How Long Before the Corporate Media Begins Its Systematic Destruction of Barack Obama?

[David Zephyr]

That's the question that is gnawing at me now that Senator Obama is apparently surging in popularity with American voters. How long before the real power-brokers in America show their ugly hand and give the signals that he must be brought down? How much longer can they let this solitary embodiment of people power continue with his quest to be the most powerful man in our nation?

Why am I worried? Because past is prologue and because I've been around far too long now and I've seen that whenever someone, like Barack Obama --- who is not from the country club, whose pedigree is not established, who doesn't have the 'seal of approval' and who threatens to be someone they can never control or buy --- begins to connect with the American people, to become their voice, then those that own the country and control the country begin to work their privileged levers of power to undermine him. They do it every damned time. Why should I think it will be different this time?

Think about it:

Barack Obama has dared to suggest that he will "negotiate" with those nations that trouble us. What about the military-industrial complex that feeds off of warmongering and war-making? What about all of the crony defense contracts that depend on saber rattling and having "enemies" to scare the American people into swapping health-care for missiles, education for aircraft carriers, retirement security for 'national security'. Can't let that seditious idea take root.

Barack Obama has dared to suggest that he will shake up the entire tax system that benefits multi-national corporations and the uber-rich through progressive taxation. That strikes to close to home for our privileged armchair class.

There's little doubt that there will be a Democrat residing in the White House in 2009. If anyone thinks otherwise, may I remind you that when the thermometer was pulled out of America's ass last November at the Mid-Term elections, the mercury measurement was fever hot and the Republicans shockingly lost both the Senate and the House of Representatives in a single night.

The peasants have taken their pitchforks up. Their sons and daughters are coming home from Iraq in caskets or wounded for life. Their relatives were drowned in New Orleans. Their siblings are losing their jobs to slave labor markets. Their children are sucking on lead-poisoned toys. And mommy and daddy are about to lose their very homes to the banks. Yeah, the American people are on a quiet simmering boil now. And the most powerful people in the country know it.

Professor Howard Zinn once said that the Democratic Party is a "safety valve" that the establishment uses to let the steam off when the Republican Party has gone too far. Revolution and riots are squelched by letting the people believe that they've elected someone who will be more on their side. So it is important that the power-brokers have a Democrat they can control, preferably one of their very own.

So, which Democrat gets the nomination is very, very important. Isn't it?

Even Rupert Murdoch understands that the Democrats will likely be in the White House in 2009. No wonder he contributed to Hillary's campaign. She and Bill are corporate Democrats. They are a known quantity. They are NAFTA Democrats. They are WTO Democrats. They are cozy with the military-industrial complex. They won't overturn any apple-carts even if they sometimes talk like they will.

But this Obama character! He sounds like he means what he says. He really might change things and not ask them for their opinion or protect their preferential advantages.

Don't believe me?

When the New York Times, America's "liberal" newspaper prints Judy Miller's steno-graphed reports filled with fear-mongering lies cooked up by Dick Cheney and Don Rumsfeld to undermine any voice against the Iraqi Invasion, when the corporate television news can fill the airwaves with sinister images of Saddam Hussein with his sword raised and his pistol drawn hour after hour to scare Americans into giving up their civil liberties for "security", does anyone really think that the news media in this country is going to sit passively by while a Barack Obama suddenly closes in on taking the Democratic nomination?

The media took Howard Dean out in a matter of days by simply editing and looping video of Dean's innocent and optimistic cheer-leading his volunteers to victory. A visicous cabal by the media made Dean look sinister and depraved, when just the opposite was true. And how did all three networks, all cable news organizations simultaneously bombard the American people in overkill about Howard Dean. Do you think that it all happened coincidentally?

John Kennedy. Martin Luther King, Jr., Bobby Kennedy, Jimmy Carter, Gary Hart, Jerry Brown, Howard Dean. What do they all have in common? They all tried to change things to quickly and what was threatening, they all had the public behind them at some point.

More and more I am seeing Barack Obama as the biggest catalyst for progressive change in America, the one that will make the boldest leaps on behalf of our people. More and more I am daring to believe once again that Democrats can do much more good, far more good than simply tinkering around the margins of change.

When tens of thousands begin to show up at political rallies, there is something going on, folks. It's people power. It's contagious and it is wonderful

But I fear that those who control the corporate media have given their orders to their media spokespersons to prepare their "stories" about Barack to marginalize him. And because I've seen it too many times before, I can almost smell it happening now.

Still, dare we dream for a real advocate for the American people?

Dare we hope yet one more time with all our hearts?

Dare we let our guard down, our cynicism down one more time?

This weekend Barack Obama made me smile a lot and I worry that he's making some people frown.

Keep you eyes on the media, friends. I wonder how long it will be before the corporate media gets their orders to begin their smearjobs on television and in the press they have already prepared against this great American?

[msongs]

1. ummm, Oprah IS the corporate media nt

[maddiejoan]

2. Relax

He's already bought and paid for.

[1corona4u]

3. I was wondering how long before Obama destroys himself?

I think it's coming...

[patrice]

4. never. He's not a threat.

Edwards, on the other hand, is probably going to get it. He's more of a threat to the corporatocracy. Did you see C Mathews tonight with Edwards? Borderline snotty.

Obama is not only not a threat, he's a badge of "honor" for Corporate Media.

[Jim Sagle]

5. It'll happen about one second after he's nominated, if he is.

[K Gardner]

6. Not sure I'd put Barak in the same category as JFK, RFK, etc., but I certainly

do wholeheartedly agree with your very well-written thoughts on the media/corporation ability to bring down anyone who is a threat to them. I had somewhat disengaged from the internet, and in fact the whole process, last time around. I was busy, as most people were, with daily life. And, in a late-voting state, we don't get any overt publicity or primary campaigning here. Unless people look for it, they are pretty much clueless. I'd heard a bit about Howard Dean, but I wasn't here on DU and not involved in the initial excitement and ramp up of his campaign.

But boy howdy, I certainly knew who Dean was after the Dean Scream. It was the first and last thing most people in my state ever knew about Howard Dean. We DUers are so involved in this forum, in this "medium", we forget that outside of the first voting states, people aren't hearing any of this. All people know now, generally, is that Hillary is running and Oprah is campaigning for the rock star. But all it would take is a week of relentless news cycles with constant repetition of ONE bad story, ONE bad photograph.. to bring any single one of our candidates down at any time. Let's none of us ever forget that. (sorry for rambling on)

[Maven]

7. Make the boldest leaps for progress?

I mean are you people for real?

Where are you getting this from? And not a member of the country club? The man went to Columbia and Harvard Law for Christ's sake. Not exactly an "everyman."

I guess this is the next step in Obama's messianic candidacy--now his supporters have to make him into a martyr.

I just wish Team Obama would stop the fronting.

[1corona4u]

10. Funny, I had the same thought after I read his life story...

not an "everyman"...

[emilyg]

13. Good post.

[fdonagaugh]

8. Could you be more obvious?

This tactic (response to a fictional attack not likely to be made) is old and dead -- not tried and true. Hopefully, this will not be a tact repeated by campaign staff or -- even more suicidal, the candidate, himself.

His campaign, as I predicted, has already made their first blunder ... http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/12/10/201829/93

It's only a matter of time before the next.

[cloudythescribbler]

9. Elite media machine very methodical

The elite machine that controls the media and so much more in this society, the elite around whom the entire system revolves, so one has to consider EVERY candidate and candidacy in that light.

Remember that McGovern and (believe it or not) Carter were, at one point, considered 'insurgents' of a sort within the Democratic Party. To some extent Reagan was cast as an insurgent within the Republican party (in some ways like Huckabee).

I can say from my own experience and knowledge that the powers that pee stop at nothing -- anticipatoriness, maiming and assassination (eg Lennon) and string pulling & coercion in every way, ON TOP OF the manipulativeness of the mainstream media, to control what people hear, what they dare discourse about in an effective way, etc.

In recent elections, Dean was torpedoed not merely because they were leery of him being in the White House, but because a clearly antiwar candidate as the Democratic nominee, even if defeated in November, would at least mean that the Democratic Party would as a whole be taken to an antiwar position, something still not entirely clear as NONE of the leading candidates (including Obama) solidly promise to have all our troops out of Iraq by 2013.

I can recall that after the Oct 30 debate that turned out to be a disaster for HRC, the press pundits on C-Span were trying to palm the debate off as an HRC victory, one repeatedly invoking the 'whatever doesn't kill me makes me stronger' line. Then they claimed she came back powerfully in Vegas. So it isn't that they haven't been trying.

Obama doesn't stand for a challenging ISSUE platform the way Dean did, so it may be permissible for him to get the nomination, but then, like McGovern, make SURE he will not and cannot win. At that point there is an unknown factor, but I support Obama because he seems the strongest candidate (electorally) and president AMONG the leading contenders.

But at a deeper level, nothing happens that isn't approved by the machine. In 92 the Democrats couldn't be stopped, so we got a pro-NAFTA/WTO president who betrayed large & small the mildly progressive platform he campaigned on, leading Democrats to stay home on election day 04 and a Repug Congress. This too is just dandy with the powers that pee.

In a sense, one can be sure that the House, as in a casino, always wins within the system.

[fdonagaugh]

12. Blah, waaaaa, blah, waaaa some more....

Fact is, if you don't have the nads and substance to win without pre-emptively attacking phantom attackers, you're doomed.

And, Obama's campaign better stop swatting at ghosties before it becomes a laughing stock.

Not to say Obama has anything to do with this, he may not. But, if he can't control his staff so that they don't make a fool out of him, he certainly is not ready to lead a nation.

[AndyTiedye]

15. Dean Was Torepedoed by the Media WHEN HE THREATENED TO BREAK UP THE BIG MEDIA COMPANIES

[BeyondGeography]

11. Well-founded cynicism

I would only point out that Obama is a different kind of political force, an idealist who appeals to cloistered white liberals and to rich and poor people of color alike, a progressive who can speak to conservatives in language they find respectful, if not appealing. A wonky Ivy leaguer who is also comfortable with the faith crowd. A personable and attractive human being who gives the impression of being home by 11 every night. He has shown himself capable of going over the heads of the media and connecting with people, and he will be hard to take down by conventional mediawhore means. But they will try, and it probably already started today.

[FrenchieCat]

14. They will try, but it will start tomorrow.........

Till then.

[BeyondGeography]

16. "The cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die...

[FrenchieCat]

17. Here, it's starting.....

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x3820131

Oprah "outshines" Obama.

Watch it go from there........

[BeyondGeography]

18. Ah, I know...but Obama went back to work today

The man has his feet on the ground. Here's a good piece about his day in LV:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/zack-exley/anatomy-of-an-obama-photo_b_76190.html

Still plenty of time for him to bring things back to reality with voters. Their problems may finally be getting too big to be spun.