Because that would be the kind of big news not even the mainstream press could make disappear.
From Instapundit:
A READER AT A MAJOR NEWSROOM EMAILS: “Off the record, every suspicion you have about MSM being in the tank for O is true. We have a team of 4 people going thru dumpsters in Alaska and 4 in arizona. Not a single one looking into Acorn, Ayers or Freddiemae. Editor refuses to publish anything that would jeopardize election for O, and betting you dollars to donuts same is true at NYT, others. People cheer when CNN or NBC run another Palin-mocking but raising any reasonable inquiry into obama is derided or flat out ignored. The fix is in, and its working.” I asked permission to reprint without attribution and it was granted.
The Anchoress, too, has friends in high places, and they’re saying the same things.
Me, I don’t get inside sourcing from major newsrooms, but I’ve been making a similar argument for years nevertheless. Call it a gut feeling. A certain keenness of mind. My remarkable capacity to tease subtle insights from carefully disguised rhetorical maneuverings.
— Or, you know — being able to read.
What strikes me as most odious is that last bit in the Instapundit excerpt — “The fix is in, and its [sic] working” — an admission made all the more disheartening to those of us who realize that the press is becoming a willing accomplice in election rigging because it was just 4-years ago that Evan Thomas of Newsweek acknowledged the media’s complicity in this attempted anti-democratic, anti-American gambit. But rather than feel shamed at their failure to honor a contract with the public, the press has decided instead to double down and give up any pretense of being neutral — all to help elect a Stepford candidate forged from 60s radicalism and polished by Alinsky, Gramsci, and the philosophical precepts of progressive fascism.
Proof positive that those who have suspected the press of being an increasingly activist fifth column are not so much paranoid as they are perspicacious.
Nobody who can, as our host notes, read — and, more importantly, form an independent opinion based on what they read — could doubt the veracity of the anonymous insider’s words. But I surely do hate stories based on emails from “anonymous insiders”.
What bothers me more is that the same thing happened during the run-up to the war in Iraq which was arguably far more important from a media perspective than this upcoming election. During that episode the media ignored the clear and present danger that was Saddam Hussein’s regime, and instead focused on the “Bush’s war for oil”, consistently twisting and manipulating the reasons for removing Saddam from power.
Here’s some proof. This is the cover of TIME magazine, one year after Saddam was removed from power-
http://www.time.com/time/covers/1101040315/
Barely a year removed and they were already ringing the bells of surrender and defeat.
The fact that the media has been looking at Obama as a chance for redemption against the Bush administration should be surprising no one. They blew it with Bush and want to see Obama win to prove that they still have enough sway with the electorate.
It’s absolutely despicable and I hope they all end up working at some local news weekly selling adult-themed advertising.
It’s absolutely despicable and I hope they all end up
working at some local news weekly selling adult-themed advertisingundergoing similar tender ministrations as were received by LCDR McCain, circa 1967-1973 and for at least a similar period of time.being able to read
Also think. For example, thinking that maybe something is fishy when everything you read about a Republican governor with a 90% approval rating (including 75% of Democrats) makes her out to be a witch-burning, gay-hanging, book-banning Nazi.
Then thinking that maybe those Alaskans are just backward, uneducated rednecks, and doing a little research to find that turns out not to be the case.
I choose to view this as desperation. Unless something changes (e.g., “Fairness Doctrine” for the Inernet) this is the last election where they matter, and they know it.
I hope they all end up working at some local news weekly selling adult-themed advertising.
Isn’t Dan Rather hosting some crapfest on deep cable, between the city council meetings and the shopping networks?
Anonymous to you, perhaps, but obviously not to Reynolds.
So the real question is, do you trust Reynolds?
You don’t have to be hating on the anonymity this time. Decent, unfairly talented people, like Iowahawk, vouch to the realness of the person and the real risk to career if outed.
That other one with the puppies and the kay’s ice cream and all.. I don’t know.
You mind explaining what contract with the public they have broken? Because they dont’ really have one, you know. It seems like a lot of people may have wrong ideas about that, but they really are in business to inform and entertain in a way that sells ad spots or papers.
Maybe if their faults in providing information were more widely knows, they would not sell so many spots or papers.
It’s a free country. They can ignore the O!’s awfulness as much as they please, and as long as they aren’t reckless making stuff up, Palin is fair game.
No one has to accept that as the whole of the story. I would suggest to anyone they do not.
So the real question is, do you trust Reynolds?
In specific, do we trust Reynolds more than we trust, say, Katie Couric?
The answer should be clear.
Decent, unfairly talented people, like Iowahawk, vouch to the realness of the person and the real risk to career if outed.
Where is Iowahawk vouching for the person? I just checked the IH site and didn’t see anything there.
PJM should start hiring some dang full-time reporters.
this is the last election where they matter, and they know it.
I see that Insty has made the same point.
Spies, over at Ace’s. He knows the person.
I suppose he could just be trying to get elected or something.
– Baracky’s Associated Press, today
Spies, over at Ace’s.
Thanks, SarahW.
PJM should start hiring some dang full-time reporters.
Starting with this anonymous source, perhaps.
Although the blogosphere allows a greater revealation of the bias, I remember an illustrative episode of it during the the 1992 presidential election…
At a CNN moderated debate where random regular folks would be allowed to call in and ask questions of Bush and Clinton, amazingly, the first call taken was from George Stephanopoulos!
Curious George asked Big Booooosh how much a loaf of bread cost, and as the President hesitated a bit while thinking about the answer, ol’ Georgie boy erupted in a staccato barrage of statements-in his best telephone adaptation of the time of their newly developed shout-down tactic.
He kept whinily repeating: “you don’t know, do you”, “you can’t say what it cost’s because you don’t know”, and “every working person knows what bread costs, but you’re so out of touch you don’t know”-ad nauseum…
The whole time big Booooosh sat there, unable to get a word in edgewise owing to a rant from Stephie that would make a coke-head’s speech pattern sound like he was on valium, and looking at Bernard Shaw with an expression that at once said, “Pretty fucking convenient that one of Clinton’s campaign assholes got through first” and “How the hell do I know what a loaf of bread costs, someone else does the shopping and I just pay the bills”.
And the entire time Bernard Shaw sat there with that non-plussed sleepy eyed look he would often get, while Billy jeff looked on smirking. Big Boosh had been pwned, and he knew it; he never recovered from that moment for the rest of the debate.
Big Boooooosh was a fairly popular President who had the stones to kick Saddam’s ass the first time, and had presided over the end of the cold war! But, with that existential threat removed, the left was free to do their work and reclaim the reins of power after suffering defeat at the hands of eeeeeeevil RethugliKKKans for the previous three elections.
Funny how if you’re lucky and stick around long enough, that history seems to repeat itself…
I read that the public blames Republicans for the current economic mess by a margin of 2 to 1. I’d like to see a poll asking how many are familiar with Franklin Raines political affiliations.
Nobody who can, as our host notes, read… could doubt the veracity of the anonymous insider’s words.
I’m working with someone who says that there’s no way the media is biased, because on the Sunday opinion shows, they’ve got freakin’ conservatives, TOO.
She listens to NPR. Last week she said, “The French are right: you gotta have regulation.” She also said, after returning from said country, that “the French government listens to its people, at least.”
And that Bush invaded Iraq so that he could enrich himself via Halliburton.
She’s my supervisor. I can’t say much…
…being able to read…
Highest illiteracy rate in history…
My God, is that true about Stephanopolis?
And now it is worse with what is going on regarding Barack – but not just Barack – Pelosi, all of them.
All they have to do to get away with anything and everything is raise the Republican Spectre – the public turns blind after that – no more need be said.
I’m sickened by it. What can be done.
Well, we can go vote November Fourth.
I believe that the media prognostications are generally off five percentage points, favoring Republican, historically.
That’s why a Dem candidate leaving his nominating convention needs a fifteen point lead AND a five point bounce to make it close.
Barak never broke ten ahead among likely voters.
If you trust the polls reported by MSM, of course.
This is a make or break election on a whole lot of levels. Future of freedom in America; by extension, the world. Lots of Iraqis are probably freaked out. Many packing to be places other than Iraq, I’d guess. Future of free markets. Future of open and honest elections; we could all wake up in Chicago come 5 November.
Time fills. Goodnight, y’all.
History. It ain’t over. Imagine that.
Posts like Jeff’s make me long for another of his erudite expositions on this Thing we are living, this Thing that is some kind of dreadful cultural miasma infecting even our language. It’s Obastard’s detestable congruency with this Thing, this (ahem, pretension) zeitgeist that keeps me up late. Look at the way the MSM treats him and his narrative. Consider his hallmarks… he votes “present” repeatedly, speaks of himself in his miserable autobiographies in a detached, third-person fashion. His idea of leadership regarding the financial crisis is to just be available if someone needs him… he can’t be bothered to actually put himself on the line and do something unequivocal. Even his extemporaneous speech is filled with ums and ahs as if he can’t make up his mind just what to say, or how to say it… lest he say something too direct.
He is the perfect 21st Century man. Crammed with ambition, leery of responsibility or commitment, convinced of his indispensability, oblivious to his ignorance. Style and brand is everything. When this man rules our executive branch, as he will in 2009, be prepared for someone who spends ninety percent of his time preening his administration’s glamor and reputation, and ten percent smoking a ciggy on the Oval Office balcony, musing about his memoirs. Meanwhile, his harpy wife and his chief of staff will be gripping with white (awkward racial pun intended) knuckles the levers of power. We are going to have a pouting Dauphin as President, with untold ministers behind the scene scrapping for power.
And the MSM will report exactly none of this.
We can all migrate to Alaska. What with all that global warming, it should be balmy in just a few years. And we can have Palin without McCain.
What say?
Dicentra – Only if we secede.
as a longtime msm’er, who wrote the cover story for my msm staple pub. this week, i think I can help.
let me clear: the tipster is 100% correct.
there is no dumpster-diving, but there is a concerted effort to drum things up from the background of palin and mccain. little curiousity is shown Obama’s background. there is open scorn shown for the mccain ticket; as an “out” conservative, i am looked upon as a mildly insane friend by most colleagues.
that said, bush makes it too easy. he is a pretty crappy president on both ideological and practical grounds, and has done little to help us out of this very, very real economic pinch we are in.
msm bias is real, but so is GOP weakness. most people see this mess and look to the whitehouse and not reid or pelosi–fair it isnt, but if kerry or gore were in there, we’d be hollering bloody murder on these blogs about inflation, the collapse of the finance sector, the end of dollar diplomacy (pay really, really close attention to this issue going forward, since it has been the US’s best trump card for 45 years) and US credibility on capital(ist) matters.
wish it were different. living in a blue state, im thinking about saying f’it and voting for bob barr.
Hey, if we’re going for the full secession thing, why bother with Alaska? Let’s take the Western and Central time zones, plus San Diego (Pacific port), minus Michigan and Chicago (ewwww), and let ’em see if they can stop us.
little curiosity is shown about Obama’s background
Oh, I bet that many of them know. They approve.
The GOP is being played like a fiddle. The Dems held back just enough votes to give Obama the opportunity to swoop in and save the day. I didn’t realize it until I noticed that there were key players holding back, like Jesse Jackson and Xavier Becerra. Obama will come in and mediate between the Latinos and African Americans and come up with a plan that the rest of the Dems can get behind. A uniter not a divider! Freakin devious, but thats my call.
I already have. You have your drum to beat about how you were taught to be skeptical of the press. Good for you. But the press nevertheless still operates under the auspices of “objectivity,” and there are still those that, though they claim distrust of the press, nevertheless rely on it for their “facts” without understanding selection bias, bias by omission, or how narratives are shaded.
As long as they pretend toward objectivity while playing advocate for a specific party — maintaining control over who gets hired, how to set up Op-ed pages to weigh heavily toward one side (often using “conservatives” who barely rate the title for “balance” — they are breaking their contract with the public.
If you have some dirt than could be dug here on Oahu, I could be yer guy to do the digging.
I’d like to see one asking people what it is he did. I suspect the percentage would be quite low.
Oh, but there’s so much still to come, like our era’s “most talented politican” giving thoughtful consideration to comparisions of David Duke and Reverend Wright.
Palin painted as boiled wart in the media! Every outlet! Waaaaah!
It’s obvious your limited readings are solely the voice of thor and his exaggerated, yet spot on, Sister Palin depictions. He is, by the way, from Plano, ranked #2 on your bogus most-literate city list. Plano as literate oasis, stop me from laughing myself purple. Plano! The lifeless sprawl of Plano!
It’s obvious your limited readings are solely the voice of thor and his exaggerated, yet spot on
Complimenting yourself in your first post on the thread? That’s a rookie sockpuppet mistake, thor. You’re slipping.
#33
Illinois or Texas? Not that it makes any difference. Although in my opinion Plano Illinois(Think plastic molded tackleboxes)is a far greater void of literacy.
I would love to see a hidden camera of the NBC, CBS, or ABC newsrooms on election night to watch them cheering or booing when the election returns come in.
This post points to the culmination of a progressive dream. In the 60’s they took over the colleges, in the 70’s the public schools. They educated children in the glorification of dissent, and framed the heroes of the press as Woodward and Bernstein rising to confront “the man”. They equated war protesters with civil rights marchers as though they were equally brave and equally correct. Activism became an end in itself, and injustice was only confronted on a macro level while ignored on a micro level. They converted truth into a substance with varying degrees, only relevant when viewed through the prism of subjectivism.
They have used a celebrity culture incapable of discerning value, and the pontificators choose for the populace what has value. Duty, honor and sacrifice are replaced with what’s in it for me. The desire for validation in terms of popularity has replaced the desire for success, especially when measured against parents whose sacrifices made them live below their means while modern America lives beyond theirs.
In short, the progs are right: in the larger sense, we have become a nation of sheeple, and our leaders are not those elected to to lead, they are those selected for their ability to consume our time and money. No reasonable people could willingly ignore the associations of BO and misconstrue McCain/Palin into the freaks they are portrayed to be. Palin was a shock to their system. How could one of the sheeple rise up and perceive herself as worthy of being taken seriously, let alone deserve a position of authority?
Before this point in the election, I feared our nation was about to take a serious turn for the worse. Now I am fairly certain we took that turn long ago; this is only the culmination. The only question is: is there enough of what we were to survive what we’ve become?
Rookie!
Slipper!
Fuck you!
No, fuck you!
Wanna thumb wrestle?
You can’t thumb wrestle between your own sock puppets, rookie!
Hmm, shit.
Thanks for ruining my day Dale.
Most Americans already know about MSM liberalism.
It’s been studied. They know.
Only one poll counts.
That’s a rookie sockpuppet mistake, thor.
He’s as incompetent at sockpuppetry as he is in every other area of life.
My response to thor:
Click.
“Buh-bye”.
Chuckle.
I hope he washes his hands a lot. Really.
The only question is: is there enough of what we were to survive what we’ve become?
Yes, if enough conservatives and libertarians dedicate themselves to taking it back.
Historically speaking, you’d think Obama would be 15 points ahead after 8 years of the MSM pounding a GOP president fighting an unpopular war and in the middle of a huge economic “crisis.” But he’s not.
And one of Jeff’s links has Karl Rove anything can happen in the next 36 days.
So what’s that tell you?
Hey, trashed by thor, with an incoherant screed against Palin!
Wow, I made it!
Sorry, Mr. Pink. I’ll recover my optimism, or change my oil. I can only pick one.
This is the first election where the media is on the ballot.
“The fix is in, and its [sic] workingâ€Â
Like we need some inside knowledge to know this. Look at how the press is so eager to interview Palin, to see her executive experience. Look at how Letterman is so eager to mock McCain’s erratic lies. If this goes on any longer McCain/Palin are doomed.
You’re presence is like that gush of water that announces the next stall’s vacancy is no longer. I’ll never accuse you of being constipated either. from your comments I’ve no doubt your actual prostrations are like a groan from an ingenious torture. It’s too likely you come off the street to empty yourself in the same fashion you exist here.
And give yourself a thorough perineum scrub sometime, eh.
“He’s as incompetent at sockpuppetry…”
Incompetent or incontenant?
Comment by thor on 9/30 @ 6:43 am #
On the internet, no one knows you’re a dog.
Everyone, however, knows that thor is an asshole.
N’ob isn’t worthy of licking my boots.
“Let’s take the Western and Central time zones, plus San Diego (Pacific port), minus Michigan and Chicago (ewwww), and let ‘em see if they can stop us.”
Michigan is in the Eastern Time zone except for the Western part of the UP, I believe, which is Central.
The west side of Michigan is mostly conservative with liberal enclaves around universities and larger city cores. Detroit is what swings us to the Democrat column in elections.
HF, again I ask, never leave this blog.
Fascism has progressed?
I think you grossly underestimated Obama’s talent. He’s a p-t player.
>>Detroit is what swings us to the Democrat column in elections.
NYC is what does that to us. Downstate NY really needs to be separated, for so many reasons.
But hey, as long as we’re seceding, be sure to let me know where to move to.
Philly does the same for Pennsylvania, I believe, and Cleveland/Cincy for Ohio.
Secession might not be necessary to have the same effect. It might be interesting to run a simulation on how the electoral votes and Congress would play out if the large Dem enclaves were spun out into their own states.
“#Comment by thor on 9/30 @ 6:56 am #
N’ob isn’t worthy of licking my boots.”
Incontinent.
He’s too fucking stupid to even come up with an original insult.
My observation:
thor isn’t good enough to lick the sand from my sons combat boots.
(which he isn’t, btw. My son is a Marine. thor is a cocksucker posing on the internet)
thor’s excrement:
“N’ob isn’t worthy of licking my boots.”
Capital L looooser, thor.
Capital L.
Yeah especially since the Dem enclaves are more populated and would get more electoral votes, ya man-pie kisser.
N. O’B: Have a look at this.
I bet N’ob’s son votes twice for Obama.
It doesn’t so much matter that they’re more populated. I’m absolutely cool with them getting proportional voting. Thats democracy.
The problem I’m pointing towards is our own lack of representation, based on our voting. Upstate NY is overwhelmingly “red”; we typically are not governed so, yet are taxed just the same as anyone who bought into it.
Biden can talk about FDR going on television to talk to the people about the 1929 stock market crash and the press walks away. But let some music teacher in AK make unsubstantiated claims that Palin talked about dinosaurs and humans and the LATimes uses it to lead a story filled with already debunked stories.
Pelosi sunk her own bill, she and the Democrats got the word from their far Left base – crash and burn the economy so Obama (who did nothing) will be elected. And the MSM cooperates.
This is bolshevikism.
It is also a coup.
In our case, Detroit in losing population so maybe things will eventually turn around.
typo… should be bolshevism.
I think coup would be more apt. Instead of using force they use manufactured scares, deliberatly distorting the reality of a war so it appears we are losing, and economic disasters of their own making.
me: But I surely do hate stories based on emails from “anonymous insiders”.
Russ: Anonymous to you, perhaps, but obviously not to Reynolds. So the real question is, do you trust Reynolds?
I have no doubt that Glenn is familiar with this emailer and trusts him/her, and has enough sense not to risk his reputation on the words of somebody he hasn’t thoroughly vetted. I do not question the validity of his post.
I just hate anonymous sources on principle. I hate trusting journalists, even ones I trust.
This is bad in ways I’m only just getting. Just for cause you know why? Yesterday I went out to smoke about this time and there was a car in our loading zone all parked and unattended to where it’s gonna get a ticket like all the other parked and unattended cars in our loading zone get week after week after week cause I see them get them cause I go smoke there and me and NG have noticed it. Yesterday the parking man, he drove up to this offendy car. Turned his car off and was getting out, with his ticketmakerthinger in his hand, but then he saw the Baracky Hope sticker, and what he did was, he got back in his parkingmobile, put the keys back in his ignition, started up and moved on. This is corruption.
Forgive my disdain at some of these reactions.
We knew all this going in, someone remind me why McCain was the nominee.
Why did you support this guy? In the “greatest election of our time” (or whatever) what made you think that this guy, or any of the other options, was the best to take on all this responsibility?
I’m surprised McCain is this competitive- and that might be the real story here.
All this hand wringing, talk of secession, and calling Americans sheeple is disgusting.
/spit.
You people need some perspective.
I’m not seceding nowheres but don’t think for a second I’m not gonna be a perfectly stalwart and at times alluring little fifth columnist. Dashing. Rebellious. Dangerous to know.
hf –
A member of The Party has immunities.
Yesterday, I was thinking about the Yuppie Nuremburg Defense from “Thank You For Smoking”, where they were doing reprehensible things and said, “I vas only paying ze mortgage! Vhere vould ve be if no-one paid ze mortgage?!”
But then I was like, no-one’s paying the mortgages, so it all washes, I guess. They’re not even good at being yuppie Nazis.
>>You people need some perspective.
“You people”?
RACIST!
Victor
McCain is the nominee for the same reason Barry is … most primary votes. He wasn’t my first pick (I worked for Romney) but McCain certainly was the darling of the NYTimes right up to about 30 minutes after he secured the nomination.
One of McCain’s biggest drawbacks is he thinks other people are as dedicated to honesty and transparency as he is.
Oh, hey. Kinda sucks he did that.
Honesty? Transparency?
McCain is a fucking liar!
get real.
We sure did have an unattractive slate. Huckabee is such a vile beast I think anyone what shared a stage with him suffered through the whole primary season. I never did tune in much during all that.
You people need some perspective.
No shit. Nobody’s said a thing about the revelation that Clay Aiken is gay.
McCain is a liar? Wow that’s insightful. I guess O! is a paragon of Chicago virtue in your world too.
Victor is probably another thor sockpuppet.
And also I’m feeling myself in Jeff’s shoes a few weeks ago, because I’ve covered my index fingers with duct tape so I can sand plaster and man does it ever make for some finger typing dissonance.
Hey Spies…
Now that I have TrollHammer, I don’t see as much cockroach shit around here. Sweet!
Because that would be the kind of big news not even the mainstream press could make disappear.
I think that you underestimate the mainstream press.
On CNBC this a.m. 8:33 mins of James Bianco, Bianco Research president and Anthony Crescenzi, Miller Tabak chief bond market strategist, discuss the credit markets and the means to solve the problem. It’s all worth listening to but pay particular attention to Bianco’s description of the problems and his suggestions of a solution, which vary from the current congressional bill on offer, from about 3:30 in through to the end.
I think very few people here did.
But right now I’d feel safer with a Terrier over Obama. Provided the dog was allowed to veto by pissing on things.
Got a call from a friend on his way home from work last night. Biggest project put on hold cause of Nancy. Half the staff to be let go this morning. Nancy hurts people is what she does.
Does a 50 million voter advantage constitute a landslide?
You guys are absolutely apoplectic.
The Election is 4 weeks away and already you are planning your
appeal.
Don’t you know that Bush and his media minions (like Peggy Noonan)
are pleading for us all to ‘just work TOGETHER!’?
At least she knows that the jig is up for Reaganauts and their Ponzi schemes, and it’s time to fix the country “The Republican Party has wrecked”.
But ya’ll want to fiddle like Nero as Western and Eastern Civilization burns in the wake of failed economic ideology.
Shame on you for putting America last.
Shut up tHor.
“Provided the dog was allowed to veto by pissing on things.”
Yep, that’s Voodoo Economics all right.
They piss on you and tell you it’s precipitation. It’s ok, they say, because it’s a GOLDEN shower.
Where can I get this “TrollHammer”? We have a Forward Operating Base Hammer here, but I know of no TrollHammer…
Looks Like I will arrive back in the US just about Election Day, maybe a mite before. Interesting times.
Nancy pushed us over the brink cause she wants more socialisms. People will suffer for real, and they will ask why. What won’t happen is that Republicans will stay home in November. People will do what they need to do to protect their families. It’s an American thing. Nancy didn’t factor that in.
“N. O’B: Have a look at this.”
N’OB is catching on. Let’s do a ‘wave’ in his honor.
“As long as they pretend toward objectivity while playing advocate for a specific party  maintaining control over who gets hired, how to set up Op-ed pages to weigh heavily toward one side (often using “conservatives†who barely rate the title for “balance† they are breaking their contract with the public.”
They’re fair-weather friends who know which side of their bread is buttered. They sense the bloodlust is pointed at the Party that
Wrecked America, and the like to support the winner.
They tried ‘objectivity’ when you guys had some credibility, it didn’t work out. Sorry
The
mainstreammedia are once again going all out for the client they think will be Richard Gere to their Julia Roberts, but after the election, regardless of who wins, they’ll be right back out on the sidewalk, looking for the next one.Link, please.
Oh, and: TrollHammered.
“Comment by Socialist Fiend on 9/30 @ 9:24 am #
“N. O’B: Have a look at this.â€Â
N’OB is catching on. Let’s do a ‘wave’ in his honor.”
Next up, thor learns pattycakes.
I will take a wild guess and say thor’s life must suck if this is how he gets amusement. Shouldn’t you be in a chat room thor?
>>Nancy pushed us over the brink cause she wants more socialisms. People will suffer for real, and they will ask why.
First industries to be hit hard from what I’m reading would be just-in-time retailers [Walmart, etc] and distribution networks [trucking, etc.].
So yeah, a collapse uses starvation as a weapon. Stalin would be proud.
Interesting, is it not, that the Trollhammer proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that the uninformed, yet arrogant troll thor is nothing but an attention whore?
>>I will take a wild guess and say thor’s life must suck if this is how he gets amusement
I expect a ton of triumphalism no matter who wins, so that is just so much noise. I just wish that the cheerers wouldn’t be so glad to have the country go to shit for reals for their power grab.
Won’t use Trollhammer, myself. I privilege my own hearing of BS to weigh over closing my ears to it. A good effort not to be discouraged, I just can’t use it out of principle.
JeffG – About press objectivity and contracts with the public, leave me out of it, the way I should have. My *drum to beat* is that pretense of objectivity does not absolve the public of any of it’s own duties.
The history of the free press is not one of objectivity, but conscious advocacy, spin and distortion. Out of a cacophany of competition, narket forces shaped pretentions to balanced views, because it garnered prestige and sold papers and built institutions that sold papers.
While it may be a common misperception that news sources are obligated to act as hallowed institutions of objective observation and explication and thinkery, ( some may even have striven at one time for that goal), that perception is a false one. That this perception managed to be internalized and taken as some sort of conventional wisdon, is less a failure not of news institutions but by the consumers of the news produced.
There’s and old saying you can’t fool an honest man. Honesty in this situtation might represent a willingness to be more than a lazy, passive receiver of information. If people rely in an unquestioning way on sources of information , they deserve to get fooled.
And since I’m going with hoary aphorisms today, once served the melamine, twice shy. The cure is to expose the lying, the shading and the shaping. It’s more competition that’s needed.
It’s the way any rules of ethical journalism developed in the first place.
TrollHammer needs God’s Anvil, and He seems uninterested in giving
ya’ll anything but Hot Air to strike. (But with Grrreeaattt conviction)
“I privilege my own hearing of BS to weigh over closing my ears to it”
My friend, you are very unusual. N’OB has other reasons….(masochism?)
I don’t mean to imply that people aren’t just naturally gullible, or unquestioning, taking certain precepts for granted when they have no rational basis for doing so, except as beings receptive to and influenced by those methods of communication developed in the biological and social evolution of the human animal.
It is possible to manipulate communications to prevail upon the hearts and minds of others, and some beings will always attempt it, and without question I agree people need to be properly awakened to this notion in order to guard against it.
However, to argue that the PRESS is the one who has some duty, is backwards.
I’m not exactly being indiscriminate about using it myself, though the many arses of thor make it easier than perhaps it should be, to take a hair-trigger approach.
Jeff’s wishes to the contrary notwithstanding, the dialogue here is being shredded, to the detriment of everything positive about this site.
Sarah,
I worry about old people who watch GMA, because “that Charlie Gibson is the bee’s knees!” and they tell the old people to go get your money out of the bank because it’s about to disappear into the GWB slush fund and then the old people panic and die.
Don’t get me wrong, old people should die eventually, but not cause a run on the banks while doing it.
“Link, please.
Oh, and: TrollHammered.”
HeeYuk. Magoo wants a link so he can’t see it.
“to the detriment of everything positive about this site.”
Strike ‘detriment’, insert detritus
To argue otherwise seems to implicitly to call for some regulatory body, or court, that monitors how “objective” a speaker or writer or collective news agent is, In addition to those areas of speech already circumscribed by law.
Is there an inexpensive way to make GMA invisible to the over 80 crowd?
>>My friend, you are very unusual. N’OB has other reasons….(masochism?)
No, not at all. If you review the philosophical history for the idea of free speech, I’m on solid ground. Free speech is for the hearer, not so much the speaker. You protect objectionable speech b/c the hearers of that speech should be trusted to make up their own minds with as complete information as possible.
Agree with SarahW on the press issue, BTW. We just lost the NY Sun, and the answer to that is more speech and media, not control over the clearly Leftist MSM. They will try to strangle rightwing commentary through Fairness Doctrines and such, but I think we can route around that, maybe even defeat it.
Just make the case to the people, repeatedly: Is there anyone to whom you will cede your access to information? Is there anyone you can name who is fit to make that judgment for you?
That makes its easier to decide who get the replacement hips, knees, ventilators, and so forth after socialized medicine arrives…
“and so forth after socialized medicine arrives…”
Our fearless leader has set the precedent……..
Anyone who believes that one party, whether Dem or Rep, is solely responsible for ‘wrecking the country’ is a tool. It’s a belief right up there with Astrology, AGW, ESP and that the Beatles made great music.
NPR’s new meme is all about introducing the virtues of rationing healthcare. All the cool kids in Europe are already down wit it apparently.
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Al, I see you worry about old people as realistic. But would you go so far as to say, freedom of speech should be curtailed, because the vulnerable among us might hear bad ideas, or be weak-minded enough to receive the information uncritically?
“your worry”, not “you worry”
Eben –
I’ll meet you half way. The Democrats designed this failure. The Republicans recognized the coming disaster but took the money and laid down. Talk about Phil Gramm if you want, but bear in mind that deregulation made business more profitable by allowing more business to happen profitably. That that situation benefited more Republicans via contributions I don’t dispute – but they enjoyed more contributions because the businesses were serving customers and the business model was valid.
The “affordable housing” bullshit is code for “free money for votes” and nothing else. Except that the money is NOT free, it’s the trillions of dollars gone out over the last thirty years as replacement for the failed wealth redistribution vehicles like generational welfare. What a sweet deal to force the market to make bad loans… then make it possible for the flawed model to persist by a coordinated, criminal campaign of intimidation and slander against any one who dared to object, much less actually resist.
I haven’t seen any reportage where any Republican looked into the camera saying that resistance to sub prime lending was racist.
There should be people in handcuffs right now – starting with Franks, Dodd, and Raines.
Both parties are culpable. Washington is an evil place. But make no mistake: one party planned this. The other let it happen.
I don’t know if Obama will win or not. I know that if he gets beat, the biggest losers will be media and the political elite.
The winners will be every person on the planet who believes in representative government and free market capitalism.
It does seem to be the pointy end of the Cloward-Piven theory manufactured crisis – haul a large enough mob of , deliberately poorly educated or helpfully softened up and/or ignorantly impassioned and underfunctioning persons into the political process as possible, to overwhelm the normal people required to keep our republic going.
MAJ (P) John,
“Where can I get this “TrollHammerâ€Â?”
It’s a program that Spies, Brigands, and Pirates posted at The Pub.
It seems to be causing a new syndrome to break out, THDS.
::backbeat rhythm::
The cure – exposure of bias, and more more more speech. Bad reporting should cost any source, its reputation of good reporting.
Al, I see you worry about old people as realistic. But would you go so far as to say, freedom of speech should be curtailed, because the vulnerable among us might hear bad ideas, or be weak-minded enough to receive the information uncritically?
My answer is no. But can you give me that “Go to the bank and get your money out” is more akin to “Fire” in a crowded theatre? (elitist spelling of thee-AYE-ter)
or grant me
I’d say it’s more like really bad advice.
It’s not so cut and dried anyway. If you really think there IS a fire and yell “fire”, no matter how crowded the Teatro is.
If Charlie was intending to be taken seriously, but just yanking granny’s chain, and she broke a hip… SEE YOU IN COURT.
The “affordable housing†bullshit is code for “free money for votes†and nothing else. Except that the money is NOT free, it’s the trillions of dollars gone out over the last thirty years as replacement for the failed wealth redistribution vehicles like generational welfare.
Tmj — I just realized we’ve already paid reparations for slavery.
Formatting error!
“If you really think there IS a fire and yell “fireâ€Â, no matter how crowded the Teatro is – you might be more like a hero.
I shall go see about picking up TrollHammer, thanks geoffb.
Not when kids are being taught in school that the role of the press is to provide objective oversight of the facts.
Then you should work on redefining what the press is.
MAJ (P) John,
I hope you get silver leaves soon. My thanks for all your service to our nation.
I a lot work on redefining the press. It’s very easy. You just click here and here but not there or there and you’re home in time for dinner.
No it doesn’t. It comes down to a commitment to the profession as you claim it to be.
You can’t get rid of bias. It is impossible. But you can consciously try your best to avoid it, which is the self-described role of the press.
By all rights McCain should be losing in a landslide, and he would if the Dems nominated someone who did not have connections to terrorists, racketeers, and racist whackjobs.
It seems to me all the posts by Jeff recently seem to be pointing to the US losing the Cold War.
“If you really think there IS a fire and yell “fireâ€Â, no matter how crowded the Teatro is – you might be more like a hero.
But if you’re yelling “Fire” because you’ve just been caught in the balcony with your gay lover and it would be bad press for you, you’re not a hero. Not saying that the gay part is necessarily bad, just the cover-up.
Why the crusade for an “unbiased” press when you’re a participant and publisher of a slanted, lop-sided, heavily nuanced, and r-wingered and extremist-KK-influenced narrative machine yourself?
Instead of platitudes and proclamations I’ve worked from within the dark innards of PW to correct its lilting masts of bias-unbias neutrality. A ballast jukebox hero, that’s what I am! Heroic! A Bastard of Upright Righteousness! A Somali Pirate who happens to be White and is a registered Independent!
Good God I’m Sacred in Deed and Word. Hail me. Bellow toasts in my honor. Send flowers and chocolates. Lick my boots, N’ob!11!!
“Not when kids are being taught in school that the role of the press is to provide objective oversight of the facts.”
Who and why is anyone teaching any child any such thing? The opposite has been true at least in one place during my lifetime. I do have a good ten years on you, admittedly. Excuse me, there is someone on my lawn….
….. Well then, what’s the remedy?
Another reason to homeschool, or to be involved in setting the curriculum and/ot standards of learning in said schools.
I see a crusade for an unbiased press as not so much a wrong approach, as an incomplete one.
Call out the bias, counter mistakes, misdirection, omissions, with more speech,
Start or sponsor your own news gathering agency with strict editorial oversight and try to make it sell,
or support only those news gathering agencies with a reputation scrupulously maintained.
Reputation is all news agencies have. There are no legal standards of “professional” journalism on top of any rules that might apply to an individual.
Seriously, the history of yellow journalism was actually a part of the curriculum in secondary schools in Virginia in the late Seventies. Perhaps that time is now devoted to polar bears.
alpuccino –
He didn’t get caught in the balcony with a gay lover. He got his gay lover a job at a GSE. As a director.
thor –
You disgusting waste of oxygen –
There’s no presumption of objectivity here, never has been. Your last post is just another effort in your continuous and ongoing campaign to disrupt this forum.
I am inclined to believe your goals are clinical in nature, but reserve that judgment in case it does turn out that you are simply nihilist Leftist or, even more unlikely, on assignment with a mission. We’ll never know.
So, rant on. Mr. Goldstein has made his position clear. The resilience of this blog in the face of your childish, pointless, and transparently malevolent interference is a testament to the level of importance that the honest participants assign to the forum.
I’m expecting that tomorrow’s bailout vote will be packaged as NATIONAL SALVATION and that without the switchboard and mailboxes in the congress actually bursting into flame, those gutless bastards will pass it.
I’m off to call my senators and most especially my representative lame duck Chris Cannon. Again.
I am asking Mr. Cannon to resign and request replacement by Gov. Huntsman… which is hopeless on two levels: Cannon won’t resign, and Huntsman is about as liberal as Olympia Snow or Jim Jeffords, so he’d appoint a Bloomberg Democrat at best, if given he chance.
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I propose we employ Alinsky’s tactics. I think the reason why Jeff and PW have so long been an object of derision is precisely because it’s the hippest presentation of libertarianism. Jeff writes about drug use and Shannon Elizabeth’s nipples and Martha’s sapphic jailhouse exploits. Jeff makes libertarianism/classical liberalism fun to be around. Nothing else in the conservative communications sphere comes anywhere close. That jackass Roger Kimball over at the New Criteron? His blog is called Armavirumque! Bill Buckley? I mean, I love him – immanentize the eschaton and all that, but come on! Bill Kristol? P.J. O’Rourke is kinda barely hip (best wishes to him on the cancer) but no one who watches MTV will care about him.
Frankly, I think libertarianism is the last best hope for conservatism. While the left plays Alinsky’s game and marches through our institutions, the conservatives will tut-tut and retire to the parlor (or the rectory) and whinge about those brutish kids. McCain is demonstrating this in spades (self-denunciation a given – RACIST!!!!).
I think we need to make a mockery of the left. We need to parody them. We need flaming hot insults married to smug parody. We need to indoctrinate a new generation of children in the values of the founders by setting those values up as the hip alternative to the dried-up, washed-out, boring left. We need to take up the cause of sexy, of liberty, of the chic. We need the artists. We don’t have them now because conservatives are a boring bunch of moral scolds. This is why Nishi has a point. This is why it’s the height of absurd to be certain we nail Nishi down on Che. Her point was abundantly clear: Che is cool because of the cool – not because of the content. Conservatives wouldn’t know cool if it crawled up their leg and gave them a reach-around.
I’m not saying any of this because I dislike conservatism (obviously). I have nothing but warmth for most of the conservatives I know. I happily call myself a libertarian or classical liberal and make bedfellows with social cons. But Nishi’s right, you can consign conservatism to the dustbin of history unless we get off our hands and start generating the hip. To my mind, Liberty (the big L kind) is far more important than, say, teenage pregnancy or drug use or homosexual marriage or whatever other moral crusade with which conservatives waste their time while the republic crumbles.
/rant off
I’m calling my senators and asking them to begin the process of impeaching Obama immediately. Fingers also crossed.
“I’m calling my senators and asking them to begin the process of impeaching Obama immediately. ”
Try starting with the house of representatives.
Try starting with the house of representatives.
Already did meya. Got their voicemail message. It was “We’re on holiday” set to “It’s Raining Men”.
Because that’s where impeachment starts.
You’re so smart meya. But not smart enough. Impeachment of candidates starts in the Senate.
Oh you mean impeachment of a senator? Then why call the house at all? Is it because the constitution says “The House of Representatives shall choose their speaker and other officers; and shall have the sole power of impeachment.”
I stand corrected meya on one of my previous statements.
There’s a lot of that I’m just not getting a clear visual on.
YOU MAY STAND CORRECTED ALPUCCINO BUT MEYA IS STILL A TWATWAFFLE. THAT THOR THING IS FIRST ON THE INFIDEL LIST.