The "Handled" pResident, the Low Bar, and the Fooled Media...

[NRaleighLiberal]

So, I'm sitting on my deck having my coffee this morning, trying to make sense out of what we are seeing with respect to the media's ebb and flow following the goings on in the country. It struck me that we are seeing something very different and very new - a misleader who needs such careful and constant handling and coaching that the media and nearly half of the country is grading, in polls and news reports, the success of the manipulation, not the outcomes or the "man". Think about it - a natural disaster or terra attack allows one to see the natural inclinations and capabilities of a leader - their first reactions, ability to lead, ability to deal with complex and life threatening problems and issues, ability to work through bureaucracy. What have we seen with this character? A big nothing - no, that's not totally correct...we've seen an emotionally empty shell of a human being, a spoiled brat who can't think for himself, someone devoid of empathy, and likely a racist..all overlaid with very little natural intelligence. So, the bar becomes lower and lower, abetted by a right wing media who knows which side its bread is buttered on, as well as a slew of influencial lobbyists and business types who have theirs under this administration, and don't want anyone to get their hands on it.

So the handling comes in. Here is someone who I can imagine is brought into a little dark room and drilled, drilled, drilled into giving the appearance of leadership, showing concern, empathy, and deep thought. What does the media report? They discuss the performance, not the content, not the outcomes. So, last night on PBS, we have Oliphant and Brooks saying he "turned the corner". Tweety drips over himself with the performance. Other pundits speak of the speech as if the idiot son actually came up with this stuff himself! What is incredibly wrong is that the cat has not changed his stripes - he is the same incapable ineffective shell of a leader. Our society is now so focused on sound bites and unfamiliar with research and deep thought that the wool can be pulled over our eyes in a second, and enough people buy it that we all end up here blowing gaskets and, in some cases, start to question ourselves. The sad outcome is the impact on our country's future and collective mood. We can not thrive or progress under this type of charlatan leadership. Until we can get some opposition leadership with the balls to call out what is actually going on here, we will continue to slide deeper and deeper into an inescapable malaise.

So - that's what I've been thinking about as I sip my coffee. What can we do? Where are the deep throats, where are the other Anderson Coopers and Brian Williams - and will they be able to stay the course?



Craig

[UTUSN]

1. What a Great Headline n/t

[indepat]

2. W's extemporaneous remarks following Putin's speech were telling:

bet Tweety wasn't dripping over himself as those simplistic remarks were being uttered: I cringed.

[Ilsa]

5. I'm amazed his handlers don't have him on a thirty second delay

when he's taking questions. When he goes off script, we're more likely to get at least a thimble full of the reality we are about to deal with, from which he will be sequestered.

[Missy M]

3. Do you think a deep throat would have the backing and support...

of the large media conglomerates of today? I scratch my head everyday over the media and how many Watergate situations they could uncover now, yet nothing is done. Most of what could be uncovered would make Watergate look like nothing. Voter fraud, 9/11 cover ups, lies leading to the Iraq War, the Plame outing, the journalists take it only so far and they back off. Are the journalists ordered to back off by the higher ups taking their orders from the White House. It sure seems so to me.

[leftofthedial]

4. he's being graded on a curve

and he's the only one in the class

[KoKo]

6. Since the 2000 Selection we out here have had to be Our Own Media.

And, our monitoring of the Tweety Matthews and various other paid shills like Russert, Will, Brooks and those connected to the RW Think Tanks.

We have to keep calling them on their lies and supporting the "Internet Media" as best we can. We have so many more Progressive sites online that we did even just a couple of years ago and it's growing and they are being noticed by the Cables who now do "Blog Reports."

The "New Media" has to replace the controlled crap that comes out of the Think Tanks, and is promoted by the paid Lobbyists and Corporate Shills.
Without a fair and balanced Media who does investigative reporting we have no ability for change that's meaningful. :shrug:

[deutsey]

7. The flimsy wall separating editorial and marketing interests collapsed

long ago.

I'm always struck by how different old clips of news stories from the '60s and early '70s are from today's "reporting." The segments are longer, for one thing, and the reporters aren't dolled up in the latest fashions and coiffed hair. They also report the news with what appears to be an assumption that they are not addressing idiots, but intelligent viewers. They seem to be journalists, as opposed to spokesmodels.

The news media then weren't perfect, but there was an independence in news departments that distanced them from the interests of their corporate owners. I guess there was a sense, however weak at times, of news being a public service. I remember every night there was a brief network newsbreak at around 9 or 10, for example, that actually reported new news in brief, not the local "news" teasers we have now, like "How much snow are we going to get tomorrow?" or "Grisly murder tonight in the city, details at 11." Today that sense of news as a public service doesn't exist anymore in the corporate MSM.

It seemed like around the mid-70s that began to change...the movie "Network", I think, was trying to call attention to that change.

[Berry Cool]

8. More people need to watch Keith Olbermann

He actually pointed out months ago on his show how much TV networks had come to be owned by huge corporate conglomerates, as "Network" predicted, and how much news programs had turned into a similar kind of circus.

Then the camera turned back to him and he was doing this:



It was a great night.