The mainstream media and the Obama administration must stop cowering before a right wing that has persistently forced its propaganda to be accepted as news by convincing traditional journalists that "fairness" requires treating extremist rants as "one side of the story." And there can be no more shilly-shallying about the fact that racial backlash politics is becoming an important component of the campaign against President Obama and against progressives in this year's election.
The administration's response to the doctored video pushed by right-wing hit man Andrew Breitbart was shameful. The obsession with "protecting" the president turned out to be the least protective approach of all.
The Obama team did not question, let alone challenge, the video. Instead, it assumed that whatever narrative Fox News might create mattered more than anything else, including the possible innocence of a human being outside the president's inner circle.
The Sherrod case should be the end of the line. If Obama hates the current media climate, he should stop overreacting to it. And the mainstream media should stop being afraid of insisting on the difference between news and propaganda.
This article by E.J. Dionne Jr. is absolutely dead on in addressing the cancer that has invaded our media since the inception of Fox News. With its take no prisoners approach to driving home its ideological message it has learned to create a narrative that other media outlets feel compelled to treat as a reasoned point of view when in fact, more often than not, it seems to be cobbled together out of bits and pieces of twisted information that is then presented as "news."
And despite every politicians claim that "Americans are smart" the preponderance of evidence suggests that many Americans often do not really use their intellect to examine information they receive on their television sets. They simply absorb it without questioning its validity and it becomes a "fact" that they then use to judge other data they receive throughout their day.
Until "real" journalists begin to immediately examine and dismantle the Fox propaganda as it oozes into people's living rooms (As MSNBC has started to do), they will continue to dictate the narrative and other media outlets will feel they have no choice but to continue chasing the bouncing ball that Roger Ailes and his team has thrown for them to fetch.
My first impression of the situation was much the same. However, I later began to consider this:
ReplyDeleteHad the Administration come out attacking and defending Sherrod, I am confident FOX News et al would have continued their game, with the rest of the MSN following meekly behind. It would have been a he said/ she said argument. Evidence and proof do not matter to FOX et al. They routinely lie in the face of fact.. We would have been treated to the longest August in history featuring ACORN 2: The NAACP Meets the Death Panel. We've seen that movie.
Lucky for us, the story was shot dead from the WH helicopter with the forced resignation of Sherrod. The story fizzled and the shame-faced Media was forced to report the facts. FOX, naturally, had to find a way to blame the President anyway, but that's what they do.
I think it is a pipe dream to fight these nasty critters in the manner of a gentleman's swordfight. FOX et al are common street thugs and, as Fox will attest, the rules of battle have changed.
I'm sorry that Sherrod got caught in the crossfire, but it was Brietbart and FOX who put her there. Maybe the Administration defended her by getting her out of the line of fire. She'll be offered a better position, and if she is saavy, will understand the stakes and accept the raise.
My question is this: do you want to survive or win the argument?
I am not convinced that President Obama himself is overreacting to the right-wing media as the excerpt of the article states.
ReplyDeletePeople within his administration seem to be, though, and I guess one can attribute their failings to him because it is easy to do so and he has said he owns what those within his administration do.
So, to that extent I disagree with the author of the article. However, I do agree with you, Gryphen, Americans tend to go with the flow accepting whatever the media throws at them. Perhaps it is because we're too trusting - assuming anyone in a position to be categorized as a journalist has researched their topic - or perhaps we are too lazy or absorbed by our own private lives to understand how important it is that we look beyond it if we are to be able to live the way we wish.
Whatever the reason, you're right: we need to think instead of react, we need to listen instead of just hear, and we need to actively engage with issues rather than passively receive "the facts."
It's interesting that the liberal media can only attack Fox News in the context of how the black president overreacted to the reporting on Mrs. Sherrod. "Mr. President, stop overreacting to Fox News," they say. Why not hold Fox accountable, regardless of how the president responds?
ReplyDeleteThe thing is; I'm disappointed in Obama and his gang. I voted for him because I thought he might have brass balls - figured it'd take some brass ones for a black guy to even RUN for president in this country.
ReplyDeleteTurns out he's got lil soft ones, like peas.
...and not hard little frozen peas neither - no sir - more like those soft, soggy canned peas.
I'd like to see Obama go a little more Samuel L Jackson and a little less Morgan Freeman once in a while.
(Know what the "L" in Samuel L Jackson stands for? It stands for motherfucker, goddamn it!)
You are spot on Gryphen. I have noticed for quite sometime now that MSNBC has become a 'follower' in news rather than a leader or a station that wants to gather the 'truth' and then report it.
ReplyDeleteThey started this with Rev. Wright [who is to this day maligned], followed by Van Jones, ACORN and then Shirley Sherrod. I no longer watch any of the cable news, but prefer to read a variety of newspapers to determine what truth I can find. After learning many years ago [from my husband] that none of them will state truth to power and that no news outlet can be completely trusted, it takes reading a variety [NO, not 'all of them, any of them that have been placed in front of me'] to discern any truth, if even possible.
I hate that even our POTUS fell for Faux's BS as he should have learned with Van Jones and ACORN. Maybe, he has learned this time, but I'm not holding my breath.
LOL, Randall!
ReplyDeleteMy mom keeps saying Obama is 20 steps ahead of the other clowns, but I keep wishing he'd turn around and do some head-knockin' !
I guess it's not always satisfying to cheer for the classy, calm guy. Our inner caveman yearns for some ass kickin action!
We need to make sure that everyone knows that FOX News went to court and won the right to LIE and call it "news." There is no reason for anyone to believe anything broadcast or published by Fox. They have won the right to lie with impunity and they will continue to do so as long as they are in business. http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/7/30/201231/262
ReplyDeleteSorry, Gryph, gotta disagree with you on this one. The cancer that has invaded our media started long, long before Fox News appeared. And, it's clearly on both sides of the aisle: conservative and liberal.
ReplyDeleteAs Andrew Sullivan said yesterday, "This is your liberal media, ladies and gentlemen: totally partisan, interested in the truth only if it advances their agenda, and devoid of any balls whatsoever. And people wonder how this farce of a candidate now controls one major political party and could well be our next president. One reason is that we do not have a functioning adversarial media uncorrupted by partisan loyalty and tactics." http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2010/07/the-partisan-tools-at-journolist-and-trig.html
There is plenty of blame to go around in the Sherrod case. But one thing it has done is to underscore the veracity of what any news medium puts out, even pro-administration ones. Because of FOX Noise's richly deserved reputation for spreading lies and hate on a daily basis, anything and everything they put out should be especially scrutinized.
ReplyDeleteIt is disheartening that they appeal to the absolute worst in many Americans, who are too intellectually lazy to do their own independent thinking. These are the same people who would vote against their own best interests by sending a Sharon Angle to Congress, or reelecting members of Congress's Party of No. In the face of overwhelming evidence that FOX and the hard right politicians they support don't give a rat's behind about them, they would still vote for these people.
It's long past time for a concerted effort to counter FOX's phony status as a credible news medium. Because FOX makes the rest of the media look bad, it's time for the media to do the job it's supposed to do and report stories accurately, with constant
and immediate debunking of any more lies FOX puts out. Facts may not be nearly as interesting as fiction, but a well-informed citizenry is essential for true democracy.
It's hilarious to see the manchild
Breibart whine about how HE is the one being victimized, blaming Obama of all people. He is a victim of nothing more than his own stupidity, arrogance, and malice. He chose to victimize Sherrod to retaliate for Ben Jealous's truthful observation of racism among the Tea Partiers, and it blew back on him. It couldn't happen to a more deserving human being.