Two assumptions I just can't entertain that are held by Dean opponents

[ALago1]

1) Dean's national media exposure on all major outlets (both in television and print) is due to a well managed, central planning mechanism headed by Karl Rove and the "media elite".

Is it impossible that this is the truth? No. Is it probable? No. Why? Because there exists no evidence nor a best explanation inference to conclude so. The best argument for such a position is as follows:
p1: Karl Rove, a conservative operative, wants Dean to be the democratic nominee.
p2: The media outlets in this country have in the past exhibited instances of slanted right wing reporting
C: The two entities are incahoots with one another in order to sabotage the Democratic party.

Please keep in mind that sporadic correlation does not imply causation. Just because Rove is a powerful conservative and the media have in many instances exhibited slanted reporting, you can't reason that Rove is causing such behavior.

2) Dean's major fundraising successes have been mainly caused by Republican donors because they want him to gain the nomination

Again, absolutely no concrete evidence to support this. The best I've seen here on DU were anecdotal accounts of one or two individuals who have done so. Imagine I were to reason in the following manner:

p1: Recently, Zell Miller said he would support president Bush in the 2004 election
p2: Zell Miller is a Democrat
C: A substantial amount of Democrats will support Bush in 2004

This, is simply the fallacy of composition. What is true for the part, in this case, is simply not true for the whole.

There are many valid criticims of Dean, whom I support, that I am willing to entertain and consider. These two have just been pet peeves of mine and I wanted to get them off my chest. Thanks for taking the time to read this post.

"I'm ALago1, and I approve this message."

[blm]

1. The media is innocent. They have no agenda.

Mediawhoresonline is just paranoid and a waste of bandwidth.
The media did NOT prop up Bush, and did NOT treat Gore unfairly.
The media has no interest in controlling the perception of the Dem primary.

[Name removed]

2. Deleted message

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[KC21304]

5. You are joking, right ? Comparing blm's post and

yours, she is the bitter one ?

[blm]

7. What's with you?

Why did you turn so bitter? Why can't you discuss and disagree in the spirit you used to? We ALL get sick of having our guys bashed. Why be so mean about it now, Julie?

[ALago1]

6. My opinion

I propose there is a "revised sequence" as to the pattern of how news is reported.

Yes, I agree it is slanted right
Yes, I agree that it is like that overwhelmingly

But, rather than the pattern being:
The media controls information and reports it at their discretion, influencing the masses....

I think alot of it has to do with what they expect the mainstream view really is. After all, because media is private competition (unfortunately), they are not going to want to alienate their core base and lose revenues and go out of business by reporting in a fashion that is way out of the mainstream.

I think this would explain the overwhelming pro-Iraq war bias we saw. Because, at first, the majority of the country was in favor of it.

Now that public opinion is changing, we are starting to see more and more dissent present.

So, the revised sequence is:

The uninformed public unknowingly demands erroneous information because of their lack of education on the subject, the media feeds this demand to satisy profit maximization, thus erroneous information is widespread.

So, its really a disagreement as to the causality of the situation.

[snoochie]

3. It's hard to resist the pull to believe what you'd rather believe.

I'd rather believe that Kucninich will win the election.

I don't think it was a coincidence that the vast majority of media pundits, editorialists, and the experts that were given 'big media' coverage were pro-war. I wouldn't say it was due to a 'well managed, central planning mechanism headed by Karl Rove and the "media elite"' either.

Karl Rove is a cog in a wheel. Look at it that way.

[JNelson6563]

4. Tonight's meet-up in my town

was an excellent testimony to Dean's success. Big turn-out, especially since this is an R stronghold. About half were first time attendees! That was great!! We had them from all over the spectrum and considering the former R's joined the local party tonight, I don't buy the sabotage theory.

In the real world the people I talk to often have something or other they disagree with Dean on but more that they agree with him on. This goes for liberals and conservatives. Lots of hunters here too. Many came because some friend or relative from some other town suggested they find us and attend.

The real world experiences I've had contradict all the anti-Dean rhetoric I see here.

Julie

[ThirdWheelLegend]

8. My thoughts on the disparity in media coverage...

IMHO ...The fact that Dean gets so much press coverage compared to progressive candidates such as Kucinich can be summed up to 3 possible factors/reasons... IMHO

I don't necessarily think Karl Rove is some mastermind behind it. More of a piece of the whole.


1) He has the most money and biggest following..so the networks see it from a ratings perspective. more viewers/more money. You cannot honestly tell me the major networks give two shits about providing informative news.

2) The media/GOP/MIC contingent have nothing to fear from propping up Dean and giving him much more airtime than some of the others. They feel that he will not damage the status quo enough to make a difference if he were to win the general election.

3) The media/GOP/MIC contingent know that they will or have a surefire way to beat Dean down and "win" the election again. Sort of like number 2, but here they do not fear Dean being able to win the general.

Personally I lean heavy on option 1 and think that option 2 also plays a part.

TWL

[pruner]

9. another assumption that bothers me…

Republicans that support Clark do so because they love Clark.

Republicans that support Dean do so because they love Bush.

:silly:

[ALago1]

11. Haha

Yeah I guess it does work that way too.

[Brucey]

10. It's all a vicious game,

we're a little insane. Culture is a big throbbing mass. Everything is in flux; we absorb more than we know.