Sunday Roundup
In my new book, Right Is Wrong, I show how the lunatic fringe of the right has hijacked the media (along with our democracy) -- not via FoxNews and the blowhards of talk radio, but through the complicity of high-profile enablers in the mainstream media. This week's disgraceful debate on ABC was further evidence. The slime parade was straight out of the Rovian playbook. For much of the night, I wasn't sure if I was watching Gibson and Stephanopoulos or O'Reilly and Hannity. In fact, Stephanopoulos' ludicrous question about 60s radical Bill Ayers had been suggested to him by Hannity the day before the debate on Hannity's radio show. After Hannity made his Ayers pitch, Stephanopoulos revealed the hijacking in process, saying: "I'm taking notes right now." And indeed he was.
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Maybe this is a little off topic but it really is bothersome to see the deep divisions in the Democratic party. What I'm seeing at this point between the Obama and Clinton camps is normally what you see in a general election between the two parties. I think both sides are guilty and I don't think either side is going to be able to get over the bitterness come the fall.
I think for the most part they will. The reason is that there really aren't that many political junkies like us who read political sites like HuffPo. So the rancor that you see is between a very small subset of voters. I think the rest will easily vote for whoever the Democratic nominee is. I do believe that out of the political junkies there will be a problem with some who will sit out the election or vote McCain, but that also might have happened anyway. In the last election I bet there were some who wanted let's say Clark for president (especially independents and liberal leaning republicans) who voted for Bush or sat it out when Kerry was the nominee. I think this happens in all elections to some extent. The sooner we narrow it down to one nominee the sooner we can start healing the breach though, that's why Dean is right, the supers need to jump and soon. Clinton's supporters are saying he's trying to run her out, but he didn't say who they should jump for, if the momentum is going for Clinton, fine, but make a choice already, supers!
Dissent is neccessary. Without friction the possibility for critical thinking would diminish greatly. We don't need nor want another imperial "decider" who disallows different points of view in order to come to important conclusions. That said however, the Obama/Clinton rancor is becoming a complete distraction from the issues at hand, and the issues that matter, and is instead a battle of wits and he said/she said vollying that serves no real purpose other than to divide us yet further one from the other. Sadly, there is still a majority of the citizenry who are not paying attention beyond the sound bites they catch on their nightly newscast. How many people are there really who are news junkies like those of us here? Sunday morning, and the first thing I do is watch the talking heads, read the newspaper, and then here I am on HuffPo. The question is, what do those of us who are taking the time to pay attention, participate doing beyond expressing our angst and frustration by letting our fingertips do our talking? My hope is that every side of the debate is being taken to the streets, to our Congress..
The divisions have been there for a while and needed to be aired. If this results in a split party, maybe that's not all bad. For a long time, progressives have had nowhere to go. Two corporate-
George Stephanopoulos should be fired & barred from television
"Senator Obama---do you put your pants on one leg at a time"! An Outrage --Outrage I tell you!
Doesn't ABC have a right to ask the questions they think are relevant? You don't have to agree or like them or think they are worthy. It's still their right. Perhaps asking these questions will help toughen up the eventual candidate when the real battle begins post August. The questions and comments surrounding these personal issues are not going to go away.
No.
No one said a peep about them not having the "right" to be such asinine fools. However, the citizens in this country also have the right to be informed about actual issues before they cast their vote. For that reason, the constitution charges the press with that responsibility, which Gibson and Stephanopolos violated severely. We all have a "right" - and a responsibility - to criticize that.
The MSM should have been doing a year ago instead of being cheerleaders for Obama, and all the Obama supporters are crying like babies now. Obama can not win in states like FL, MI, PA, OH, he is unelectable. Obama just got the endorsment from the Hip-Hop Mayor of Detroit, Kwame Kilpatrick, I think Tony Rezko is supporting him too.
It's about the candidates, not ABC. Excoriatng one candidate does not a debate make.
Not on the public airwaves, which they use free. They owe a duty to the public. Check their license.
Hillary's run for president is a joke. Being married to Billy Clinton is not qualifying experience for the job of president. but that marriage did connect her with a whole slew of clinton supporters who enabled her to make a run for the white house. Take away her marriage to Billy and what is left. Nothing. So how is it that Hillary is qualifed from day one. No way. She is an incorrigible liar. As she herself acknowledged, she is carrying a lot of baggage. I could give you a long list of things like lying about her invvestment account, cheating investors in Whitewater development, hiring hit men to harrass Billy's bimbos, getting Susan McDougal to keep quiet, lying about her trip to Bosnia, lying about her name Hillary, travelgate, her mean temper and abusive treatment of white house staff, and on and on. So hillary please get off my tv and stay away from the white house.
Your lies and smears against a respected and loyal democrat are a detriment to the party. Obama supporters seem to rely upon lies and smears.
Is this the NEW style of politics?
Is this leading to unity?
Your lies and smears are the problem.
Please stop.
Stop watching TV. I did not watch the debate and I didn't miss it either. Of the three big methods of communication in '08 (chat like this, radio, and TV), television is the most irrelevant.
A MOCKERY? NOT EVEN DEBATABLE
I have precious little faith in the American political process.
In the last few presidential elections, we have seen hanging chads, Swift Boat sucker-punches, tainted voting machines, and a Supreme Court happy to choose our president for us.
The debate between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama may have established a new low.
Charles Gibson and George Stephanopoulos are guilty of the worst kind of hypocracy. Rather than serve as moderators or even as surrogates for the American people, they played the roles of right-wing pit bulls. Their performaces would have done Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter proud.
The most absurd questions were directed to Barack Obama. Not only were the questions pointed and biased, the hostility toward Obama was palpable.
At the end of the debate, I expected to hear a voice-over from Hilliary: This debate paid for by Hillary Clinton for President and I approve this message.
The live audience was smart enough to ring down a chorus of boos on the hosts, especially Gibson.
Gibson’s reply: ”The crowd is turning on me. The crowd is turning on me.”
Of course, he was saying it was a huge smile on his face as if it were some kind of enormous joke.
In fact, that’s exactly what it was.
It is really long past time to rip the bogus wrappings off the MSM and expose who these
people are, name their names and and explicitly name what their motives really are. All of these facts are known, but they are being hidden . These people have no compunction for their plots to destroy and subvert our form of government and they are this country's worst enemies and they should be dealt with as such.
The hypocrisy here is astounding. Whenever anyone in the MSM dances to the liberal tune, to liberals, they're called honest and professional. When they don't, they've 'been hijacked' by Rovian agents and Dick Cheney Junta Death squads. Granted, the last debate was a joke. The moderators did no one any great service. We have monumental issues that need addressing and answers for. The american voter was the loser from their sophomoric handling of the debate. But to suggest that the media is a bribed puppet of a GOP cabal is complete nonsense.
George Soros' OSI is a good example of how liberals buy their cake and eat it too. That organization is not impartial. And if you believe it is, I have a some nice beachfront in Phoenix I'd like to sell you. As liberals here and everywhere else keep saying, George Bush is a complete idiot. Well, if so, how does such an idiot continue to outfox and bewilder the DNC like this?
Can you guys get another boogie man other than George Soros?
For every Soros, the right hast dozens of Richard Mellon Scaiths.
For every MoveOn, there are dozens of American Enterprise Institutes.
BTW, Bush isn't an idiot, he's a puppet.
You first...:-
For your intormation, George Soros is a survivor of the Holocost and witnessed firsthand Hitler's rise to power as a despicable dictator. He became politically active in this country when he began to see indications of the same danger to our own system with the assention to power of the neoconservative cabal in 2000 and the relentless step by step Bush/Cheney push toward the "unitary executive", i.e. dictatorship! Corporate control of the media, supression of free speech, voter manipulation/fraud, signing statements, rendition, torture, unwarranted domestic spying, elimination of "habeus corpus", privately contracted "security" forces, corruption of our system of Justice by the Executive Branch: these things are what drives Soros' activism! There is a difference between fighting to save this country and fighting to just get "your guys" into power!
They, the MSM, are a puppet of the wealthy which for the most part is the GOP. Most wealthy "liberals" are only using liberal ideas to profit from them. Let us look at who owns these companies and who profits from these companies and you will see Republican voters beind the wheel. The MSM are corporations that are completely profit driven, which party time and time again supports the needs of corporations over the needs of citizens?
Your suggestion that the liberal rich is altruistic
Too bad for you that reality has a liberal bias.
Another great Arianna article. But we need to strike the word "Rovian" from our language. It's just another form of demonization and actually weakens the impact of the point being made. Rove is just another pawn in the whole setup. The media have played this despicable role ever since they lambased Native Americans for being savages in editorials during the 1800s. They attempt to define the center and every time they do it the center moves to the right.
Does anyone really believe the shameless performance by Steph and Gibson was simply confined to their moderating skills? They were acting as conscious agents for McCain -- as their employers directed them to do. They were as much marionettes as was the media at the start of the Iraq War, simply ignoring the well-known truth of the time -- that Saddam had no WMDs (Blix) and was an enemy of al Qaeda (bin Laden had called him an infidel numerous times). These highly educated and knowledgeable journalists all knew that Bush, Cheney, Powell and many others explained the reason we didn't march on Baghdad at the time was because it would create a power vacuum and a quagmire. But they cheerled anyway -- and that's the New York Times, the networks and cable news (not only Fox, as MSNBC fired Phil Donahue at the time).
The media is just the propaganda arm of the military industrial complex.
Nonamnesiac: That last sentence says it all. I've always maintained that MSM is the biggest problem this country faces because this is how most Americans get their "news". Now, let's stop talking about it and do something. All candidates should be notified that we expect the next President to revue and revamp the licensing qualifications for ABC, NBC, and CBS (for starters).
So, now that "guilt by association" questions are embraced by Hillary, please, ask her this one.
you would have left Rev. Wright's congregati
hahahaha, yes...
If this is truly a serious question, I believe the difference is that the Clinton's situation revolved around their marriage, a personal and complicated relationship under the best of circumstances, even for those who's own marriages are models of perfection. It did not involve hatred and or disparagement of other people. It did not involve racism, anti-semitism or any anti-American rhetoric. Wright did not humiliate Obama. He preached to him and guided him.
And you think Bill is not preaching and guiding? Besides a Church is more than its Pastor unless you're in a cult where you look up to him as a savior.
I have been asking this question from the outset. If we are to be judged by the company we keep, and in contrast to Hillary's statement that we don't choose our families..
Great post (as always!). I hope, when Barack Obama becomes president, corporate media is dealt with extremely hard. NO partisanship. NO corporate agendas. And then go after the corporations with a vengeance. Lock up the oil baron's until they accept something other than obscene profits they do now. Barack! Go young man!
Sounds like some government! Would you suggest new regulatory agencies to control the media to your liking? I too like my news straight up but I am far more interested in a free press. The world has more than enough controlled news outlets. They are very common in countries governed by dictatorship. This country was formed with the help of a very opinionated and obnoxious press. It goes with the territory.
presto, what part of Titonwan's "NO partisanship. NO corporate agendas." didn't you get?
Is that then, in your opinion, a bad thing for the government to do? Or would you rather maintain the status quo where he who has the most money and most Republican friends in Congress owns the most of Americans' airwaves?
I believe Titonwan was referring to the highly successful "fairness doctrine" that good ol' Reagan abolished claiming free market ideas and idealistic, if not fantastic ideals like that since we all know, corruption is a chunk of anything regarding the not-so-mig
Yes, this country had been formed with the help of a very opinionated and obnoxios press but of late, I haven't seen much of *that* anymore.
Oh, and it's rumored that Sen. Obama *will* have a closer look into why top executives in corporations have seen up to 18% more in income than anyone else especially when most corporations are sticking out their hands for billions in taxpayer dollars to bail out their raped corporate revenues.
The President doesn't have this kind of power, even Bush.
The McCain campaign smear-a-thon has already begun. Take a look at the email solicitation they sent out on Friday linking Obama to Hamas.
Arianna, can you please put up some newsworthy updated posts. I am bored already with Uma's nipples, ABC news the crowds are turning against me, Hillary against southern voters "screw 'em"
A lot of these posts are not even worthy of a read but to be up 3 days+ is just a waste of space.
The sick guy in the park with meth, rope, and sex toys is now history so let you should let that one go too. Alllow him to become the nobody he should be.
Just saying ... I still love you and have your site as my homepage as always.
HAVE NEVER ABC AND WILL NEVER WATCH THEM
So, from this we can conclude that McCain will get an easy interview today with
George Stephanopolis?
Even David Brooks is out there clinging to his talking point that the “character” questions at the ABC debate are justified because American voters want to know that the candidate is “like them”.
His Friday column about Barack Obama says that"... when he bowls a 37 for crying out loud, voters are going to wonder if he’s one of them."
Most of us don’t really care about Barack Obama’s bad bowling. The royal media pundits make a big deal of bowling and flag pins, telling us we should care, as if they really care about us, whereas they’re really just concerned about scoring points in the Royal Court of Punditry. Talk about disingenuous!
Seems to me Brooks is saying that what Americans want is another dumbed down, who-would-
I am a 48 year old white female, grew up in small town America, have voted all my life for candidates not much like me at all. I'm fine with that. Lots of Americans have been doing the same for a long time. At the end of this unending primary, a majority of Democrats will have voted for someone not like them. It'll happen again in November.
The common folk of America are more grown up than David Brooks, George Stephanopoulos, Sean Hannity and the rest of the Royal Media Pundits realize.
The reason for Obama bowling a 37 is he NEVER lived in America until he became an adult and has no understanding of this country or the people that have lived here all their lives. He did live in Hawaii but that place is not like the rest of the country. Obama moved to Chicago to learn about black culture and victimhood in this country.
So whats wrong with Hawaii? Its just as American as any other state in the union. I suppose your definition of the "rest of the country" lies somewhere south of the mason dixon line. Its blatantly obvious statement regarding Obama's childhood is a falsehood when its clear he lived with his grandparents starting in the fifth grade. see http://www
Just don't listen to Fox News!! I don't go there at all. I refuse to give them any credence. There are too many statiions on TV for me to be desperate enough to go to Fox. If that were the only station on, I would save money by not having a cable bill at all. If we all quit watching Fox, their ratings will reflect it and maybe they will change....
It wouldn't be a problem if it was just Fox. The problem is that the GOP has entirely sold itself to the corporate machine, the same corporate machine that owns every major media outlet in the US. This makes them partners. If Obama does somehow overcome the imminent slew of attacks and wins, one of two things will happen. Either the corporate slime will successfully lobby to get Obama and his administration on board with their agenda, or they'll fail and spend the next four years exaggerating every minor mistake and paint him as a complete failure as president, regardless of actual accomplishments.
Yes, we should all sign on to a set of beliefs and then studiously shield ourselves from all other points of view. Learning opportunities are evil. Airhead.
A 52-42 Obama lead of three weeks ago nationwide is now 46-45 in Hillary's favor, and I'm betting that she will do very well on Tuesday in PA.
Obama supporters, of which you are one, simply don't get it and are without question harming Obama's chances.
Crying & whining about a few questions (lightweight in nature compared to those the Republican candidates always get) and begging for Hillary to "drop-out" is childish & cowardly & does Obama much more harm than good.
"Crying & whining about a few questions (lightweight in nature compared to those the Republican candidates always get)"
I'd love to hear a few of these "tough" questions.
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