Beware of Media-Assisted Republican Dirty Tricks

[kentuck]

linked from Buzzflash.com
==================================
http://www.interventionmag.com/cms/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=820

<snip>
A Republican dirty tricks campaign last February to embarrass the Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry backfired when it came out that a widely circulated photograph had been faked. Still, the political effect was real.

Republicans falsely credited to the Associated Press a photo making Kerry appear to share a stage with “Hanoi Jane” at a 1970s anti-Vietnam war rally. Without checking the facts, the mainstream media simply ran the Fonda-Kerry story and the Republican dirty trick was disseminated throughout the country.

<snip>
Do you recall the flap about Naomi Wolf telling Al Gore to wear “earth tones?” The media frenzy about Gore “inventing the Internet?” Gore claiming to have inspired the movie Love Story? Gore “discovering” Love Canal?

All of those lies were invented by the dirty tricks division of the Republican National Committee and came out of its “attack faxes.” From the fax machine these fabrications went directly and uncritically into print and were broadcast on mainstream radio and television as facts. These were not paid political commercials, but made-up stories that were printed and broadcast as “news” to a trusting public. And when these “news” stories were disseminated, they were more persuasive than any political commercial.

..more

[wishlist]

1. We just saw it last week with the Berger 'stuffed papers in his socks'

wild allegations that the media spreads as facts despite no substantiation. Our media sources suck.

[napi21]

2. You're right of course, but the media is a little gun shy now.

I watched a panel on c-span that had reps from all the news outlets except FOX. They all admitted they were wrong not to put the HARD questions to Rummy, Powell, Rice, etc. before the war.

ShrubCo has made them all look bad, and they don't like that )except for FOX who soesn't care).

I don't think you are going to see the blanket acceptance of information like you did just a few months ago.

I'm not talking about the blatently partisan talking heads, but about the ones who at least try to be reporters. You remember shrub's last press conference. At least one glove came off.

[countmyvote4real]

3. You can't trust the main stream media. They're still part of the problem.

Check out today's dailyhowler for a few examples.

http://dailyhowler.com/dh073004.shtml

[napi21]

6. You can't blame the media for the callers to c-span.

I listen to that every morning, and I really do believe the hosts try to alternate the phone lines. Certainly, more than any other network, c-span is the fairest to both sides.

The print media is a bit different, in that theie only goal is to sell newspapers. The Washington Post seems to lean the most left of them all. Do they print articles that aren't fair? Yes. But most of the time, they're slanted to our side. The Washington Times is the opposite.

As to the main stream media, I still think you're seeing some change. I think it was Tom Brokaw who admitted being wrong in not asking the hard questions, and that this has been a topic in every news room, especially after the 9/11 Reort was issued.

They were liberal many years ago, and they've been badgered for it for a long time. The pendulum has swung way to the right now, and it is starting to swing back, but it won't be fast. If half of the stuff that is under investigation in this administration is ruled against them, it will speed up the process.

[merh]

8. If you volunteer on the */FU website, they provide you with the

numbers to AirAmerican and CSPAN and they encourage you to call and use their suggested "talking points" to express your support for the shrub and against Kerry.

If you make 5 calls, you get a free screen saver. The CSpan callers are not really legit, they are provided the talking points and suggested scripts to use. It is their fanatic RWer's who have sign up on the web to help their "cause".

[NightOwwl]

7. They weren't gun-shy during the convention

CNN was blatantly whoring for Bush; MSNBC wasn't quite as bad, but Tweetie and Joe Scarbourough were commentators.

[Sugarbleus]

9. I watched C-span almost exclusively.. But turned on MSNBC

this morning and caught Tweety dripping with "foam" at his mouth as he practically growled his dissent over the convention and Kerry's speech.

It made me so mad. If I had access to him, I don't know what I'd have said or done. :grr: Especially after coming off four days of hopeful, blissful convention coverage.

This evening, as I did my bills, I turned on my radio. A substitute host was talking about Kerry's speech. He felt like it wasn't all that. I'm near SAN FRAN (KGO radio). It made my blood boil. Luckily, a well articulated caller set him straight without missing a beat.

We scratch our heads and wonder: 'did they see the same convention we did'? geeeeeez

I guess it ain't over til it's over.

[tabasco]

4. Prime example ----- re-enactment videos!

It will only get worse. The media whores will only sink deeper into the gutter as they become more desperate.

[doctorbombeigh]

5. It's the fake fairness that bugs me

The anchors seem to have abrogated their responsibility as fair brokers altogether. They don't investigate politics and issues for themselves anymore. They seem to think that if they regurgitate the talking points of the daily faxes, that covers it. I don't detect much of an interest in determining for themselves what the facts are, and are not.

My dad was a newsman and this is not what he understood as his job description. He would never have interviewed a candidate by using the opposing party's propaganda. They do it with Republicans and Democrats, alike, and it's just as lazy and foolish either way. I don't know what kind of journalism these people are practicing. Corporate journalism, I suppose.

[dbt]

10. An Insidious New Media Tactic:

It's been alluded to in several posts so far; you get your talking heads saying--way AFTER the fact--that "we should have been more critical," or words to that effect.

Yet the Media Borg goes merrily along DOING THE SAME THING. They
will disseminate the most blatant lies, then follow it up MUCH later with a "maybe we were wrong about that" piece of soulful introspection.

By this time, the damage has been done. Case in point: the FACT that Sandy Berger has been cleared of document theft. You heard all about the accusations; you heard NOTHING of the exoneration.

Oops. Come to think of it, this is NOT such a new tactic. It's as old as Mark Twain's observation that "a lie can be halfway around the world before the truth gets its pants on."

People like Rupert Modoch are quite aware of this and are exploiting it for ratings points.

:argh:
dbt

[Disturbed]

11. A Boycott the Mass Media Movement?

Maybe someone here that has contacts with MoveOn and Democracy Now and other sites could get a Boycott started? Maybe pick one month to have the Boycott?

[Tight_rope]

12. I say we boycott the media. I have. Started with Fox, now CNN!

Who will be next on my hit list.

[moondust]

13. Sue them.

Big time. Bad habits are hard to break. Give them some "incentive" to be responsible.