Posted on 11/13/2015 8:07:18 AM PST by markomalley
The New York Times' Timothy Egan thinks popular conservative commentators such as Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity wrecked both the Republican Party and democracy at large.
In his latest column, Egan wrote that "real reporters" have suffered a blow from both liberals and conservatives who have targeted the mainstream press as an enemy. He cited this week's incident at the University of Missouri where a communications professor attempted to block a student reporter from covering a protest in a public place. But Egan specifically took exception with the conservative media.
"The true media elites are in talk radio and right-wing television — multimillionaire gasbags from Rush Limbaugh to Sean Hannity," Egan wrote. "Every day, nearly every hour, they attack reporters, using verbal assaults more consequential than the muscle play by an amped-up academic."
He continued, "Conservative media deserve credit for going after the un-American censoriousness on college campuses. But elsewhere, in promulgating a create-your-own-facts media world, they've made a mess of our democracy. ... The main reason that Republican politicians sound so crazy of late is because they get their information, and validation, from the twisted world of partisan media outlets."
Conservative commentators and news outlets have been accused before of "impeding" the Republican Party.
In July, Times reporter Jackie Calmes published a study asserting a large discontent within the GOP directed at conservative broadcasters and bloggers who wield immense influence within the party.
"Once allied with but now increasingly hostile to the Republican hierarchy, conservative media is shaping the party's agenda in ways that are impeding Republicans' ability to govern and to win presidential elections," Calmes wrote in a paper published by the Harvard Kennedy School's Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy.
Former Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott was interviewed for the study, and said conservative media acts as a cudgel against elected Republicans who show any willingness to compromise with Democrats or veer from accepted conservative dogma on low taxes, less regulation and more confrontation.
"If you stray the slightest from the far Right, you get hit by the conservative media," Lott said, according to the study.
Sean Hannity did not return a request for comment from the Washington Examiner media desk. A spokesman for Rush Limbaugh declined to comment.
Trent Lott . . . I had almost forgotten how much I despised that intellectual midget . . . . Morons in the Republican Party like Trent Lott compromised their way to get us to Socialism under Democrats. Socialism doesn't work and never will. Further compromise with Democrats effectively rips up our Constitution, making Marxism not only possible, but probable. Trent Lott has NO CREDIBILITY in this discussion, which is why he is no longer in Congress.
“I’m all in favor of keeping dangerous weapons out of the hands of fools. Let’s start with typewriters.”
- Frank Lloyd Wright (1868-1959)
What does that even mean?
The Media and Educational systems have made a mess of our Constitutional Republic, with the individual's rights protected by the Bill of Rights. No one even seems to know what that means anymore. It is some antiquated notion that needs to be destroyed by our 'democracy' (read: mob rule) loving NYT.
One medium attacking another medium. Maybe a seance will break out.
Little Timmy,
Quickly go to your safe place and call 911!
Ear plugs, hot chocolate and a warm blanket will be waiting.
Psssst..NYT...it’s NOT everybody else’s fault.
Taught by Barry Soetoro and his kind they will be taught to hate it.
Hey, idiots at the nyt: It is a Republic. Fools.
There, fixed it for ya, Tiny Tim.
Thomas Jefferson
.
That is why the USA is a Constitutional Republic.
(NYT reporters are so freaking dumb)
I will not be satisfied until every single communist head is on a pike.
He’s in denial and projecting.
Evidence of this is how he fails to note the power Left wing media like Kos, HuffPost, DailyBeast, Salon, and Slate, as well as activist orgs like Nutroots, Occupy and now BLM have over the Democratic Party.
Wasn’t Egan also part of Journ-O-List too?
Period.
Hi there. I’m a liberal journalist. I am a narrow-minded ideologue whose calling is to advance my own political views and distort and destroy those who disagree with it. Remember what Mark Twain said. Never pick a fight with somebody who buys ink by the barrel.
Come to think about it, I see the error of my ways. Let’s bury the hatchet, like Himmler wanted to do with the Jews in 1945...
/delusion
No, Liberal media has made a mess of a representative Republic by Democratic elections.
Conservative media is now working to straighten out the mess which Liberal media created.
Translation: We have lost our monopoly on controlling the information available to Americans. So, I must attack those who have broken the monopoly so that we (the liberal media conglomerate) can regain that monopoly and once again totally control what information you get.
What? One cable news network FOX has done all that? In the short period they’ve been on cable?
This offends me!! Where is my safe space?!?!? /s
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