And the article spoke of "Rallies held across the country Saturday to support thousands of protesters at the Wisconsin Capitol in their fight against Republican-backed legislation aimed at weakening unions."
And so on, and so on.
Needless to say, IMHO what Governor Walker is doing here is despicable and may even be illegal (a work force's right to organize IS, in fact, a matter of labor rights, codified legislation and common law, after all!) But at this point I don't really want to get into THAT part of things. The Republicans spent years fucking everything up, finally got voted out, and then spent the last two years lying to the American public so effectively that [the American people] were stupid enough to put them back into power... And then have enough mind-numbing stupidity to actually be surprised that they've gotten right back to fucking everythingng up again!
But no, I don't want to talk about that. While it's what I spent most of last year doing, I no longer have the time, patience or emotional energy needed to continue to catalog all the ways in which the Republicans suck. Especially given how spineless and useless Obama and the Democrats have been. Not to mention the media.
Which brings me to this:
Now remember, the headline read (and article supported): Thousands SUPPORT the Union Protesters!
Let's take a look at the signs in the above photograph that was attached the the article. (And I've downloaded it, and pasted it here, in case they come to their senses and CHANGE the fucking thing!)
"Fight Union Thugery" (Spelled wrong, BTW! Two "g's" in thuggery! Maybe that one should have stayed in school!)
"Public Union 4th Branch of Gov't, Hell No!"
"Union Leadership Out of Control"
"Even FDR opposed public unions"
"Love my country, ashamed of Gov't" (what do you want to bet this red-neck hypocritically boycotted the Dixie Chicks at some point?)
4/5 of the legible signs are vehemently ANTI-Union! And the last one? Well... I can't necessarily tell. One could argue that he ashamed of what Gov. Walker is doing, but given the crowd he's in, I'm far more inclined to say that it just more of the same anti-Big-Government paranoia and nonsense that the Right has become
Big time FAIL on the part of mail.com's photo department.
I'm almost waiting to see a picture of Michael Vick attached to the next article about the Humane Society winning some award or something.
Oh yeah...
And BEHOLD, YOUR LIBERAL MEDIA!
I mentioned this on MMFA in a spot that only three people will see, but today's the day I dump the media in my lost cause bin along with all conservatives. Look at the sickening cowardice and clueless deference. This is what the media looks like when it tries to be liberal and get things right.
ReplyDeleteI've yelled at the media for years, but you yell at what can change until it can't change, and then you yell at other things. I guess I'll yell at the democratic party and the voters for a while, and then I'll leave.
Ugh.
Steeve,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comment, and the link. But if you don't mind, would you mind elaboratitng on what you found so... cowardly(?) about it? Becuase I read it as a piece from one part of the media going after anonther one for shirking its duties. (Or did you mean, "look at the cowardice the Post is CALLING OUT"?) It wasn't exactly attck dog stuff, but it seemed like it was at WORST, fairly objective. (OK, false balance at worst, but I didn't really even get THAT vibe.) Did I miss something?
I read a comment on Huffington Post by someone that said Trumka got his ass handed to him on MTP. Is that true? I don't have a tv and think it was just a Republican talking out his ass.
ReplyDeleteFirst, the "I don't question Sunday guest lists" thing. Those guest lists have been a train wreck for years, and trying to be above it all privileges the bad behavior. The concept of privileging bad behavior should be as obvious to a media professional as kindergarten. It's time to stop being happy when Foser or someone teaches these dopes kindergarten. They shouldn't need to be taught kindergarten. They should have the equivalent of post-grad expertise.
ReplyDeleteThen, the "this moment somehow feels a bit different" and "priorities of the political media seem a bit off" lightweight hedging. There is no nuance here. We're not discussing the finer points of the 23rd move of a 3-dimensional chess game. These are the weak knees of a guy more concerned with staying at the trough than stating the obvious plainly. The media is very obviously being very wrong in an indefensible way, and it has been in dozens of other ways for dozens of years. The time for gentlemanly language and peaceful disagreement is in the very distant past. Hidden things should be stated obliquely, but obvious things should be stated bluntly.
Just look at Gregory (ironically, the one who had Trumka on). He is a colossal failure. Anyone can drive a truck through the omissions in his questioning. Why is it that nobody important has driven those trucks in public? If Gregory is ever criticized, it'll be in this sort of academic, gentlemanly way and thus he'll never lose his job.
Maybe I'm just on tilt, but I can't believe we're not cussing out these asses. There is no gray area here.
(I don't literally mean swearing blue on the Post website. I mean saying things like "The media is once again serving as a mouthpiece for the powerful, and it's sickening. The powerful already have the deck stacked towards them, and the media has been compounding that problem for years" or "the way the Sunday shows have been going, every channel should present nothing but the unvarnished, unchallenged position of middle-class figures for two months running just as a start towards presenting a mere fiction of balance". Such statements would focus on the truth like a laser.)
ReplyDeleteI've come to realize that "liberal media" is just code for "not the far right media" just like former moderates are now finding themselves referred to as liberals because they (we) didn't make the rightward shift.
ReplyDeleteActually, "liberal media" used to be "liberal Jewish media." It was shortened in order to turn it into a code-phrase, and was so successful that few, today, realize its origins as an anti-Semitic smear (Spiro Agnew, who popularized the code version, used "liberal Jewish media" in private).
ReplyDelete@jlarue - Didn't see it, so I couldn't say. It IS nice howver to finally see labor getting of it's ass and actually FIGHTING for something for a change, instead of leaving everything to the big-wigs. Wisconsin should remind america that "Unions" means PEOPLE - hard working, middle-class AMERICANS. The last time I checked the MIDDLE CLASS and WORKING AMERICANS weren't a "special interest group" and it's despicable that they've be unwittingly branded as one.
ReplyDelete@Steeve - Ah... I get you. Thank for re-schooling me in Foser. For as many times as I've made the same argument, I must be slipping that I missed it in this case. (Either that, or the media's gotten SO BAD lately that that piece seemed benign by comparison.) But you're absolutely right.
@Sammy (and ClassicLib) Well, in addition to what Classic has said, these days, its really just a way of innoculating themselves from any scrutiny. They could tell you the sky's green, the grass is blue and the sun comes out at night, and then dismiss all the "fancy evindence" presented against them as "liberal bias."
And if the say "liberal media" long enough (and we're WAAAY beyond that point) then when the media DOES agree with these fools (and when do they NOT?) they can say things like "even the LIBERAL MEDIA agrees with me!" And when even [the actually right-leaning media] FINALLY calls them out on SOME of their bullshit, they can just dismiss as "liberal media bias."
And sadly? As a nation, 60-some% of us REALLY ARE stupid enough not to see that. (And another 5-10% or so KNOW IT, but play along, becuase they're the benificiaries of this psycopathy.)
Thank you all for your comments.
I have family and friends in Madison and they have been very engaged. One passed on this joke to me the other day. A CEO, a Tea Party member and a Union member are sitting at a table with 12 cookies on it. The CEO grabs 11 cookies and gobbles them down. He then looks over at the Tea Party member and says, "You better be careful - that Union guy wants to steal part of your cookie."
ReplyDeleteLOL! Love it! I sit accross from the one of the few other Democrats/Liebrals in my office, so I'll be sure to pass that on tomorrow! Thanks!
ReplyDelete