Monday, December 15, 2008
Our DISinformed Electorate
Worst Campaign News/ Weirdest Ads
MSNBC's 10 most ridiculous campaign stories, many of which MSNBC spent time hyping.
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Fox News "Off the Record"
Monday, November 10, 2008
Pollitt on Sarah Palin
Thursday, November 6, 2008
DON'T BE LIBERAL
Polling data on specific issues suggest that the American public may not be "center-right" as Newsweek and other outlets keep insisting.
Had GOP Won, Would This Have Been Reported?
Nader vs. Fox News
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Is America "center-right"...
And if Obama was running in favor of socialism a few days ago as Fox News and others claimed-- why is Rove now saying on Fox that Obama ran as a "center-right" candidate?
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
I'm Credible
Couric asks questions of Obama & McCain
Monday, November 3, 2008
The Masses Speak: Both Sides
Newsweek Pushes Back Against Dems
It’s Not Easy Bein’ Blue
America remains a center-right nation
—a fact that a President Obama would forget at his peril.
Similar mainstream media anxiety was expressed in Nov. '06 when voters put Dems in control of Congress -- according to exist polls -- to get U.S. out of Iraq. If media are "liberal," why do so many of them seem to fear liberalism?
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Voter suppression -- racial minorities
Anger over press questions
Here is Sen. McCain reacting angrily to a reporter BEFORE she asks her question.
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Rev. Wright after 9/11
"We took this country by terror away from the Sioux, the Apache, Arikara, the Comanche, the Arapaho, the Navajo. Terrorism.
"We took Africans away from their country to build our way of ease and kept them enslaved and living in fear. Terrorism.
"We bombed Grenada and killed innocent civilians, babies, non-military personnel.
"We bombed the black civilian community of Panama with stealth bombers and killed unarmed teenage and toddlers, pregnant mothers and hard working fathers.
"We bombed Qaddafi's home, and killed his child. Blessed are they who bash your children's head against the rock.
"We bombed Iraq. We killed unarmed civilians trying to make a living. We bombed a plant in Sudan to pay back for the attack on our embassy, killed hundreds of hard working people, mothers and fathers who left home to go that day not knowing that they'd never get back home.
"We bombed Hiroshima. We bombed Nagasaki, and we nuked far more than the thousands in New York and the Pentagon and we never batted an eye.
"Kids playing in the playground. Mothers picking up children after school. Civilians, not soldiers, people just trying to make it day by day.
"We have supported state terrorism against the Palestinians and black South Africans, and now we are indignant because the stuff that we have done overseas is now brought right back into our own front yards. America's chickens are coming home to roost.
"Violence begets violence. Hatred begets hatred. And terrorism begets terrorism. A white ambassador said that y'all, not a black militant. Not a reverend who preaches about racism. An ambassador whose eyes are wide open and who is trying to get us to wake up and move away from this dangerous precipice upon which we are now poised. The ambassador said the people we have wounded don't have the military capability we have. But they do have individuals who are willing to die and take thousands with them. And we need to come to grips with that."
Thursday, October 23, 2008
GOPer denies saying "liberals hate real Americans..."
Couric asks questions of Obama & McCain
Clever get-out-the-vote video
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Defending feminism
Hillary Clinton's cleavage
Limbaugh charges "sexism"
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
McCain supporters challenge bigotry
Monday, October 20, 2008
Colin Powell on Muslim-baiting in campaign
ACORN "Destorying Fabric of Democracy"
Vivid TV Report -- Palin Supporters on Obama
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
"Who Is the Real Barack Obama?"
Is Obama/Osama "a guy of the street"?
Chair of Virginia Republican Party, with a Time magazine reporter present, compares Obama to Osama (bin Laden):
He climbed atop a folding chair to give 30 campaign volunteers who were about to go canvassing door to door their talking points — for instance, the connection between Barack Obama and Osama bin Laden: "Both have friends that bombed the Pentagon," he said. "That is scary." It is also not exactly true — though that distorted reference to Obama's controversial association with William Ayers, a former 60s radical, was enough to get the volunteers stoked. "And he won't salute the flag," one woman added, repeating another myth about Obama. She was quickly topped by a man who called out, "We don't even know where Senator Obama was really born." Actually, we do; it's Hawaii.
ACORN Responds to Vote Fraud Charges
Monday, October 13, 2008
"The Terrorist Barack Hussein Obama"
At McCain-Palin rallies, the raucous and insistent cries of “Treason!” and “Terrorist!” and “Kill him!” and “Off with his head!” as well as the uninhibited slinging of racial epithets, are actually something new in a campaign that has seen almost every conceivable twist. They are alarms. Doing nothing is not an option.
And more from Rich column.
Obama is “not a man who sees America the way you and I see America.” Wielding a wildly out-of-context Obama quote, Palin slurs him as an enemy of American troops.
By the time McCain asks the crowd “Who is the real Barack Obama?” it’s no surprise that someone cries out “Terrorist!” The rhetorical conflation of Obama with terrorism is complete. It is stoked further by the repeated invocation of Obama’s middle name by surrogates introducing McCain and Palin at these rallies...
That’s a far cry from simply accusing Obama of being a guilty-by-association radical leftist. Obama is being branded as a potential killer and an accessory to past attempts at murder. “Barack Obama’s friend tried to kill my family” was how a McCain press release last week packaged the remembrance of a Weather Underground incident from 1970 — when Obama was 8.
We all know what punishment fits the crime of murder, or even potential murder, if the security of post-9/11 America is at stake. We all know how self-appointed “patriotic” martyrs always justify taking the law into their own hands.
TV Ads: "Harold, Call Me" & Obama/Britney/Paris
McCain ad comparing (linking?) Obama to Britney Spears and Paris Hilton
Drudge Undermines Hillary Clinton
Journalists and Bias
FAIR's 1998 survey of the Washington press corps -- a rare survey focusing on journalists' private views on economic issues -- found the press corps to be more conservative than the public on economics, not more liberal.
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Two great web resources
For factual disputes: Annenberg Political Fact Check, akaFactCheck.org
Worst Debate Ever
The problem is the commission that has been invested with pseudo-constitutional status to run the debates but, in fact, weakly defers to candidates and clings to antiquated formats. No serious candidate would skip a debate. So the commission should use its leverage to insist that the debates are interesting to voters, rather than safe for candidates.This misses the point. No one except the TV networks and mainstream media vests the CPD with "pseudo-constitutional status to run the debates." As I pointed out in 2000, the commission was set up by the two major parties to make the debates "safe for candidates" of the two major parties. The League of Women Voters and other truly nonpartisan groups or college campuses would be happy to sponsor debates but the TV nets are wedded to the CPD.
Email & Fox News Warn of Obama's Radical Muslim Upbringing
Thursday, October 2, 2008
Are Conservatives Working the Ref?
Ifill has long been known as a totally neutral -- even bland and non-aggressive --interviewer. But the choice doesn't reflect well on the process or the secretive Commission on Presidential Debates.
A piece from CJR on the topic.
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
"John McCain is Aware of the Internet"
Bill Clinton Caught on Tape.
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Palin/McCain Interviewed by Couric
Monday, September 29, 2008
Two 1964 TV Ads
And one of the most famous attack/smear ads in history from Democratic President and '64 candidate Lyndon Johnson: Who will protect the world from Goldwater?
Swift Boat Ad
The ad ran as a paid ad in only three battleground states -- but was aired hundreds of times on national TV, perhaps elevating in viewers' minds the seriousness of the claims. At the time, Sen. John McCain said: "I think the ad is dishonest and dishonorable. As it is, none of these individuals served on the boat he commanded. Many of his crew have testified to his courage under fire."
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Obama ad linking McCain to Limbaugh
"They want us to forget the insults we've put up with, the intolerance," in Spanish as a picture of Rush Limbaugh appears onscreen with quotes of him saying, "Mexicans are stupid and unqualified" and "Shut your mouth or get out." "They made us feel marginalized in a country we love so much," the ad continues. "John McCain and his Republican friends have two faces. One that says lies just to get our vote and another, even worse, that continues the failed policies of George Bush that put special interests ahead of working families."
McCain ad about immigrants as symbols of hope. Not typical Republican view on immigrants; one wonders in what select areas this ad will actually run.
Nader Wants Into Debate
1988 VP Debate: "You're no Jack Kennedy"
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
McCain Asked about Viagra/Birth Control
Monday, September 22, 2008
Jokes about Iran off-limits?
I'm not holding my breath, for example, waiting for one of the hand-picked journalists to ask Sen. McCain something like: "Given the volatile state of the world and of strained relations between our country and a number of Muslim countries, is it helpful to make jokes about bombing or killing Iranians?"
Friday, September 19, 2008
Debate: Why Private? Why Secret?
Thursday, September 18, 2008
Palin: Raisng gender AND race issues?
"If you are biracial and born in a state not connected to the lower 48, America needs darn near 2 years and 3 major speeches to "get to know you." If you're white and from a state not connected to the lower 48, America needs 36 minutes and 38 seconds worth of an acceptance speech to know you're "one of us."This piece by well-known white anti-racist author Tim Wise of Tennessee -- "This is Your Nation on White Privilege" -- has soared around the Internet virally.
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Conservative says "liberal smears" go unchallenged
Such as this MoveOn.org ad referencing McCain's comment about Iraq.
And this satirical short, "I'm voting Republican."
And this one about McCain and a Senate vote on insurance and birth control.
Later, a daily reporter asked McCain about his birth control vote?
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Editorial asks: "What's the Pig Deal?"
Does this reporting help voters, or confuse?
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Jon Stewart on Gibson/Stephanopoulos "Moderating" of Debate
"Macaca": The video that helped end a political career
Charlie Gibson on taxes
Do Facts Matter?
From Washington Post report by Jonathan Weisman: "As Campaign Heats Up, Untruths Can Become Facts Before They're Undone"
John Feehery, a Republican strategist, said the campaign is entering a stage in which skirmishes over the facts are less important than the dominant themes that are forming voters' opinions of the candidates.
"The more the The New York Times and The Washington Post go after Sarah Palin, the better off she is, because there's a bigger truth out there and the bigger truths are she's new, she's popular in Alaska and she is an insurgent," Feehery said. "As long as those are out there, these little facts don't really matter."
For now, there appears to be little political reason to back down. A Washington Post-ABC News poll taken Sept. 5 to Sept. 7 found that 51 percent of voters think Obama would raise their taxes, even though his plan would actually cut taxes for the overwhelming majority of Americans. Obama has proposed eliminating income taxes on seniors making less than $50,000 a year, but 41 percent of those seniors say their income taxes would go up in an Obama administration.
Matt Taibbi on the Obama Press Plane
The technology of campaign propaganda has advanced to such a degree that the concept of campaign-trail "journalism" is now indistinguishable from corporate PR. The wall that once separated campaign staff from the press corps has broken down completely; those paid by the candidate and those covering him might as well be two different shifts on the same factory ship, working together to bring the world frozen fish patties by the ton. On the shimmering 757 that Obama uses to jet around the country, reporters have plastered the press section in the rear of the plane with cheery, offbeat photographs of themselves captured with campaign staffers in various goofy scenes (clowning with boom poles, quaffing beers, drooling while asleep on buses). The collage seems lifted straight from a high school yearbook; the press might as well have titled it "Our Cool Campaign." Read more . . .
Conservative says: Dems can't break Maverick McCain narrative
"Look, it is very difficult for the Obama people to break the idea that McCain is a maverick. This is an image that has been, I think, deeply rooted over the years. It's one the media has bought. Now it's one that he's trying to sell. I think it is very hard to uproot that now, very difficult."
Monday, September 8, 2008
Questions of bias
Critique of Obama-Clinton coverage
Saturday, September 6, 2008
Sermon at Palin's church: Israelis punished by God for not being Christian
According to reporter Ben Smith in Politico , citing a transcript on the Church's website, a leader of Jews for Jesus named David Brickner gave the guest sermon Aug 17 at the Wasila Bible Church. Jews for Jesus is a group that seeks to convert Jews to Christianity.
Brickner also described terrorist attacks on Israelis as God's "judgment of unbelief" of Jews who haven't embraced Christianity.
"Judgment is very real and we see it played out on the pages of the newspapers and on the television. It's very real. When [Brickner's son] was in Jerusalem he was there to witness some of that judgment, some of that conflict, when a Palestinian from East Jerusalem took a bulldozer and went plowing through a score of cars, killing numbers of people. Judgment — you can't miss it."Palin was in church that day, Kroon [Palin's minister--jc] said, though he cautioned against attributing Brickner’s views to her.
Thursday, September 4, 2008
Maverick No Matter What
Why the media should apologize
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
What They Really Think: 2 Leading Conservatives Think They're Not Being Recorded
Conservative Writers Raise Doubts about Palin Selection
David Frum: "But question: If it were your decision, and you were putting your country first, would you put an untested small-town mayor a heartbeat away from the presidency?"
Shannen Coffin: "if John McCain has said that a year plus of statewide office (plus some small town politics) is good enough, why isn't state legislature and a couple of visits to the floor of the U.S. Senate?"
Jonah Goldberg: "Downside: She may not be ready for primetime. The heartbeat-from-the-presidency issue is a real one."
All from rightwing National Review Online. There were plenty more questions from conservatives. It's hardly "liberal media bias" to ask questions of a VP candidate.
Journalists & Activists Detained and Arrested
Monday, September 1, 2008
"Pray for Rain" against Obama: Religious Right Attempt at Humor
Stewart & Colbert on Choice of Palin
Fox News Co-Host on Gov. Palin's Foreign Policy Knowledge
ABC News Producer Arrested While Covering $ to Dems
Gore Vidal-Bill Buckley Debate ABC News 1968
During tumultuous 1968 Democratic convention in Chicago, ABC features regular debates between Gore Vidal and Bill Buckley, advocates for America's Left and Right. This famous
debate got overly heated. Unlike today's "TV liberals," Vidal defended antiwar protesters and more. Vidal/Buckley represents a broader debate than on today's mainstream TV, which tends to feature predictable surrogates and spin artists from elites of two major parties.