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Posts Tagged ‘Sarah Palin’
Saturday, May 23rd, 2009
Can anyone honestly review the media’s coverage of the 2008 Presidential election and say that the media wasn’t completely in the tank for then-Senator Barack Obama? Didn’t think so. To that end, libertarian filmmaker John Ziegler put together his documentary/expose, Media Malpractice, to give evidence to the former statement. And after watching this documentary, I would suggest that it is required viewing for those who study the media or have an interest in how the American media has fallen apart.
As I looked at some reviews of this documentary on the web, I was shocked by the amount of detractors who suggested that Ziegler was your typical, aggravated conservative who was frustrated with his party’s candidate and is now lashing out. Well, that’s a ton of a bullshit if there ever was some! Ziegler is a committed libertarian and has only ever donated money to democratic politicians. Sounds like a regular Rush Limbaugh, right?
Thought not.
From my view, the documentary really dives into two major issues in the 2008 campaign. First, it looks at how the media deliberately paid no serious attention to the various three alarm fires associated with Senator Obama. For example, the audiotape that came out a few days before the election where Obama specifically cited that previous supposedly-liberal Supreme Courts had not gone far enough into redistributing wealth and addressing issues of economic justice. Second, the documentary looks at how the media absolutely destroyed Alaska Governor and former Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin. When you watch the various attacks played in succession, it’s enough to turn your stomach.
People like Charlie Gibson and Katie Couric twisted and bent Palin’s previous statements and then asked her to respond. And when Palin questioned their phrasing of the questions, they lashed out at her like she was a dummy! The thing that always got me about Palin is that she’s just a regular Mom who rose up the political ranks. When she suggested that she was your typical “hockey Mom,” I can see that being true! And it shows you the vast disconnect between the media and regular Americans that they didn’t “get it.”
Understanding Palin boils down to one of the major issues that Bill O’Reilly has been going on about for years now – class warfare; the “elites” versus regular citizens. I put “elite” in quotations because most of the people who fall into this category may not even realize it. For example, I have friends (conservative, liberal, and independent) who have no idea that think in terms of class warfare and their “class” being better than those “below” them. It’s frustrating and a topic for another entry at another time.
There were some portions of Ziegler’s that will stick with me. Maybe the most glaring is how completely biased Katie Couric was in her interview with Palin. And, specifically, how Katie took Senator John McCain’s two major regulatory battles in the realm of the housing meltdown (his relentless pursuit of tighter oversight over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac) off of the table when she asked Palin to explain what McCain had done to help stave off the mortgage meltdown. That’s the equivalent of asking someone, “Other than red, white, and blue, what other colors are there on the flag of the United States of America?”
What?
And the documentary also does a good job of talking about how certain issues were blown up to mean much more than they actually did (i.e. race). If you look at the exit polls, race meant nothing to the voters. By and large, the voters went for Obama because they found what the media suggested that he stood for as a good thing (the nebulous concept of “change”). I have no issues with the voters voting anyway they choose, but to constantly use race as a battering ram against anyone who would even think to mention it (such as former Democratic Vice Presidential candidate Geraldine Ferraro) is absurd. Sure, if a pundit tried to use it as a negative, then they should have been criticized, but over and again that was not the case.
Watching Media Malpractice gives you a plethora of such aggravating and disgusting examples of the media’s bias. But, as has been reported on this blog by both my entries and my readers via their comments – the American mass media is a complete joke. It is an empire that has forgotten what unbiased reporting is supposed to be about and is, instead, dominated by profits and ratings. Just like now is the perfect time for a third party to rise at the national level, now is the perfect time for us as a nation to turn our backs on the biased media and support independent sources of news and citizen-led media.
In any event, if you have an interest in this stuff, then I suggest that you check out Media Malpractice. You’ll be as disgusted with the mainstream media as I am.
Posted in Book, DVD, Movie, & Media Reviews, United States Politics | 6 Comments »
Wednesday, November 5th, 2008
Alright – so Barack Obama won just like everyone thought that he would. No surprise there. Also, the Democrats took the large majorities that everyone thought they would in both the House and the Senate. No surprises there, either. Congratulations to Barack Obama for winning the election – it was a long contest that, thank God, is now over.
Speaking of the long contest, here are some of my thoughts about the election now that it is over.
The Campaign was Too Long!
America is exhausted. I know that Obama ran as a reformer and a healer, but the best thing that could ever happen to this country is the election being over! Campaigns and candidates have become too partisan. Americans need to reject politicians who begin their Presidential campaigns YEARS in advance of the election. We can’t take this amount of bullshit for this amount of time. The election of 2008 will go down in the history books for a variety of reasons, but as long as I continue to teach American government, I will teach students about the negative effects of an 18 to 24 month Presidential campaign.
Fix the F*&$^% Voting System Already
How in God’s name can we have a two year Presidential campaign AND be eight years out from the 2000 debacle and NOT have a better voting system yet? How is it that college campuses can manage to run their entire operations via secure databases, yet we can’t run local elections on similar systems? Some colleges use an online voting system that absolutely cannot be cracked for stupid elections like Homecoming King and Queen. And we can’t figure out a local, regional, and/or national system for harnessing the power of the internet in our voting? Give me a break.
Sarah Palin Destroyed by the Media
Once again – as long as I continue to teach American government to college students, I will be sure to talk about how vile the media coverage was of Senator Hillary Clinton and Governor Sarah Palin. The bias in the media when covering these two women is that worst type of bias – the type where neither the media nor the public even recognize it on its face. For example, how can you ask a female candidate how she’ll be able to raise her children if she’s elected? What type of bullshit is that?! Not one reporter asked that question to Barack Obama, John McCain, or Joe Biden. And the whole flap about Sarah Palin’s $150,000 wardrobe (which wasn’t really hers) was just about as biased and outlandish as you can get.
What is the best part about the media’s bias against women? For me, it’s the fact that Palin will likely run for the Republican Presidential nomination at some point in the near future and (depending on who she runs against) she’s likely to win it. And you know what happens next? Well, let’s just say that I think a Palin Presidential ticket has a better chance to succeed than a McCain Presidential ticket ever had – and you see how many votes McCain got this time around. Same story for Hillary, too. Take THAT biased media!
More on the Media – In the Tank for Obama
The right wing has been beating up the New York Times and MSNBC (among others) for being what they call “in the tank” for the Obama campaign. Guess what? The right wing is correct on this issue. The way that biased commentators like Chris Matthews and Keith Olberman swooned over Obama during a time when they were supposed to be unbiased newscasters (Democratic National Convention coverage) was horrible. Yes, Barack Obama won the election, but did you know that there were newspapers and magazines that called the election in his favor as early as November 1st? America’s print and broadcast media are dead. Thank God for the internet.
The New York Times commented on the vast ideological differences between the FOX News Channel and MSNBC on Sunday. And to that biased paper’s credit, they included the following paragraph:
But within that universe, the study found, the share of positive reports on Mr. McCain at Fox News was above the average of the news media at large, and the share of negative reports about Mr. Obama was higher, too. (The study found that the mix of positive and negative was roughly equal for them on Fox.)
That paragraph deserves more than the quick drive-by that author gives it. In fact this is a study by the Pew Research Center and – to further prove how the New York Times is biased and FOX News reports the facts – I’m going to use a blurb from a FOX News online article to help explain Pew’s results:
The independent Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism looked at coverage in the six weeks following the conventions through the final debate and found on FOX News 40 percent of stories on John McCain were negative, while 40 percent of stories on Obama were also negative.
In contrast, on MSNBC the study found that 73 percent of stories on McCain were negative while Obama received just 14 percent negative coverage on that channel.
Why didn’t the New York Times article cite those numbers specifically? I give them credit for briefly mentioning the results, but when FOX News gives an equal percentage of time to negative stories for each candidate, can you really trust the New York Times when they call this, “the share of positive reports on Mr. McCain at Fox News was above the average?” Above the average? So in the New York Times’ mind if you’re not consistently bashing McCain and the Republicans, you’re “above the average?”
Once again – America’s print and broadcast media are dead.
Those are some preliminary post-election thoughts. Let me know if you have any ideas!
Posted in Book, DVD, Movie, & Media Reviews, United States Politics | No Comments »
Tuesday, November 4th, 2008
Senator Barack Obama has won the 2008 Presidential election! Congratulations go to both Senator Obama and his running mate Senator Joe Biden. The Obama/Biden ticket absolutely dominated the Electoral College map as you can see by CNN.com’s great interactive tool at this link.
Senator John McCain gave one of the noblest, most honorable concession speeches that I’ve ever heard and congratulations go to him for running a tough campaign. The awesome nature of Obama’s win will overshadow the rest of the 2008 results, but it is worth mentioning that while Obama/Biden dominated in the Electoral College, McCain/Palin received approximately 48% of the vote. That’s no small potatoes. In previous years, liberal extremists would have been picketing all over the country calling for recounts. I guess we’ll see if conservative extremists push the same buttons, though I doubt it.
I’m glad that the Presidential contest is now over and I’m glad that the candidates both addressed the nation tonight was in nonpartisan tones. President-Elect Obama has a huge job ahead of him (as all Presidents-Elect do) and I agree with Senator McCain when he says that all Americans should be ready to help.
Posted in United States Politics | No Comments »
Friday, October 17th, 2008
Sorry, folks. I didn’t really watch the last Presidential debate so I can’t offer any insight as to who won and who lost. In my book, McCain won the first two and Palin vs. Biden was a draw or slightly in Palin’s favor given the amount of misinformation that Senator Biden put out there. But as for this last Presidential debate – frankly it’s all the same stuff over and over again with different words.
The election is in the hands on the media now, so we’ll likely see a build-up in Obama’s numbers heading into November. The media has anointed Senator Obama as the next President and that’s fine so long as America understands that we have a biased media and unless there are drastic changes (like the increasingly influence of an independent media through online channels), then we’re doomed. A news channel that would simply report factual news or even both sides of the same issues would be a huge success in this country. Oh wait, we already have FOX News and the brainwashed extremists think that it’s biased in favor of Republicans.
Isn’t weird how some Americans will ask for something, get it, and then condemn it?
Posted in United States Politics | No Comments »
Sunday, October 5th, 2008
Here we go again… You guys know the drill. The biased media has already claimed that Senator Joe Biden won this debate in a landslide. And, in a weird twist, they’ve decided that by not goofing up, Governor Palin “won” her end of the debate. In other words, by not being bad she was being good.
Does that make any sense?
Yet another reason why you can’t trust a damn thing you read or hear from the media these days. I had a different view of the debate altogether.
First, I think that each candidate won, but in different areas. For example, Palin was much more likable while Biden was much more of a diplomat. Palin was more down to earth while Biden was more or less the typical Washington insider. Yet Biden appeared to know more on the issues while Palin appeared to only look at the big picture stance on them. What the biased media cannot understand is how each of these stances is a win for the respective candidates.
Palin needed to appear informed on the issues in order to rally the Republican base. She did that. Biden needed to stay away from him common gaffes to energize the Obama campaign. Mission accomplished. That’s not to say that everything Senator Biden put out there was fact, because it certainly wasn’t, but he did manage to stay away from sticking his foot in his mouth.
All in all, I thought the debate was oddly reserved and yet pleasantly collegial. There were no severe barbs thrown between the two candidates as each was carefully treading historic ground. A bit too bland for my liking. Hey, did you know that nearly 70 million people watched the debate the other night? Amazing. Now the stage is set for McCain vs. Obama 2 on Tuesday night. McCain won the first debate and he needs to hit a homerun in order to move the polls in his direction.
Yet at this point with Obama up in all of the polls one has to wonder whether or not it even matters how well Senator McCain performs in the final two debates. He can knock it out of the park both nights and the media will still crown Obama the winner and the popular support will still go in his direction. Is this race still a winnable one for McCain?
Posted in United States Politics | No Comments »
Thursday, September 11th, 2008
While a change in our nation’s leadership is always an exciting time for America, the vicious attacks being heaped on to Governor Sarah Palin – the Vice Presidential nominee for the Republican Party – are both disgusting and inappropriate. The combination of an already biased media and far-left citizens essentially losing one of their issues seems to have driven people over the edge! The other day I was actually approached by someone who told me that she absolutely hated Palin. The person went on for about 30 minutes about all of the negative, horrible things that made her detest Palin both as a person and as a legislator. Bear in mind that Palin had only been announced three days earlier!!! Talk about bitter partisanship.
Far-right blogger Michelle Malkin has begun diagnosing crazy, angry people like this with a PDS – Palin Derangement Syndrome. I got a kick out of that!
Most of the things that this woman was saying to me a few days ago have already been proven false. But that hasn’t stopped far-left people from spreading rumors as truth. Just listen to the Howard Stern Show where there were at least three or four lies or half-truths discussed as though they were concrete facts. For example, there was a discussion about how Palin wants creationism taught in schools. Let me show you the twisted logic of the hate machine that is attacking Palin…
Palin’s original comment: “I don’t think there should be a prohibition against debate if it comes up in class. It doesn’t have to be part of the curriculum.”
The biased media and far-left spin of the above comment: “Palin wants creationism taught in schools.”
Dummies.
In fact, Palin’s position appears to be much more in line with what our Founding Fathers would have wanted – the freedom to discuss any idea that comes up in conversation. But remember – many people on the far-left (and I’m not talking about Democrats or the traditional liberals here – but the hate merchants and vicious online attackers) don’t like the concept of all ideas being discussed freely. Instead, they only want to hear far-left or uber-progressive discussions. Hell, while I don’t have much respect for Ann Coulter’s tactics I suggest anyone read the appendix of any of her books. She is a citation queen when it comes to using people’s words against them and her appendices are second to none with primary document sources. Of course many people will write off that previous comment because Coulter is the very bottom of what the far-right has to offer, but I digress.
Maxim Lott at FOX News published an article called the Top 7 Myths, Lies, and Untruths About Governor Palin. I suggest everyone take a read. Once again, though, many of the vicious hate speech people will see that this is a FOX News article and immediately dismiss it. What a boneheaded move. Personal feelings about FOX News aside, this is exactly what a news organization should be doing right now! They should be researching rumors and suggestions about the candidates and presenting the facts to the public! But hey, let’s not let logic get in the way of bashing FOX News, right?
I said in a previous post that I hope this election season is quick and painless. Well, we know it won’t be painless, but for the sake of Palin’s family (who have also been inappropriately attacked), I hope it is quick.
Posted in United States Politics | No Comments »
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