Enough!!!! with the 'supply side' shit ... economics, opinion, journalism

[Stinky The Clown]

We are either better at discerning it, or the use of it is increasing exponentially.

We all know what supply side economics is about. In fact, Poppy described it best, way back in the day, as 'voodoo economics'.

And yet they keep pushing this long ago discredited notion. Why? Because it opens the doors so the burglars can burgle our national treasure.

And so it goes.

Supply side opinion has been in the works for quite some time. The groundbreaking work of Rush Limbaugh pointed the way forward. With a witch's brew of no talent hate speakers and no scruples rich white men, with some charlatan men-of-gawd impersonators thrown in for good measure, a veritable carpet of hate and group-think was laid on our nation. They said what they thought we should think, and faced with a near complete absence of balance and a lazy mindset that felt critical thinking was too much hard work, the nation's sheep went along.

And so it goes.

Supply side journalism was a quieter, more sinister, more insidious path for some to follow. Jack Welch, after buying NBC, famously bragged about 'turning' Russert and Matthews. And Welch wasn't the moneyman. He was the front man. A commuted front man. After populating news rooms with editors and producers and story assignment staff and staff writers and script writers, all either easily intimidated or willing Koolaid drinkers, we get the faces of the news - the blowdried, vacuous, pretty-boy/girl talking heads out there in full song. All that singing from the same piece of music. The real old time reporters were retired or pushed out (seeya, Dan). A compliant and coordinated media now got the 'news' only from approved sources. The worst day of Pravda was Pulitzer territory compared to what we have now.

And so it goes.

Or does it?

Alternative media that needs just a few major stories on its list of 'good gets'. An alternative media that only now is even being seen as viable. An alternative media that, even in its infancy, is doing it the old fashioned way ...... with sources and multiple sources, and hard work.

An alternative media that really wants to be honest. An alternative media that will, indeed, get it wrong. Or right. But overall, the one thing that is clear is, right or wrong, they 'get it'.

I'll take a flawed, but bulldogged for truth alternate media over a whole gaggle of the perfumed fourth estate nattering nabob princes and princesses.

Supply side anything.

It is bankrupt.

[oscar111]

1. very well written, husb. All your posts are

very well written. Keep posting.

[sam sarrha]

2. i want to puke every time i see nancy grace on tv..and the Bg program on

what the hell is going on with that.. are they filling the bullshit vacuum as
O'Liely fades into the sunset...

Nancy grace is the most repugnant person on TV... :puke:

[kentuck]

3. Well said!

And cannot be said enough. Conservatism is a bankrupt ideology.

[Stinky The Clown]

4. Actually, this was as much to say that as to

defend Truthout (today) and all the other emerging media.

Think about it. We have the traditional print and electronic media, with billions in infrastucure and staff and resources out the ass ...... and then we have people like Truthout and Raw Story and the others. They're .... what? A skinny, skinny staff ... some working from home in their bathrobes with a computer, internet connection, fax, and a phone ..... and guts, determination, standards ..... and actual sources.

Will they make mistakes and get it wrong? Of course they will. But they also represent a wave of hope. They're really trying (or at least that is how it appears to me) to get the story and get it right.

They **have** to be daring when they get onto a big story. They **have** to break it early (maybe even too early sometimes). Were they not, no one would notice them. And they'd have no credibility at all. None. Zip. Nada.

In this day and time their role, really, is simply to challenge the establishment media. To beat them with stories and force them to cover stuff. And that's a very risky business. One wrong 'get' and they can blasted out of existence. They're *clearly* subject to getting Rathered. Or just plain hooking up to a bad source.

They're walking the high wire .... and there's no money to buy the needed net.

I'll stay on their side, thanks. My skepticism is in place, but my emotional trust is with them ... even when they fuck up.

[Capn Sunshine]

5. Excellent post

This column takes that point further, it seems that contrary to supply side economic trheory, tax cuts CAUSE government spending to rise.