US News Media Fails America, Again - Consortium News

[JohnWxy]

Here's a good article from Consortium News on how M$M continues to do the bidding of the Corporate Power Party.....


http://www.consortiumnews.com/2009/041309.html

US News Media Fails America, Again

By Robert Parry
April 13, 2009


By and large, the Washington press corps continues to function within a paradigm set in the 1980s, mostly bending to the American Right, especially to its perceived power to destroy mainstream journalistic careers and to grease the way toward lucrative jobs for those who play ball.

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'Polarizing’ Obama

The commentariat class also has continued to frame the Republican hatred of Obama as Obama’s fault, describing his “failure” to achieve a more bipartisan Washington or – in its latest formulation – calling Obama “the most polarizing President ever.”

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This gap of about 60 points between Democratic approval and Republican disapproval is called the largest in the modern era. (Bush presumably was less “polarizing” because his Republican numbers slumped along with his approval from Democrats and Independents.)

What is rarely acknowledged is that the Republican Party has both shrunk in size and retreated toward its hard-line “base,” meaning that the “polarization gap” could simply reflect the fact that a smaller, more extreme Republican Party hates Obama, while other presidents faced a larger, more moderate opposition party.

Rather, according to the Washington pundit class, this gap is Obama’s fault, much as he was blamed for “failing” to attract Republican votes for his stimulus bill and his budget. Rarely do the pundits lay the blame on the Republicans who have taken a position of near unanimous opposition to Obama, much as they did toward Clinton 16 years ago.




(much more)

[Orrex]

1. K/R

"Bipartisanship" in media-speak invariably means "doing what the Republicans want." Any Democrat who chooses not to service the Republicans is framed as a partisan failure.

[certainot]

2. talk radio monopoly is the key- break it up- cut samson's hair

most democracy-loving americans don't realize the talk radio monopoly does the gronundwork for a large scale propaganda machine that feeds talking points and one liners and framing to limbaugh and hannity and sons every morning and by the end of the day they've been pounded into the earholes of 50 MIL people to form a bandwagon of prechewed material the rest of the lazy celebrity corporate media is all too eager to swallow.

ignoring the talk radio monopoly's influence on politics the last 20 years may be the biggest political blunder in human history considering the time we have lost dealing with global warming while the reagan bush bunch used limbaugh and sons to sell us into this disaster.

hate speech or free speech, whatever, the radio monopoly, even now increasingly undercut by internet, makes real democracy impossible, enabling corrupt and ignorant politicians (and limbaugh/blue dog dems) with a fake, misinformed, easily roused 'constituencies' of dittoheads that turn red state magastations into political powerhouses.

there are no bigger political correctness cops and censors-by-threat than these local and national loudmouths who hide behind call screeners to protect them from real criticism and truth telling while claiming free speech privileges from their well protected monopoly (much of limbaugh's 600 station empire was subsidized for him, and in many cases his show is given away free).

real democracy and bipartisanship in america is impossible until the monopoly is broken up or americans start getting obama's back by calling complaining boycotting and picketing their LOCAL limbaugh/hannity stations and their local sponsors.

we wouldn't be in this mess if not for limbaugh and hannity and sons selling it to large areas of the country with no alternatives for politics and current events while working or driving- large areas with a disproportionate number of senators that will now lead the way obstructing obama and democracy.