When Will the Media Learn? Conservatives Are NOT “Centrists”!

[xchrom]

http://www.alternet.org/media/when-will-media-learn-conservatives-are-not-centrists



That word. They used it again this week. In coverage of the new, tentative budget deal, the term “centrist” was used to describe political opinions that are far from the center of public opinion. Even as Rep. Paul Ryan and Sen. Patty Murray were finalizing the deal, Roll Callwas reporting that “Three Blue Dog Democrats and three Republicans from the centrist Tuesday Group have co-signed a letter … with a simple message: They’re ready to work together” to pass whatever Ryan and Murray agree upon.

Politico ran an interview with former Republican Rep. Steven LaTourette, who is described as “a chain-smoking Ohio centrist” who wants to promote more deals like this one. In Slate, Dave Weigel covered the political implications of the agreement and described Gov. Chris Christie as “a popular, centrist-looking figure.”

The Minneapolis Star-Tribune reported on “a rift between centrists and leftists in the Democratic Party” and lamented that this prevented stronger steps to reduce the deficit. The Star Tribune even included a quote from the co-chair of Third Way, which it described as “a centrist think tank.”

Third Way was in the news last week too, in a story that had media outlets tossing out the “C” word like candy.

[mucifer]

1. when they stop getting corporate money.

[valerief]

2. Uh, but the media is conservative. nt

[KG]

3. conservative centrists have a lot in common w/ liberal centerists

[xchrom]

4. ...

[bvar22]

9. That is the problem I have with the New Democrat Centrist Party.

They agree with Republicans too much.
I'm a solid Democrat because I do NOT agree with Republicans.
If I did, I would VOTE for Republicans.


[font color=firebrick][center]"There are forces within the Democratic Party who want us to sound like kinder, gentler Republicans.
I want a party that will STAND UP for Working Americans."
---Paul Wellstone [/font][/center] [center] [/font]
[font size=1]photo by bvar22
Shortly before Sen Wellstone was killed[/center][/font]

[Faryn Balyncd]

5. Fox has dragged the Overton Window so far right that Goldwater would be a leftie today.

[Triana]

6. When the media stop being OWNED by corprats/conservatives. n/t

[Laelth]

7. k&r for exposure. n/t

-Laelth

[Donald Ian Rankin]

8. The centre of what?

If you line up Americans from right to left, I suspect Cristie wouldn't be that many centiles from the centre.

If you lined up the population of the world, he and most other Americans would be a long way to the right.



It's probably also worth noting that, as far as I can tell, American politics exhibits what mathematicians call a rightwards skew - that is, the median voter is to the left of the mean political opinion, so if 0 is the leftmost voter and 100 is the rightmost, the views of voter 50 will have more in common with voter 25 than voter 75.

[marmar]

10. k/r