General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsCharles Pierce: "You know who in the media really created He, Trump?"
... self-flagellating bollocks from Kristof ...
This is all my bollocks on a number of levels. First, there are people covering the plight of the disappearing middle class all over the placein local papers, in academic studies, on the electric teevee machine, and even in Kristof's own newspaper. There is a Democratic candidate for president whose entire damn campaign is based on the premise that the American middle class is going the way of the Anasazi. It's a little late for the elite political media that boomed "free trade" and the miracles of the "globalized economy" in a "flat" world to suddenly look up and discover that a 55-year old steelworker in Indiana likely will not be getting a job writing code for the Next New Thing. It's a little late for the elite political media to discover that de-unionization has not been altogether a boon in those few sectors of the industrial economy that haven't been cored out or sent to Vietnam.
But, in any case, as far as Kristof's main point goes, that's not the story that that "we in the media" missed. For four decades now, ever since Ronald Reagan fed it the monkeybrains in the 1980, hitching his party to the snake-oil of supply-side economics and to the sad remnants of white supremacy, often as expressed through an extremist splinter of American Protestantism, the Republican Party has been afflicted with the prion disease that now has blossomed into utter public madness. That's the story everyone was too blind, stupid, or afraid to tell. You know who in the media really created He, Trump? Anyone who laughed at Ronald Reagan's casual relationship with the truth and with empirical reality. Anyone who blew off Iran-Contra. Anyone who draped C-Plus Augustus in a toga after 9/11. Anyone who cast Newt Gingrich as a serious man of ideas. Anyone who cast Paul Ryan as an economic savant, that's who. Anyone who wrote admiring profiles of how shrewd Lee Atwater and Karl Rove were. Anyone who put Rush Limbaugh or Glenn Beck on the cover of national magazines based simply on their ratings. Anyone who put Matt Drudge on a public-affairs program. Anyone who watched the conservative movement, the only animating force the Republican party has, drive the party further and deeper into madness, they are the ones who share the blame. He, Trump merely has taken the bark off ideas that were treated as legitimate for far too long by far too many people, most of whom don't really give a damn about the plight of the vanishing middle class except for its use as fuel for rage-based, self-destructive politics.
http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/news/a43374/media-created-donald-trump/
Dont call me Shirley
(10,998 posts)Anti-trust Act. Then Bill's signing of the Communications Act making all of this crap the law of the land. The FCC was made a tool for billionaires and their kingdoms to twist reality and spew their vomitous lies. Then THEY blame all this shit THEY made on us, calling us stoopid, unfit to make decisions, unable to rule our own selves, causing our own sicknesses and global poisoning. The upper class created this shit and for this THEY must atone!
Wellstone ruled
(34,661 posts)cause and effects of today's Political Nightmares. Our trust in our Party's Leadership blinded many as to the reality of what was really going on in D.C.. Like one commentator said,it is all about the D.C. Cocktail Circuit,and in that lies the real story. Paul Wellstone always referred to Washington as a city in a bubble and they really do not care about anything or anyone who lives out side this bubble.
Dont call me Shirley
(10,998 posts)Those who dare to pop the bubble.
Wellstone ruled
(34,661 posts)and paid the ultimate price.
Rex
(65,616 posts)If only he would have known how dangerous the Bush/Cheney administration was in it's totality. I was so ready to vote for him in the future as our political leader.
Wellstone ruled
(34,661 posts)fear into the Imperial Class. And his Grand Kids was his number one focus.
lark
(23,099 posts)She HATED shrub and so was mysteriously killed not long after he took office. I've always felt like this was no accident, it was done to shut her up. Washington Post changed greatly after her death.
Response to Dont call me Shirley (Reply #1)
HillareeeHillaraah This message was self-deleted by its author.
Rex
(65,616 posts)So then we spend more then we have and pay off the interest at 27% to some nameless billionaire family. We kill each other every Black Friday for their amusement. We pawn off the furniture, because we are behind on our predatory loan at 29%. We mistakenly ask for maybe some help and get humiliated in public.
The wealthy know the jig is up, the question is how long will it be before substantial changes are made. This 55 year old, militant plutocracy needs to go bye bye.
Dont call me Shirley
(10,998 posts)Propaganda advertising, voter suppression and election fraud, assassinations of political leaders who empower the people, stealing of the people's wealth by an extreme minority named The Banksters, the planned dimunition of the middle class, the dumbing down and financial raping of our youth, the slumlording of our infrastructure, the endless wars for profit....
Yes, the militant plutocracy's time has reached its extreme uselessness and self-destruction.
BlancheSplanchnik
(20,219 posts)JDPriestly
(57,936 posts)Cable?????
Cities grant licenses to them.
The airwaves including those used by companies that transmit their information over satellites still belong to all of us.
Individuals can have privacy, but corporations??????
Dont call me Shirley
(10,998 posts)King from the view of the public. So the Kings can maintain privacy while they steal the privacy of their corporate consumers.
RecoveringJournalist
(148 posts)I've said for years that the end of the Fairness Doctrine is one of the prime factors in our collective slide toward stupidity.
The media gets it. Why be burdened with truth when lies are far more profitable?
Dont call me Shirley
(10,998 posts)BlancheSplanchnik
(20,219 posts)Yep
Response to Dont call me Shirley (Reply #1)
silvershadow This message was self-deleted by its author.
certainot
(9,090 posts)at a cheap $1000/hr x 1200 stations x 15 hrs/day = 4.68 BIL$
the fairness doctrine was the key
once that happened after reagan killed the FD in 87, ALEC got going, record partisanship started, congress went south, reagan and his treasonous election thieving drug running criminal gang were turned into heroes. and it was easy to sell the tel com act.
blaming the upper class is too easy.
the left has stupidly ignored rw radio and still does.
that is ultimately what powers trump and cruz.
and these 90 universities hold the key to destroying the rw radio psyops.
ALABAMA 8 Auburn 3, Alabama 2, Southern Alabama 2, Troy 1
ARIZONA 2 Arizona St. 1, Arizona 1
ARKANSAS 3 Arkansas 3
CALIFORNIA 5 San Jose State 2, USC 2, Fresno St. 1
COLORADO 4 Air Force 2, Colorado 1, Colorado State 1
CONNECTICUT 1 Connecticut 1
FLORIDA 20 Florida 10, Florida St. 4 Miami 2, South Florida 2, Central Florida 2
GEORGIA 14 Georgia 7, Georgia Tech 5, Georgia Southern 2
IDAHO 7 Boise St. 4, Idaho 3
ILLINOIS 7 Illinois 7
INDIANA 11 Notre Dame 6, Purdue 4, Indiana 1
IOWA 5 Iowa 4, Iowa St. 1
KANSAS 4 Kansas St. 2, Kansas 1, Wichita St. 1
KENTUCKY 3 Louisville 2, Kentucky 1
LOUSIANA 3 LSU 2, La.-Monroe 1
MARYLAND 2 Maryland 2
MASSACHUSETTS 1 Boston College 1
MICHIGAN 19 Michigan St. 11, Michigan 7, Western Michigan 1
MINNESOTA 4 Minnesota 4
MISSISSIPPI 6 Mississippi St. 3, Mississippi 2, Southern Miss 1
MISSOURI 6 Missouri 6
NEBRASKA 6 Nebraska 6
NEVADA 1 Nevada 1
NEW JERSEY 2 Rutgers 1, Seton Hall 1
NEW MEXICO 3 New Mexico 2, New Mexico St. 1
NEW YORK 7 Syracuse 6, Army 1
NORTH CAROLINA 16 North Carolina 8, North Carolina State 3, Duke 3, East Carolina 2
OHIO 10 Ohio St. 6, Toledo 1, Dayton 1, Bowling Green 1, Xavier 1
OKLAHOMA 5 Oklahoma St. 3, Oklahoma 1, Oral Roberts 1
OREGON 12 Oregon St. 7, Oregon 5
PENNSYLVANIA 14 Penn St. 11, Pittsburgh 2, Temple 1
SOUTH CAROLINA 4 South Carolina 2, Clemson 2
TENNESSEE 7 Tennessee 4, Memphis 3
TEXAS 16 Texas A&M 9, Texas Tech 4, Texas 1, Texas Christian 1, Baylor 1
UTAH 1 Utah St. 1
VIRGINIA 6 Virginia Tech 5, Virginia 1
WASHINGTON 6 Washington 5, Washington St. 1
WEST VIRGINIA 2 West Virginia 1, Marshall 1
WISCONSIN 4 Wisconsin 4
Wounded Bear
(58,654 posts)TeamPooka
(24,226 posts)The Blue Flower
(5,442 posts)Not only does he get it right, but he says it better than anyone.
pansypoo53219
(20,976 posts)taxes, & real news is hard WERK!
SQUIRREL!
AwakeAtLast
(14,124 posts)So much truth in one small article.
Thank you for posting this!
colsohlibgal
(5,275 posts)The doing away with the Fairness Doctrine Begat Faux News, etc. Faux being the wet dream of Lewis Powell since the early 70s, he proposed "GOP TV" and lo and behold it happened, right wing talking points round the clock. And enough of PT Barnum's suckers to lap it up. Low info, wrong info, etc.
We need a critical mass of folks to figure it out correctly....you non rich on the right wing.....you are being so played for the benefit of multi millionaires, not a few welfare queens. So figure it out!!
randr
(12,412 posts)the damnation of the Carter Presidency and subsequent atrocities under Reagan it was very easy to replace further truths with conspiracy and nonsense. We have been led down a dark path and it will be our salvation to recognize the scoundrels and castigate them with all the power we have.
ChairmanAgnostic
(28,017 posts)He did it with malice, knowing what he was doing. He thought he could damage him enough so he could take the Oval Office. Instead, he laid the path for Reagan.
Thespian2
(2,741 posts)the result equals the GodOffalParty...creators of He, Trump...
Jack Rabbit
(45,984 posts)They've been looking for ratings gold ever since The Sarah Palin Show lost it's luster with the viewers and was cancelled. Sarah's happy because she gets to make a special guest appearance on The Donald Show. So does Chris Christie, who get to be Trump's straight man. Did you see that episode where Christie's pompous character came out to introduce The Donald at one of his speaking engagements, and then The Donald told him to get lost?
Fast Walker 52
(7,723 posts)GoneOffShore
(17,339 posts)emulatorloo
(44,124 posts)Fast Walker 52
(7,723 posts)TIME TO PANIC
(1,894 posts)Major Hogwash
(17,656 posts)Maybe then the American people will get a clue as to who sold us down the river without a paddle so long ago.
I wished I had written this.
Especially this part --
Anyone who laughed at Ronald Reagan's casual relationship with the truth and with empirical reality.
It wasn't funny to me to see a doddering old man daydream out loud in public in front of microphones and tv cameras while standing behind a podium with the Presidential Seal on it!!!