Could you imagine the media criticism that Gore would get...

[JanMichael]

...if he was President and did what the chimp has done?

Poorly planned wars/occupations with few possible exits; Millions of protestors on the streets; Good jobs disappearing faster than than Arnies testicles; A surplus lost within minutes of taking power; Massive military spending/borrowing; Destroyed International relations; Hamfisted ramming of the Patriot Act down our collective throats; Sky-rocketing Healthcare costs; Poorly run Federal Government on almost all levels...etfreakingcetera.

Can you imagine the thrashing he'd get?!

Yet el Busho seems to be getting nothing more that a tussling of his hair and a wink from our vaunted Fourth Estate.

This alone tells me that the Media has been almost wholly absorbed into the Reichwing camp.

Now, please tell me, how can we overcome this mountain of a roadblock?

Osmosis?

[spooky3]

1. He doesn't even have to do all that to get trashed

Had he behaved like Arnold last night he would have been history. Sighing was NOTHING compared to the rude, interrupting nastiness.

[nannygoat]

2. This is what would have happened to Gore...

PRESIDENT GORE: A LOOK BACK
http://www.uexpress.com/tedrall/index.html?uc_full_date=20030429

<snip>

DAYTON, OHIO--Few political observers anticipated the widespread resentment that followed Al Gore's controversial assumption of the presidency in December 2000. "The U.S. Supreme Court merely adhered to the Constitution when it refused to hear Bush's appeal of the Florida ruling," notes a Harvard law professor now living in exile in France. "Federal courts have no jurisdiction over election disputes, which in the United States are a state matter." Although the ensuing recount ultimately gave Florida to Gore by a comfortable thousand-vote margin, Republicans refused to accept the results. Talk radio host Rush Limbaugh continued to refer to Gore as "Vice President Gore" and "Resident-in-Chief" and listed the time remaining in Gore's first term as "days left in captivity for the American people."

Republican candidate George W. Bush, meanwhile, refused to concede defeat. "Make no mistake," the former Texas governor declared from self-proclaimed "internal exile" in Crawford, Texas, "that man will never be my president." The GOP filed a slew of lawsuits challenging the election results, and right-wing militia groups issued dark threats about overthrowing Gore's "illegal junta."

Despite Gore's attempts to govern from the center--he appointed several Republicans to his cabinet, including Secretary of Defense Colin Powell--Congressional Republicans and their conservative Democratic allies stonewalled early Gore Administration attempts to deliver on key campaign promises. The Senate refused to ratify the Kyoto treaty on global warming. Bills to slash federal taxes for poor and middle-class workers, ban oil drilling in national wildlife refuges and crack down on corporate crime failed to make it out of Republican-controlled committees in the House. Senator Trent Lott let the President know that he could expect more of the same in the future: "It is my party's duty to represent the 48 percent of the voters who did not support Al Gore, and that's exactly what we're going to do," he said.

Gore's polls, already falling due to the lagging economy, hit rock bottom in the weeks after the September 11th attacks. "People rightly blamed the Commander-in-Chief for not doing anything to intercept planes that had clearly been hijacked and for ignoring warnings of an imminent threat," says a GOP pollster. "But concern about incompetence quickly segued into the 'wimp thing.' Disgust at Gore's cowardice became widespread when he abandoned Washington to the terrorists and flew off to hide in that silo under Nebraska. Diligent journalists then reminded Americans how he'd wussed out of Vietnam by joining the Tennessee Air National Guard and then going AWOL, and for many voters that was that."

more...

[indepat]

5. Beautifully stated

assessment.

[phillybri]

9. Ted Rall is awesome....

Thanks for posting that!

[Butterflies]

11. Wow, that's right on the mark

It's hard to believe that the reporting is as bad as it is. I don't think we have much of a chance if the media stays this way. I don't mean to be defeatist, but reading that really brought it home to me.

[indepat]

3. W's approval ratings have finally dropped below 50%: had a Democrat

achieved all this, media bashings would have driven approval ratings below 20% except any Democrat would long have already been driven out of office.

[bryant69]

4. Well

For one I don't think that the media is monolithic--there is a lot of bad work done there, but there are still outlets that provide a btter picture. I mean, they haven't been able to cover up the fact that President Bush has no exit strategy. They haven't been able to cover up the deaths of our soldiers. So it's not 100% favorable to President Bush.

And we also have different methods of reaching the people now. The internet will be key in future elections. Not the only outlet, but an important one at organizing supporters. There's also word of mouth.

Bryant
Check it out --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com

[JanMichael]

6. It's not monolithic. But it's heavily, mightily, biased,

Also we've got admitted self censorship (As in NOT reporting Bushcriticalnews) by several national newpersons.

Sure we've still got a niche here, and a niche there, but I'm talking about what the mass majority of people gets rammed down their throats 24/7/360, not what you or I (As activists) go seek out.

This is a serious situation.

[dbt]

7. I resisted the idea of Media Monolith for a long time

I was, after all, on the inside and did not want to believe the worst about my chosen profession.

However, the media's treatment of the Clintons started waking me up. Now, the Media Borg is just as pro-bu$h as it was anti-Clinton. It turns a blind eye toward bu$h to the same (if not a greater) extent that it kept Clinton under a microscope.

But what really drives it home for me is the fact that there is a huge consumer base that is being totally ignored by your ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN and Fochs Noose: the majority of the country who voted for Gore.

The very fact that not one of these entities has broken from the pack to pursue this product differentiation (see Marketing 101) shows me that the whole Murkin Media is in the pocket of the Regime because they want it that way.

:argh:
dbt

[Minstrel Boy]

8. Right-wingers need to test their

intellectual honesty by running this check-up:

When they read the news, they ought to try switching "Democratic" and "Republican."

Example:

"The CEO of Diebold, a voting machine company with longstanding ties to the Democratic Party, announced at a Howard Dean fundraiser today that he is committed to doing "whatever it takes" to deliver Ohio for the Democrats in 2004."

[nannygoat]

10. Excellent point, Minstrel Boy.

I thought Pres Clinton was giving us a talking point that he was ok with us using to drive the freepers mad, when he kept saying at the Harkin Steak Fry, "And they gave me a tax cut!" That's what right-wingers don't understand--what's good for the goose is good for the gander.

[zbdent]

12. Don't have to imagine it. Go to a public library,

close your eyes, pick a random microfilm version of your local newspaper from the stack of 1993-2000 (you might include the years of 1992 & 2001 if you're in a more conservative area), insert it into the machine, go to a random spot on the film, then look for the editorial page.

You would read the right-wing script for what would be happening if Gore "stole" the election by having the Supreme Court side in his favor (in exactly the same way it did for Bush).