Cheryl Seal
Mainstream Media Is Now "News-fixing" to Suppress Dissent
Tue Jan 17, 2006 21:45
64.12.116.133
If you go through the headlines and stories covering Martin Luther King Day for all the mainstream media - and I mean ALL the mainstream media, from NBC Nightly News to Yahoo to AP to FOX, you will find an astonishing similarity.
The gist of the spin: The MLK day speeches by Al Gore and Hillary Clinton were merely efforts to "capitalize" on the NSA wiretapping case and kick off campaign 2006 (Congress) early. Of course, no news outlet mentioned that Gore has been doing regular public speeches -some equally fiery - for the past few years. Bush's grandstanding through the disaster zone last week was an obvious fundraising ploy (in fact the trip was interspersed with fundraising activities, some more obvious than others). Yet no one in the mainstream media accused BUSH of "kicking off campaign 2006 early."
No one described the MLK-day-after trip of US senators to the Katrina disaster zone as a "poltical ploy," even though it screamed POLITICAL PLOY, right down to media images of the slimey sell out Joe Leiberman schmoozing with his GOP pal Susan Collins (a regular visitor to the Bush compound in Kennebunkport, Maine).
The media also tried to dismiss Gore by lumping him in with Hillary - even though Gore has consistently been more courageous and outspoken in the past few years than Hillary and receiving either no coverage or sneering coverage in return. And Nedra Pickler - whom, many say, is Judith Miller's "heir apparent" as a White House propagandist - even tried to pull Kerry into the mix to give the Gore speech a appearance of being part of a campaign. Instead of covering the content of Gore's speech fairly (and we ARE talking about a former Vice President of the US, if not the rightful US president), Pickler threw in a line or two from Gore, then spent more time quoting piggy-faced Scott McClellan's anti-Gore spin.
Meanwhile, the mainstream media hyped the effort by "GOP Leaders" to tighten rules on lobbying rules - not one talking head or writer that I saw bothering to point out that these same leaders worked tirelessly to block any previous efforts to tighten lobbying rules!
As for Mayor Ralph Nagin, the media is savaging him, making sure that every man, woman and child in America knows that the BLACK MAYOR OF NEW ORLEANS made a reference to the wrath of God and expressed a desire to keep a predominantly black US city largely black in the wake of disaster. Heaven forbid that he should hint that Bush's battery of white developers might be circling like sharks. Even Pat Robertson's recent "wrath of God" statements didn't receive the same snide treatment that Nagin did. Why? Because Nagin has style and is outspoken - the two traits that might make him a future national political contender. And the GOP's strategy nowadays is to go after potential contenders EARLY, undermining them at every step. Just ask the mayor of Baltimore! Martin O'Malley, young, hip, and outspoken, has been the target of every negative spin and smear job the Maryland media can hand him, while the corrupt GOP governor of Maryland, a Bush pal, is routinely given media pats on the back, with even his worst moves smoothed over or hidden.
Of course, O'Malley and Nagin may be lucky - look what happened to the most outspoken dissenter of the Iraq war and the "new GOP": Senator Paul Wellstone. On the eve of the vote for the war, Wellstone's small plane mysteriously crashed, killing all aboard. Another handsome, outspoken "future contender" named JFK, jr also ended up the victim of a mysterious plane crash.
So now, with the mainstream media slobbering at the end of a tight leash, and to avoid being caught with REAL blood on their hands, the NeoCon-GOP machine is simply engaging in character assassination.
The gist of the spin: The MLK day speeches by Al Gore and Hillary Clinton were merely efforts to "capitalize" on the NSA wiretapping case and kick off campaign 2006 (Congress) early. Of course, no news outlet mentioned that Gore has been doing regular public speeches -some equally fiery - for the past few years. Bush's grandstanding through the disaster zone last week was an obvious fundraising ploy (in fact the trip was interspersed with fundraising activities, some more obvious than others). Yet no one in the mainstream media accused BUSH of "kicking off campaign 2006 early."
No one described the MLK-day-after trip of US senators to the Katrina disaster zone as a "poltical ploy," even though it screamed POLITICAL PLOY, right down to media images of the slimey sell out Joe Leiberman schmoozing with his GOP pal Susan Collins (a regular visitor to the Bush compound in Kennebunkport, Maine).
The media also tried to dismiss Gore by lumping him in with Hillary - even though Gore has consistently been more courageous and outspoken in the past few years than Hillary and receiving either no coverage or sneering coverage in return. And Nedra Pickler - whom, many say, is Judith Miller's "heir apparent" as a White House propagandist - even tried to pull Kerry into the mix to give the Gore speech a appearance of being part of a campaign. Instead of covering the content of Gore's speech fairly (and we ARE talking about a former Vice President of the US, if not the rightful US president), Pickler threw in a line or two from Gore, then spent more time quoting piggy-faced Scott McClellan's anti-Gore spin.
Meanwhile, the mainstream media hyped the effort by "GOP Leaders" to tighten rules on lobbying rules - not one talking head or writer that I saw bothering to point out that these same leaders worked tirelessly to block any previous efforts to tighten lobbying rules!
As for Mayor Ralph Nagin, the media is savaging him, making sure that every man, woman and child in America knows that the BLACK MAYOR OF NEW ORLEANS made a reference to the wrath of God and expressed a desire to keep a predominantly black US city largely black in the wake of disaster. Heaven forbid that he should hint that Bush's battery of white developers might be circling like sharks. Even Pat Robertson's recent "wrath of God" statements didn't receive the same snide treatment that Nagin did. Why? Because Nagin has style and is outspoken - the two traits that might make him a future national political contender. And the GOP's strategy nowadays is to go after potential contenders EARLY, undermining them at every step. Just ask the mayor of Baltimore! Martin O'Malley, young, hip, and outspoken, has been the target of every negative spin and smear job the Maryland media can hand him, while the corrupt GOP governor of Maryland, a Bush pal, is routinely given media pats on the back, with even his worst moves smoothed over or hidden.
Of course, O'Malley and Nagin may be lucky - look what happened to the most outspoken dissenter of the Iraq war and the "new GOP": Senator Paul Wellstone. On the eve of the vote for the war, Wellstone's small plane mysteriously crashed, killing all aboard. Another handsome, outspoken "future contender" named JFK, jr also ended up the victim of a mysterious plane crash.
So now, with the mainstream media slobbering at the end of a tight leash, and to avoid being caught with REAL blood on their hands, the NeoCon-GOP machine is simply engaging in character assassination.
- ACLU V. NSA LAWSUIT SEEKS END TO BUSH'S ILLEGAL SPYING —ACLU: American Civil Liberties Union, Tue Jan 17 23:42
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