MoveOn's ad: Dem response; Media reponse, all separate issues

[themaguffin]

The meat of the of the ad was absolutely correct, but the circus created by the media is just another example of the lazy corporate conservative media, which doesn’t mean the ad was wrong, but in fact the media was (and IS) wrong to not constantly maintain that the message – the points in the ad are correct and are not being disputed.

Because the Democrats are largely collapsing doesn’t mean the ad is wrong, it just sadly proves yet again, that the Democrats are letting the republic party control the debate, its terms and everything else.

The ad is right. This ad and its implications are proven more right with every attack on it.

We need leaders to come out and call out this incompetent corrupt administration for what it is and to do so in manner that breaks through the circus of the media.

And we need it now.

[Adelante]

1. The ad was wrong - should have been "President Betray Us"

The blowback put the Congressional Dems in a corner it was hard to get out of. They were trying to hold Bush responsible for the report and the ad served to distract from that effort. It's not the military that starts and runs a war, it's the civilians. "President Betray Us" would have had more of a message impact without putting the Dems on a guillotine and kicking off a feeding frenzy in the press. That said, I wish the Dems had stood up to the Repugs by refusing to vote AT ALL on the Cornyn amendment.

[gratuitous]

2. Matt Lauer and Today certainly lined up behind the administration

After a perfunctory 30 seconds on Bush's refusal to comment at the press conference yesterday on Israel's unprovoked attack on Syria, they dove into the Move On with great gusto. Lauer had the chairman of Move On in the studio and professional vaporbrain Laura Ingraham on a satellite feed. Framing the issue from the get-go, Lauer demanded to know if the ad had gone "too far," and repeated Bush's baseless assertions that the questioning of Petraeus' independence was an attack on all the troops.

When the Move On Guy (sorry, don't remember his name) said that Petraeus had indeed not been truthful in his testimony, Lauer demanded to know how he knew that. MOG easily cited the reports from the congressional investigation, the administration's own report, and independent evaluations, all of which showed that Petraeus wasn't walking with the truth. Well, that was the last we heard about that! Lauer went on to as much as say that everyone's entitled to his or her own set of facts to discuss the situation in Iraq.

Then Lauer turned to Ingraham and let her slander away for 45 seconds, and gave MOG about 10 seconds to respond, during which time he was constantly interrupted by Ingraham. Then it was Ingraham's turn for another 20 seconds of savagery, followed by about five seconds of MOG, and Ingraham, of course, got the last word.

Oddly enough, the criticism by Republicans of Democrats who had actually served (think John Kerry and Max Cleland) didn't get any mention whatsoever. The ad comparing Cleland to bin Laden and the cute little purple heart band-aids were never mentioned at all.

On the up side, Move On doesn't appear apologetic at all, and they're continuing to expose the administration's lies and deceptions. About three years from now, it will be safe for Matt Lauer and his media cohorts to say, "Well of course they were lying to us; everybody knows that! It's old news. Now, let's go to the current situation: Republicans say the Democrats want to exterminate every third person in this country. Democrats deny saying any such thing, and we're going to let Laura Ingraham, Ann Coulter and Sean Hannity whack a Democrat whom we've gagged, bound and trussed like a pinata for five minutes, which will really get to the bottom of this!"

[Old and In the Way]

3. Smart politics...if you are a Republican

They know bashing MoveOn is penalty free...I doubt there's a single constituent that's a member. But you'd think a Democrat would be smart enough to understand this as well....and support their base. If Hillary has the guts to stand up to this Republican political theater, why can't the rest of the Senate Dems? We got a good snapshot on those Democrats who still wear a collective nose ring and who are willingly led by their Republican handlers. Reid should never have let this motion get to the floor.

I kicked in $25.00 to MoveOn last night....the best response is to show Democrats our displeasure by raising a $100MM and putting more of these ads in the public domain.