Posted on 11/20/2004 9:40:16 AM PST by Congressman Billybob
Like Confederate General Jubal T. Early, I make occasional raids into Washington, D.C. The raid this week included a visit with some of my children and grandchildren, meeting Judge Robert Bork, and assorted other pleasures. But the most telling moment of the trip came in a deserted corridor of Reagan National Airport on Sunday morning. Then and there I understood the mechanical voices of the MSM (Mainstream Media).
It was a politico-religious experience, a secular epiphany, if you will.
I took a wrong turn and wound up in an empty hallway. There were moving walkways on both sides, but they were out of service and marked off with orange cones. Still, every five seconds a female mechanical voice said urgently, Caution! Moving walkways are ending!
In that moment I suddenly understood a talk show Id seen an hour before, starring Chris Matthews, Andrew Sullivan and Sam Donaldson, among others. (Im not picking on these gentlemen. Most other talking heads with or without bad hairpieces would have filled the bill.)
I realized there is no significant difference between these live talkers on the MSM, and that disembodied voice in that empty airport hallway. Before the election the MSM thought the Democrats might win. After the election, when the Republicans had won, the underlying message did not change. In thousands of words the talking heads of the MSM are repeating, ad nauseam, the same seven word message. It is:
Caution! Republicans are bad! Democrats are good!
Try this experiment for yourselves. Pick any talking head show. Choose any MSM print outlet; the New York Times will do nicely, thank you. Take whatever apparent story theyre talking about, and boil it down like Vermont maple syrup in the fall. When you reduce the story to its essence, beneath the level of the apparent facts of the day, see whether any political story in the MSM has any core message other than the Caution!...?
Bias is usually subtle. Pay attention to the verbs. I read a story right after the election on the thousands of state legislative races. The article consistently referred to seats won by Democrats, but seats claimed by Republicans. Is it any surprise that the reporters writing that were primarily Democrats? Or, pay attention to the adjectives. Others have researched to a fare-thee-well the respective use of left-wing and right-wing. Republicans often get the second label; Democrats seldom get the first one.
Are there more right-wingers than left-wingers in American politics? Check out the websites of the Congressional Black Caucus, or of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, or of almost any union (but especially the National Education Association). See if you conclude that the left wing is alive and well. Its label disappears because the MSM reporters dont perceive the left as being left-wing.
When the MSM had a monopoly, facts they chose not to report simply did not exist. The monopoly has ended. Facts get reported in the alternative media. The MSM no longer controls the agenda; it can only embarrass itself by pretending that it still does.
TV requires, of course, more than just words. There has to be something to point a camera at, the apparently live and sentient pundits sitting in their chairs. But is that any more than window dressing? Does that make the content of the political shows any more substantial than that mechanical voice in the airport?
The MSM are dying by degrees in the quarterly Arbitron reports on audience shares. The MSM are dying because they insist on producing vacuous bias in their political coverage. This task will be unsettling, but I recommend it. Read the MSM, listen to them, watch them with more care than they think dumb Americans can bring to the task. See if you reach the same conclusion, that youre hearing repetitive, mechanical voices from the MSM.
When the voices are clearly mechanical, they may be annoying but they seem less threatening. The true menace comes from voices which present the illusion of being real. Think of Dan Rather, Peter Jennings, Tom Brokaw, and the Hal 9000. Dont the first three need the same cure as Hal got in the movie, 2001? Dont they need to be deprogrammed, back to a time before they learned to lie, or worse, learned to believe their own lies?
Dont they all need to go back to Urbana, Illinois, in 1992? Shouldnt they all be asked to sing us a song before they fall silent? Daisy, Daisy, give me your answer true ....
Oh, yeah. :^D
It's called denial.
Thanks for the ping.
"(but especially the National Education Association)."
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Yikes! When I was young and dumb I actually worked for them. They most certainly do brainwash. Thank goodness I outlived my 20's.
Meek, is this worth a kitty litter patrol?
JehngisKahn
Since Nov 8, 2004
We can take also take some solace in the fact they're tanking. Would that it be sooner rather than later however.
FGS
EEEEWWWW!!!
Take your pick:
A bit much?
FGS
I don't even waste my time on TV or Cable news anymore.
They all refused to expose Hanoi Kerry for the traitor he really is.
They never once asked why he didn't sign Form 180.
BUT they all did tell you about the Bush National Guard "documents"
AND they ALL told you about the "missing" 380 tons of explosives in Iraq.
AND they ALL made sure the phony exit polls were "leaked".
Just like Gore "won" FL in 2000.
Instead of calling for Hanoi Kerry's impeachment from the US Senate
they would rather bash the Military.
Screw the liberal big 5 media!
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SO TRUE!!
I still turn on TV though to see the latest in what's up when I first wake up. It's behind FR though!
Katie, Sawyer, et al...blech...never ever ever watch them. Fox on cable - highlights news I want to see for me.
Then on to FR.
"the toothpaste is out of the tube for the Democrat Party"
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LOL!!!
JehngisKahn
Since Nov 8, 2004
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Therefore Jubal Early's middle initial was T and not A, as historians and Early himself thought?
Therefore Early, who was a true Confederate hero and the last person to be mocked as a coward, was the inspiration for Jubilation T Cornpone?
I get it now. LOL
bump! :^D
JehngisKahn
Since Nov 8, 2004
==="JehngisKahn
Since Nov 8, 2004"
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Ya, sure you do. LOL!!!!!
For the record I've been following FR since 1997.
Catch a clue.
"Lighten up and learn to go with the flow. Since the official site of Early's battle with Wallace uses "T" as the middle initial, that's a legitimate use. Got it?"
Show me the link.
One day a bunch of nukes will be smuggled into US cities and detonated.
If a Republican is President, it will be his fault.
If a democrat is President, it will be George W. Bush's fault.
9/11 was Bush's fault.
The Democrats are never at fault.
Repeat 1000 times a day until this is accepted as fact.
This is CBS signing off.
"And, I didn't say that Early's career was the basis of the Li'l Abner character; his name was the inspiration. Got it?"
Show me the link to this too.
Otherwise this is like the above an assertion on your part. And since I've disproved your first claim it there's little ground to accept this on face value.
Adults prove things. They don't simply assert them.
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