Keith Olbermann's Departure: Why we should be concerned.

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Forums > All Posts > Keith Olbermann's Departure: Why we should be concerned.

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2011-01-25 07:52 AM

Schmidt
Colorado Springs, CO
Posts: 1058

Reference: Robert Parry, AlterNet article, What the Hell Happened to Keith Olbermann?, January 23, 2011

I posted Parry's article on this website because it touched on a point that we have discussed before in this website...how the right wing controls much of the media and therefore public opinion across America, particularly rural America. Whatever you might think about liberal media pundits, Keith Olbermann was just one of a very small population of liberal pundits standing up for the rights of the poor and middle class and the sick. Quoting Parry,

"The troubling message to progressives is that they remain essentially orphans when it comes to having their political interests addressed by any corporate news outlet. While the Right has built its own vast media infrastructure – reaching from newspapers, magazines and books to radio, TV and the Internet – the Left generally has treated media as a low priority."

"The ongoing significance of America’s media imbalance is that it gives the Right enormous capabilities to control the national debate, not only during election campaigns but year-round. Republicans can deploy what intelligence operatives call “agit-propaganda,” stirring controversies that rile up the public and redound to the GOP’s advantage."

Parry goes on to cite examples of "the angry cacophony that the Right can orchestrate" including "Obama's death panels" or the "Ground Zero Mosque." And as both Parry and I have observed, "the mainstream media and progressives often join in this criticism, wondering why Obama let himself get blind-sided or why he wasn’t tougher or why he can’t control the message."

I have asked this question many times...why do good ordinary middle class Americans, especially in the rural heartland of America, continually vote against their own best economic interests? The answer I keep coming back to is the right wing media. In my retirement, I have traveled across America, north to south, east to west, and I can attest to one fact: You will seldom find a place in America that isn't broadcasting right wing vitoral...Rush Limbaugh covers all 50 states as well as the armed forces overseas. And if it's not right wing political talk, it's Christian talk radio with much the same message.

But that's not all. Browsing local newspapers or watching local TV in hotels, one finds much of the same political and Christian themes all masked as "God and Country." Now don't get me wrong...these are some of the nicest Americans you could meet...polite, helpful, generous, honest, hard working. But when it comes to politics, they show an inner rage and hate towards "Big Government" and especially Obama. Where did that rage come from? Well certainly some of the rage against our government is very legitimate when one considers the underlying causes of our Great Recession...the real causes.

For many, however, Obama is the scapegoat, not because of anything that he has done to deserve their criticism, but rather because of what they hear and believe from their media sources. And with all the right wing media distortions, lies and hype, rural America and indeed much of the bigger cities has slowly transformed into what I will call "Rush Limbaugh's America." A case in point is a recent Reuters opinion poll showing that "71 percent of the public strongly opposes raising the debt ceiling." I can understand their rage about the national debt, but defaulting on our government issued bonds would have catastrophic consequences on not only our ecoonomy but also worldwide. Anyone who truly understood the implications would say this is the stuff that only anarchists would support. Yet there it is in black and white. I could rewrite the headline as "71 percent of the public support anarchy."

Chris Matthews has a politically correct word that descibes these people..."low information voters." The Republican Party likes low information voters...that's the only way they win. And that's why Republicans hate Obama's intiatives that support public education. The more educated the populace is on issues, the more likely they will move away from the Republican positions, not necessarily embracing liberals, but rather just calling themselves "Independents." I am pleased that this segment of the voters has in part enaged in critical thinking, but if the 71 percent number is true, then it suggests we have a long way to go yet.

So watch the debate about the debt ceiling over the next two months as that magic date around March 31st approaches. Which side presents the more coherent intellectual options and which side engages in politics...even to the detriment of the nation. Party first...or country first? Which will it be?

As usual discussion and debate is welcomed. Am I engaging in left wing paranoia? Tell me if you think I'm wrong. I would like to hear differing opinions.

2011-01-25 09:30 AM

CARLITOS BAM-BAM
Dallas, TX
Posts: 897

THE SECOND COMING
-W.B. Yeats

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: a waste of desert sand;
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Wind shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?
.................
The Big Darkness Cometh? You bet.

2011-01-25 09:54 AM

indianacarnie
Jeffersonville, IN
Posts: 77

Sorry but I cant give you a differing opinion ,I agree with you 100%. Only by keeping the average American in the dark about whats really going on can republicans and their tea party fellow travelers, hehe, keep getting elected. That and playing to peoples baser instincts. Its a whole lot easier to point the finger at ....... oh say, Hispanics and immigrants in general, as the cause of unemployment rather than the root causes. "Joe Sixpack" is angry that hes on unemployment and cant live the lifestyle he and his family have been living. Now the right wing media steps in and throws up a smokescreen about illegals and other ferrinors and volia' ,problem solved. They dont have to justify the mostly free ride the large corporations and top 2% of our nation have gotten and continue to get. Fast easy and due to humans innate desire for the "easy" button, effective. Their "solution/explanation" is short, pithy and drummed in ad nauseum.

Now, when our side tries to set the record straight the explanation is long,involved (because it IS) and sometimes boring. Mr. "Sixpack" has to learn about tax laws,treaty agreements,interstate commerce and a whole host of subjects that in his day to day life mean very little to him.

Its a lot easier to hate and point fingers at the powerless than it is to actually DO something about what is wrong. Especially if the wrong is being done by your benefactors.

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