Posted on 07/12/2002 7:35:01 PM PDT by GulliverSwift
Hope you West coasters set your vcrs/pvr.
It's worth having John around just to see him "twit" Baba.
For everything else, there's MasterCard.
The guy really knows how to play the media like a drum, but almost all of the "lessons" he is trying to teach are blatantly left-wing (did you catch the rationale behind his dogs-for-food hoax on the show tonight?). I certainly like the guy, plus I learned a ton from him. But he's an enemy of an enemy (the media), and not necessarily a friend (ideologically).
Ironically, he makes a bunch of his money (enough to have a place in New York and in Hawaii) off of one of his scams that came true. His advertisement for fish condos actually spawned a lot of interest, and he started making them and selling them for real (for hundreds of dollars a pop... I think he said he sold a few for over a grand). Kind of a wild turn of events...
They got that much. The general public knows that politicians aren't that honest -- to put it mildly. The then President Bill Clinton proved that in spades. From "I didn't inhale," to "I didn't sleep with that women, Ms. Lewinski," (even though the news media said it was just about sex) to "It depends on the meaning of what is, is".
All of the political attacks against the Bush administration have all been non-starters -- effectively strengthening the general public's disbelief in politics. The general public could care less whether it's republicans or democrats lashing out. To them it is what it is: a wheel-spinning waste of time.
The general public that is for the most part disassociated from politics will more readily gain value from the insight that voting for the lesser of two evils always begets evil.
Whether it's democrats and republicans fighting an illusion of "war" -- battling amongst themselves -- which is two sides of the same coin. As hard-working Mr. Brown use to jokingly say to us neighborhood kids, "do you want a fat lip or busted eyebrow?" From Democrats you get one from Republicans you get the other. "There's no difference between Republicans and Democrats," takes on more power in the disassociated general public. As if they've known all along -- voting for the lesser of two evils, "what's they point? ...I'll never win."
They're right! Politics is not the solution -- it's the problem!
Considering all that President Bush has been up against from the media, half of congress and has had thrown at his administration, he has out flanked his opponents, repelled their attacks like water off a ducks back while reaming focused on moving forward on several fronts.
If Clinton was the champion of compartmentalization Bush is the champion of wide-scope integration.
Damn good observation. I'm getting so tired of people dissing Bush because he's not hewing EXACTLY to their particular conservative cause. He is, after all, the President of ALL of the people. Those who think he should be as reactionary on his side as Clinton was on his, don't understand the role of the presidency. He is not a staunch ideologue, and I simply cannot understand those who want him to be.
Fish fry every Friday evening, right after practice.
And John Stossel just leaped to the top of Hillary's list!
Watch yer back, John...
As bad as the fabrications are, I don't believe they are the worst of it. A bigger problem, IMHO, is that the liberals in the press truly fail to understand how their persaonl bias translates to bias in the news. They actually believe they can control their personal inclinations and report fairly. Tim Russert often tries to present balance in his interviews. He falls short because certain things never occur to him.
For example, who edited the tape of Hillary being booed and why? If a tape of Newt Gingrich had had been similarly edited, Tim would have been all over it. The Sunday morning shows would have led with the story for a solid month. Tim would tell us who did it and have three of the guy's worst enemies on the show telling what a creep he is.
It's the selection of material presented that is the source of most of the bias. Liberals never understand their personal filter is:
News
Anything bad about a non-liberal.
Anything good about a liberal.
Not News
Anything good about a non-liberal.
Anything bad about a liberal.
Got spell checker -- need context checker.
I disagree. I think he is an idealogue, but he is also a pragmatist and understands that to avoid the disaster of the Clinton years, he needs to be drawing those with conservative values from the other side who have traditionally voted Democratic such as the Hispanics, Jews, African-Americans, and Catholics. These groups appreciate his compassionate conservatism and will potentially vote GOP based on his olive branch for generations to come.
Of course the news organizations (national and local) need hype every day to get us to watch. We're always 'in danger' of something or other. Most local news is just an endless series of crime stories, fires, floods, some politics in election years and the rest - pure fluff. Waste of time, mostly, except for the nightly weather reports which are often wrong. When the local newscast leads with some car accident or robbery story I know I safely skip it if that is considered their biggest story of the day.
The car magazines do soft-pedal negative stuff about cars they test to some degree but as Car & Driver said (not on camera but in a written response) they focus on performance, not safety or gas mileage figures. All the info is there but you have to read it for yourself in the statistics and road test reports. As the reporter said at the segment wrap-up, if you want crash test information, go to the The Insurance Institute website. Gas mileage info? Consumer Reports. Car magazines are for performance-oriented drivers, not safety nuts or folks looking for the highest gas mileage numbers on their next minivan.
The scam artist was great! Love the guy and the ease with which he cons the media, all the way to the top of the line - network news. John Stossel neatly made the point as to how lazy and gullible the news organizations really are. Any guy with a press release and a good line of gab can con them into buying the most outrageous bull story, including the 'cure' for all ills extracted from roaches (delivered on a New York TV station while wearing a droopy fake moustache and a red Panama hat! Too funny! That Joey Scaggs knows his stuff.
The editing of the Hillary boos was the opener and was as political as the piece ever got but it made the point. When MTV edited the boos out and added cheers instead on the DVD it said a lot. Stossel played dumb as to why MTV would do this (wise decision, John) but the point was obvious. They wanted Hillary to look good and they have no problem lying and covering up facts to make some political point.
Good show. Not earth-shattering but interesting and probably an eye-opener to the uninformed who still believed that if you see it on TV - it must be true.
As bad as the fabrications are, I don't believe they are the worst of it. A bigger problem, IMHO, is that the liberals in the press truly fail to understand how their persaonl bias translates to bias in the news. They actually believe they can control their personal inclinations and report fairly. Tim Russert often tries to present balance in his interviews. He falls short because certain things never occur to him.
You're right on about the unknown bias. Unknown by most of the general public. Yet the best selling books by Goldberg and Coulter (there's another I can't remember the author's name or title) are top sellers because the public wants to know what they don't know.
It's a rather long discussion but if I went through its paces a few times could shorten it and tighten up to increase the effectiveness. I'll spare you the details. The lashing out from the Democrats have fallen flat on every account. Bias in the media is losing its effect to a certain degree when the general public disengaged from politics a bit more as a result of the lashing out from the left -- despite being indifferent or unaware of which side of the aisle it came from, the general public brush it off.. To the general public they lose trust and respect in both news media/journalism and politics even when not knowing completely why.
For example, who edited the tape of Hillary being booed and why? If a tape of Newt Gingrich had had been similarly edited, Tim would have been all over it. The Sunday morning shows would have led with the story for a solid month. Tim would tell us who did it and have three of the guy's worst enemies on the show telling what a creep he is.
True. That is important to those that think politics is so important. It's not. The main thing to know about politics is that it is not the solution it is the problem. The general public is more aware of that than most people engaged in political discussions. The general public could care less which side of the aisle the confirmation that politics is not worth their time or effort comes from. Granted, due to a left leaning bias in the media there is less "opportunity" for the general public to confirm their disinterest in politics. Yet perhaps that's not so bad since the bias tends to work more effectively at people disengaging from the media as well. "Just let me go to work which in-turn contributes benefits to self others and society while enjoying our family and friends." ...The man in the street might say. That much they do know. That much is all they need to do; confirming they have real, valid power -- power of the individual abiding his or her true nature to create value. Not self-proclaimed power of parasitical-politicians and self-serving bureaucrats and a supporting/complicit media and academia.
It's the selection of material presented that is the source of most of the bias. Liberals never understand their personal filter is:
Regardless of what the bias might be, I heard one higher up in the news media nail it when he said, "when we want your opinion, we'll give it to you."
News
Anything bad about a non-liberal.
Anything good about a liberal.Not News
Anything good about a non-liberal.
Anything bad about a liberal.
Killing two birds with one stone -- virtually useless media and parasitical politics/government..
I hope you are right.
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