t publish, post or air anything without someone somewhere holding you to account.
There are obvious drawbacks to this Wild West information age, such as the ease of defamation, but that’s a trade-off I’m willing to make. Information is power, and once concentrated in too few hands it is dangerous.
No one knew who John Guerra was before today. He was a small time journalist at Key News in Key West, FL. Evidently a press release from Connie Mack set Guerra over the edge. Now these kind of ideological meltdowns happen on all sides of the spectrum. What makes this noteworthy is the fact Guerra is a journalist.
The Republican Party is now a mentally ill group of people who want nothing more than to destroy Obama’s first term no matter how much the country needs his policies. I despise your party’s activities and the hatred you spew on Fox and other sounding boards for the insurance companies.
Please don’t you dare get him killed, which is the underlying goal of you right wing nuts.
That hits all the high points. Republicans are all mentally ill nuts who use FOX and really just want Obama to get assassinated. I always like to point out that JFK was assassinated by a communist. He wasn’t some deranged right wing nutjob.
Now that the left doesn’t have Bush to beat up on anymore anyone who is to the right of Nancy Pelosi is an enemy of the state. Conservatives are the object of ridicule, scorn, and hate. Mr. Guerra, who really has a problem with hatred?
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