THE TRIANGLE: Matthews, Moore, Murtha, and the Media

[ProSense]

THE TRIANGLE: Matthews, Moore, Murtha, and the Media

Snip...

What's the common thread running through the past half-decade of Bush's presidency? What's the nexus between the Swift-boating of Kerry, the Swift-boating of Murtha, and the guilt-by-association between Democrats and terrorists? Why has a seemingly endless string of administration scandals faded into oblivion? Why do Democrats keep losing elections? It's this: the traditional media, the trusted media, the "neutral" media, have become the chief delivery mechanism of potent anti-Democratic and pro-Bush storylines.

And the Democratic establishment appears to be either ignorant of this political quandary or unwilling to fight it.

Snip...

You've heard the narratives: Bush is likable, Bush is a regular guy, Bush is firm, Bush is a religious man, Bush relishes a fight, Democrats are muddled, Democrats have no message, national security is Bush's strength, terror attacks and terror threats help Bush (even though he presided over the worst attack ever on American soil), Democrats are weak on security, Democrats need to learn how to talk about values, Republicans favor a "strict interpretation" of the Constitution, and on and on.

A single storyline is more effective than a thousand stories. And a single storyline delivered by a "neutral" reporter is a hundred times more dangerous than a storyline delivered by an avowed partisan. Rightwingers can attack the media for criticizing Bush, can slam the New York Times for being liberal, but when the Times and the Post and CNN and MSNBC echo the 'Bush stands firm' mantra, it adds one more brick to a powerful pro-Bush edifice.

These narratives are woven so deeply into the fabric of news coverage that they have become second nature and have permeated the public psyche and are regurgitated in polls. (The polls are then used to strengthen the narratives.) They are delivered as affirmative statements, interrogatives, hypotheticals; they are discussed as fact and accepted as conventional wisdom; they are twisted, turned, shaped, reshaped, and fed to the American public in millions of little soundbites, captions, articles, editorials, news stories, and opinion pieces. They are inserted into the national dialogue as contagious memes that imprint the idea of Bush=strong/Dems=weak. And they are false.


Snip...

To understand the methodology of the story-telling media, look no further than two situations currently occupying the energy of netroots activists: Chris Matthews' equating of bin Laden and Michael Moore and Tim Russert's racially-tinged, guilt-by-association line of questioning in a recent interview with Barack Obama. In each instance, the meta-theme is that Democrats are terrorist-lite traitors, and the subtext is that Bush and Republicans are the true patriots. But while the netroots is blasting away at Matthews and Russert, the Democratic establishment is petrified at the thought of offending the Gang of 500. So far, only John Kerry and Louise Slaughter have weighed in on either scandal.

more...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/peter-daou/the-triangle-matthews-m_b_14431.html

Also posted here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=236723&mesg_id=236723

[Vinnie From Indy]

1. It is quite simple for them really

Rove merely creates ANY simple theme or talking point he wishes and the vast number of corporate media operatives pound the shit out of them until they seem to be reality. It causes paralysis, confusion and doubt in his critics. The oddest thing is that there are smart people in leadership of the Dmeocratic party and for some unfathomable reason, they don't seem to be taking ANY significant or effective counter measures beyond sputtering and stammering. I believe OUR REPRESENTATIVES, SENATORS AND POLITICAL LEADERSHIP need to attack this phenomena head on and take these media operatives out of their places of respectability and make them defend themselves. In short, where are our pit bulls ready to get in the face of the media? The media is the third leg of the Rovian propaganda stool.

[Vinnie From Indy]

2. kick