I know I talk about the myth of a liberal media on a fairly regular basis. It's not that there aren't any liberals in the media, but they're generally interested in presenting the truth. Contrary to popular (stupid) belief, there's not a concentrated effort within the collective media to promote left-wing agendas. However, there is a concentrated effort in the conservative media to promote right-wing agendas, except they have no interest in the truth. The right-wing media has not use for facts because the truth usually contradicts their agenda, so instead they rely on loud noises, smears and flat-out insanity.
Let's contrast and compare! First, here's Bill Moyers, the epitome of the "liberal media," and a man that Bill O'Reilly constantly rails against and sends his stalker producer to harass:
Now just watch those clips with Maher and Moyers and understand that this is the "liberal media" - intelligent, well-spoken, fair and coherent conversation.
This is the best the right-wing media can do, folks. Lies, threats, hypocrisy, fear, racism, and ludicrous stunts. Hell, it's not just their media, it's the right-wing in general.
It's been two weeks since I've written anything, mainly because our current political climate has devolved into mind-numbing stupidity. Glenn Beck said the president has a "deep-seated hatred for white people," and joked about poisoning the Speaker of the House (all while his advertisers took their money and ran). Senator Chuck Grassley suggested that folks turn to Jesus Christ for "end of life counseling." And Sarah Palin emerged from the unemployment line to insinuate that President Obama wants to murder her Down Syndrome baby.
Ah yes, Citizen Avon Lady and her mythical "death panels," all this just a couple weeks after ordering the media to "quit making stuff up." In the latest round of Palin exploiting her children for political gain, she sold the idea that if we had a government-run health care system, the handicapped, the sick and the elderly will have the proverbial plug pulled on them. Of course, this is 100% false, but the "liberal media" (lol), in their quest to always look "objective," took the bait and actually reported on this nonsense.
It really is infuriating to watch a serious political debate get hijacked by the LOUD NOISES crowd. People like Sarah Palin have nothing to add to the discussion, so they play to their base of ignorant, uninformed numbskulls to make people scared of health care reform. This is true, someone actually stood up in one of these infamous town hall scream-a-thons and said "KEEP YOUR DAMN GOVERNMENT HANDS OFF MY MEDICARE!" This is the type of idiot that Sarah Palin is talking to. Now that may make me sound like one of those elitist lefties, but here's the deal: if you actually believe that "death panels" will be a part of health care reform, you don't get to talk. You clearly have no idea what's going on and you will add nothing to the discussion, so shut up and actually read something not from redstate.com or Sarah Palin's Facebook page.
We've let loudmouth morons like Beck, Palin, Limbaugh, Grassley and the residents of Wingnuttia dictate the direction of the health care debate. Because they began frothing at the mouth, the end of life consultations have been removed from the health care bill. That's right, the same people who called for federal interference in the Terri Schiavo debacle don't want you to have access to a consultation about a living will. That's all the "death panels" are, compensating doctors for talking to their patients about an optional living will. So in the unfortunate event that you or a loved one are unable to make a decision about treatment, your wishes will be carried out.
I have it on good authority that Sarah Palin's next Facebook note will be about how you shouldn't be an organ donor, because it's really just a government conspiracy to harvest your organs! Seriously though, the elimination of the end of life provisions is a very dangerous precedent. The spineless cowards in the Democratic Party have once again bent to the will of the lunatic fringe on the ultra far-right. By not standing their ground on this, their fillibuster-proof majority is worthless, all it takes is yelling and screaming from people who have no clue what they're talking about to shut down a bill. That's the Democratic Party I know, blowing the lead in the bottom of the 9th with two outs and no one on base.
Need any evidence that race is still an issue in America? Especially in the parts that Rush Limbaugh's fat ass occupies? Just take a look at the case involving Harvard Professor, Henry "Skip" Gates and the media frenzy surrounding it.
Long story short, Mr. Gates was trying to get into his home after locking himself out or his door jamming (I've read both accounts), then a cop strolls along "investigating a break-in" and winds up arresting Gates. A black man arrested because someone thought he was breaking and entering... his own house. In the interest of full disclosure, Mr. Gates was actually charged with disorderly conduct, although I'd be a little disorderly as well if someone tried arresting me for breaking into my own home, especially when I'm already annoyed at the fact that I'm locked out. The problem was amplified when President Obama was asked about the incident and called the arresting officer's actions "stupid." The police are now demanding an apology from the president. Really? An apology for being called stupid? Here's a tip, if you don't want to be called stupid, don't do something stupid. Just be glad he didn't call the guy a "fucking moron," you fucking morons.
Of course, if Gates were white, everyone would be laughing at Officer James Crowley and rightfully calling him stupid for arresting a guy trying to get inside his own home. But since Mr. Gates is black and this has become a national news story, all the closet racists are slithering out from under their rocks and onto Fox News/talk radio to say everything short of "this uppity black should've known his place."
Looking at the case, I highly doubt that Officer Crowley himself is a racist, but he did something incredibly stupid. Whether or not this was a case of racial profiling or complete ineptitude, you have to be a pretty bad at your job to arrest someone for breaking into their own house. The leeches (Rush Limbaugh) that are trying to turn this into a political issue are the same subhumans that have been pouring gas on America's racial tensions since Barack Obama became a national figure. As their numbers continue to dwindle, it seems Republicans have no problem being the party of nothing but angry white men.
We were warned, but the right-wing media didn't want to listen. Two times in two weeks, terrorism on American soil, but clowns like Joe Scarborough just laughed off the warnings. How funny is it now, Joe?
Why can't the neocons just distance themselves from these murderers? Instead, they try to project it onto the Democrats, even going so far as to call the Holocaust Museum shooter a "leftist." James von Brunn (the shooter) called President Obama a "creation of the Jews," who was coming for his guns. Yeah, real bleeding-heart liberal.
Have the Republicans officially lost their minds? Instead of just coming out, condemning the tragedy and moving on, they have to play the blame game? Is Rush Limbaugh truly so desperate for attention that he thinks simply saying Von Brunn is a "leftist" will make it true? Anyone with half of a functioning brain (okay, that eliminates 90% of elected Republicans and right-wing commentators) can see this guy's political ideology is more in-line with hardcore Libertarianism. Not the fiscal conservative who wants to smoke pot Libertarian, I'm talking about the Libertarian living in a bunker surrounded by gold and various assault rifles.
Von Brunn is not a Republican, and no one is even suggesting he is. The reason the Republicans are so defensive right now is because they threw a fit over the DHS report that was 100% accurate. Republicans tried to use it as a wedge issue and make it sound like Barack Obama and Janet Napolitano were targeting anyone who identifies themselves as conservative. Never mind the report was authorized by the Bush Administration, the neocons saw it as a chance to gain some political points and now it has exploded in their collective face.
While the adults were talking about real threats facing our country, the Republicans were turning it into a spectacle, trying to find something (anything) that could maybe get them back in the driver's seat in Washington. By coming out against the report, Republicans inadvertantly aligned themselves with people who would shoot up a museum or assassinate a doctor in a church. Make no mistake, the museum shooting and the assassination of Dr. Tiller are acts of terrorism, but instead of fighting it, the Republicans continue to play political games.
Unsurprisingly, today's talking point from the right-wing media is that comedian, Wanda Sykes went too far in her speech Saturday night at the White House Correspondent's Dinner. Sykes jabbed at Rush Limbaugh, mocking him for his comments about wanting Obama to fail, saying it was borderline treason, she hopes his kidneys fail and that he was supposed to be the 20th hijacker on 9/11, but was so strung out on Oxycontin that he missed his flight. The White House issued a statement today saying 9/11 was off-limits, which isn't surprising, but the conservatives still aren't letting it go, saying all her attacks on Rush were over the line... have these people never actually listened to Limbaugh? Sykes was tame! Let's take a look at more glaring hypocrisy from the right:
Jokingly calling Limbaugh treasonous was over the line, yet Ann Coulter is free to write a book called Treason:Liberal Treachery from the Cold War to the War on Terrorism and Rush is free to call the president a thug.
Sykes "crossed the line" with hoping for Limbaugh's kidneys to fail. I guess some people see it as poor taste to make light of an illness, but that didn't stop Rush Limbaugh from mocking Michael J. Fox for having Parkinson's Disease. Or Ted Kennedy's brain tumor.
And saying Rush Limbaugh was supposed to be the 20th hijacker is beyond the pale, but please ignore the fact that Rush just described Obama as "the follow-up to 9/11." Seriously... and that was just last month.
The fundamental difference here is that Wanda Sykes' performance was roast-style joking. Yes, it was edgy and controversial, but it was still comedy; I can't speak for Sykes, but I don't think she really wants Limbaugh's kidneys to fail and she obviously doesn't believe he was the 20th hijacker. Yet Rush Limbaugh says shit like this every single day and it only makes the news when it's really over the line.
All this uproar over Wanda Sykes is just more manufactured outrage from the masters of pretending to be offended. It's hilarious that the party that's always whining about left-wing "political correctness" is always the first to cry foul when someone hurts their wee little feelings. Here's the truth, the Republican Party is still pouting over the fact that they got their asses handed to them in the election, so they'll grasp at any straw they can to smear Democrats. Just look at the last few weeks of phony outrage: moaning about the unfair treatment of some beauty pageant bimbo that ran her mouth about gay marriage (even though she's clueless to the subject), attacking Obama's choice of mustard, and now Wanda Sykes making a couple mean jokes about someone who spews venom on a daily basis. Here's a tip to the right-wing smear machine, don't dish it out if you can't take it. And just for some laughs at how absurd it is to defend Rush Limbaugh while calling Wanda Sykes harsh, here are some more of Rush's greatest hits:
"We are being told that we have to hope he succeeds, that we have to bend over, grab the ankles ... because his father was black."
"Liberal black politicians" envy Fidel Castro's "dictatorial power"
"Everybody knows it was the vacuum cleaner that liberated women more than the pill"
"I think the media has been very desirous that a black quarterback do well. They’re interested in black coaches and black quarterbacks doing well. I think there’s a little hope invested in [Donovan] McNabb and he got a lot of credit for the performance of his team that he really didn’t deserve."
Obama's Supreme Court pick will be "a teenage single mother, who's gay, is a lesbian, who's dirt poor, African-American, and disabled"
Once again, the good folks over at Media Matters have exposed the dangers of corporate media and why Rush Limbaugh is rolling in a new $400 million contract while his bosses at Clear Channel are bleeding cash at an alarming rate. Ironically enough, $400 million is the same amount of money Clear Channel is trying to save this year, they've already cut 12% of their workforce in the process. This is a subject that's near and dear to me since I was one of the many victims of the collapse of the radio industry in the last two years.
This isn't directly Rush Limbaugh's fault, though the environment he created in the radio industry probably didn't help. No, as much as I would love to blame the long lost son of Jabba the Hutt, it's not his fault that the people who sign his paychecks are complete idiots. Blame falls in the lap of corporate media, it's the same reason newspapers and television stations are dying off - the parent companies are just too damn big. Media consolidation and deregulation has put these companies in the same position as the financial giants "Too big," but radio isn't considered "too big to fail," so no bailout for them. And you know what? Good. Even though I'm no longer in my chosen profession, corporate radio needs to die.
And this is back when Clear Channel was actually making money.
When times were good, the heads of Clear Channel were arrogantly walking on sunshine, pushing a political agenda and continuing to make the industry smaller and smaller, but now that times are tough, they throw out a nine-figure contract to Limbaugh while axing thousands of people across the country. Does Limbaugh deserve a ton of money? Of course, but $400 million? Give me a break. I'm sure some conservative will come whining to me about wanting to "punish Limbaugh's success," but to that I ask, why do you want to keep others from succeeding?
Why are today's conservatives so worried about the guy making $400 million, but could seemingly care less about the guy making $40,000? What about the people left in the radio business who are taking paycuts and doing the job of three employees? What about the death of local content? What about live, in-studio broadcasters being replaced by Voice-Tracking so employers only have to pay someone for one hour of work instead of five?
There will never be another radio success story like Rush Limbaugh, not as long as companies like Clear Channel control the business, corporate radio can't afford a personality to get bigger than the station they're on. A handful of corporations took away the ability for minimum wage radio employees to become as successful as Rush thanks to the government allowing them to own the entire industry. Radio has become an environment where employees can't strive for more, they can't ask for a raise, they have no advantage in contract negotiations and they certainly can't threaten to take their work elsewhere. In today's radio industry, you're lucky to just be employed, so you're expected to shut up and do what you're told. How are you supposed to work your way up when the ladder is in quicksand?
I know I talk about the myth of a liberal media on a fairly regular basis. It's not that there aren't any liberals in the media, but they're generally interested in presenting the truth. Contrary to popular (stupid) belief, there's not a concentrated effort within the collective media to promote left-wing agendas. However, there is a concentrated effort in the conservative media to promote right-wing agendas, except they have no interest in the truth. The right-wing media has not use for facts because the truth usually contradicts their agenda, so instead they rely on loud noises, smears and flat-out insanity.
