The Manipulation of the Media
It saddens me to watch how easily the main stream media has been able to be manipulated throughout this campaign. It is quite clear their biggest fear is to be accused of bias whether its true or not. I watch a great deal of news probably more then is healthy. (Yes thats my friends nodding profusely as they read that sentence.)
Regardless, other then Keith Olberman and Lou Dobbs, who make no secret of their bias, the majority of the programs on the actual news networks don't appear to have any trend of bias one way or the other. (Note that I said actual news networks thus Faux News Channel is not included in that statement.)
Yet despite that lack of any actual bias whenever the McCain campaign whines the MSM falls over backwards to prove otherwise. Just look back over the last few months. Every single talking point false or not of the McCain campaign gets used by the MSM over and over again. For weeks we keep hearing about "flip flopping" by Obama, on all the stations, yet Barack Obama has been extremely consistant on every issue. If you watch his convention speech in 2004 you will find his stands on issues then are completly consistant with his stands now. Yet while the media lead by the McCain campaign talks again and again about Obama's flip flopping, McCain has changed his position on just about every single issue. Pick an issue, its likely you can find video on You tube showing McCain on both sides. Does the media report this, barely.
Lets talk about gaffs and mistatements. McCain makes them daily, this is not an exageration. Every single day, he messes up names of countries, the factions in Iraq, historical fact, geography, economic facts and on and on. They barely get reported. But almost daily we get to see Michele Obama's mistatement on her pride in her country even though it was made months ago.
Now comes this week. Barack Obama is taking an historic and extremely important trip overseas. Beginning last week, the McCain campaign began screaming about wall to wall coverage of this trip. The fact is it hasn't happened. The MSM has done everything possible to show "equal" time to McCain, even though the news worthiness of Obama in Iraq vs McCain zooming around in a golf cart with George 41, is not exactly level. Yet despite the facts, I have heard the media themselves reference this massive coverage of Obama yet, there has been no such thing.
This manipulation of the media has gone on for decades. Since Rush Limbaugh started using the term the "liberal media" this false impression has continued. The reality is only the right control a significant amount of media. They control the vast majority of talk radio, they own a network that continues to spill propoganda that makes the old Soviet News Agency Tass pale by comparison. Yet they wrap it up in packaging with the words "fair and balanced." In short, they say, only listen to what we say everyone else is "liiiiberrallll".
The MSM needs to stop letting the McCain campaign's talking points of the day be their talking points as well or their biggest fear will be realized, they will be biased, but not the direction McCain is whining about.
Regardless, other then Keith Olberman and Lou Dobbs, who make no secret of their bias, the majority of the programs on the actual news networks don't appear to have any trend of bias one way or the other. (Note that I said actual news networks thus Faux News Channel is not included in that statement.)
Yet despite that lack of any actual bias whenever the McCain campaign whines the MSM falls over backwards to prove otherwise. Just look back over the last few months. Every single talking point false or not of the McCain campaign gets used by the MSM over and over again. For weeks we keep hearing about "flip flopping" by Obama, on all the stations, yet Barack Obama has been extremely consistant on every issue. If you watch his convention speech in 2004 you will find his stands on issues then are completly consistant with his stands now. Yet while the media lead by the McCain campaign talks again and again about Obama's flip flopping, McCain has changed his position on just about every single issue. Pick an issue, its likely you can find video on You tube showing McCain on both sides. Does the media report this, barely.
Lets talk about gaffs and mistatements. McCain makes them daily, this is not an exageration. Every single day, he messes up names of countries, the factions in Iraq, historical fact, geography, economic facts and on and on. They barely get reported. But almost daily we get to see Michele Obama's mistatement on her pride in her country even though it was made months ago.
Now comes this week. Barack Obama is taking an historic and extremely important trip overseas. Beginning last week, the McCain campaign began screaming about wall to wall coverage of this trip. The fact is it hasn't happened. The MSM has done everything possible to show "equal" time to McCain, even though the news worthiness of Obama in Iraq vs McCain zooming around in a golf cart with George 41, is not exactly level. Yet despite the facts, I have heard the media themselves reference this massive coverage of Obama yet, there has been no such thing.
This manipulation of the media has gone on for decades. Since Rush Limbaugh started using the term the "liberal media" this false impression has continued. The reality is only the right control a significant amount of media. They control the vast majority of talk radio, they own a network that continues to spill propoganda that makes the old Soviet News Agency Tass pale by comparison. Yet they wrap it up in packaging with the words "fair and balanced." In short, they say, only listen to what we say everyone else is "liiiiberrallll".
The MSM needs to stop letting the McCain campaign's talking points of the day be their talking points as well or their biggest fear will be realized, they will be biased, but not the direction McCain is whining about.
Labels: Barack Obama, bias, John McCain, media
posted by Joe R at
9:53 AM
3 Comments:
Are you serious here?
Maybe the media hasn't been fawning all over the Obama trip like you had hoped because the campaign is too busy staging "fake interviews" like it was reported on that bastion of conservatism, MSNBC.
Or maybe the media hasn't been fawning because Obama keeps giving us gems like 'Israel has no better friend than Israel'
-Thanks for clearing that up, man
I didn't see any report on fake interviews so I won't comment on that.
Yes Obama made a mistatement yesterday which of course has been reported widely, unlike the daily mistatements by McCain.
As far as the bent of MSNBC. As I stated in my piece Olberman clearly has a liberal bias that he does not hide. The other shows on that network however always have guests from both sides.
Morning Joe is hosted by a former Republican Congressman, one of its frequent guests is Pat Buchanon. I have pointed out a number of anti Obama biases made by Mika the show's co-host.
Chris Matthews though having worked for a democratic congressman in is past, I feel tries very hard not to show bias. In addition he has guests on his show both that clearly support McCain and others that support Obama.
MSNBC is by no means the liberal version of FAUX News as O'liar would have his koolaid drinkers believe.
Well I have done some research on the "fake interviews."
What was reported by Andrea Mitchel is that while in the war zones of Afghanistan and Iraq that the defense department controlled access to Obama and the congressional delegation. Thus reporters were not allowed to be present.
There was nothing "fake" about any of this. It was simply the military controlling access in a war zone and not allow them to be used for political purposes.
Absolutly appropriate in my opinion.
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