Neutrality, Gaslight and the Truth - the State of Mainstream Media

[The Count]

analysis of did we get here:
http://www.firedoglake.com/2007/03/03/neutrality-gaslight-and-the-truth-the-state-of-american-media/

As a conservative Republican, Simon was deeply, deeply enraged over the fact that Nixon was laid low. He wanted revenge. More than that, he wanted to engineer a conservative takeover, not just of American media, but of American colleges, legal foundations and research institutions — the very places most commonly associated with determining what is truth and what is not.

The first stage: Convincing his fellow conservatives to stop giving money to mainstream institutions, and to instead set up or give their money to conservative institutions.
snip
The second stage: Getting the majority of Americans to accept these conservative outlets as the real arbiters of truth and to discredit the non-conservative versions as "liberal" — and to do this by muddying the waters where truth is concerned. Their chief weapon: The deliberate confusion/conflation of truth with "balance" and "fairness".
snip
And as the castle of lies erected by the Bush Junta comes crumbling down, the people who were Bush's enablers are losing credibility and customers: FOX News' ratings have been on a steady downward slide, the righty blogs of the bigotsphere have lost readers even as the reality-based blogs gain in readership and influence, and we've seen people like Bob Woodward and Judith Miller and Tim Russert, the toasts of their fellow Big Media steno pool members, revealed to be hacks and shills and sell-outs.
snip
Except that they neglected to consider one thing: The rise of online journalism.
snip

We're still outmanned and outspent and outgunned. But our numbers are growing, and we have a big advantage in that it's far less effort to tell the truth than to constantly weave and reweave lies. And as Charles Boyer found out in Gaslight, even the best lies eventually fall apart of their own sheer weight.

[pretzel4gore]

1. a despicable society needs this sorta stuff...

a year ago, seeing the worm turning a bit, i thought extra-ordinary effort still were good and necessary for the fight, but, watching the newsmedia ramp up their lying liar efforts, and seeing Al Gore subjected to an obvious organised smearing campaign all across the pigmedia, including the CBC, even though Mr Gore coulda stopped the bushwacking of america right at the start, which suggests he might not be as honest as the pigmedia wants us to think by attacking him unfairly etc, reinforces the awareness that the corruption is too deep, too embedded, it's everywhere and it's da only normal, iow GO JUNYER!
lol
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http://venus.soci.niu.edu/~archives/TOMPAINE/mar04/1309.html

Thanks for the information.
Bob
>>> [e-mail] 08/24/04 12:35 AM >>>
On 23 Aug 04, at 23:57, Robert Suchner wrote:

> A scene in Fahrenheit 911 shows then Vice President Gore presiding
> over the Senate while members of the House tried to raise objections
> to the presidential election results in Florida. My wife and I did not
> recognize what event was going on here, when it occurred,

Here is a link from Moore's website that answers this:
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=95
"Some of the most powerful footage in Fahrenheit 9/11 comes from
the Joint Session of Congress that convened on January 6, 2001.
It was during this session that then Vice-President Al Gore
presided over the verification of the Electoral College vote in the
face of fierce Congressional protests. U.S. Rep. Peter Deutsch
was the first to attempt to halt the proceedings and was followed
shortly thereafter by U.S. Reps. Alcee Hastings and Corrine
Brown. Because no Senator would sign their inquiries into the
Florida recount, the electoral vote was verified and the way was
cleared for George W. Bush to be sworn in as the nation's 43rd
president." --More--
------------------------

[The Count]

2. I see from your handle that you have a Gore fixation. This was a different theme

but I will answer you. I happened to catch on C-Span (&tape) the meeting of Gote with the CBC a day before the senate hearing. He told them - in fact he passionately inspired them - to follow their own conscience. Much as you foam at GORE FOR WHATEVER REASON, HE WAS NOT A SENATOR, IT WASN'T HIS DECISION NOT TO JOIN THEM.

[pretzel4gore]

3. VP Gore went outta his way to shush bush's opposition

i haven't watch F911 but will re-rent it to check it out....why didn't someone stop bush before he took power?
it defies sense?
Maybe Gore simply enforced rules, but it was a if he wanted bush to win, or something!
(btw my handle was result of reregistering here after i lost my old name, something like 'bushstomper'...bush had his run in with pretzel about then, which gave me a hurriedly grasped name)