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As the Rev. Jeremiah Wright's eruptions filled the media, driving out issues of war and recession, skyrocketing gas prices and the global food crisis, I picked up a copy of Barack Obama's "The Audacity of Hope" as solace--an escape from the media circus.
"To think clearly about race, Obama writes, "requires us to see the world on a split screen--to maintain in our sights the kind of America that we want while looking squarely at America as it is, to acknowledge the sins of our past and the challenges of the present without becoming trapped in cynicism or despair." We're living in a time of split screens. There is a new politics emerging --yet we have a mass media determined that this campaign be about manufactured scandals and campaign conference call talking points.
It is hard not to despair as the new/old McCarthyite tactics of guilt by association threaten to bring down Obama's message of a new and more decent politics--and perhaps his candidacy.
What also brings cynicism and despair is to watch our gotcha mass media sacrifice meaningful debate for manufactured controversy.
This is an election which confronts us with fundamental choices about what kind of country we will be: Empire or republic? A nation of shared prosperity or growing inequality? Number one in how many we put in our prisons and jails? Or number one in ensuring that all have adequate health care?
Who has the vision and the courage to provide us a path toward human security, environmental sanity, economic well-being?
All sane and decent people who care about the future of our country need to speak out against our mass media's role in trivializing rather than illuminating this historic election.
evening, ms. vanhalen noodle.
just kidding. your magazine is excellent.
god knows we need you more than ever.
but our precious blog.
help.
teeny box.
no italics, bolds, or links.
narrow, narrow column that allows very little to be seen.
no time stamp.
no preview.
crazy page jumps.
help.
help.
sincerely,
frosty zoom.
Posted by frosty zoom at 04/30/2008 @ 12:13am
Wednesday, April 30, 2008 12:18:06 AM
Posted by frosty zoom at 04/30/2008 @ 12:13am
redesign is still being worked through..bear with us! kvh
Posted by Katrina vanden Heuvel at 04/30/2008 @ 12:15am
<i>What also brings cynicism and despair is to watch our gotcha mass media sacrifice meaningful debate for manufactured controversy.</i>
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
the key word is "mass", selling wonderbread viagara, giving us the wright prolefeed.
plus, ¿why would a corporate media master want any meaningful debate if their mission is to change nothing?
Wednesday, April 30, 2008 12:21:52 AM
Posted by frosty zoom at 04/30/2008 @ 12:17am
Posted by Katrina vanden Heuvel
i knew you'd come through, madame vh.
peace be upon you.
Wednesday, April 30, 2008 12:22:54 AM
Posted by frosty zoom at 04/30/2008 @ 12:18am
This is an election which confronts us with fundamental choices about what kind of country we will be: Empire or republic? A nation of shared prosperity or growing inequality? Number one in how many we put in our prisons and jails? Or number one in ensuring that all have adequate health care?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
what?!?!?!?!?
america's lapel pin industry is in peril.
how dare you trivialize?
Wednesday, April 30, 2008 12:28:51 AM
Posted by frosty zoom at 04/30/2008 @ 12:25am
All sane and decent people who care about the future of our country need to speak out against our mass media's role in trivializing rather than illuminating this historic election.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
not just your country, but the world.
the world looks on with dismay as people die in conflicts,
and greenland slides into the north atlantic
while fields of guzzlehol replace our daily bread.
and all we get is blah, blah, blah about stupid, vindicative blah, blah, blah.
jeez, america.
wtf?
Wednesday, April 30, 2008 12:33:56 AM
Posted by frosty zoom at 04/30/2008 @ 12:31am
Frosty
Are you debating with yourself again?
Posted by lvliberty1 at 04/30/2008 @ 01:21am
oh, go eat some purslane.
Posted by frosty zoom at 04/30/2008 @ 01:36am
Posted by Katrina vanden Heuvel at 04/30/2008 | ignore this person
yay! i was afraid u guys were trying to subtlely phase us pit fiends out. say it ain't so katrina! say it ain't so!
lol...
Posted by ibbleblibble at 04/30/2008 @ 01:49am
Despair? Don't you dare... Rejoice, find your voice... Listen well, ringing bell... Take heart, play the part... Enjoy, leave the ploy... Think long, don't be wrong... Make hay, live today... Wright stuff... that's enough. Main stream, likes to dream... Paid show, just say know... Prime time, pantomime... Foment, president... New dawn, turns us on... Reach out, tickle doubt... Bark less, I digress... Wright weighs... in God's praise.
"I said to Barack Obama, last year, `If you get elected ... I'm coming after you, because you'll be representing a government whose policies grind under people,'' Wright said.
Posted by ttr at 04/30/2008 @ 01:56am
Again for the thousandth time Ms. Vanden Heuvel thanks. I find myself frequently alone and scared, please keep on expressing reason in the face of pure national insanity by the "ditto head" press. I have listened to all three of Rev. Wright's appearances and find only one fault. He failed to show proper humility to Mr. and Mrs. white America. The National Press Club appearance was a pure set up. When did we, as white americans, become so arrogant and insecure of our consciences. I think that corporate media is on a defense mode. they are scared to death of people talking about what globalization has done to the working class. WWhy is Chris Matthews allowed to run for office from a make believe news desk.
Posted by julien38 at 04/30/2008 @ 04:30am
I just watched Obama's announcement on the wright controversy. he has been robbed raw by this incident and the constant media distortions.
Posted by julien38 at 04/30/2008 @ 05:05am
As Te Ping seems unable to get his "blog" to be a blog, rather than a couple of paragraphs with no input, I will put this here:
(It's been left up to Lt. Col. Steven Pflanz, the senior psychiatry policy analyst for the Air Force surgeon general, to report on the mental healthcare practices that have been developed for those on active duty. Kerry Knox, director of the VA's Center for Excellence on Suicide Prevention, was scheduled to share with him these introductory remarks, but is not in attendance. Apologies are made, but no one mentions how obviously difficult it would be for her to get into the self-congratulatory HOOAH! spirit of this conference when her boss just got busted big time for hiding VA suicide statistics, not just to the media but to Congress as well.
"Shh!" Ira Katz, the VA's mental health director, coyly began an email to the agency's chief communications director - and inconveniently made public just this week. "Our suicide prevention coordinators are identifying about 1,000 suicide attempts per month among the veterans we see in our medical facilities. Is this something we should (carefully) address ourselves in some sort of release before someone stumbles on it?"
Ach, Katz, you little schemer.
In another email, he acknowledged that an average of 18 war veterans manage to kill themselves each day - five of whom were under VA care at the time.
OK, Katz is toast. Democrats are already calling for him to resign, which seems rather mild considering how many lives were damaged by his attempts at damage control. But do the math: That's 12,000 veterans a year - VA patients - trying to kill themselves. On top of that, of the 6,570 who on average succeed each year, 1,825 of them are also patients at the VA. How is possible not to mention that kind of news at a conference on military suicides?
This must have been a challenging week for the conference organizers. How to deal with the Katz e-mails and the new RAND Corporation report, which is devastating in its description of DoD and VA failures. And the RAND report can't be blown off as the ravings of a bunch of leftists with an anti war agenda; RAND conducts research and analysis for the Office of the Secretary of Defense, the Joint Staff, the Unified Commands, the defense agencies, the Department of the Navy, and the U.S. intelligence community.
The report revealed that nearly 20 percent of military service members who have returned from Iraq and Afghanistan - that's 300,000 men and women - have symptoms of post-traumatic stress or major depression. Of those, only slightly more than half have sought VA treatment. Soldiers say that hesitation to seek help arises from fear that it will harm their careers.)
Support the troops, by ignoring problems, blaming others and constantly excusing the DoD.
Posted by crabwalk at 04/30/2008 @ 08:30am
Frosty
Are you debating with yourself again?
Posted by lvliberty1 at 04/30/2008
At least it is a worthy opponent.
Posted by crabwalk at 04/30/2008 @ 08:35am
At his point I will assume that all of the empty space to the left is reserved for ads for Ann Coulter and Bubba OhReally(?).
Posted by crabwalk at 04/30/2008 @ 08:36am
"Liberal media"? pffffft
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/042808R.shtml
A Rumsfeld propaganda machine.
Posted by crabwalk at 04/30/2008 @ 08:40am
Thank you for the article on the gotcha media. I recently hammered Mr Nichols, who I actually respect and like most of his articles, for doing the same a week or two ago about McCain's minister.
We've got serious problems and the media needs to step up to the plate.
One thing to note is that the dollar has recovered slightly because there has been a decrease in spending on fuel. Big surprise there...more people are riding the bus into work, trains, riding bikes etc. If our national leaders really wanted to get serious about our problems, they'd put forth a federal mass transit system and fund this by cutting pentagon spending and redirecting it to this transit system.
Posted by Wolfgang1 at 04/30/2008 @ 09:22am
Posted by Mask...
...you're in for a VERY disappointing next few years, if you think...
...gnore this pers...
Posted by ttr at 04/30/2008 @ 10:41am
Obama can repair our international image to some degree & stifle the neo-con chorus.
Posted by Sorelish at 04/30/2008 @ 11:45am
While waiting in line at the carry-out this afternoon, I notice the flat-screen with what appears to be CNN Headline News. The host has 3 women on the screen for the apparent purpose of commenting on Miley Cyrus' risque photo shoot. (I think this image was on the screen the whole time I was in the place.)
The major media outlets rush to report that Clinton and McCain "excoriate" Obama for voting against summer gas tax relief, but Heaven forbid they raise any dialogue about whether the plan makes any fucking sense.
WTFU
Posted by drhammer at 04/30/2008 @ 12:17pm
A pleasant, thoughtful young roofer tells me that Obama wrote in one of his books that he was prepared to stand with muslims against his fellow Americans. "I could NEVER vote for a man who would do such a thing.", he said. When pressed, he said he thought he'd heard this from Limbaugh, (whom he listened to frequently), or maybe Fox News. I started to go into a media rant, but caught myself. I simply told him that I would follow that one up.
Here's the paragraph from "The Audacity Of Hope", from which the inflammatory (mis)quotation was lifted:
"Of course, not all my conversations in immigrant communities follow this easy pattern. In the wake of 9/11, my meetings with Arab and Pakistani Americans, for example, have a more urgent quality, for the stories of detentions and FBI questioning and hard stares from neighbors have shaken their sense of security and belonging. They have been reminded that the history of immigration in this country has a dark underbelly; they need specific reassurances that their citizenship really means something, that America has learned the right lessons from the Japanese internments during World War II, and that I will stand with them should the political winds shift in an ugly direction."
So, with the simple use of an out-of-context statement, a message of unity and constitutional protection becomes a traitorous indictment.
I advised my young friend that every source that willingly propagated that message was intentionally misleading him, and that he should seek others. "We report (what we want) you (to) decide". "Fair and Balanced" does not mean the same thing as "truthful".
This bullshit is unacceptable from sources of any political stripe.
WTFU
Posted by drhammer at 04/30/2008 @ 12:44pm
If our national leaders really wanted to get serious about our problems, they'd put forth a federal mass transit system and fund this by cutting pentagon spending and redirecting it to this transit system.
Posted by Wolfgang1 at 04/30/2008
Not if the NIMBYs have anything to say about it.
Posted by ACook at 04/30/2008 @ 1:29pm
When did we, as white americans, become so arrogant and insecure of our consciences.
Posted by julien38 at 04/30/2008
Ever since your "white" ancestors came ashore in 1492.
Posted by ACook at 04/30/2008 @ 1:32pm
Frankly, Ms vanden Heuvel complaining about the media rings hollow...
Posted by Mask at 04/30/2008
well, YOU complain about it, then.
or do you think the media is "doing it's job*"?
Wednesday, April 30, 2008 1:50:15 PM
Posted by frosty zoom at 04/30/2008 @ 1:46pm
*i think it IS doing its job.
the job being to sell wonderviagara and allow certain "entities" to exert control over the dumb in freedom.
it's doing <i>its</i> job very well.
Wednesday, April 30, 2008 1:52:42 PM
Posted by frosty zoom at 04/30/2008 @ 1:48pm
Not if the NIMBYs have anything to say about it.
Posted by ACook at 04/30/2008
Is NIMBYism a problem with bus stops?
see, I think we ought to build new rifineries in upper class neighborhoods. Put the product where the customer is.
do you think some NIMBYism would appear if that was attempted?
Posted by crabwalk at 04/30/2008 @ 1:49pm
refineries.
MASK, thank you, I did misgender Ms. cheng. Maybe I am on my way to being gender neutral. (not me personally, but the way I approach those around me.)
Posted by crabwalk at 04/30/2008 @ 1:52pm
Katrina vanden Heuvel
"What also brings cynicism and despair is to watch our gotcha mass media sacrifice meaningful debate for manufactured controversy."
.
.
Posted by Mask at 04/30/2008 | ignore this person
"And yet she still appears on "Hardball" doesn't she???"
.
.
Wow, talk about a "gotcha...manufactured controversy"!
hehe
Posted by Lillian at 04/30/2008 @ 1:53pm
Interesting that you should mention this MASK. I, for one, have made application to the Finnish, Norse, Swedish, and Dutch embassies seeking permission to emigrate there permanently.
I've decided I've suffered enough in the "redneck Workers' Paradise" of Nascar, WWE, and 24/7 Ronald Reagan idolatry by the so-called "news media" and political infrastructure. I couldn't afford it in 2004, but it's looking better this time.
Don't worry though. I will cast an absentee ballot for Nader before I leave.
Posted by goyadad at 04/30/2008 @ 2:07pm
Mask
of course, of course.
i think things could be a lot better.
Wednesday, April 30, 2008 2:14:09 PM
Posted by frosty zoom at 04/30/2008 @ 2:09pm
Could it be that the corporate media is an expression of itself or is it "consumer" driven? Chicken or egg?
Posted by Sorelish at 04/30/2008 @ 2:25pm
Eric Severied and Cronkite"!
Posted by Mask
i would guestimate that it's getting worse lately after having more or less steadily improved over the last 50 years.
in fact, i could almost (almost) pinpoint the decline as to having started on february 8, 1996.
time stamp 'em.
watch, i'll write it out:
2:42
Posted by frosty zoom at 04/30/2008 @ 2:38pm
Posted by Mask at 04/30/2008
Obama is Reagan in Reverse? It is hard to believe now, MASK, but see me in 4 years if you want one of those "I told you so" moments!
Posted by Metteyya at 04/30/2008 @ 3:11pm
OK, so anyway, enough of this small talk. What about Obama's pastor of 20 years. Is this guy a piece of work, or what?
Posted by Person at 04/30/2008 @ 3:17pm
Well, they've done a damn good job of fucking up this web site. Good work, webmaster.
Posted by Person at 04/30/2008 @ 3:18pm
When KVH talks about "...mass media's role in trivializing rather than illuminating this historic election", I would certainly have to agree. I think mass media has absolutely made a very distinct effort to reduce actual news, as well as meaningful discussion about relevant issues, into 'info-tainment'in order to maximize their ability to profit from it. And this is certainly not a new concept. However in the past, the major media players made some effort to 'inform and educate' in the process of making a buck, balancing the sensational with serious Walter Cronkite 'news' stories (or Edward R. Murrow balancing interviews with Marilyn Monroe or Marlon Brando with taking on Sen. Joseph McCarty and his brillinat expose of migrant farm workers, "Harvest of Shame").
Now, the majority of mainstream mass media has seemingly abondandoned the balance in their lust for ever more $$$ (Fox being a perfect case in point!)
Posted by Lillian at 04/30/2008 @ 3:25pm
NEWSFLASH!
MILEY CYRUS/REV. WRIGHT SEX SCANDAL!!!!!!!!!!!
Posted by frosty zoom at 04/30/2008 @ 3:33pm
NEWSFLASH! MILEY CYRUS/REV. WRIGHT SEX SCANDAL!!!!!!!!!!! <Posted by frosty zoom at 04/30/2008>
Who's Miley Cyrus? Does he drive for Nascar?
Posted by goyadad at 04/30/2008 @ 4:31pm
Is this guy a piece of work, or what?
Posted by Person at 04/30/2008
He is a Christian minister. What could be wrong with him or his message?
Posted by crabwalk at 04/30/2008 @ 5:14pm
Who's Miley Cyrus? Does (S)he drive for Nascar?
Posted by goyadad at 04/30/2008
soon, soon.
Multifaceted marketing strateegery coming.
5:18
Posted by crabwalk at 04/30/2008 @ 5:18pm
Maybe we will hear how young Miley made it n her own, picked herself up by the flip-flop straps, worked hard on the child entertainment circuit for years, paid her dues and struggled...till finally she gets her big break by being spotted by producer, then she risked it all on a show that might not get aired.
Buwahahaha!
Posted by crabwalk at 04/30/2008 @ 5:23pm
The media gets called more now for making mistakes because there are more people out there now who know not to trust them.
In the 50's most people still thought what was printed in the paper or was on the news on t.v. was fact.
The difference now is that there's a portion of the population that has finally figured out that corporations own the media outlets and that the stories they do may be biased or flat out lies.
Take WWII for example. The U.S. didn't bomb plants in Germany that were producing weapons that were being used against our soldiers. This wasn't brought up in the press. Why, because the people pulling the strings back then were the same as the jackasses pulling the strings now. They wanted to protect their foreign investments and didn't want our bombers destorying their overseas plants. The people in the media work for these people and always have. Public television and radio are the best bet, but W and crew tried to force their agenda into that even.
Posted by Wolfgang1 at 04/30/2008 @ 5:23pm
Who's Miley Cyrus? Does he drive for Nascar?
Posted by goyadad at 04/30/2008
No, she's the next girl the media has been and plans to shove down our throats whether we want to hear about her or not. Kind of like Brittany Spears, Lindsey Lohan, Madonna, Jennifer Lopez, Maria Carrie and the list goes on and on and on and on and on....
Posted by Wolfgang1 at 04/30/2008 @ 5:29pm
Posted by Vvf1969 at 04/30/2008
You do not know what you are poking with your stick. Back away slowly....
Posted by Benchrest at 04/30/2008 @ 10:36pm
So mask.. You seem convinced that if Obama makes it into office, somehow America will be worse off than now..?? Can anyone awnser how this could be...? I think (as do most Americans according to our esteemed presidents approval rating) That maybe, just maybe, the country needs a new direction... The character assasination of Obama is shameful, and if you cant see this fact, you really are ignorant. All you righty's have your lapel pins on..?? Come on ... Dont be sheep....
Posted by Vvf1969 at 04/30/2008 @ 7:13pm
I like the discussion here, really! Keep going...
http://www.thefaithdebate.com http://www.thefaithdebate.com http://www.thefaithdebate.com
Posted by live_life at 05/01/2008 @ 10:11am
2008 Presidential Election Weekly Poll http://www.votenic.com New Poll Started, Latest Results Just Posted! Enter to win a Votenic t-shirt!
Posted by votenic at 05/01/2008 @ 11:46am
Please check out "The Truth vs Barack Obama"
http://savagepolitics.com/?p=317
I saw this today, and HAD to share it with everyone. It is just a brilliantly researched and written list of inconsistencies with several of Obama's stories. I think it should be done for ALL three candidates, but I guess this is a good way to start at finally looking at the candidates with some honesty.
http://savagepolitics.com/?p=317
Posted by elsylee at 05/01/2008 @ 11:51am
McCain and Clinton authorize the President to invade a weaker nation because they have our oil and I am supposed to give a damn about Wright. This war and the authorizations that led to it tell me all I need to know about these candidates: At best they are political opportunist and worst they sentenced people to death because we are running out of oil. Either way, everything else is a distraction.
Posted by jbfromBigD at 05/01/2008 @ 5:31pm
An amazing amount of paranormal activity going on here. So many people who can read the minds of others, and then tell the rest of us what is REALLY being said, what is REALLY being thought, what is REALLY being felt, what the motivations are REALLY. They even have the ability to look into the future, and tell us what is REALLY going to happen and what whomever will REALLY do once they trick us into voting them into office.
Posted by ron cypert at 05/01/2008 @ 6:21pm
I was never ofended by Rev Wright. i found his thoughts enlighteneing and Inspiring- I have an attention span, and th eability to think for myself Still. I actually searched the internet for the enire sermons, watched the interview & both speeches. Well constructed Funnel 'arguement' style rhetoric - no single part can stand alone is a building block formation. Anyone who's had a 'compostion' class should recognize it- that is if it is Presented in it's entirety- but ADD media thinks we are as ill focused as themselves- so once again they jump to the conclusion we agree with them. Media egocentism and coercion. Now show me a sermon from Hagee,Fawell, Robertson, Buchanan(he was a hate thumper too in his heyday- Now NBC pretends he's apolitical analyist, Just like Steph is a debate Moderator for ABC- Clinton Wonderboy- how Soon They Forget- Not US!
Posted by Purple girl at 05/01/2008 @ 6:39pm
Julien38 and purple girl are to blessed. Both find it impossible to discover the sedition the media morons are screaming about on every side in order to avoid truth and substance in any form. I also wonder if we will ever know the story behind the sifting of Wright's sermons for sinister soundbites.
th and
Posted by dick marshall at 05/01/2008 @ 7:22pm
Great article, KVH! I recognize some of the names blogging here from Glenn Greenwald's blog on Salon. The media is ridiculously bent to the right these days. Look at the last Democratic "debate" on ABC, which was practically written by and for the Right Wing Noise Machine. (RWNM) One can only hope that Obama can survive the double-barreled assault from both within the Democratic party (i.e., Clinton) and McCain, and win, DESPITE the media's turning on him. He was their darling for about a month, when the RWNM successfully brought that to an end with the "Jeremiah Wright" non-story. I also applaud your efforts to bring "balance" the the MSM, including your occasional visits to "This Week" on ABC.
Posted by farbie at 05/01/2008 @ 9:04pm
Katrina, I have the highest regard you..but my assessment is the Nation megazine has gotten itself caught up in the anti-Hillary Hysteria to the point that it has no credibility left. It has joined idiots like Chris Mathews on the anti-Hillary bandwagon. Shame on the Nation megazine.
Posted by kevin99999 at 05/02/2008 @ 01:53am
It's not just the tiny box, it's also the layout of the text in the articles.
If the left side of the text got any closer to the edge, the first letter of each sentence would disappear.
Why not wait until the new format is free of bugs and annoying features before updating the site?
Posted by LeeAnnG at 05/02/2008 @ 08:46am
Posted by goyadad at 04/30/2008 | ignore this person
if only, beanboy, if only.
Posted by emile duBois at 05/02/2008 @ 09:00am
I used to think it was just the corporate media..but this campaign season has shown some of us that liberal is no better than corporate media. In fact, liberals have shown themselves as equally as hateful as the right wing swift-boaters.
Posted by kevin99999 at 05/02/2008 @ 9:00pm
http://www.thenation.com/blogs/action/ignore.mhtml?who=kevin99999
oh really? how so?
Posted by emile duBois at 05/02/2008 @ 10:06pm
I have been about the corporate media for a long time, but the fact is that liberal blogs are even worse.
Posted by kevin99999 at 05/04/2008 @ 01:58am
which blogs and in what way?
Posted by emile duBois at 05/04/2008 @ 12:47pm
Talking about 'manufactured controversy' just go to any liberal blog, say for instance Huffingtonpost.com you will find daily examples of manufactured controversies, fake headlines with no connection to the underlying stories, all in an effort advance its anti-Hillary crusade, censorship of opposing views. And just read the comments on these blogs. Are these liberal groups I am supposed to be siding with or supporting? No, thanks!
Posted by kevin99999 at 05/05/2008 @ 2:43pm