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 I’d seen an hour before, starring Chris Matthews, Andrew Sullivan and Sam Donaldson, among others. (I’m 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 they’re 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 don’t 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 you’re 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. Don’t the first three need the same cure as Hal got in the movie, 2001? Don’t they need to be deprogrammed, back to a time before they learned to lie, or worse, learned to believe their own lies?
Don’t they all need to go back to Urbana, Illinois, in 1992? Shouldn’t they all be asked to sing us a song before they fall silent? “Daisy, Daisy, give me your answer true ....”
The CBS Bush-National Guard story using faked documents combined with the decision not to call Ohio for Bush until last night (being facetious here) should be prima facie evidence that the network deliberately attempted to influence the election.
ABC's decision to withhold the final 15 minutes of the bin Laden tape when it was turned over to the CIA is, I suspect, a federal felony.
Stripping these two networks of their o-and-o TV stations would indicate that it's time to take the MSM's antics seriously and would serve as a warning to others.
Thirty years ago, General Tire and Rubber, the owner of the RKO radio-TV chain, got caught funneling money to Nixon's re-election campaign in violation of the law that existed at the time. The FCC stripped General Tire of all their licenses. The case took a decade to go through the federal courts, but the FCC's decision was eventually upheld. RKO no longer exists.
Even doing this to CBS alone would send a message to the right people, the stockholders.
Bttt
Ann Coulter examines this in detail in Slander. It's worth a read if you haven't already.
"Like Confederate General Jubal T. Early, I make occasional raids into Washington, D.C."
You are probably thinking of Jubilation T Cornpone. (A natural mistake given your comparison.)
Jubal Early (the general) enjoyed the middle name of Anderson.
http://www.civilwarhome.com/earlybio.htm
"Like Confederate General Jubal T. Early, I make occasional raids into Washington, D.C."
And while I'm on the subject, Early never made it once into Washington--at least at the head of any soldiers of the CSA.
Wallace (who later wrote Ben Hur) made Early late at Monocacy.
LOL.
Early was stopped at the Monocacy River. It is the battle that save Washington.
And no, his middle name is Anderson. I even provided a link.
What a joke!
Monocacy National Battlefield
This is the site of the July 9, 1864 battle that has been dubbed, `The Battle that saved Washington`. Confederate General Jubal T. Early defeated Union forces commanded by Brig. General Lew Wallace. Wallace's troops delayed Early, which enabled Union forces to marshal a successful defense of Washington, D.C.
You tell them they're wrong.
Billybob
I know Early "won" the battle. I said Wallace made him late.
You are out of your league here.
If you want to read Jubal ANDERSON Early's own account--and admission that he didn't make Washington go here:
http://www.civilwarhome.com/earlymono.htm
"And his middle initial is "T."
LOL.
By the way, Early's AUTOBIOGRAPHY is titled:
"Lieutenant General Jubal Anderson Early, CSA"
http://www.civilwarhome.com/earlyautobio.htm
LOL
And just to beat this into the ground--when you read the lyrics you will see there is no comparison to Early--who in fact NEVER surrendered (but fled to Mexico):
Artist Song Name Composer Composition Instrument
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My door don't open for every Tom, Dick, and Pentium Chip!
Brilliant!!! Thanks...........let's see, will the NYTimes run this article????
BTTT
"Root" causes is my favorite adjective from the left. Every time I see or hear that word I want to barf.
Billybob
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