The "Obama Bear Market" and Other Tales of Cable News Insanity

If there's one thing we've learned since January 20, it's that President Obama is driving the establishment press (and far-right conservatives) crazy. To date, the volume of media ridiculousness compressed into these 50 short days has been almost impossible to comprehensively document. Seriously, I'm afraid at this rate we'll run out of internet by Memorial Day.

And experts in the field of cable news crazy haven't even factored into their estimates the exponential growth of the Glenn Beck Crazy Bubble. His "War Room" episode alone, in which he and a panel of fellow paranoiacs discussed how the Obama presidency would lead to an army of bubbas and the end of civilization as we know it, pushed the structural integrity of the crazy containment unit well beyond acceptable levels.

God help us all if Beck airs a show examining whether the Moon landing was faked in a movie studio. He'll probably invite a group of PUMAs to speculate about how an eight-year-old woman-hater named Barack Obama was responsible for the greatest forgery of our time. Just the other day -- and I'm not making this up -- Beck wondered out loud if stem cell research was an Obama conspiracy to create a "master race" of human beings.

Put another way: if the Glenn Beck Crazy Bubble were part of the economy, the recession would be over.

But ultimately everyone expects Glenn Beck to be a sideshow geek: a sketch comedy show caricature of a far-right cable news pundit whose pontifications are only taken seriously by the same people who believe that "teabagging" is an excellent and very serious form of protest. All in all, FOX News Channel has long since become predictably ridiculous. Only the truly outstanding instances of crazy, provided lately by Beck, receive any real notice or outrage from the left these days. I mean, let's be honest, since the ascension of Beck and the deification of Limbaugh, O'Reilly hasn't seemed nearly as unhinged as he was before.

By contrast, however, we expect better behavior, or, at least, slightly more integrity from MSNBC. That's why when MSNBC routinely drifts into the realms of crazy, it's actually much more infuriating and alarming than anything that happens on FOX News Channel. (I hasten to note here, too, that certain friendlies in the MSNBC lineup are excluded from the forthcoming "MSNBC is being exceptionally crazy" analysis.)

Outside of the consistently infuriating Morning Joe, the last time MSNBC was this far off-the-rails was probably last July's "Is Obama Too Presumptuous?" news cycle.

This week, two reoccurring stories have landed MSNBC squarely in that FOX News orc hive of cable news reportorial awfulness: the "Is Obama Doing Too Much?" story and the "Obama Bear Market" story.

The origin of the "Is Obama Doing Too Much?" story appears to have been an unsourced item from the Telegraph claiming that President Obama is so overwhelmed by the job that he's constantly exhausted. You might recognize the Telegraph's reputation for journalistic integrity from such stories as: "Michelle Obama's prom date describes their high school romance" and "Germany seduced by 'Messiah' Barack Obama" and "Is Barack Obama really too thin to win?"

This latest Telegraph piece was subsequently filtered through the far-right blogs and eventually into the very serious inbox of TIME blogger and Morning Joe guest Mark Halperin who injected the concept into the MSNBC's bloodstream. In fact, later that morning on his daily "PageCast" video, Halperin asked a male companion if perhaps the president should cancel his stem cell research event because he's, you know, doing too much. Yes, Mr. Halperin, that extra hour might've successfully reversed an economic crisis that's been underway since 2007.

There's no other point to this particular story other than to willfully repeat a far-right attack in the context of somehow being newsworthy. Of course opponents of the president don't want him to do a damn thing -- least of all reversing George W. Bush's policy on embryonic stem cell research. So they'll say whatever is necessary to prevent the Obama conspiracy to sire a master race of communist fascist Muslim Aryans. From there, someone like Mark Halperin picks it up and turns it into a topic on Morning Joe with the vague pretense: "some people are saying that [Obama is doing too much]." Then, by the next day, the pretense is dropped for the sake of expedience and we're left with a very serious cable news discussion about "Obama doing too much." Mission accomplished.

A similar process created the "Obama Bear Market" story: one of the most flagrant displays of intellectual dishonesty in the history of MSNBC.

It began with Hannity, Limbaugh and Beck and it crossed the osmotic cable news network barrier to MSNBC with a nudge from sister-station CNBC and accompanied by the familiar "some are saying" pretense. But then, like always, the pretense was abandoned and the story became accompanied by an on-screen graphic showing the Dow Jones Industrial Average since Election Day. This graphic:

Help! Barack Obama has absolutely destroyed the stock market! Even before he was he was president, he was ruining it for everyone! Somehow. Why does Barack Obama hate America?

This graphic was displayed on MSNBC pretty much around the clock (with the exception of the aforementioned prime time programming) for the better part of a week. This begs the question: how could President Obama possibly be held responsible for a stock market decline that's been underway since the Dow's high water mark in October of 2007?

The following is an alternate graphic of the DJIA since October 12, 2007 with the Bush Republican administration highlighted in light red, the transition during which Bush was still president highlighted in yellow and the Obama administration highlighted in light blue:

As you can plainly see, illustrated using easily accessible facts, this is totally President Obama's fault, yes? Also, even though there was a very obvious "Bush Bear Market" for many months, Media Matters has discovered that there were exactly zero mentions of the phrase "Bush Bear Market" on cable news during that relatively lengthy period of time.

So how can MSNBC honestly -- and I underscore "honestly" -- lay the blame for the down market at President Obama's feet? They can't. It's absolutely dishonest, and I think Mark Whitaker, Senior Vice President and Washington Bureau Chief for NBC News, along with Joe Scarborough, Alex Witt and the other anchors who aired this graphic owe us an explanation.

I mean, when MSNBC airs a reoccurring story that coincides with Michelle Malkin's latest rant, then I think we can safely begin to question MSNBC's descent into crazy.

Incidentally, what happens when the Dow recovers? If the criticism from the far-right and, now, MSNBC is that the president is solely to blame for the down market, the only honest way to look at a future surge in the Dow would be to give the president full credit. And, yes, the Dow will recover sometime during the Obama administration. So what, then? CNBC's resident cranky-pants, Mark Haines, appeared on MSNBC Wednesday morning and gave us a hint. He credited Monday's rally like so: "The market is going up because it's done going down." Insightful! Whatever the excuse may be, we can rest assured knowing it'll be just as inconsistent and ridiculous as that.

BobCesca.com

 

 

Comments

[DaishoKun]

I think that this just shows how the press and media is used to sway the beliefs of the general public for whatever reason. The stories mentioned, such as Obama wanting to continue stem cell research in order to create some type of master race just show what lengths people will go to in order to dissuade or persuade people. It also shows how powerful the media can be if played correctly, because some people who might not be fully informed about recent events might thing that Obama could potentially be cooking up some type of master race. People use the media as a type of linkage institution, since it's the easiest one to access and use, but could provide misconstrued information to the politically uneducated person. The fact that it is easily accessible and varies plenty depending on your source shows the magnitude of power that is given to the media in terms of political beliefs and ideals.

[daddysboy]

You said it! For one thing, the length of time in which the market has been in random fluctuation is still LONGER than Obama has been in office and occurred mostly during and just before the transition indicating to me that most of the current market instability is due more to the uncertainty surrounding the transition and including the final breaking of the system than it is due to any actions or inaction of Obama.

[libsandcons]

Seriously, its not like problem facing the economy is that hard to grasp. He pushed through the 800 billion and then got some more spending with that earmark laden 400 billion. You didn't expect him to go out and actually SPEND the money himself.
That there is actually debate between smart people is what's really startling. Has the Bush de-education vacuum gotten so bad that people forgotten economics.
Economics are really fun, but they're rarely complex.
All this and accountability dodgeball at libsandcon­s.blogspot­.com.

[Bluesue]

I'm so disappointed that McClatchy has now picked up the theme with their Top Story today:

Is Obama taking on too much at once, at economy's expense?

It makes me lose respect for McClatchy.

[ObjectiveRealist]

When, during his candidacy, Barack Obama said that the hard work would only begin with getting him elected, I did not think he meant Fight The Smears.

http://www.fightthesmears.com/

[SecretSister]

Thank you for this article and I couldn't agree more.

So many stories covered by the news network talking heads are horribly deficient of facts and loaded with asinine opinions. Essentially, they are mediocre talk shows disguised as the news.

[JayDDrew]

You are so right. Truer words have never been said about the talking heads. They are only concerned with air time, not about investigative reporting or calling the liars out.

[Lechuguilla]

This entire story can be subsumed under the heading: "cable news propaganda".

All of these channels are owned by wealthy individuals, with a predilection to greed. The loud-mouthed talking heads that appear on those shows are there to maximize ratings, and therefore profits for the station owners. Those channels do not, absolutely do not, exist for the benefit of the American people.

What we need is to abolish every single one of these 24-hour cable "news" channels.

In their place, cable could have channels devoted to controversy or political opinions. But said channels would not be labeled "news", rather ... "entertainment".

The label "news" is blatantly deceptive, spurious, and fraudulent.

[RoseMerry]

Mr. Cesca, you are among the best and the brightest! If all of the new media was as smart as you, I would not worry a second about the death of the old.

Thank you for the light your bring. I pray that many miillions will listen to you.

[EthylRosenberg]

Mr. Cesca- the time between your columns is like an arid desert.
That Glen Beck Bubba-War show triggered an acid flashback- good gawd what a loon.

[ObjectiveRealist]

Mr. Cesca, thanks to you I do not need any explanation from those people at MSNBC. Your own explanation was complete and unarguable. All I want from them are their resignations, not just from MSNBC but from the news industry. They should make way for real journalists.

quote:
So how can MSNBC honestly -- and I underscore "honestly" -- lay the blame for the down market at President Obama's feet? They can't. It's absolutely dishonest, and I think Mark Whitaker, Senior Vice President and Washington Bureau Chief for NBC News, along with Joe Scarborough, Alex Witt and the other anchors who aired this graphic owe us an explanation.
/quote

[UKOH]

As a British person living in the USA, I am very familiar with the Telegraph. It is a right wing "rag" masquerading as a serious newspaper in much the same way that "Fox News" pretends to be a serious communicator of daily events. Both should be shunned if you want real news.

Anybody looking for more objective news reporting from the UK should concentrate on newspapers like the Times, the Independent and (although noticably more left wing), my favorite the Guardian. For TV news BBC World News is as close as I have found to be simple, serious, objective news reporting with very little spin.

The only good thing about the Telegraph: Its reporting of British sports news is excellent. Somehow it has managed to keep political bias out of its sports reporting.

[ravenshroud]

It is truly amazing how the liberal media seems to be 90% conservative junk.

Is the liberal media the blogs and the people? Because my tv has like 6 people worth listening to:

Jon Stewart
Rachl Maddow
Jack Cafferty
Rick Sanchez
Steven Colbert
Keith Olberman

In that order. EVERYONE else is a wingnut it seems. And their lies and stories are getting obscene. Soon they will have to include space monkeys and Atlantis to make their points.

[Alienhairdo]

How do we take back the government? Does anybody know? I always figured united we could do it. But I can't seem unite anyone. I would've thought it is obvious we need to have a general strike. I believe we are looking at a very sad future.

[GoogleMaster]

Unbelievable. An "expert" guest on FOX today commented on the rise in the Dow saying,

"See? If Obama just shuts up, the market will correct itself".

That expert guest (his name slips my mind) is one of those conservatives who say that
"every time Obama opens his mouth, the market goes down". Hence, even when we recover, Obama will get no credit from the Limbaugh/H­annity/Fau­x crowd.

[dianhow]

What else do you expect on Fox ? the GOP station-thats smears-lies- misinforms- insults.
Voters said NO to all that trash. Repub Ari Fleisher just said " We were worried after 9 /11 that Sadaam would ' HIT AGAIN ' HE NEVER hit IN THE FIRST PLACE. SO they are still spreading lies on TV yet. Are we dumb enough to buy it.? I'm afraid of the answer.

[Cat401]

Lets not forget Morning Joe too.

[gisellestwocents]

Right...the housing bubble bursting, record unemployment, corporate greed and billionaire ponzi schemes had absolutely nothing to do with the stock market tanking. It was all BO. I guess they really do think that he's some kind of messiah. I would laugh, but too many people are in too much pain.