I can't believe the media is doing to Kerry what they did to Gore

[glarius]

The media is starting the same deal with Kerry that they had going with Al Gore...It's like a mantra, they repeat over and over. They're trying to convince the American public that Kerry is "stiff" and "patrician" and "unapproachable."....How many times have I heard it said already?....I see Senator Kerry on TV giving speeches and.I find him to have a commanding presence but not at all standoffish, as the media has said.... He seems to me to be connecting very well with the people....

[David Dunham]

1. E-mail the offending stations and urge them to stop it.

[jmaier]

2. This isn't even media mangling round one

These messages need to be countered in every way including just our everyday face to face conversations with folks, letters to editors, protests if need be.

[grytpype]

3. That shit is NOT going to work this year.

Kerry is going to fight back, and he's going to keep the focus on Bush's miserable record as President. He's going to keep bringing everything back to that.

The guy is a former prosecutor, he has all this stuff mapped out already. Watch the Mayberry Machievellis crumble.

We will win.

[jpgray]

4. It's going to be JUST as bad--always check the Daily Howler to keep up

Somerby will keep track of this, as he kept track of the loony coverage in 2000.

[corporatewhore]

5. No offense but he does come off as aloofand stiff and boring

[glarius]

9. No offence but that is a really dumb thing to say

:)

[arikara]

19. We must be looking at 2 different people then...

I think that he comes across as intelligent, caring and passionate about his beliefs, plus he has a very nice warm smile. And even if he actually was stiff and boring, isn't that preferable to the smirking and tongue flicking of the thieving chimp who holds power now?

[glarius]

20. I agree with your assessment of him...Also there's something indomitable

about him...You get the feeling he will fight to the end for what he believes....

[barbaraann]

31. You are totally, utterly wrong. I have met John Kerry and he is

warm, friendly, and polite. And to call anyone boring unless one has spent enough time to judge whether that is true or not is simply insane. A person cannot "come off" as boring or be boring in a short meeting. Boring is something that takes a while to manifest itself and also reflects as much on the person who is bored as the person deemed to be boring.

By the way, I really, really don't like the fact that we have two Bonesmen running for President, but that doesn't change the facts about what John Kerry's personality is like.

[Desertrose]

34. in the words of one of my fave DUers

"telegenic ectomorph"
Sorry...but it fits JK

Peace
DR

[emulatorloo]

42. He would "bore" you if he stood on top of a purple donkey juggling knives

EOM

[NicRic]

44. Its bush thats boring ,shallow and dumb !

His faking a cowboy image is old and boring .He cannot challenge even the mentally challenged , because he is one of them !

[Khephra]

6. Why should you be surprised?

Once anyone becomes a threat to Bush, that's what they'll do. They've done it to Senators, they've done it to Dean. And they've done it to the other candidate by just ignoring them, which is just as bad.

Taking down any threat to Bush, however they do it, is their job these days.

[rwheeler31]

7. They got paid

nt

[EXE619K]

8. Well, he IS a bit on the "stiff" side...

From my perspective, at least...

[glarius]

13. Not to me....I see him interacting with the people and he seems very

natural and relaxed...Of course he doesn't have that goofy look on his face that Bush always has....Is that what they think is missing?

[barbaraann]

30. As opposed to the idiot barfly in the White House now?

Geez. John Kerry carries himself with DIGNITY, and it's been so many years since we have seen a President act like that that some of us have forgotten what it's like.

[Katha]

59. Amen!

n/t

[redqueen]

62. Hi Katha!

Welcome to DU!

:hi:

[redqueen]

60. oooooh! I like it!

That is BRILLIANT, barbaraann! I hope you and a lot of other people will be calling in to C-Span, talk shows, radio shows, etc. and GETTING THAT MEME OUT THERE!

"John Kerry is not stiff and boring and dull -- people only say these things because we've had 12 years of clowning going on in Washington! John Kerry is DIGNIFIED and treats the office of the president with the RESPECT IT DESERVES! We won't catch him acting like a cowboy or a frat boy while HE'S in charge!"

Or something along those lines....

Damn that's GOOOD!

:evilgrin:

[capriccio]

10. Believe it...

Today ABC's Note itemized Kerry's advantages and disadvantages, and two jumped out at me:

Kerry Advantage:
“emerges with no significant character questions/problems to fix (think Gore/lying…)”

Kerry Disadvantage:
“the never-gonna-fully-go-away "likeability" questions

Since I have yet to see a single poll to suggest that Kerry's likeability is an issue with voters as it is with the media, it seems that this (ho-ho) "never-gonna-fully-go-away" problem, like Gore's "lying", will become one of the media's famous self-fulfilling prophecies.

[Anwen]

11. I can't believe you are surpised by this.

[Snivi Yllom]

65. Agree, this is no surprise

Why is anyone suprised at the medias ability to generate rating by selectively cultivating and then destroying candidates? They get better and better at it every year.

The press LOVES creating a story and when the creation of the story becomes the story they create buzz and ratings.

[sandnsea]

12. Iowa didn't buy it

They said it all last year. Iowa rejected that nonsense and the rest of the country will too. We just have to write lots of ltte's and counter whatever they say with our own stories. And tell our friends and family too.

[bluestateguy]

14. presidents who were "stiff" and "unapproachable"

Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Madison, Lincoln...

[youngred]

15. why can't you?

its the same old same old and has been for too long

[glarius]

16. It's just a figure of speech...I should have said ....It's incredible they

are actually doing it again!...

[youngred]

57. not really

while the majority of reporters may be quite liberal (goes with being educated), many editors and the owners of media conglomorates are quite conservative. Further they know which side their bread is buttered on...advertisers. Many of the advertisers are companies which donate heavily to Republicans...they lose money if those comapnies pull their advertising. The media has, since the rise of "unbiased" reporting, been a tool of continuing the current system.

[R3dD0g]

17. Why can't you believe it?

Bush / (whoever isn't indicted by then) has a campaign fund of $200 Million.

The media is a business, the object of a business is to make money.

They see that $200 M and start salivating like Pavlov's dogs.

There will be no difference in the coverage of this election than the last. The millionaire pundits will repeat their shallow discourse and we will be shafted again.

The ONLY saving grace is that many of the voters have come to understand how they were screwed in the last election and will not be willing to accept what the whores Russert, et al tell them.

[still_one]

18. Screw the media

have you seen how george bush hems and haws through interviews, he doesn't seem stiff, he seems life a fool.

Name some specific programs where you have seen this crap occurring.

The worst one I saw against Gore was on CNN in 2000.

They presented a segment on his background, which was 90% negative, then presented a segment on bush's background, which was 90% positive.

[WitchWay]

21. But I thought he was "Electable"

I thought that everyone voted for kerry cuz he was "electable". He was ABB. (unlike all those "screwy", "kooky" or "angry" or "liberal" candidates)

My goodness the MAINSTREAM (normal) media gave him all the attention, after all -and everyone KNOWS that you can put complete trust in the corporate media.

[Tank in Texas]

23. Is that just a name

or are you really neopagan?

[WitchWay]

26. not just a name...

I am pagan and I am a witch (not a wiccan)...

My name also refers to a Jim Croce anti-war song "which way are you goin'?"

[Tank in Texas]

29. I am...

...slightly dicordio-neopagan-taoist-Jesuwiccan. UU for short ;-)

[WitchWay]

38. woa!

That's complex, in a simple way -- but complexity is magical.
I'm just a pagan and a witch...pretty freeform.

[Tank in Texas]

22. Well...

...what did you expect after watching them decimate Dean and ignore Edwards? The media is well-known to jump on bandwagons and have always had a soft spot for Bush. Did you actually expect fair treatment.

By the way, some people genuinely feel Kerry is stiff, patirican and unapproachable. Kerry should do something to prove them wrong or get a knockout veep.

[dolstein]

24. Sorry to say I told you so -- but I TOLD YOU SO

I said months ago that Kerry was likely to be Gored by the press. And sorry, but you have no excuse for being surprised at this. It is common knowledge that Kerry isn't especially popular among political journals. Hell, Kerry isn't even all that popular among his campaign staffers. He was regularly portrayed as aloof, cold, stiff, snobbish, etc. in the early days of the campaign. Some perceptions don't change.

[BootinUp]

25. Please see the following thread

A random thought about Kerry and 'boring.'

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=427654&mesg_id=427654&page=

[Dhalgren]

28. I agree with you Dolstein.

(And that comes as as big a surprize to me as it must to you). You are right, no one should be shocked that the media have started to "Gore" Kerry, just as you predicted. This is going to be one ugly campaign and everyone should brace themselves for it.

[w4rma]

32. Well, Kerry won and our respective candidates lost, dolstein. (n/t)

[JNelson6563]

46. have to comment here

This is noteworthy:

I agree with every word you wrote Dolstein. Never thought I'd say that!

:toast:

Julie

[regnaD kciN]

50. Utterly predictable...

...I said it over and over the past couple of months. There are certain areas where Kerry will be vulnerable, and the notion of him as "patrician" and "elitist" is but one of them.

Having said that, as countless football coaches have said, we've got to go with what we've got. And let's hope we see a lot of the "don't let the door hit you on the way out" Kerry from Iowa -- it'll be hard for the media to spread this particular meme if he manages to come across as a "man of the people" the way he did there.

[sampsonblk]

27. Big Deal - Go Kerry! No Bush!

Half the stuff they say about Kerry is true, IMHO. So what? He's my guy at this point. Who else am I going to vote for? Bush?

Yeah, I find Kerry boring, stiff, maybe even a little wishy-washy. I don't buy all that nonsense about him flip-flopping. That's BushCo nonsense. But even if he is a little uhhh flexible, at least he didn't start a bogus war for bogus reasons and get hundreds of Americans and thousands of Iraqis killed.

Go Kerry! No Bush!

[Desertrose]

33. Who couldn't see this coming? Hell...its gonna be so easy

to smear Kerry....Hope everyone here has a thick skin...what they did to Gore is NOTHING compared to what they will do to Kerry.
Get ready. Seriously.

Peace
DR

[Leilani]

35. They were going to trash any of the Dems

No matter who got the nomination, the press was going to characterize them & never let up. Because the don't have an original thought in their collective heads. They just all repeat the same mantra.

[grytpype]

39. The point is this crap is not going to stick to Kerry...

... and he's going to be able to keep on the offensive against Bush.

All Turdblossom can come up with against Kerry is "stiff" and "waffle." Well a stiff waffle looks pretty goddamned good compared to the Commander in Chimp. And that's why Kerry's going to win.

[Gloria]

36. Judy Woodruff is the queen of crap......she started on this last night...

But...the black reporter on CNN actually rebutted her by saying Kerry's ads are terrific, show him with his buddies, and show him to be warm and likeable.

I think Woodruff's favorite word is "aloof."

Frankly, I don't see how any intelligent person can not see how utterly UNLIKEABLE Bush is.......someone should ask Judy how "likeable" Bush seems as he continues to snub the funerals of dead soldiers coming home from Iraq...

These people make me PUKE. They are creating "issues" that aren't there.
They are totally unprofessional whores....

[Forkboy]

37. I'm suprised that you're suprised

:shrug:

[Cheswick2.0]

40. No shock here

If that is the worst they have to throw at him, he'll be okay. I don't think that is the worst they have to throw at him though.

[janx]

52. They haven't even started yet. n/t

[emulatorloo]

41. So what - He will and He is fighting back. . .

Al Gore took the crap that was dished out.

John Kerry is fighting back already.

I am more worried about Dems who just repeat that he "bores" them (not you, see other posts in this thread).

These people would be "bored" by JK even if he stood on top of a purple donkey juggling knives.

[mvd]

51. Yep, Kerry's website had a response to the Bush ads

The media will do the usual talking points, but Kerry won't go down easily. Once the media finds out that their talking points aren't being accepted by the people, then their lack of creativity should show. Even Rove might run out of things to feed. I think Kerry's dignified and Presidential - not boring. I think people see Kerry as connecting with them more than Gore. I look for comedians to be entertaining - not Presidents.

[mandyky]

43. I can't believe you don't believe it!

The mainstream corporate media have been doing this for months. How many times have we heard Judy Woodruff ask questions like - "how do you expect to beat a popular war-time president?" Popular!?!? Popular with whom, morons? Yeesh. What we have to do is get that Dem leading radio/TV station thing going, and provide news and analysis that consists of more than soundbites, and right wing talking points..

[Mobius]

45. If Kerry was too down to earth, they would say he was radical

"we dont want his finger on the red button", as they did with Dean after the Iowa speech. Media just trying to plant seeds of doubt, nothing more.
I really liked what Kerry said the other day, about using three words he knew shrub would understand, "Bring it on". It was a subtle jab at shrub's lack of intellect. WTG! Kerry! :toast:

[Dhalgren]

47. Yeah. If Kerry can actually stand up to all this shit,

then "Bring It On!" is a great slogan - it points everything right back at Bush and leaves him looking limp and ineffectual. I like it.

[Atlant]

48. And here so many thought he was "Mr. Electable". Whatdyaknow. (NT)

[ordentros]

49. not me....

I look at his voting record and cringe.

[Bread and Circus]

53. I agree, Kerry is a great communicator. It's Bush that's stiff and...

standoffish.

He also looks like a grumpy, ugly chimp.

Furthermore, not to offend the developmentally challenged,
but Bush is nearly remedial in his speaking style.

I want a statesman for President, not an emotionally stunted
and linguistically retarded Texan.

[BootinUp]

61. let it out

and be healed.

;)

[nolabels]

54. Do you really need someone else to tell you what to think?

I know, you say everybody else is watching it, and thats how they find out whats going on. So break the mold already, turn it off and find out for yourself. I never watch it except to tune in Laker or Football games. The less you watch, the more you figure out how you were being lied to. Wake up and smell the coffee

[glarius]

55. Sorry, but I think if you don't watch you won't know what their game is

Also, I find it amusing to see their predictable little games at work...:)

[nolabels]

67. Yes you are correct and I really don't want to dis others for watching

Just would like to warn others, I don't really care what their game is because most of it concerned with manipulation as far as I have seen. Imposing views on others without a contrasting view to pigeon hole an audience for marketing. There are several reports on how they do it, working on your subliminal so there is a good chance you won't even be able to question what information gets stuck in your head (which they make that way, on purpose)

Try this on

http://www.kimsoft.com/2000/NSA-psy.htm
(snip)
5.3. Post-Hypnotic Delivery Method:

5.3.1. The NSA combines hypnosis and thought labels to interrogate people without the subject being aware of it. "How can hypnosis be used?" you might ask. The subconscious mind operates at a speed of about 1200 to 1400 words per minute. This is many times faster than the conscious mind that operates at 250 to 450 WPM (words per minute). The posthypnotic script can be spoken at fast conversational speed approximately 250 WPM and a recorder or a computer speeds up the message up to approximately 1200 to 1400 WPM. Remember what happens when you play a 33 rpm record at 78 rpm?

The resulting voice sound like the old American cartoon characters the Chipmunks. This is only slightly past doubling (2X) the delivery speed. At speeds as high as 1400 WPM, the voices would sound like a high pitched chattering whine. Remember when the words "Drink Coca Cola" were written on one frame of a movie in a theatre back in the 1960s?

The frame rate in movies is played at 30 frames/second. At 1/30th of a second the conscious mind could not recognize the message but the subconscious mind could read it clearly. The audience increased their Coca-Cola consumption by 65% that night resulting in the Federal Government prohibiting subliminal advertising. The following probable reasons for not achieving a higher percentage of subliminal delivery effectiveness (> 65%) are described as follows. In that 1/30th of a second some people were blinking, some people were looking around the theatre, looking at spouses, children, candy, popcorn, etc. or they had sufficiently poor eyesight that they could watch the movie but could not distinguish the small writing clearly.

5.3.2. In the early years of this technology, the NSA originally recorded a spoken posthypnotic suggestion message into a tape deck and sped it up by speeding up the tape. This process was labor intensive, required each officer to have excellent diction and mastery of the language and dialect required, and was of poor quality due to background noise and the delay in timing during recording and processing.

It also required extensive training to assure that each officer spoke at the same rate of speed so that the resulting "sped-up" script was delivered at the correct speed. Now computers are used to append digitized samples of optimized, ideal phonemes together to form words and the words are sped-up to the correct delivery speed. Where dialects are present, a different set of base phonemes is used.
(snip)

or look into this
http://mindcontrolforums.com/usp2.htm#5159703

or check this thread out
You've been indoctrinated into a Psychological Civil War
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=606496

I am not really that concerned about it myself, there is so much else to be looking into, what would be the purpose? It's seems like the play in Phaedo where every bodies world is in a cave watching shadow on the walls, then Phaedo gets out to see the real world, the real thing. After he finds out what it is all about he gets home sick and wants to go back. People don't want to make and think for them selfs, they would prefer others do it for them. Just a word of caution, showing what I think might be the worst of it and of a maybe to be careful :-)

[Zomby Woof]

56. I can believe it

After all, this is the media we are dealing with.

However, you can bet Kerry will fight back far harder than Gore ever did. Clinton did so to great success, and Kerry has good odds too.

[redqueen]

58. Are you kidding?!

Why would you think this would be ANY different?

Hell, if anything it will be WORSE this time.

Kudos to Gore for having the balls to speak up about this. Of course Kucinch Sharpton and Dean also deserve credit.

If this country is EVER to get away from the orwellian-nightmare state it's in now, we MUST reform the media. (curse you bill clinton!)

[Ksec]

63. I was shocked by how good his speech was a few weeks ago after

a win(cant remember which one damnit) He was inspiring .I got goosebumps it was so good.

[glarius]

64. I think he has a quality that I can only describe as indomitable!

He comes across to me as a person who will fight to the end for what he believes...

[Allwaysforward]

66. thats why we should have voted for edwards.

[Walt Starr]

68. I should not matter one bit about what the media says

Kerry is electable. That's all that matters.

[Uzybone]

69. Is this really a shock?

even some "liberals" on this site do the same thing. The media is definately in the other camp, they would have found some slur to attach to any of our candidates.

[dpgn61]

70. consider the source

This is the same media that tried to decide the primary for us all last October.
The same media that parroted the WMD fear-mongering and similar hysterias

The mouthpiece for Bush admins. is never going to tell the real story.

[arewethereyet]

71. this has been said since last spring because its true

but he's not as bad as Gore who was styrofoam

[Cleita]

72. Actually, they came to the party late after all the energy they

spent trashing Dean and Clark. I hope Kerry took notes and has a plan.