THE CORPORATE MAINSTREAM MEDIA STOOGES ENABLE A CORRUPT CONGRESS

LIBYA

Dateline: Libya–and the free press in the land of the free and the home of the brave is at it again.

There is no end of conservative pundits, commentators, corporate media stooges and political hacks who willingly participate in the tightly-scripted reality show that is our Corporate Mainstream Media. 24/7 they spew out propaganda to a public brainwashed into believing that the vignettes served up by Fox News or MSNBC are anything other than various and sundry bits of disinformational flotsam and jetsam.

While Congress debates how many Libyan angels can dance on the head of a pin, our merry military continues to bomb innocent civilians in Libya–a country in which our beloved 44th president has already declared the USA has no national interest.

How long will the so-called “leaders” in the GOP-controlled House allow this situation to continue?

One guess: the Libyan Congressional kabuki will continue as long as our supposedly fiercely-independent media ignores the corrupt political theater that they–along with the political hacks–perpetuate.

Our only question is: How long will it continue?

by Mondo Frazier
image: Apnea and Snoring

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Is Glenn Beck going to bail on Fox News?

Is Fox News going to let Beck go?

Or is it all just elaborate corporate media kabuki theater?

James Hirsen calls it “Beck’s $200 Million Gamble.”

According to street buzz and a story by the New York Times’ Brian Stelter, Glenn Beck is considering a business startup to complete his media empire. The emoting host’s contract ends at the bottom of this year, and he would then be free to head up his own enterprise, a Beck owned and run television network.

But networks don’t come cheap. Or easy. Discovery is reported to have sunk more than $200 million into OWN, which started broadcasting Jan. 1. And in February, only about 135,000 people were watching OWN, a number down 10 percent from Discovery Heath, The New York Times reported. The network has already had to shuffle its programming.

Apparently, Hirsen has a good source, as he has written about as extensively on the subject as anyone on the net at this point.

Jon Friedman wonders “Glenn Beck: Why leave Fox News?“–and makes an excellent point.

According to Forbes, Beck could reap some $4 million a year from his Internet business, twice as much as Fox reportedly pays him.

Of course, the talk about Beck’s post-Fox options could be a negotiating ploy. If TV executives wanted to air the most riveting reality show imaginable, they could have cameras follow around a TV star whose contract is about to expire.

Earlier Beck released an interestingly-worded statement.

“Roger Ailes has built the most important voice in America today — Fox News — and it is an honor to do my show there every night. I have no intention whatsoever of doing the show I am doing now on Fox anywhere else.”

Notice the “…the show I am doing now on Fox…”

That doesn’t mean that he might do another type of show.

Which means that if Glenn Beck does jump the Fox news ship, the familiar Beck blackboard might very well be a prop of the past.

As always with stories that consist of one part news, one part whispers, one part speculation, the best advice would be:

Time will tell.

by Mondo Frazier

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Mickey Kaus has a few thoughts on John Boehner and whether or not the House minority leader wants a big Republican win for November.

I have a few thoughts on Kaus’ thoughts. First, el Mickey:

Does Boehner Even Want to Win Big?

Win! But Don’t Win Too Big: Dick Morris, preaching what he practices, counsels Republicans in favor of overconfidence. The argument is that by setting their sights too low, the party’s official cash-dispensers might deny funding to candidates who look like longshots but could in fact win in an anti-Democratic landslide…. But you have to wonder if a GOP leader like potential House Speaker John Boehner even wants to win big in November. It’s not just that Boehner needs to temper public predictions of triumph, lest a small victory be played by the media as a defeat. It’s that a small victory might, for at least two reasons, actually be the best outcome for him.

My first thought: I’d say that Mickey Kaus tripled the value of Newsweek by moving Kausfiles to the site, but that does Kaus a grave injustice by putting Kausfiles in the $3 value range. Much more accurate to say that “there’s no putting a dollar figure” on Kausfiles‘ move.

Secondly, even the consideration of “lest a small victory be played by the media as a defeat” is self-defeating. The media will spin whatever is most beneficial to the Democrats, regardless of its relationship to the facts.

In fact, the media has abandoned spin: it’s now engaged in full-tilt content management. It’s no longer interested in mere bias: news consumers are onto that game. It’s all about not reporting the news inconvenient or unfavorable to the MSM’s favored party and turning whatever the DNC press releases are for the day into “news.”

However, since 2008 that tactic has failed as well as news consumers have turned to sources that guarantee their exposure to what they can’t find in the MSM. During the John Edwards Scandal, Kaus wrote about the ‘undernews’ and the switch from MSM “news” to “undernews” is proceeding posthaste–to the detriment of the MSM’s bottom line. That MSM organizations have continued to put ideology ahead of profits is further proof that they no longer are journalistic enterprises so much as flacks for the cause–and losing money is an acceptable cost of doing ideological business.

To even consider how the MSM presents the November election is to give it more credibility than it has earned. IF the Republicans were to win all 435 seats in the House, the New York Times headline on November 3 would likely read: “Democrats finish second, guarantee more seats in 2012.”

Kaus goes on to list two reasons in particular that John Boehner may not want a big win: 1-raised expectations; and, 2-unruly Tea Party candidates.

Readers can pass judgment on those by reading Does Boehner Even Want to Win Big?. Our issue was with Kaus’ (probably inadvertent) gesture of respect to an Old Media no longer deserving of such.

by Mondo Frazier
image: ask chris

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There is no longer just bias in the Mainstream Media: it’s now all about blacking out news unpleasant to favored parties, persons or causes(John Edwards, ClimateGate, Van Jones).

The latest evidence that Big Media is engaged in two-fisted content management?

The complete absence of news regarding the Eleanor Norton Homes Lobbyist Shakedown call.

Shocking Audio: Facing ‘Obligations from Leadership, Democrat Congresswoman Leave Voicemail for Lobbyist Cash (Audio at the link)

Her message raises many concerns.

1. At the very beginning of the message, Holmes Norton notes that the lobbyist:

ha[s] given to other colleagues of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee

Beyond being a bit heavy-handed, where did she get this information? Such donations are listed in FEC reports, but it is a violation to use that information to solicit campaign donations.

That’s just one concern. But where is the Washington Post? Well, Norton’s the non-voting DC Rep, plus she’s a Democrat–usually one in the same.

DC is the closest thing we have to a one-party banana republic in the USA, though others have been quickly closing the corruption gap.

The Post is the company paper for DC and the company’s business is more government, more money, more corruption.

MSM Sitting Out Eleanor Holmes Norton Scandal

They are still virtual no-shows. The activist old media is putting itself on the sidelines with a Democrat Congresswoman who was caught on tape squeezing a lobbyist for cash.

They will be pulled kicking and screaming into this story by the people Dan Rather called “pajama journalists.” I think we’ve seen this story before.

The Associated Press published a poll showing that “bloggers” are among the least trusted people–according to the AP’s poll. Since it’s the AP though, who buys it?

Explosive Norton Voicemail — Where’s the MSM?

The story has been up now for about 17 hours, and is currently linked in red on the Drudge Report, but thus far, the only media that have picked it up are in the independent blogosphere. As of this writing, there has been not a word about it in the MSM, and most especially not in the Post, Norton’s hometown newspaper. Indeed the last story the Post published about her — including on its normally nimble blogs, was a celebration of her victory in the D.C. primary held on Tuesday night.

That would be the same blogosphere that AP maintains is not trusted in its house poll. Of course, the AP operates online. Maybe that’s confusing AP poll respondents?

Poll after poll by Pew Research, who has no axes to grind, put the Mainstream Media–of which the AP is a proud member–as one of the very least trusted groups in America.

Why would anyone believe a self-serving poll from one of the least-trusted institutions in America?

Especially one decrying the very people–bloggers–who’ve been eating the AP’s lunch?

Memo to the AP: ask Eleanor Norton Holmes about her shakedown phone calls.

Then, you can get back to me about the blogger’s poll.

by Mondo Frazier
image: Big Journalism

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WHAT HAPPENS WHEN THE LIPSTICK COMES OFF OF THE PIG?

Sometimes, a piece appears that nails it. Ed Driscoll has assembled such a piece. From It’s Deja Coakley All Over Again:

“With less than an hour before President Obama’s scheduled speech, 75 seats remained empty in the recreation center at Cuyahoga Community College’s Western Campus,” the Cleveland Plain-Dealer reports today:

So organizers went around campus and recruited more students to fill the seats.

Student Jennifer Rahal, of Parma Heights, whose class was canceled today, was working on her art work in the coffee shop in the basement of the building when the call went out for more guests.

After dropping off their stuff at a bag check, the newly invited guests cleared security and filed into the gym.

The supporting evidence gathered by Driscoll builds a damning case against, not Obama–who is and was merely being himself–but the Liberal Progressives who ushered him to power, thereby absolving themselves of having to discuss his lack of experience or any accomplishments.

Particularly effective is inclusion of Victor Davis Hanson’s ‘Like a Dog’: The Origins of Barack Obama’s Petulance.

I would be miffed too if I were Obama

Obama in just twenty months has developed a reputation for being petulant, unusually sensitive to the normal run-of-the-mill criticism. His latest pushback was his strangest so far: “And they’re not always happy with me. They talk about me like a dog. That’s not in my prepared remarks, it’s just — but it’s true.”

Given that Obama has previously called out talk radio critics by name — Beck, Hannity, Limbaugh — attacked everything from limb-lopping surgeons to vacationing at Las Vegas, and in condescending fashion tsk-tsked those who attend Glen Beck rallies, rural Pennsylvanians, and his own “typical white person” grandmother who raised him, his thin-skin touchiness seems inexplicable.

Surely the most powerful man in the world knows that when you elevate talk radio critics to near-equal adversaries, then one cannot complain that they press their now high-profile serial attacks even further.

It gets better. Two pieces well worth the time spent reading them.

Obama is over-rated as an orator off-teleprompter; when the president ventures in the impromptu, he’s a human Gaffe-O-Matic. But in the realm of condescending snark, he’s not bad. Remember his crack about lipstick on a pig, with its sly reference to Sarah Palin?

Obama’s lipstick is gone and his former boosters are left to wonder, “How’s the market for 19-month-old pork chops?”

by Mondo Frazier
image: dbkp file

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Rob Miller and Omri Ceren gang-tackle TIME over its sterotypical Jew cover story.

The Decline and Fall of Time Magazine: This Week’s Anti-Semitic Cover

Time Magazine has moved fully into the “anti-Zionist.” pro-Caliphate camp with its latest cover, set to hit the newsstands during Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year.

The story itself is an obscenity written by one Karl Vick, whose basic premise it that Israelis don’t care about peace because they’re too busy living the good life.

I hope he chokes on the money he was paid to write it.

The Decline and Fall of Time Magazine 2: The Editorial War On Israel

Quote unquote:

The truth? In the week that three Presidents, a King and their own Prime Minister gather at the White House to begin a fresh round of talks on peace between Israel and the Palestinians, the truth is, Israelis are no longer preoccupied with the matter. They’re otherwise engaged; they’re making money; they’re enjoying the rays of late summer. A watching world may still define their country by the blood feud with the Arabs whose families used to live on this land and whether that conflict can be negotiated away, but Israelis say they have moved on… Asked in a March poll to name the “most urgent problem” facing Israel, just eight percent of Israeli Jews cited the conflict with Palestinians, putting it fifth behind education, crime, national security and poverty. Israeli Arabs placed peace first.

Obviously that poll actually shows that Israelis are preoccupied with educating their children, keeping their families safe from crime, and not getting killed by neighboring countries. Ergo listing those as priorities one, two, and three. But why let mere numbers get in the way of “Jews are too busy ‘making money’ to embrace negotiations?”

TIME couldn’t parody itself any better if it hired the entire staff of the Onion to do it.

TIME Announces New Version Of Magazine Aimed At Adults

This might be a good strategy for the fading newsweekly.

Most adults long ago abandoned TIME.

by Mondo Frazier

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NOW YOU TOO CAN IMITATE SOVIET-ERA METHODS in JOURNALISM in THREE EASY STEPS

Politico demonstrates that the Soviet Union, though it ceased to exist 20 years ago, left a legacy to which the Left-heavy site can refer.

1- Politico’s Alex Isenstadt pens a post at Lefty political site, Politico: “Bombastic West rakes In cash”.

2- Within 7 hours, Paul at Powerline, calls out Politico on Isenstadt’s use of Name-calling as journalism.

Politico reporter Alex Isenstadt fails to explain why he considers West bombastic. Instead, he notes that West has been endorsed by Sarah Palin and that a speech he gave at Tea Party event has received two million views on YouTube. Enough said, if you’re a leftist writing for leftists.

I heard West speak back in January. I found his talk compelling, patriotic and at times fiery, but not bombastic. In any case, there were no Greek pillars on the stage.

Affixing judgmental adjectives to candidates strikes me as a ground-breaking development in poltical reporting. Until now, the liberal MSM has been slightly more subtle. But these are desperate political times for the left, and readers can no longer be trusted to draw their own conclusions no matter how far a reporter leads them.

3- When last checking Politico–voila!–Isenstadt’s headline had changed to the more neutral, “West rakes in cash.”

While it’s a good thing that Politico exercised some journalistic standards–even in hindsight–there was no “Update,” “Correction” or “Notes” added to the post to show that the headline had changed. Just a light touch of the digital airbrush and later readers are none the wiser that it took a post from a large conservative blog to move Politico/Isenstadt to rectify their bias.

The post at Powerline is the only proof that Soviet-style journalism took place at Politico–all in three easy steps!

Regardless, one would hope that Politico (maybe Isenstadt doesn’t do his own headlines?!?) will thoughtfully pause before their next auto-Prog headline appears.

Just another day and more hi-jinks from the Mainstream Media: Digital Division.

by Mondo Frazier
image: DBKP file

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