How The Press Is Doing The GOP's Ebola Bidding...Fear is The Republican Midterm Election Theme

[Cali_Democrat]

As Republicans seek to gain a partisan advantage by ginning up fear about the Ebola virus in preparation for the midterm election cycle, they're getting a major assist from the news media, which seems to be equally anxious to spread anxiety about the virus, and to implicate President Obama for the health scare. At times, Republicans, journalists, and commentators appear to be in complete sync as they market fear and kindle confusion. ("You could feel a shiver of panic coursing through the American body politic this week.&quot

The result is a frightening level of misinformation about Ebola and a deep lack of understanding of the virus by most Americans. Indeed, despite weeks of endless coverage, most news consumers still don't understand key facts about Ebola.

If the news media's job is to educate, and especially to clarify during times of steep public concerns, then the news media have utterly failed during the Ebola threat. And politically, that translates into a win for Republicans because it means there's fertile ground for their paranoia to grow. (Sen. Rand Paul: Ebola is "incredibly contagious.&quot

"They have all caught the Ebola bug and are now transmitting the fear it engenders to millions of Americans," lamented a recent Asbury Park (NJ) editorial, chastising the cable news channels. "It turns out that fear-mongering translates not only into dollars and cents for news-gathering organizations, but also allows talking heads to politicize the issue."

Read more:

http://mediamatters.org/blog/2014/10/17/how-the-press-is-doing-the-gops-ebola-bidding/201201

[Cali_Democrat]

1. kick

[Major Hogwash]

2. It's Operation Chaos, all over again!!!

About 6 years ago the GOP started screaming totally insane bullshit, and the mainstream media cooperated with them, by dutifully reporting every crazy thing the loony Republicans were saying about Obama.
They lost the Presidential race, but quietly snickered to themselves how successful they were in manipulating the mainstream media.

So, they redoubled their efforts in 2010.
After the GOP was successful in scaring the hell out of most Americans in 2010, while simultaneously making false charges about where President Obama was born, the Republicans wound up taking control of the House of Representatives in Congress.
Then, they sat on their hands and acted like they were in some "member's only" summer camp, voting to overturn "Obamacare" as many as 3 dozen times in less than 2 years, tying the repeal of "Obamacare" to every budget bill they wrote, and demanding that "Obamacare" be repealed or President Obama would soon be impeached!!!

And once again, the mainstream media cooperated with the Republicans and treated them as knowledgeable guests on their tv programs in order to spread the FUD on a national scale.

Then again, in 2012, more of the same lunacy.
This time with Mitt the Dimwit as their leader, they started spouting complete nonsense about how President Obama was not ever going to be able to create jobs on his own.
But, somehow he managed to create 12 million jobs, despite the unprecedented Republican opposition.

Yet, the American public was not enthusiastic about endorsing any of President Obama's positions.
They voted to retain most of the GOP asshats in 2012 that were first elected to the House just 2 years prior.
And they screamed about anything Obama did, and even made up a lot of farcical garbage that he didn't do.
The mainstream media was right there, microphone in hand, and taking copious notes for their newspaper blogs.

2 years later, and it is the same thing!
Some whackjob Republican says something that is totally nuts, and the mainstream media treats that person like they are a serious person.
It is beyond pathetic.
The mainstream media should be ashamed of themselves for being complicit with the extremist nutjobs of the Republican party.

[KingCharlemagne]

9. Best god-damned post I've read in a long time. I think the Blue Dogs are partly to

blame for the 2010 debacle, since it was mostly Blue Dogs who went down in flames in that election. But otherwise, you have nailed the fascists' modus operandi. The MSM (the 7-8 big media chains that comprise it) are mostly owned and managed by the same group that contribute to the Republican Party coffers. So no big surprise that the MSM are in the pockets of the fascists (or is it the other way around?).

Sincere hat tip, though, for a concise exposition of the last 6 years. I think you might want to fashion it into its own OP, it's that strong. Just a thought.

[Cali_Democrat]

10. Bingo!

You nailed it.

[Major Hogwash]

17. After George W. Bush cured racism in America, it must just be Obama's policies they don't like.

I think it MUST be ONLY because they don't like the policies of President Obama!!!!

President Obama didn't want to balance the budget, or reduce the deficits, or lower the national debt.
President Obama didn't negotiate with the Republicans to solve the financial crisis of 2008.
President Obama didn't talk to the leaders of the Republican party about the nation's budget.
President Obama didn't strive to raise the minimum wage or reduce the inequality income gap in this country.
President Obama didn't try to create jobs that were green and beneficial to the environment at the same time.
President Obama didn't make an effort to expand trade with other countries to stimulate the economy.
President Obama didn't plan to reduce the debt college students incurred by borrowing money to get more education.
President Obama didn't hope to restore the insurance benefits to children that CHIPS had given them.
President Obama didn't force healthcare insurance companies to honor the policies they sold to the public.
President Obama didn't put forth any ideas about how to lower the risk of terrorism in this country.
President Obama didn't attempt to protect people in foreign countries from terrorism.
President Obama didn't work with the leaders of other countries to reduce terrorism around the world.
President Obama didn't attend conferences where reduction of terrorism was discussed by other world leaders.
President Obama didn't cooperate with the UN to reduce terrorism or make the world's financial position more stable.
President Obama didn't reach across the aisle to convince Republicans to repair or replace our nation's infrastructure.

President Obama hasn't done ANYTHING in the last 6 years!!

[Tweedy]

3. TV not press, merely entertainment

We can keep hoping this will change. Despite our best hopes, however, the fact remains: we do not have television news; we do have "Network" in all its twisted slimy- ness.

[freshwest]

4. FEAR is all they have left to SELL, Cali_Democrat. And it's cheap and effective.

[pansypoo53219]

5. funny how the gnewz manages to whip shit up for elections. ower librl meedeeya.

[moondust]

6. Going after the Fox News audience?

Chasing mouth breathers and racists to help their ratings and ad revenues?

[davidpdx]

11. Actually Shepard Smith on Fox News had one of the most sane things to say about Ebola

Last edited Sun Oct 19, 2014, 04:29 AM - Edit history (1)

[JI7]

12. shep smith is just one guy , so you get a few minutes of this but the rest of the 23 hours

is spend on lies .

[davidpdx]

14. I agree

But his dissent from his buddies at Fox News at least gets the information out to some people on the right. It's better than nothing.

[JI7]

15. yes, it's one reason i think it's better for him to stay on Fox

[Egnever]

7. Fear has always been the Republican election theme

A decision made from fear is always the wrong decision.
~ Tony Robbins Quotes

[ReRe]

8. K&R

Welcome, y'all, to the new and improved Privatized America!

[davidpdx]

13. My reaction to the way the press has handled this is that it has been bad

I think the press in general has done a good job of fear mongering.

The Bloomberg article is not near as bad as the cover suggests. In my opinion that was a terrible choice for a magazine cover and it does no service to the article (which was not too bad actually).

I looked up the author prior to reading it to see what her background (where she went to school and worked) was and I don't see anything that is questionable other than doing freelance work for The New York Daily News (she did it for other papers as well).

Here is a link to the article that isn't behind a paywall:

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-09-24/ebola-drug-zmapps-development-delayed-by-pentagon-agency

[MFM008]

16. as usual