Speaking at an early afternoon panel at Netroots Nation in Austin, Texas, today, Paul Krugman predicted, with seeming confidence, an Obama victory in November -- but added that "within three months of taking office, no, less than three months" the media would be out to get him, as much as they had at the high point of anti-Bill Clinton bashing.
Krugman was responding to a questioner who had stated that the media was "in the pocket" of the "government." Krugman pointed out that this was hardly the case when Clinton was in the White House and would be proven again when Obama took over. "Get ready for it," he warned.
He pointed out that this was not necessarily the case when a Republican came to power. In fact, much of his presentation was based on the lack of "symmetry" in how the media goes after Democrats and Republicans. Look at the most recent example of "outrage" over Nancy Pelosi saying that President Bush had totally failed, he said. Would the media, he asked, have batted an eye if a conservative had said the same of a Democratic president?
Krugman also said that there were relatively few prominent academic liberals such as himself because the liberal think tanks only get a fraction of the money that goes to the conservative ones. "There are more rightwing billionaires," he declared.
Other panelists included Duncan Black of the Eschaton blog and Rick Pearlstein, author of "NIxonland," along with the blogger known as "Digby." They all added insights on the title of the panel, which was "How the Media Learned to Bend Over Backward to Please the Right."
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Greg Mitchell's new book is So Wrong for So Long: How the Press, the Pundits -- and the President -- Failed on Iraq. He is editor of Editor & Publisher.
Iraqi deaths are much worse since the surge:
http://img142.imageshack.us/img142/8435/44707948gm6.jpg
So exactly how has the surge worked?
http://www.johnnyproctor.com/amy/US_death_toll.jpg
Can't make everyone happy.
Tell everyone to watch KO, Daily, Colbert, NOW.
if you like radio talk shows, listen to Air America.
If your on the net, you should already be informed. It's all at your fingertips.
The Media continued spewing the Right Wing fantasies about Clinton's corruption. Based on NOTHING.
Nothing except the well documented Arkansas Project and the ravings of Mellon Scaif.
Yet they have let Bush and the Republicans quite literally get away with murder.
( I mean literally. murder. The record will show that Bush authorized the attack on Al Jazeera headquarters in both Kabul and Baghdad. Murder. He also wanted to attack al Jazeera in Dubai but was discouraged.)
That is of course along with torture, illegal wiretapping for political purposes, lying our way into war ,. destruction of the Constitution etc etc, etc.
Somehow the Corporate Media never seemed to get onto any of this.
But they will find numerous "scandals" in the trivial workings of the Obama Administration. All taken out of context of course. With no proof necessary.
The Big Lie works by simply repeating the false information often enough and loud enough.
"the Republican Noise machine"
Always check out the source.
Another board I was on used to fall asleep whenever I posted something about it. It's a real threat. And now, Chris Dodd, our great champion has introduced and it has passed, an amendment to the friggin' housing bill to enable the Gov to collect all our online info on credit cards transactions.
Better pay attention people! All the news worthy to print doesn't even make it onto the Progressive boards
Separating for-profit media from news/journalism -- aka re-regulating media and holding firm on standards we expect from the giveaway of our SPECTRUM -- would be a good start for the Obama Administration. Of course, first, the re-regulation of the financial industries comes first.
Obama will have to undo everything given away for nothing -- at the expense of Americans-- during the Bush/Clinton years. Not one share of stock or home asset -- will be safe, laying as it is on a Ponzi scheme created by speculators who have been in a faustian bargain w/Wall Street and our Treasury Department for decades. That is WHY the head of Goldman Sachs, Citigroup and our Treasury Cabinet Post are basically intertwined. The American people have NO representatives in the Bush/Clinton dynasties. Media deregulation/Clinton-- forged bonds w/Scott McClellan, etc.-- to prevent accountability on ANY level.
I support Obama but I don't think he is some kind of mesiah. He is a centrist democrat. His positions on the issues are barely different than Senator Clintons. His election will be a big step forward but only that. Mr. Krugman for once is right on in describing how the MSM will kick in their slime machine if he is elected. Obama will need all our support as well as pressure to put this country back on a path that doesn't sell it out entirely to the super rich and large corporations.
The "free press" is becoming more and more useless.
if Hillary had made it, Paul Krugman would be looking at a cabinet post.
Usually, every President gets a 100-day 'grace' period anyway, so there's
Krugman's three months. The media really isn't doing any kind of a job
if it lays off for any longer than that, for any president.
Problem was for Booosh, and his Repo predecessors, is the MSM seemed
to hold back longer, and that was probably due to Big Media Repo connections.
Incidentally, no one would be more thrilled than I to be proved wrong, but that's what I think will happen.
Imagine, Hillary using patronage to fill patronage positions. The nerve of that woman.