Media

A pivotal spot in political history.

Don't we all feel dumb now?  Every talking head saying how every other talking head jumped the gun without doing the journalist's job of checking the facts.  The White House doing the worst in this mess by reacting to a clip on a blog post because it might have an effect on the evening Presidential ratings.

And not just talking heads.  Even this blog has a post showing the original short clip that Andrew Breitbart used to target the NAACP.  

This is the time for us all to have the conversation.  Not about race or immigration, rich or middle class, tax cuts or jobs programs, abortion or adoption.

No

This is the time for us to have a thoughtful conversation about how we as a nation wish to converse about our future as a nation.

Do we wish to continue the one minute news cycle that demands instantaneous responses thus feeding the one minute news cycle?  It has become a monster that feeds on itself.  It especially loves to feed on instant polls and un-verified writings by unknown self appointed journalists.

Being a citizen in an America led by Obama has its challenges; we’re expected to pretend we’re as clueless as our media. This is especially hard right now, because we're also told to suspend our disbelief. The Clueless game from what I've pieced together has at least four rounds.                

ROUND 1: He's Different

Is it possible that Obama’s Indonesian education did not include the study of the Louisiana Purchase? We know he is geographically challenged when it comes to America; they tell us it's because he can't be bothered with trivial things. He belongs to the World.

With all that's going on now:  Fort Hood, Unemployment, Health Care Reform, and Wall Street Shennanigans, take a look at Huff Post's front page headline.

They're playing the freaking race card again! -- putting Glen Beck's comments from last July front and center (because a right-wing guy recently said he agreed with Beck).  Aren't there more important things worthy of headline status? Honestly.  (and I thought I'd seen some improvement at Huff recently -- maybe they figured they took a couple steps forward, so they're due for a step back?)

 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ 

Thanks to pm317 at NoQuarter for posting about Tucker Carlson laying into Obama for calling the kettle black and his campaign's racism smears of Hillary and Bill Clinton.  My dislike of Tucker hit a high point back in the primary, about the time he gave up bow ties.  But this is incredibly informative and I'm shocked that a member of the MSM would tell the truth after all this time.

The very end of the video is the best but it's all good.

Thank you Tucker and thank you pm317

Enough, already! 

For the fourth straight day I am staring at non-stop front-page coverage of Michael Jackson's death.  The reaction to Jackson's death is on a par with that when JFK was assassinated and even greater than that when Bobby was killed.  This is ludicrous!  I'm desperate for news from Iran and it's buried under a mountain of stories about Jackson.  This morning's CBS mainpage lists eleven stories at the top.  Six of them are on Michael Jackson.

'When she was good, she was very very good, but when she was bad, she was horrid.'  Longfellow

Here's just another entry in the sad chronicle of the decline of the 4th estate.  In the what-were-they-thinking department we have this odd recommendation, as highlighted by the UK Daily Mirror:

The New York Times dubbed the deprived districts of Deptford and New Cross as "London's Wild West" and urged Americans to visit the area's gritty attractions...There were 8,376 violent offences committed against people in Deptford's borough Lewisham. The figure includes four murders, 1,674 robberies, 135 gun crimes and 101 rapes..."All I can say is I hope they like hoodies, muggers and junkies - there are enough of them here." Even Deptford councillor Heidi Alexander admitted: "It does seem a bit bizarre."

Update 1 As you read about this try to remember the polling fiasco that was NH.  Every poll escept SUSA got it wrong and the news the night of the win was not Hillary's great win but how did all the polls screw up.  That is what this reseach is about.

Concerned Mother over at our frineds NoQuarter has just published newly released reports showing that the media misinterpreted that Hillary's NH win as racism rather than poor polling leading up to the NH primary.  That as we know caused the racial furor leading into South Carolina and the subsequent wins by his Oliness.

This is big.  Way to F&^$ng late but big none the less.

Today the American Association for Public Opinion Research Ad Hoc Committee on the 2008 Presidential Primary Polling released a pdf report on the methodologies utilized by pollsters during the Democratic primaries. It is a long report, and a cursory analysis of it is available at Pollster.com.

 

I’ve confessed my love of political cartoons, their ability to speak to me and strike an internal chord. The Michael Rodriquez cartoon pictured above had just that effect when I first saw it, and I’d be willing to bet that Hillary Clinton and John McCain agree with its indictment of our national media. At the very least, I hope it brings a smile on what is in Chicago an in-your-face cold day.

It's very tough to accept this fact, but yes, George W. Bush is still our President. Apparently, someone still cares enough to interview Teh Deciderer about his eight-year reign of error. Surprisingly, he actually admitted a mistake. But as usual, it was all someone else's fault.

Dubya's greatest regret was the "intelligence failure" in Iraq. (I always say that the intelligence that failed was his.)

"The biggest regret of all the presidency has to have been the intelligence failure in Iraq," Bush said 50 days before president-elect Barack Obama's inauguration. "I wish the intelligence had been different, I guess."

Now that the shock and disbelief of Election Night have passed (and I must admit, I feel no small relief to finally have the matter decided), I find myself more able to analyze what happened on Tuesday. And unsurprisingly, it isn't the tale the media told us.