MSNBC: Preen forward #OhButIKid

 

Oh, but I kid MSNBC. I watch it every single day, and despite it being the only major cable news outlet I can tolerate (or appreciate), there are a few observations that I can no longer keep to myself. Gotta vent. Here's my (satirical) take on MSNBC daytime:

MSNBC Host 1: So welcome to my very own show. So, today's guests are Goldie Taylor, Howard Fineman, David Corn, Joan Walsh, Michael Steele, Jonathan Alter, Michael Eric Dyson, Nicolle Wallace, Mark Halperin, Michael Isikoff, Jonathan Capehart, Kasie Hunt, Eugene Robinson, Ezra Klein, Dave Weigel, Steve Schmidt, and all my fellow MSNBC hosts who are all here to talk about their very own shows! Every single one of them. So have I told you guys what a great job you do? GOD you're good. You all excel at your jobs! To call you stellar doesn't do you justice! I'm so proud to call you "colleagues."

Chuck Todd, Steve Kornacki, Alex Wagner, Chris Hayes, Joy Reid, Ronan Farrow, Krystal Ball, Karen Finney, Melissa Harris-Perry, Ari Melber: So, thank you, my friend! So, congratulations to us! So, group hug to Camera Three!

MSNBC Host 2: So when we return, we'll explore why every MSNBC commentator begins each thought with, "So..." We'll be back in 15 minutes after these messages from Cialis, Cymbalta, Lipitor, Abilify, Celebrex, Humira, Nasonex, and Lyrica.

Chuck Todd, Steve Kornacki, Alex Wagner, Chris Hayes, Joy Reid, Ronan Farrow, Krystal Ball, Karen Finney, Melissa Harris-Perry, Ari Melber: So you forgot AT&T, BP, Exxon, Citibank, catheters, vaginal dryness meds, and Christian Mingle!

One hour later...

MSNBC Host 2: So here to help us make some sense of our top story is the host of [insert any MSNBC daytime show here]. Thanks for being here, Other Host.

Other MSNBC Host: So I'm honored, my friend. You are awesome.

MSNBC Host 2: So no, YOU are, my friend.

Other MSNBC Host: No, YOU! So.

Luke Russert: Um, hello? So did somebody forget to intro Tim Russert's trying-to-fill-his-father's-big-shoes son over here on the monitor? So I've got an exclusive I'm dying to break right here on your very own show, MSNBC Host 2!

MSNBC Host 2: So we could never forget YOU, Luke, my friend, my brother. What's your scoop? You always have the BEST scoops! GOD you're good.

Luke: So, so are you. You are a FABULOUS host, as are you, Other MSNBC Host. You two are superb at everything you do. Nobody does it better. So I'm in tears. Seriously. So how cool is it that we're all such good friends? So who knew being this incestuous could pay so well?

MSNBC Host 2: So tell us your scoop, Amazingly Adept Luke, my brother, my friend, MSNBC's own Sage of Washington DC, Our Capitol Hill Crusader! So don't you just love these obvious displays of public camaraderie? It's like our own private little club! So whatcha got, my friend?

Luke: Well crap. I forgot.

MSNBC Host 2: So we'll be back right after these words from Cialis, Cymbalta, Lipitor, Abilify, Celebrex, Axiron, Humira, Nasonex, Lyrica,  AT&T, BP, Exxon, Citibank, catheters, vaginal dryness meds, Febreze, Aleve, Verizon, Samsung, Cliffside Malibu Rehab Center, Christian Mingle, GE, financial groups you've never heard of, and endless promos of other MSNBC programming and the new MSNBC website!

One hour later...

MSNBC Host 3: So now for more repetitive analysis, welcome back to the hosts of all of our other fantastic shows. You all do such great work. Nobody does it better than you, my friends. GREAT reporting! You all look GREAT! Our audiences should be tuning into each of your shows every single day and night, no matter what effect that much exposure to redundant political infotainment has on their personal relationships!

Chuck Todd, Steve Kornacki, Alex Wagner, Chris Hayes, Joy Reid, Ronan Farrow, Krystal Ball, Karen Finney, Melissa Harris-Perry, Ari Melber: So Rachel has a very special Special coming up! Let's plug it! Over and over and over again!

MSNBC Host 3: I was just about to. But first, may I just say, you guys really set a high bar for journalistic standards. GREAT reporting, guys! But now it's time for the Tweet of the Day from Chris Matthews, MSNBC's very own god. But first: So when is Ezra Klein getting his own show already? He may put us to sleep in seconds, but he does such incredibly GREAT work! GREAT reporting! What a find! Am I right, my friends? Hey Farrow, stop giggling. So I'll get your responses to this and more on the other side of the commercial break. We have a new sponsor: ZzzKlein, er, Quil.

Fade out.

(Laffy Note: I didn't forget to include Lawrence O'Donnell, Chris Matthews, Ed Schultz, or Rachel Maddow in the Long Host List. While they do pop in on election nights or to promote a special or a book occasionally, they rarely guest on other shows as commentators/panel members.)

CNN Fails to Stop Fall in Ratings

By GottaLaff

Let's see now... CNN gets desperate and hires Erick Erickson. If you don't know who that is, here is a reminder from a previous post:

That was then.

This is now:

Health Care Suicide Bombers — Open Thread

Posted by Erick Erickson (Profile)

Saturday, March 13th at 7:34PM EST

33 Comments

Precisely.

Some things never change.

Yes, that's who CNN hired to prop up their sagging ratings.

They might want to rethink their strategy:

CNN continued what has become a precipitous decline in ratings for its prime-time programs in the first quarter of 2010, with its main hosts losing almost half their viewers in a year. [...]

[Larry] King, whose show has been regularly eclipsed by Rachel Maddow’s on MSNBC (and is almost quadrupled by Sean Hannity’s show on Fox), is now threatened by a new host, Joy Behar on HLN (formerly Headline News.)

If by inviting RedState to the family, they're trying to compete with Fox, that won't end well either:

At the same time, Fox News, which had its biggest year in 2009, continues to add viewers. Greta Van Susteren’s show was up 25 percent from a year earlier. Bill O’Reilly, whose show commands the biggest audience in prime time with 3.65 million viewers, was up 28 percent, and Glenn Beck was up 50 percent from a year earlier.

Maybe if hotels, restaurants, etc. would carry MSNBC, we might see some real competition.

Sorry state of affairs all around.

Perpetuating lies must stop or real democracy ceases to exist

By GottaLaff

I'm watching MSNBC as I type this. Forgive the stream-of-consciousness, but sometimes it's easier to communicate that way:

The GOP is reacting to the health care bill bill signing. What an accomplishment that was, and how proud we should be. The Democrats faced so many obstacles that attaining their goal was in real doubt.

But as Vice President Biden said to the president at the signing, "this is a big f'ing deal."

But back to the Rushpublic reaction on the Tee Vee Machine:

Jon Cornyn reiterated the GOP meme that the Democrats were determined "to shove this down the throat of American people". Those would be the very same American people who voted in a guy named Barack Hussein Obama by a landslide, and gave the Democrats the majorities in Congress, because they wanted this bill, or one very much like it. Yeah, Cornyn, those people.

He then cited a CNN poll, perpetuating even more lies. Here is the poll he cited, along with the factual breakdown. Ed Schultz gets kudos for immediately correcting the record, which was refreshing and admirable.

But you know who didn't do that? Chris Matthews.

Earlier today, one of his guests (I was in the other room, so I can't identify her) cited the same poll, repeated the same misleading information, and Matthews said nothing. No. Thing.

I started screaming obscenities. If the media refuse to report news accurately, we get a dumbed-down electorate, and real democracy ceases to exist. Think about that.

And this is exactly what the GOP wants: A dumbed-down electorate. That way, more and more voters believe what they're told by the careless, lazy, bought-and-paid-for corporate media, and more and more elections reflect a badly uninformed and misinformed population.

There you have it: one more thing to fight tooth and nail. We need to educate America, starting right now... Or else, this happens.

I hope this post is a start.

MythInformation: "Deem and Pass" Is NOT "Without A Vote"

By GottaLaff

Bill Scher clarifies something about the health care reform process that the corporate media won't. It's all that pesky"self-executing rule" or "deem and pass," that we've been hearing about.

Yes, the Big Ol' Right Wing Talking Point media outlets claim that it will be passing the Senate health care vote "without a vote."

Wrong:

MSNBC's First Read succinctly explains the process, in case any other professional journalists care to do their jobs.

...the health-care bill would be voted on INDIRECTLY, tucked into what's known as "the rule." The rule essentially outlines the rules for an upcoming vote -- in this case, it would be the vote on the package of reconciliation fixes.

By passing "the rule," the House also would "deem" the Senate bill passed (with a "hereby" statement. "We hereby deem..."). The House would then vote on the package of reconciliation fixes. But the Senate health-care bill would be considered passed even if they never vote on the reconciliation fixes [and] the bill must be signed by the president before the Senate takes up the reconciliation.

So there is a vote by the full House on whether it chooses to pass the Senate health care bill.

If any members of the House do not want to deem the Senate bill passed, they can vote no on the rule which would deem it passed.

Any members of the House who vote "Yes," would do so by recorded vote, so their constituents will be able to judge their actions.

Kinda sounds like democracy.

All that is accomplished here is the consolidation of a step.

Bill has much more, but that's the gist.

We're being fed misinformation and lies by the media again. And again.

This has to stop. How can democracy survive when an unsuspecting and/or low information electorate is not being given facts and context? Instead, we're shown car chases and Tiger Woods surrogates (coughAriFleischercough) after having faulty headlines jammed down our throats.

That's not educating viewers. That's not news. That's infotainment, a few sound bites, and an outhouse full of punditiocracy.

RedState's Erick Erickson joins CNN: TWPNTOTV!!!*

By GottaLaff

When CNN had its old Sunday line-up, I used to post a regular feature that mocked them just as regularly.

They call themselves "The Best Political Team on Television." I referred to them as TBPNTOTV!!!... with three exclamation points to emphasize their emphasis on emphasizing their over-emphasized self-importance and self-congratulatory smugness.

I also tried to expose their not-exactly-fair-and-balanced approach.

And I used lots of snarky !!!!!!!!!!!!! Lots.

Just when I thought they couldn't get any worse:

Prominent conservative commentator and RedState.com editor Erick Erickson will join CNN as a political contributor, appearing primarily on CNN's new show John King, USA¸ the network announced Tuesday. [...]

"Joining CNN is like coming home, and being in Atlanta makes the decision right for me and my family," Erickson said in a statement.

Erick the Red feels as if he's "coming home" to CNN. That pretty much says it all.

Under Erickson's leadership, RedState.com has become the preeminent right of center community online. [...]

"Erick's a perfect fit for John King, USA, because not only is he an agenda-setter whose words are closely watched in Washington, but as a person who still lives in small-town America, Erick is in touch with the very people John hopes to reach," said Sam Feist, CNN political director and vice president of Washington-based programming.

So he's "in touch". That's the definition of "in touch": Erick the Red Erickson. That's how CNN's political director feels, that Erick is the "in touch" go-to guy.

Erick.

RedState.

Erickson.

Sam Feist, you are woefully out of touch.

And CNN has now hit bottom. Officially. Out of touch, out of mind.

CNN: TWPNTOTV!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!*



*The WORST Political News Team on Television, with unlimited exclamation points.

UPDATE: Joeyess reminds me of a post I did back in 2009. Here's a sample:

And this is the unit insignia of the RedState Army's Strike Force:

Like many chickenhawks who struggle with what it means to be a man in the modern era, Erickson and the "soldiers" in his budding "Strike Force" have again tried to imitate serving in the military without actually having to don a uniform, pick up a weapon, or sacrifice much of anything at all.

Could that be any more embarrassing? Or offensive? Or childish? Or presumptuous?

And here's a photo that should have been included, of a typical soldier:


There. Now you're all updated.

VIDEOS- Tea Party Racism: What The Media Won't Show You

By GottaLaff

We keep hearing wounded Tea Tantrumers whine about how misunderstood they are. They're not racists! They're just grassrootsers who care about their country. Real Americans!

Keith Olbermann put that to rest when he exposed Tom Tancredo for who he is, and who he represents:



Now, in that context, and coupled up with the corporate media propaganda that I posted about earlier (a must read), here's another video. If this is "real America", we're in a heap-o'-trouble:

America's corporate media has been covering up the fact that the Tea Party is based on bigotry, hatred and especially racism toward African-Americans. The Tea Party and "teabaggers" blow away the myth of a "post racial" America. Watch this video and see for yourself the well documented history of Tea Party racism that America's corporate media has been hiding from the world.

I'm not sure the media has completely hidden the racism, but they don't seem to emphasize it, expose a good part of it, or put the Tea Tantrumers' overall message in that context. The more quickly we can expose the worst of the worst and marginalize them, the better.

And while we're at it, let's call out the media when necessary, too. As in daily. As in hourly.

H/t: Gr8RDH

MythInformation Watch: Response to WaPo's "Condescending" liberals piece

By GottaLaff

You must read this op-ed by Robert Parry from OpEdNews.com. It gets into a lot of what I've been ranting about lately (media propaganda, Sarah Palin's speech, the death of accurate reporting), only with a twist: Psy-ops.

The trick, [CIA psy-war specialist Edward Lansdale] said, was to plant propaganda in a publication that was perceived to be open and honest because the readers' defenses would be down and thus they would be more susceptible to the message. In other words, they first had to be fooled about who controlled the outlet and what its biases were.

Several things came to mind as I read this: How do you unfool an entire country? Why can't we control the message?

And how do you educate low-information voters?

Pleaseohplease go read the whole thing:

A key strategy of the Right has been to convince as many Americans as possible that the U.S. news media has a "liberal bias," a canard that has stuck even though newspapers have been traditionally pro-Republican and most media outlets are owned by giant corporations reflecting the interests of wealthy individuals. [...]

Alexander's article in the Post is, in essence, a fancily written version of the Right's "populist" anti-intellectualism. Anyone who insists on checking out facts and applying reason must be an "elitist."

That this "condescending" attack line against the Left is being trumpeted by the supposedly "liberal" Washington Post makes it all the more powerful to many Americans.

Now, with the emergence of Sarah Palin as the latest heir to Ronald Reagan's legacy and as a potential next President of the United States it is clear that empiricism will be snowed under again by a blizzard of half-truths, emotional appeals, historical myths and nasty zingers.

Anyone who dares speak up for facts and reason will be portrayed as a pointy-headed intellectual out of touch with "real Americans." [...]

The American Right again has taken on the "populist" mantle of the plucky underdog facing down the "elitist" Obama and his arrogant entourage of House Speaker Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, defenders of Big Government, not to mention the "liberal" news media.

In this narrative, Palin, the Fox News personalities and poor Rush Limbaugh are the real victims who must face the cruelty and condescension of an all-powerful, arrogant Left.

Go read. Now.

H/t: Gr8RDH

Guess who owns Harper, the company that published the Game Change book?

By GottaLaff

So, who owns Harper, the company that published the Game Change book?

One guess. Ready? Hands on buzzers.... The clock has started.

5...4...3...2... (click audio)



Time's up!

Go here for the answer.

Sorry, no parting gifts. Times are tough all over.


To be fair, despite my snark indulgitude, I will update with what Will Bunch just tweeted me:

Actually, Harper's also publishing my 8/10 book (from a lib perspective...duh) on anti-Obama right wing -- also pub. Van Jones, D. Sirota

VIDEO: "If Fox can't be part of it, we won't be part of it"

By GottaLaff



Getting a little clubby, aren't we?

Hey! How about this? If Jeff Gannon can't be part of it, we won't be part of it. Let's not forget his noble efforts, because it make just as much sense and is just as legitimate as taking ClusterFox seriously.

This is downright illogical:

The White House attempted to block Fox News from a round of interviews with "pay czar" Kenneth Feinberg Thursday, but the Washington bureau chiefs of the five TV networks included in the White House pool refused to interview Feinberg unless Fox News was included. [...]

"I'm really cheered by the other members saying "No, if Fox can't be part of it, we won't be part of it,'" Baltimore Sun TV critic (and regular Fox News detractor) David Zurawik said Thursday.

"What it's really about to me is the Executive Branch of the government trying to tell the press how it should behave. I mean, this democracy -- we know this -- only works with a free and unfettered press to provide information," he said.

Note to bureau chiefs: ClusterFox is not a news station. They are a source of vicious propaganda.

Question to bureau chiefs: Where were you when BushCo shunned journalist who didn't agree with them?

ClusterFox Watch: Can You Show Pornography and Call Yourself a 'News' Network?

By GottaLaff

Your Daily Dose of BuzzFlash, via my pal Mark Karlin:

Well, the corporate mainstream media is by and large defending FOX against accurate and unusually candid characterization by the White House. [...]

That's why we wonder if BuzzFlash switched to posting pornography, Ms. Marcus would defend us as a news organization, immune from criticism from the White House. It's positively daffy to consider FOX a legitimate news outlet. [...]

You can support the White House, sanity,democracy, and give a big "up yours" to the corporate media by joining the Turn Off FOX campaign here.

FOX reaches a small majority of Americans, but its influence is broad because it pushes the media so far to the right and makes insurrection and lying acceptable as "news." It is as legitmate a "news" station as a channel showing the latest pornography or broadcasts of "Tokyo Rose."

Jake Tapper of ABC was furious at a White House press briefing that they should be so unfair as to criticize FOX. This is what happens when you let a corporate media control what is "news."

Please go here for the whole thing.

Obama's Poll Numbers Going Up Everywhere (and MSM Ignores It)

By GottaLaff

Via Kos:

As recently as yesterday, an anchor on CNN, astonishingly, mentioned the president's poll numbers still "going down" (ironically, while he was interviewing White House communications director, Anita Dunn on the subject of the media reporting inaccurate information.)

My Dunn post is here, including video.

The four most recent presidential approval polls:

Gallup, 10/8 - 10/10:

56%

CBS News, 10/5 - 10/8:

56%

Ipsos/McClatchy, 10/1 - 10/5:

56%

Associated Press/GfK, 10/1 - 10/5:

56%

For some historical perspective, even Reagan had fallen to 48% by November of his first term.

The Rushpublic god himself? A full eight points behind Obama? I feel Armageddon coming on.

I'm sure the corporate media will report on all of those polls, right? Because they invest so much time and energy investigating hard news stories and digging up facts. They'd never waste their time on silly, irrelevant things like, oh I dunno, self-promotion.

And will they also report that within the data of these four most recent polls is the fact that clear majorities now support both his handling of health care reform and the economy?

Not if Lockup is on.

Calling 'Em Out: The White House Takes on the Press

By GottaLaff

The White House is getting as fed up with the corporate media's carrying water for the Rushpublics as we are. Oh, and then there's the Deviant Nut Network (DNN) called ClusterFox.

All the repetitive hyperbolic coverage of "indoctrination", killing grandma, communist czars, sex clinics at schools, death panels, and unAmerican Olympics distortions were so over the top that even our even-keeled president reached the end of his rope:

The take-no-prisoners turn has come as a surprise to some in the press, considering the largely favorable coverage that candidate Obama received last fall and given the President's vows to lower the rhetorical temperature in Washington and not pay attention to cable hyperbole. [...]

White House officials offer no apologies. "The best analogy is probably baseball," says Gibbs. "The only way to get somebody to stop crowding the plate is to throw a fastball at them. They move."

The general in this war is Dunn, 51, a veteran campaign strategist who arrived at the White House in May. She has been a force in Democratic campaigns since the late 1980s and helmed Obama's rapid-response operation during his run. At the White House, she has become a devoted consumer of conservative-media reports and a fierce critic of Fox News, leading the Administration's effort to block officials, including Obama, from appearing on the network. "It's opinion journalism masquerading as news," Dunn says. "They are boosting their audience. But that doesn't mean we are going to sit back." [...]

[H]er impact on the White House has been unmistakable. Since her arrival, the communications operation has been tightly refocused, with greater emphasis on planning ahead to shape the news cycle and controlling staff contacts with the press. In daily internal meetings, she points out where to strike back or admit error.

[...] "Here in the White House, you are reluctant to feel like you have to go to that place," she says. "But we have to be more aggressive rather than just sit back and defend ourselves, because they will say anything. They will take any small thing and distort it." In other words, after eight months at the White House, the days of nonpartisan harmony are long gone — it's Us against Them. And the Obama Administration is playing to win.

H/t: Ellen

Fox, Drudge-- Ignored? Or the new black and white?

By GottaLaff

And by "black and white" I was referring to print media only, for the sake of a pun... but then you probably got that:

You may have seen that there's a new meme afoot in the news world which has it that the mainstream media either ignores or is insufficiently 'in touch' with the right wing noise machine of Fox, Drudge, Glenn Beck, etc. What's notable however is that the idea seems to be emanating from the folks at Politico whose founders' theory of the media is that its narratives are largely defined by Matt Drudge and who used Drudge as the key vector to build their national audience. I'm not sure how these two facts compute.

I hope Josh Marshall will forgive me for the 100% copy-and-paste. It was a short post and I didn't want to interfere with the way he made his point.

CBO: Public Option Would Reduce Premiums Across The Board

By GottaLaff

Winning arguments for a public option abound. If only the inept media would actually, you know, share them with viewers:

The CBO recently published a new letter on health care reform. They were asked to evaluate the impact of the weak (level playing field) public option in the Senate HELP committee's bill. Their conclusion was that the competitive pressure from the public option “would probably lower private premiums in the insurance exchanges to a small degree,” and with a public plan in the exchange “the costs and premiums of competing private plans would, on average, be slightly lower than if no public plan was available.” By reduce the cost of buying private insurance on the exchange, a public plan, “would tend to lower federal subsidy payments through the exchanges.” [...]

Progressives are not fighting for a public option for some purely ideological reason. They are fighting for it because Congress' own budget office concluded that even a weak public option would reduce the cost of health care reform and would save millions of Americans billions of dollars on their health insurance premiums, regardless if they select a private or public plan. A public option is both a smart and a very popular idea.

H/t: VNDNBRG

CNN, CBS, NBC ABC To Air Republican Response To Obama’s Health Care Address

By GottaLaff

Earlier, Paddy posted that The Boehner was whining about wanting Tee Vee Machine space for a rebuttal to President Obama's Big Health Care Address.

Moral of the story: Whining works.

Because the Rushpublics just don't get enough air time:

ABC News has decided to air a Republican response to Obama’s big health care address to a joint session of Congress next week, a network spokesperson confirms to us, all but ensuring that the other major networks will follow suit.

The decision will alter the politics of what promises to be a major political event with potentially dramatic consequences for the White House and for reform, and could set off a scramble among Republicans to be selected for the role of delivering that response.

Oh, please make it Ba-ba-ba-Bobby Jindal.

This means the GOP will be able to mount a high profile answer to one of the most important political speeches Obama will ever deliver.

The other networks piled on later.

VIDEO: "Tea Party Express" gets free publicity from Fox, CNN

By GottaLaff



The only report on the so-called Tea Party Express that I've seen was one rather pathetic one on CNN (I don't watch Cluster Fox).

As the reporter struggled (I am not exaggerating) to make the gathering sound newsworthy, the scene behind him was pretty embarrassing. The crowd looked sparse and unenthusiastic until the cameras were turned directly on specific individuals, at least IMHO.

But that didn't stop our dedicated Corporate Media:

The first was a [CNN] fluff piece about what a cool bus the people on the tour get to ride in. Awesome, dood.

Then Tony Harris did an interview with Mark Williams, the chief spokesman for Our Country Deserves Better PAC, the organization behind the "Tea Party Express." [...]

Most of all, Williams was able to flatly deceive the CNN audience about their purpose and intent. [...]

Harris, though, pretended throughout the segment that they were purely a nonpartisan outfit only angry about overtaxation. [...]

The "Our Country Deserves Better" PAC, in fact, was founded in August 2008 -- before the election -- specifically to oppose Barack Obama and his policies. (They called it "drawing contrasts between Senator Barack Obama and John McCain".) In October 2008, for instance, Williams was out on the stump campaigning against Obama as a "socialist" on a previous bus tour called the "Stop Obama Express". They've also runs ads comparing Obama to Hitler.

But that's not all, kids! Lookee here! ClusterFox is actively promoting it:

Clicking through to Fox Nation's "All Aboard" article, one finds nothing but promotions for the Express, including the final sentence: To find out how to participate in the Tea Party Express events across the country, CLICK HERE.

(click on image to enlarge)

And we wonder why the Democrats are struggling to get their message out? How can they when the airwaves are monopolized by anti-TeddyCare lies and propaganda?

Of course, it wouldn't hurt if our side got their act together, either. This approach is a good start.

'Truth' vs. 'facts' from America's media

By GottaLaff

I really don't have to add to this. It's everything I've been thinking and have written on TPC, only better:

[J]ournalists would no doubt say that it isn't really their job to ferret out the "truth." It is their job to report "facts." If Palin says that Obama intends to euthanize her child, they report it. If Limbaugh says that Obama's healthcare plan smacks of Nazism, they report it. And if riled citizens begin shouting down their representatives, they report it, and report it, and report it. The more noise and the bigger the controversy, the greater the coverage. This creates a situation in which not only is the truth subordinate to lies, but one in which shameless lies are actually privileged over reasoned debate. [...]

Why don't we get the truth? Part of it, as I've said, is fear -- fear that if journalists dispel the rumors they will be bashed by the right, which is implacably against the president's reforms no matter how much sense they make. Part of it is a lack of expertise. Most reporters are not equipped to quickly and authoritatively tell truth from spin on an issue such as healthcare. And part of it, frankly, is sheer laziness.

Telling the truth requires shoe leather. It requires digging up facts that aren't being handed to you, talking to experts, thinking hard about what you find. This isn't easy. It takes time and energy as well as guts, especially when there are conflicting studies, as there are on healthcare. But finally, we may not have a journalism of truth because we haven't demanded one. [...]

Yet the danger of not insisting on the truth in a brave new world of constant lies is that it subjects our policies to whichever side shouts the loudest or has the most money to spend to mislead us. That is likely to lead to disastrous governance: a needless war, a great recession, a continuation of a failing healthcare system.

What it comes down to is that sometimes the media have to tell the truth not because anyone really wants them to but because it is the right thing to do -- the essential thing to do -- for the sake of our democracy.

The only thing I feel compelled to add to this piece is this:

!!!!!!

Shallow Thoughts: One Term President?? edtion

By GottaLaff

Today's Shallow Thought:

It's been about 7 months since President Obama took office, but this is what has been monopolizing the headlines over the past few days: One-term president? Message to corporate media: I have teens in my theater classes who create less drama.

That was today's Shallow Thought. Thank you for wading in.

MSNBC: Corporate Spokesman can remain as "Political Analyst"

By GottaLaff

David Sirota has a follow-up to what I posted here, about MSNBC's using Richard Wolffe as a political analyst. This is just so not kosher:

As a follow up to my post this morning, note that MSNBC just announced that it will continue promoting paid corporate PR consultant Richard Wolffe as a disinterested nonpartisan "political analyst." The network says it will disclose his employment with Public Strategies, but that it will continue using him as its "political analyst."

This is pretty gross. Sure, it's better that they give the audience some shred of disclosure, but they're not going to tell the audience which corporate clients he works for. More importantly, even with disclosure, MSNBC is effectively endorsing the concept of a paid corporate PR consultant appearing on television as a disinterested "political analyst" - a concept that is so completely antithetical to the most basic respect for journalism ethics.

I mean, are we really to believe there is such a dearth of actual, independent political analysts out there that the network is all but compelled to use a paid corporate PR consultant? [...]

What would have been appropriate is for MSNBC to say they are not having on Richard Wolffe or any other paid corporate PR consultant in any capacity other than as a paid corporate PR consultant - and certainly not as a nonpartisan disinterested "political analyst." [...]

Make no mistake: I appreciate MSNBC providing something of an ideological counterweight to Fox News. [...] [T]his particular decision, regardless of it coming from a liberal network, is an insult to journalism.

Bottom line? The bottom line.

Please go read David's whole post.

The Creeping Signs of GE Intervention in MSNBC's Progressive Programming: The Party May be Over

By GottaLaff

Your Daily Dose of BuzzFlash, brought to you by Mark Karlin:

As BuzzFlash noted yesterday, we have been pointing out -- among others -- for nearly 10 years the role of the few corporations who own our mass media, particularly television, in shaping public perceptions. At this moment, for instance, the television networks, in particular, have so aligned themselves with the for-profit healthcare sector that Americans think healthcare reform will hurt them, while agreeing with its specific details! [...]

After all, the New York Times article I referenced yesterday noted that a noticeable of GE stockholders were upset that MSNBC was carrying programming that was revealing information that could endanger entrenched wealth and corporations with the truth. [...]

BuzzFlash loves Rachel and Keith, and that is why we worry about what appears to be encroaching GE corporate intrusion. [...]

From now on, it appears we are going to see more "corporate balance," which means the minority and fringe view will appear more in our beloved progressive television "beachhead." This, in turn, will legitimatize kook thinking, as we have seen with the TV media coverage of the "birthers." [...]

The parents of the corporate parent company trump the truth -- and the growing audience for progressive television programming. [...]

It happened to Edward R. Murrow a half-century ago; it is likely to happen again.

Mark and I spoke about all that corporate influence after I posted this yesterday, and agreed, reluctantly, that ConservaCreep is not at all unlikely. After all, they already monopolize 77% of op-eds in major newspapers.

More of the BuzzFlash piece here.