The media are accomplices in Republican manipulation...

[kentuck]

They seldom will call the Repubs when they use terms like "Obamacare", "Democrat Party", "Job-Killing Healthcare bill", etc.

Seldom will they say that the first budget of Barack Obama included the $700 Bank bailout of George W Bush. They do not put the huge deficits into perspective. They permit the Repubs to lie about it for political advantage.

How do we know that the guy that had his gun strapped to his knee, attending an Obama event, was not mentally unstable? Where was the press?

Now, they show this long-hair hippie-type photo of the killer from Tucson. There are more recent photos but they prefer the long-haired one? Why? They don't mention that he also reads Ayn Rand and was very anti-abortion. They are attempting to portray him as a liberal, not a right-winger.

The media needs to do their job and stop carrying water for the Republican right-wingers and propagandists. Their job is not to get Sarah Palin elected. They could start by keeping politicians honest with their language.

[tularetom]

1. The supposedly responsible media in the US have utterly failed

They've been beaten into submission by right wing extremist rhetoric on the radio and TV.

They are more at fault for tragedies like the Tucson shooting than Palin or any other hate monger.

Because they know better and lack the courage to speak up.

[villager]

2. since about 1980, at least...

n/t

[spanone]

3. chuck todd mentioned that the guy showed up at a hcr rally with an assault rifle

AND M$NBC INTERVIEWED HIM

[Supersedeas]

8. another example of sensationalizing RW political passions THEN, but now

the objective is to tamp down appropriate liberal reactions to a political assassination.

[rfranklin]

4. They are doing their "job"

Bought and paid for.

[OregonBlue]

5. My letter to the NYT. I agree with you completely.

While the left and the right attempt to blame each other for this horrible event, it occurs to me that the one entity that is not admitting their culpability in all of this is the media itself. The tea party is a very small minority in this nation and yet during the last election cycle, they gained 80% of the news coverage. Our "news" media no longer seems to feel it is their job to inform the country, they seem to believe it is their job to entertain us and to make a profit.

Serious political discussion is not sexy. Serious political discussion doesn't sell papers. Sex sells, violence sells.

In my opinion, the collective media in this country is just as responsible for the deaths of that 9 year old girl as anyone on the left or the right. Until you decide to stop being mouthpieces, until you decide to be news organizations as opposed to entertainment, nothing will change.

You have that young girl's blood on your hands just as surely as does the shooter.

[LiberalFighter]

6. And the media needs to stop using the same terms in their own broadcast.

Locally it happens where I am. Plus, when local media have spouses that are Republican elected officials it does not provide a certainty of unbiased reporting.

[Supersedeas]

7. Astroturfing doesn't just pop-up over night--remember the Media glee at covering

the disruption at townhall meeting during the Healthcare debate


Much more attention to the passions motivating disruptions than to the Death Panel lies.

But now, it is just not proper to speak of crosshairs...