Now They Tell Us

[babylonsister]

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2010/03/now-they-tell-us-by-digby-cnns-rick.html

Now They Tell Us

by digby


CNNs Rick Sanchez was all confused about why so many people might suddenly be in favor of the HCR bill when they thought it was a bad idea before. Blitzer explains:

Well, you know, when people are asked, we did that poll CNN Opinion Research Poll, that said, "you like this health care bill or not like it", we just assumed, a lot of us, that the people who said they didn't like it didn't like it because it was too much interference, or too much taxes or whatever.

But if you take a closer look at people who didn't like it, about 12% of those people who said they didn't like it they didn't like it because they didn't think it went far enough. They wanted a single payer option, they wanted the so-called public option, they didn't like not from the right, they didn't like it because it wasn't left or liberal enough.

That's how you got 50% of the American people who said, "we don't like this plan." But only about 40 or 38% were the ones who said it was too much government interference.

That's so interesting, don't you think? Maybe Blitzer should put something in the suggestion box about that.

All we've been hearing for months now is that the "American people" don't like the bill because it's a government takeover. The Republicans turned that into their entire rationale for opposition, claiming that the Democrats are going against "the will of the people" and somehow usurped the Democratic process. And here it turns out that it's only the Republicans and a few conservative "independents", 38% or so of the country, who think the bill is a government takeover.

That's quite a different story don't you think? One that might have been told before now by the news networks? It might have changed the whole damned debate, actually.

Blitzer admits that they just "assumed" that everyone in the country held this wingnut view. After all, the pictures showed a bunch of angry middle aged white people screaming about socialism, and they look like their perception of Real America, so why bother to drill down into the numbers any further?

This is a perfect example of the village advancing its narrative of a great conservative majority that doesn't exist. It's a pathology with these people.



Update: To be clear, I was aware of this. I wrote about it. The fact that Blitzer and the gang failed to make this clear to their audience is the problem. It may come as a surprise to people, but I don't reach as many people as he does.

[BlooInBloo]

1. Anyone who says they didn't know about this is lying.

[HughMoran]

2. So 1) the press manipulated the process and 2) liberals may have been their own worst enemy

...as we've been saying all along. :eyes:

I'm pissed.

[BrklynLiberal]

3. This bullshit about the majority of the public not liking the bill "because of govt takeover of

healthcare" has been a well known fable here at DU for a long time.

I would bet that the figure is even more than 12% that wanted MORE, not less govt involvement.

This just points once again to the incredible disservice that the media does to the public when it
comes to providing them with actual, truthful facts!!!!!!!!!!

[bvar22]

32. Less than 35% of ALL Americans support Mandates without a Public Option.

* Would you favor or oppose the national government offering everyone the choice of a government administered health insurance plan — something like the Medicare coverage that people 65 and older get — that would compete with private health insurance plans?

Favor 82%

Oppose 14%

Not Sure 4%
http://www.ourfuture.org/blog-entry/2010010320/poll-shouts-message-massachusetts-voters-were-sending

[ProSense]

4. The update is interesting:

To be clear, I was aware of this. I wrote about it. The fact that Blitzer and the gang failed to make this clear to their audience is the problem. It may come as a surprise to people, but I don't reach as many people as he does.

And a lot of the people "he" reaches don't read the blogs.

The collective effect of the left blogs could have served to hold the media accountable, but they spent all their time calling out the administration instead of the media and reinforcing media talking points.

[HughMoran]

5. That last sentence is a duesy

...because it reinforces what many of us here were saying all during this process. It implies that we don't have a Public Option because of the 'left blogs'. I'm even more annoyed now :mad:

[cui bono]

24. LOL!!!

You forgot the sarcasm tag.

[babylonsister]

6. Not going there; the "media" is supposed to be informing us, not

blogs necessarily.

The "m$m" aren't doing their jobs, and then they play dumb, though I doubt Blitzer is playing.

[ProSense]

8. They are supposed to, agree. Still

I'm not talking about something foreign. The left blogs and organizations did this effectively leading up to the 2006 elections. Those people he reaches aren't going to call him out. Remember the massive amounts of letters to the editors, open letters, petitions and bloggers all over the television calling out the lies and distortions? It was hip then. What happened?

The media was getting hammered with facts to counter their BS.

People hear that stuff and it impacts how they respond to their legislators. It made a huge difference with the Iraq war.

It just seems that while criticism of the administration is necessary, focusing all the energy on pressuring the administration lets the media off the hook and is the least effective way to move members of Congress to do the right thing.

It just doesn't work.

[babylonsister]

9. I do agree blogs have power; so what you're saying is that

they'd be better served, or serve us better, by going after the media more consistently. I can agree with that, though orgs. such as Media Matters are around solely for that. But yes, more criticism would be better; they deserve all they get.

[SteveM]

20. The MSM is hostile to the "Left" and afraid of the Right...

Their coverage of the attacks on 10 Democratic Congresspersons is only an extension of the "harsh rhetoric" and the "divisions" in this country, not an indicator of increasing extremism of the Far Right. The media does not want to see a return to the activism of the 60s, and the GOP has virtually made a movement out of hatred of that era's counter culture. And anyone to the "left" of LBJ has no friends in the White House.

Since the inception of the Democratic Leadership Council, there as been a systematic effort to rid the Party of any ideology and philosophy which reflects left-of-center outlooks; instead the DLC relies on a pastiche of interest groups to support the Dems, proffering the rationale that the Party is "better than the alternative," and serving up endless outlook of "pragmatism," "gathering the stake-holders," "developing a consensus on a win-win," so "we can MOVE FORWARD!" Such bloodless passion.

The "Left" has no base. It has no party. And the media merely pulls up stakes and moves to some point fixated between the Far Right and the Center, all the while holding up the "left" as the bogey, somewhere off the charts (or more specifically, in the blogosphere.) MSM WILL not even recognize the legitimacy of a "left" viewpoint any longer as they have bundled up rather old-line liberalism along with the more shrill left-wing viewpoints and classified them as keyboard commandos.

MSM sees what the GOP does -- stating hard-edged ideology with brevity and clarity -- as an aid to the work of "journalism," and immediately compares that with the "other side" -- the Democratic "leadership" which runs from ideology and philosophy as a matter of course lest it be unable to "move forward." The result: the GOP defines the rules with great clarity and repeats and repeats and repeats.

The MSM has lost any juice to challenge the GOP, but what is left of the "Left" continues to labor under the illusion that they constitute Democratic Party policy and direction.

A final point: There is something peculiar and rather queer about the average Democratic official's inability/unwillingness to fight the Far Right. But there are a few. That's why I will donate some money to Grayson's campaign in Orlando. That guy fights like he hasn't washed or shaved in 5 days. The GOP knows this and wants him out lest he becomes an example to follow.

[FrenchieCat]

7. Yep....at the end of each and everyday, the only thing reported is the pile on.....

not who's in the pile.
Many of us stated this, but folks just wanted to bitch,
and nothing more.

and of course they fucking "assumed"....that was their plan to begin with....

And notice that when there is great unity with Dems,
than all they show are Republicans. When there is disunity wit Dems,
they bring on the Dems for appearances that disagree with the WH.

I hate the media.
They really are a cancer to this country.

[Cha]

10. Zactly! The right wing media and the left

in many cases were not helpful.

That's why it passed so squeakishly..I'm sure my blue chicken dog was a victim of teabaggers. Too bad he wasn't brave to stand up to them.

I can think of one blog/one person who was invaluble and I'm sure there were others.

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/

[cui bono]

23. Oh yeah, the media message is the Left blogger's fault.

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

I don't know why I'm laughing. Aren't you the same person that was SHRIEKING about Thom Hartmann's letter to Obama practically calling him a traitor? :crazy:

[jeanpalmer]

11. Hardly anyone knows what's in the bill (law)

Probably fewer than 1% of the people knows what it means. Most people won't notice any difference. They won't find out til 2014 when the mandate kicks in. It's not surprising people don't know. The law itself is complex beyond the average person's comprehension. And probably designed that way, to ward off resistance and to make it easy to spin. Only insiders know how the new system will work. So what do these polls mean anyway?

[pnwmom]

16. The poll clearly showed that many of the people who didn't like the bill

were of the opinion that the bill didn't go far enough -- wasn't progressive enough.

But CNN and the rest of the media pretended that all of the opposition was coming from people who didn't like "socialized medicine." They were deliberately obfuscating the results of the poll, for their own purposes.

[Clio the Leo]

12. DUR! NT

[ibegurpard]

13. too bad someone didn't let the politicians know

oh i forgot, we didn't have the votes or something...

[Kitty Herder]

14. K&R

[pnwmom]

15. Blitzer's lying through his teeth. They didn't assume anything. The data was always there,

sitting in the Opinion Research report. They're not so stupid that they didn't understand it. They just decided to try to cover it up, hoping to influence some viewers who hadn't made up their minds yet.

[FrenchieCat]

17. Hardest working Propagandizing team on Television.....

that isn't obvious.

[TankLV]

18. Yeah - just like 99% of the people were behind bush* and his fucking WAR BASED ON LIES!!!

oh - yeah - "we were all surprised" they had no WMD" and that somehow bush was "misinformed" - but TO THIS DAY they refuse to beieve bush* AND ALL THE REPUKE WAR CRIMINALS WERE LYING THEIR ASSES OFF!!!

[DrToast]

19. I put this on the Dems

They're the ones responsible for not getting the message out.

[babylonsister]

21. How many times did the Dems promote a message the m$m

refused to air? How often have you read on DU 'crickets from the m$m'?

I've read that a lot, so while you're partially right, that's not the whole story.

[cui bono]

25. They cover Obama. Where was he?

In back rooms with big pharma and capitulating to insane Republican demands. He should have been out there the whole time like he was those last few weeks. He's the one who blew it, not the left blogs. The left blogs aren't the ones who took their strongest negotiation point (single-payer) off the table before even starting the talks.

This board is center, not left, and the more it keeps attacking the left ("primary Kucinich!!!") the farther it takes us to the right. So keep it up folks.

:eyes:

[vaberella]

31. Obama was in backrooms...right?! So you ignore the massive amount of townhalls over the last year.

You are something special. There was someone who said something you said...quite a lot and then a few weeks ago...said clown said that Obama needs to go back to Capitol Hill, we know where stands already on health care---we're tired of listening to it. Funny how one minute it's not enough and the next minute it is. And while looking at the many pharmaceutical changes in the bill---if there was a deal it's been null and void since the bill passed because too many of it slap the Pharmaceutical compnah in the face.

For you to say he wasn't out there...I remember he had a townhall like at least 2-4 every bloody month over the last year. I watched everyone one of them. Obviously you did not. And further more he's the President of the United States---shouldn't his fellow Dems pick up the slack of getting the word out there. He has a bloody country to govern---to suggest he needed to stay out there all the time---because he did several town halls the last weeks---is absurdity.

He's one man and you want him to the job of hundreds when he's taking care of domestic and international issues on top of getting legislation passed.

[Warren Stupidity]

34. Actually Obama was travelling around the country

attending town meetings pumping HCR.

The problem is the noise machine doesn't cover it.

[vaberella]

30. They did get the message out actually.

But when you have the media and Repubs working against you, you get drowned out by the noise.

[Beetwasher]

22. I Will Now Spend The Rest Of The Day Banging My Head Against The Wall

n/t

[lunatica]

26. This shows that the MSM are preaching to empty rooms

Evidently the American people have moved left in order to dodge the bullshit being flung at them by the propagandists. One of these days all those 'experts' are going to notice that they've become irrelevant in this age of emails and the internet and political forums like this one.

[newtothegame]

27. But it's ok now becaused it passed?

Pass or no pass, the mandated purchase of a corrupt company's product is not ok. And I'm not gonna say it's ok just to "jump" some politician's poll numbers.

[jotsy]

28. They would prefer us to think they're incompetent rather than be viewed

as culpable.

k. r.

[vaberella]

29. When did Blitzer rent a brain?! Because I know this won't last long once he returns it. n/t

[Warren Stupidity]

33. They pull this crap all the time.

They are part and parcel of the hate fest going on.

[Orsino]

35. "Maybe we should have journalized, or something." n/t