DaRK PaRTY ReVIEW

::Literate Blather::

Friday, September 05, 2008

Essay: Blame the #$&@ Media

“When polls show 75 or even 80 percent believe the media’s biased and you press that point, you’re talking to the vast majority of the people in this election.”

- GOP Strategist David Carney

These poor misunderstood Republicans. They had a monopoly on the three branches of government for more than six years (before losing the Congress in 2006).

They have cut taxes, funded abstinence education, invaded two countries, cracked down on civil liberties, slashed social programs, covertly spied on U.S. citizens, railed against gay marriage, and handed over crucial government policies to big business (can you say oil companies?).

A born-again Christian and fundamental social conservative occupies the White House. George W. Bush, still the darling of the way-out religious right, believes he’s on a mission from God and is arguably the most conservative president of all time.

Yet the United States is a mess. We’re losing both wars. Government bungling has ruined New Orleans. The terrorists who destroyed the World Trade Center towers are free. The economy is tanking. The stock market is a yo-yo. Banks are folding. Gas prices are outrageous. Unemployment is on the upswing.

It must be the liberal media’s fault.

Who knew that the capital is in the iron-grip control of the Elite Liberal Media? Yet that’s exactly the platform the Republicans are running on. Blame the media! Our policies aren’t flawed – the liberal press is just distorting the truth. They’re getting the story wrong!

Mitt Romney bashed the New York Times and the Washington Post and declared that the “Eastern elites” have taken over Washington. He even called the Supreme Court under conservative judge John Roberts (drum roll please)… liberal. This, of course, is news to us liberals.

“I’ve learned quickly, these past few days, that if you’re not a member in good standing of the Washington elite, then some in the media consider a candidate unqualified for that reason alone,” VP nominee Sarah Palin told her congregation… er, I mean convention.

A VP candidate, mind you, that was a mayor of a small town less than two years ago. After only 18 months as governor of Alaska, she’s under investigation for abuse of power. She rails against sex education in favor of abstinence training (despite having a pregnant 17-year-old daughter). She also believes in teaching creationism in public schools.

But the media – those damn liberal liars – have the audacity to ask questions about her record and McCain’s vetting process in selecting her as second in command. The Republican delegates were so enraged they started pointing at the media booth and chanting at the assembled press to tell the truth.

One wonders if they meant to include FOX-TV (available in 85 million households), Rush Limbaugh (host of the highest ranked talk radio show) and the Wall Street Journal (the second largest newspaper in the country).

And this is from the campaign of John S. McCain – who is so popular with the media that he once called them his political “base.” McCain has called himself the agent of change (despite supporting Bush 90 percent of the time). This can only be true, however, if his party wasn’t in control of the country for the last eight years. It is difficult to run as a maverick and an outsider when you’re firmly entrenched in the status quo.

So when you can’t run against Bush then you make the opponent someone else – like the New York Times and the Huffington Post. Forget about the fact that the “elite liberal media” crammed the Iraq War down the public’s throat and gleefully walked in lockstep with the Swift Boat liars as they viciously savaged John Kerry’s impressive war heroism (the man won the Silver Star!) while conveniently ignoring Bush’s draft dodging.

The Republicans know the drill. Repeat a lie over and over again and eventually it becomes true. So expect to hear the centrist mainstream press called “liberal” and “elite” (the average veteran reporter in the U.S., by the way, makes a salary of about $55,000) over and over again.

The real question is if the people of this country are stupid enough to buy it.

Essay: Altered States

The Trouble with Mormons

Evidence That the U.S. is Rome

Labels: Bush, Election, Essay, Media

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Posted by GFS3 at 2:25 PM.

5 comments

5 Comments:

SQT said...

This comment has been removed by the author.

September 05, 2008 11:43 PM

SQT said...

This comment has been removed by the author.

September 06, 2008 12:08 AM

GFS3 said...

Two comments removed before I could read them! Damn it they must have been vicious!

September 06, 2008 8:59 AM

GFS3 said...

Seriously -- please feel free to leave behind any comment you like -- whether you agree or disagree. We like the feedback -- even if you are trying to back up a truck over me.

September 06, 2008 9:12 AM

SQT said...

They weren't vicious. I swear. I just kept trying to think of a diplomatic way to disagree with some things without getting into a back-and-forth kind of thing. But I couldn't figure out how to do it well, so I just said never mind.

September 06, 2008 1:31 PM

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