“Journalists used to question the reasons for war and expose abuse of power. Now, like toothless babies, they suckle on the sugary teat of misinformation and poop it into the diaper we call the six o’clock news.” —Kent Brockman, TV newsreader, The Simpsons
“in the age of spin doctors and rolling news, fact has become a kind of fiction, constantly shaped and tweaked and distorted.”
Theo Tait: London Review of Books June 5 2008
“The polls aren’t there to tell the real story; they are there to support the various different stories that the commentators want to tell. The market is not for the hard truth, because the hard truth this time round is that most people are voting with the predictability of prodded animals.” David Runciman, London Review of Book, June 5 2008
Here’s another utterly relevant piece of analysis by a the only post-modernist I can understand. Check out the comments as well!
Yesterday two highly placed consultants to the Obama and Clinton campaigns, at an appearance at Berkeley’s J-school demonstrated a unexpected lack of understanding of what the press is and does. They complained how they only could deal with the ‘top-level’ media, i.e. The Times and the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post. Under duress they would ‘deal’ with CNN. But they ‘wrote off’ everyone else. Their rationale is that the gutter media just doesn’t get them and won’t take the time to explain the nuance of their position on the issues. As an example, one of these very accomplished and bright people complained that there was nowhere to compare in detail the differnece between Hilary and Obama’s alternate energy policy.
That caused me to catch my breath. Did this fellow think that presidential elections are won and lost by issues comparison? In what country? Congress is for issues. The Presidency is so clearly about IDENTITY, FAITH, OPTIMISM, A SENSE OF BELONGING.
Let’s look at the last 28 years.
Reagan, Clinton, Bush WINNERS ALL!
Dukakis, Carter, Gore, Kerry LOSERS! LOSERS! LOSERS!
BECAUSE THEY AND THEIR ADVISORS LIVE IN AN ELITIST BUBBLE THAT MAKES THEM FEEL GOOD AT DINNER PARTIES AND VERY VERY BAD EVERY FOUR YEARS IN NOVEMBER.
This is worth your time! If you ever get a called to go on Fox. I found this on “Brave New Films” Robert Greenwald’s nervy agit prop media site.
