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August 20, 2008
Media Misinformation & The Funhouse Mirrors
We've all learned, if not from following the Peterson case then by critical thinking skills, to trust neither the media nor its anointed punditocracy. It has been clear for many years that mainstream media is owned by a few monopolistic corporations and driven by profit; it is not in the business of telling the truth or conducting any meaningful investigative reporting, with few exceptions. We were reminded of this when we watched Fox and MSNBC during the Peterson trial where the “expert panels” insisted that the prosecution was failing in its presentation of evidence and that Mark Geragos was constantly portrayed as a crackerjack defense lawyer eating the State’s lunch every day. This characterization belied the reality of the trial transcripts and the observations of those actually attending the trial.
I would wager real money that if a sampling of average cable news viewers were polled in August 2004, having read nothing beyond a few news stories and watching Fox during the heart of the trial, the majority would have believed that Peterson was going to be acquitted. Probably over 65% of them would agree that Geragos was driving trucks through the People’s case, and that there was more than reasonable doubt that gypsies, tramps and thieves had abducted and murdered the victims and planted their bodies at the east Bay to frame Mr. Innocent.
Of course, this would have been nonsense. It was the Funhouse Mirror strategy commonly employed by cable news producers, reporters with an agenda, and political campaigns.
So it is with the current “horserace” between the candidates running for president: if the news agencies accurately reported the truth about the candidates’ positions on issues, their respective economic and foreign policy platforms, and their qualifications for the job, there would be far less intrigue, drama and excitement. Considering the low approval rating of the current Congress, the vast unpopularity of our Executive-in-Chief, and the now toxic taint of the Republican brand, the election would be a “done deal,” as they say in the trade.
And, oh, how boring and unprofitable that would be! What would all these idiots have to talk about for the next three months? Hurricane season? Sports? The latest missing white pregnant woman? God forbid they discuss the FBI’s flimsy anthrax investigation, the economy, unemployment, failing infrastructure, Iraq, Iran, the Fed, or the various crises in homelessness, poverty, health care and education.
Au contraire! All six walls of our News Room are covered with Funhouse Mirrors! Meanwhile, mainstream media continues to perpetuate pseudo-issues that will have no bearing on the future of this country or help one iota with any of us paying for our next loaf of bread. Let’s review a few of the most egregious distortions of the current Funhouse Mirror strategy:
- Intellectualism, ties to Academia, multi-culturalism, diplomacy and pragmatism are signs of being elitist, out of touch, foreign, unpatriotic, un-American, strange, exotic, effeminate, arrogant, audacious, appeasing and treasonous.
On the other hand, being trigger-happy, short-tempered, caustic, rude, with cowboy tendencies, a take-no-prisoners attitude, bomb bomb bomb, drill drill drill, win win win, rah rah rah! is the red-blooded American Ideal. Liberals are sissy appeasers, Conservatives are macho defenders of freedom! (Never mind defenders of the corporate stranglehold on our lives.)
- A guy who shops at Whole Foods in holey-soled shoes for arugula, can hit a three-pointer on demand, runs and works out daily, draws crowds like a rock star, inspires artists, musicians and young people, uses technology with alacrity, experimented with drugs (oh my), never served in a military uniform, rubbed his bony elbows with terr-ists, black poets and anti-establishment folks, and penned a few best-sellers without a ghost writer is an inexperienced punk kid who doesn’t know his place.
On the other hand, a geriatric also-ran who plays his POW card with as much tasteless and irreverent abandon as did Rudy Giuliani his 9/11 card, whose closest encounter to an executive position is riding in his wife’s corporate jet, whose positions on the issues has changed more often than a Las Vegas showgirl’s fishnets, and whose ignorance of geography is only exceeded by his cluelessness to the suffering of the working class, is considered an experienced statesman, and guy you'd like to have a beer with (despite his owning millions of dollars in houses and wearing $500 Italian loafers and dumping his wife for a beer heiress and never having to pay a dime for health insurance or health care for his recurring cancer)....Oh, yes, he's such a "maverick.” He's such a regular guy; a real role-model for our sons.
Is this déjà vu or what? Are we going to sit back and suffer these fools again? There is much more at stake here than justice served to a murder victim. This is our nation's legacy, our survival as a democracy, our children's futures. Are we going to let the lying liars shape this debate?
The “Know Nothings” are still running the asylum and must constantly reframe the vast and embarrassing intellectual (and “age” and “hipness” and “modern”) canyon between the candidates where the American dream is distorted as "uppity" and the usurpation of power by incompetent, immoral crooks is morphed into preferable leadership skills.
I’m still shaking my head that the Republicans selected McCain as their candidate in the first place. It’s insane. The only conclusion I can draw is that he’s just a figurehead; the scrambling weasels must place *someone* in there with an “R” behind his name so they can protect the status quo and have at least another four years to bury the bodies, burn the evidence and hide the money.
Meanwhile, I think the greatest form of dissent would be to continually contrast, in a realistic way, the differences between candidates and shatter the Funhouse Mirrors.
Comments
Jack Cafferty on McCain:
Posted by: lorelei | August 20, 2008 08:59 PM
Heh. You came up in my Geragos Google Alert.
I keep telling you; we are being outnumbered by stupid people.
The trick is going to be getting the smart people to make up their minds.
Posted by: vero | August 20, 2008 10:42 PM
I don't hold out much hope, I'm afraid. After all, America re-elected Bush. WHY???
They chose Dubya over Gore, for heaben sapes!
Just think how well off you would all be if you got the man who actually won the election, instead of that retard..just think.
Posted by: Mgt | August 21, 2008 09:18 AM
Yeah, just like Rudy except it's a noun, a verb, and POW.
Did you see Cindy McCain LIE on CNN's McCain Revealed last night when she said John had been separated from Carol for 6 1/2 years. Might the VN POW hero have lied to his newest GF?
When KING mentioned that the documents show he was dating Cindy while still married AND living with Carol he dodged. When asked point blank about his SERIAL CHEATING he said he didn't know why he did it but took full responsibility. How heroic John.
His character (Keating 5, serial adultry, entitled flyboy plane crasher, etc) isn't my main worry.
Roe V. Wade
Supreme Court nominees
Draft
Endless Wars (Iraq, Iran, Russia)
Not to mention forget holding GWB/Darth Cheney accountable.
/Rant
Posted by: CountryGal | August 21, 2008 03:18 PM
Hear, hear!
Posted by: vero | August 23, 2008 11:10 AM
You libs amaze me. John will win because he's an anti communist. Obomber is a definite commie pinko and crypto muzzie who wants to destroy this country. The view from the socialist republik of Austin and Cleveland are warped. Flyover country will prevail. Name one state in the South that the pinko will win.
Posted by: Captain Joe | August 24, 2008 07:44 PM
Oh, Joe, that's just silly. Nobody can accuse Obama of being a "pinko commie" with a straight face. He's in the bag with corporations. He's not anti-capitalism.
Heck, I'm way beyond conventional left wing when it comes to capitalism and how it has essentially destroyed our way of life.
I am much more socialist than any of the Dem candidates. I am also more libertarian. How's that for paradoxical?
I think guns are ok, everyone should have one. I think "choice" is not a political issue and should never be one. I think religion and politics are mutually exclusive and abhor the mix of faith and state. I think government should subsidize both health care and education (yes, even college) and I think capital punishment is a clusterfork and should be banned; not because some don't deserve the firing squad, but because of the resources wasted on it.
I think drugs should be legal (not just decriminalized), there should be term limits (2 terms for Senators, 3 for Congress), I think the Supreme Court justices should have to retire at age 75, and that Shrub and Darth should be sent to The Hague in January.
So, you wanna talk about commie pinkos?
Posted by: loretta | August 24, 2008 07:55 PM
Concerning the once blogged about Michelle Young murder. The cops revealed :
1- According to the search warrant, the investigators did obtain video from security cameras showing Young at the hotel. Video footage from some of the 14 security cameras show Young in the front desk area at 10:51pm the night before Young's body was found.
The search warrant, however, also says that Young was seen passing through the lobby towards the south exit of the hotel at 11:59pm, wearing clothes that were completely different from the earlier video and which have not been recovered by investigators.
"At 11:59pm, Jason Young is once again seen at the front desk...on this occasion, he appears to be wearing a dark colored long sleeve pullover garment...the whereabouts of this second garment has never been established and it [is] unaccounted for at this time," said the warrant.
2- investigators said in the search warrants said that despite Young leaving his room at 11:59pm, that his electronic room card was never used again after he initially checked in.
"Jason Young's assigned keycard was only used on one occasion," said the warrant. "The single keycard use was approximately six minutes after Jason Young was registered into the hotel."
3- At 11:59pm, however, investigators said that Young appeared to be heading for an exit at the hotel, where employees later found a rock placed between the door and the doorjam. The exit door where this security video camera [recorded Young going to the exit] is located, is the same door that hotel employees discovered a rock that had been placed in the door jam," said the warrant. "This action had the effect of blocking the door from closing and automatically locking. It also made it unnecessary for anyone to use their keycard when re-entering through the door."
"This is important because the keycard system records when a keycard is used," added the warrant. "It also records to whom the keycard has been assigned."
4-At the scene of Michelle Young's murder, police say that in a sweep of her bedroom, they found a DSW Shoe Warehouse card that belonged to the Youngs and recovered a receipt from the store in December of 2006 that said on July 4, 2005, the Youngs had purchased a Hush Puppies Orbital men's shoe.At the scene of the crime in the bedroom, in the warrants, detectives said they also found two sets of footprints on a pillow "in what appeared to be blood."
"This Hush puppy had the same outsole as the footwear impression in the blood inside the crime scene."
5-A New York Times newspaper delivery driver told the police that they were in the Enchanted Oaks subdivision in Raleigh where the Youngs lived between 4am and 5am delivering newspapers. Investigators said in the search warrant that the delivery driver said that they noticed two important details from the morning that Michelle Young was found murdered. First, all of the lights were on in the house and secondly, the delivery driver noticed an SUV parked near the home, similar to one driven by Jason Young.
"On the morning of November 3, 2006, the residence at 5108 Birchleaf Drive stood out because all of the lights, inside and outside the home were on," said the warrant. "The Delivery Person stated that they thought that the residents may have had a party."
"They also saw a light colored SUV parked near the home and thought that this may have been one of the last guests to leave," the warrant added. "The light colored SUV seen by the New York Times delivery person is similar...to the vehicle, a white Ford Explorer, driven by Jason Young at the time of the murder of Michelle Young."
Posted by: RPD | August 25, 2008 08:50 AM