Watched Fox News - With An Entire Network In Its Pocket - GOP Will Get Some Occasional Poll Leads

[Median Democrat]

I know many of us avoid Fox News, and I normally do, except at the gym when it happens to be on one of the TVs. I have to say. Fox News represents an entirely different reality. It is amazing. John McCain almost looks heroic. The recent below the belt attacks are attributed to other folks, not McCain:

http://embeds.blogs.foxnews.com/2008/07/29/and-then-there-is-this/

It is like bizarro world where McCain does not commit any gaffes, and he never flip flops. Obama, on the other hand, is either a leftist or a centrist and after describing him as both, they just call him a typical politician, then an inexperienced one, then an extreme socialist who is loved by the media. The only political ads discussed and freely played and re-played are McCain ads. Obama's ads never seen the light of day nor are they criticized or even discussed. The only Democrats who appear tend to be Zell Miller types who seem to have an axe to grind against their party.

Here on DU we rarely venture into let alone live in this world. However, for folks who read, listen to or watch Fox News or affiliated media companies like the Associated Press or the Wall Street Journal, this is their reality:

http://www.mediachannel.org/ownership/chart.shtml

Some people live in this fantasy land, and they are pretty much unreachable and protected from the reality of actual facts. The remainder of folks tend to be dependent on the other four major media companies (see chart), which are also biased, but tend to be a tiny bit more discrete than Fox.

In this corporate controlled reality where what most of what we think is dictated by five major media companies, the fact of the matter is that McCain (the hero, the foreign policy expert, and paragon of consistency) will probably get more than a couple of days where he polls better than Obama, and Fox News will then breathlessly ask why Obama is not doing better given his advantages in fundraising and the fact that the media "loves him" and is so "unfair to John McCain."

The question when this happens, is how do we as Democrats respond? Do we hang our heads, and curse the Democratic party? Do we complain like we did about Bill Clinton, Al Gore, John Kerry and now Barack Obama that if only we had some candidate who walked on water, we would easily kick McCain's ass? Do we blame our candidate for our failure to recognize the stacked deck that we as Democrats must confront and continue to confront in each election in the future?

Many of us try to ignore Fox, ABC, etc. However, to do so denies the carefully crafted reality that most of our peers live in. Its a world with a so called liberal media unfairly portraying a saintly and wise John McCain.

Will we ultimately give up on Democracy or will we fight back?

[Cha]

1. Yeah, an entire network..and

most of cnn, msnbc, abc, cbs, and nbc without which mccain's campaign would be dead instead of getting constant life support.

[margotb822]

2. Know thy enemies

it's the only way to defeat them.

[barack the house]

[barack the house]

3. That is why I put forward the CD idea to by-pass the media. Put the truth onto cd liberal podcasts->

Post them door to door label them McCain war hero to get the brainwasheds attention.

[Frank Booth]

4. Two networks actually -- Fox and ABC. And, judging by recent events, it looks like CBS and NBC

may be jumping aboard as well.

I can't even watch the American media anymore. BBC is my last refuge for tv news.

[Enthusiast]

5. The only media fair to Obama is

the single hour of Keith Oberman on MSNBC. That is it. CNN has become Fox News Light. If CNN continues changing at this pace it will soon be as bad as Fox. ABC? ABC is Fox, one and the same. CBS, it was my last hope. Now I have no hope for a fair media. This is how the fascists do it when they take over, first the media. There is no more serious issue confronting this country that the one sided media. It matters very little if Obama manages to get elected if the media has nothing but condemnation 24/7.

[Median Democrat]

6. A Different Warped World - This Is Why DUers Have To Occasionally Watch and Listen To Fox

Many folks on this board are very meticulous in their examination of the candidates and the issues. We do not take things at face value. We post transcripts from 10 years ago to disect a candidate's position, and the changes in position made by the candidate. In John McCain's case, you almost need a real time feed, because he changes his positions so rapidly depending on the audience.

HOWEVER, most people are not that diligent. They rely on the trash and talking heads of the MSM. When a Democratic representative appears, he or she is often shouted over by the Fox News/ABC/NBC hosts, who sometimes derivisely ask questions like the ones posed to Wesley Clark: "How can you seriously contend that John McCain is not experienced in Foreign Policy?"

This has happened in every election, since at least 1992 with the GOP and its media in constant attack mode. Consider the constant free replays of McCain commericials, especially the false visiting troop commercial. It is completely false, yet it has gotten the most FREE air time. All this amounts to a giant billion dollar in kind contribution to the John McCain campaign.

Obama does have a small chance because he is one of the best fundraisers the Democratic party has ever had. However, even his fundraising prowness cannot match the huge in-kind contributions provided by Big Media as they constantly replay McCain's attack ads followed by hours of discussion.

I have said this before, and I'll say it again. I think this election represents our last best chance to preserve our democracy against the growth of Big Media, which controls what most of us think and feel. A lot of us have sworn off Big Media. However, I recommend that once in a while, a DUer should watch a Fox Newscast to understand the distortions that most people live in, a world in which Alan Combs is the shining example of a liberal.