This just in: Americans returning Christmas gifts at the mall!

[democrank]

If my house was afire, the last thing I`d be interested in is a giant sale at J.C.Penney`s, yet this seems to be corporate media`s attention-grabbing headline. People going to the mall. People returning gifts. Some people got gift certificates. Save up to 60% if you go right now. If mega-corporations get to use our public airwaves, the least they can do is offer up some substance....and maybe an occasional truth.

I realize the big shots are vacationing, but has anyone found the hundreds missing in New Orleans yet? Anyone get a shot of the caskets next to the new ski boots in the cargo hold? Any word on homeless guys with frost bite in New Jersey? Have we invaded Iran? Anyone subtract the number of troops set to go to Iraq from the number Rumsfeld said are coming home? Is it okay to figure in the country`s credit card debt when calculating the state of Bush`s "healthy" economy? What exactly is White Phosphorus and is it harmful to children? Got wiretaps? What about that trade imbalance? Those long-awaited Abu Gahrib photos been released yet?

Maybe I`m just a square peg trying to live in my country`s round hole, but a cursory scan of what falls under the heading of media is sadly lacking. Rumsfeld was right....We don`t know we don`t know.

[ComerPerro]

1. They will do anything to make it look like the economy is going great

Consumer confidence is so high that people are going out to spend gift cards they got for Christmas (read as, not spending any actual money).

[BushOut06]

18. If by economy doing great you mean...

...Americans spending themselves into debt, losing their jobs to overseas slave labor, corporate fatcats stealing their employees' pensions, then I guess you could say the economy is doing better than ever!

[ComerPerro]

19. LOL. The economy is doing fantastic. My proof: People still buy food!

Can't wait until that gets said by some rightwinger.

"If the economy is so bad, how come people are still out shopping and spending at grocery stores all over America?"

[ktowntennesseedem]

2. A very justified and mutual rant.

The only way the shopping/returns/gift-certificate "headlines" will go away right now is for another teenage girl to disappear while on Christmas vacation at some exotic Caribbean resort. All that other stuff? Nothing to see here--move along.

[liberal N proud]

3. What is the most important thing here? real news or 30% off at JC Penney?

You must get your prior ties straight here, the propaganda machine calls for telling the people all is well, spend, spend, spend.
The economy is good and if you max our your credit card, you will be rewarded. Those tax cuts the rich are getting should be translated in to all americans going to the malls and spending their little hearts out.
Those people lost in NOLA are well lost, there is nothing more we can do but make bu$h look bad and that is a no-no. The Iraq war needs to be pushed to the second page because the elections did not come out the way we thought they should.
If Rummy the Dummy says the troops are coming home then we should trust his little deviate mind.

Remember the most important thing is to get that credit card out and head to the mall. Don't worry about the limit, they will tell you when you have exceeded it and then next month when you can't pay the bill, you can just start selling all that stuff on e-bay.

:sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm:

[liberalpress]

4. As someone who works in the news business...

... lemme just say this. It's the first working day after a holiday weekend.
All the people who are on the street getting the news we deliver have been home enjoying Christmas with their families.
There is not a lot prepares, except a few evergreen stories that were done before the break, therefore there are no new angles on stuff we reported before the break.

And sometimes we here at DU forget there are other things bedides politics

Flame retardant suit on. I'm ready. Hit me

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

6. Of course you jump on the local stories

which are basically the only ones that are breaking that will be of any interest. Around here it was a feud between two families that ended in the death of one person and the alleged murderer showing up in court wearing a bulletproof vest. But hey, that's what gets folk's attention. And there just hasn't been anything breaking on the national scene. Personally, I'd rather you news folks wait with investigative reporting until people are back in the work routine and paying attention. So no flames here! Just look out for fueding families!

[SkiGuy]

10. I agree with you for now

it is a vacation week for a lot of people (some well deserved too) but what about the rest of the year when this same thing mentioned by the original poster still happens?

[liberalpress]

12. The reality of the business is this...

(and I speak only for local radio news with which I am familiar). Local radio news is nearly dead. Those stations which still have it have virtually no outside reporters. We are limited by a telephone and locals who are not wary enough of the media to avoid us. Also for the luxury of being able to get up in the middle and come to work to anchor the local news, we have other jobs at the station that justify the sarcastically heavy paychecks we take home. So except for the time or resources we need to do the job properly, we have everything we need.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

5. I wouldn't be spending much time manufacturing news stories

about shopping. I had to go out and get a tire fixed yesterday, and most places weren't that full of shoppers; the one place, ironically, where there were more cars than usual was Penney's. But take heart-as I waited for the tire to be fixed, I read the local paper, and, lo and behold, they had a long article about snoopgate. Usually this rag only talks about local things. So some information is getting out there, and it was unusually balanced for this rw area.

[shaniqua6392]

7. Breaking News Alert!!!

There is a sale at the mall! They are offering 20% off goods that were marked up 200%. That means you will ONLY pay 180% above cost. Hurry. Hurry.

[mark414]

8. i'll get to your questions after this preview of the new american idol...

no...no i am kidding.

i don't know what pisses me off more -- the big money makers who create these distractions or the people who fall for them...

and on edit...this bit from http://news.yahoo.com/s/cpress/20051227/ca_pr_on_na/boxing_day_roundup;_ylt=ArfxF9RCSVzowt.2z8hxC7Ju9L4F;_ylu=X3oDMTA3OWI1ZGNqBHNlYwM3Mzc-">this article just about made me sick to my stomach...

Nicholas McLaughlin, a 16-year-old homeless boy from Ottawa, sat shivering on the sidewalk outside the store, begging for change as he watched the crowd rush in to buy their new MP3 players and laptops.

"I think (Boxing Day) brings a lot of people downtown and stuff, so I can make more money," he said. "I don't like consumerism at all, but this is kind of an opportunity for me."

What. The. Fuck.

that whole article is filled with choice examples of the beauty of mankind :sarcasm:

[Divernan]

9. Re Rumsfeld: doesn't he always use the qualifier, "may"?

The stories I've seen - and I haven't spent a lot of time on line this week - always quote Rummy as talking about how many troops "may" be brought home. Of course, this administration never hesitates to renege on absolute specific promises either, but I've noticed that the more public outcry there is to reduce the number of US troops in Iraq, and bring them home, the more stories there are with either Rummy or Condi talking about the thousands of troops that "may" be brought home.

[tirechewer]

14. He may have defined what he meant.....

In an article I read last night and now cannot find for the life of me.:spank: Rumsfeld said that the "troop reductions" were going to be achieved by not sending regiments to Iraq who had been scheduled to go. The troops which were in place were going to stay there. Still it may be a troop reduction if they don't send them, yes?:wtf:

I mean, conceivably, if they had sent them there would have been more troops there than there are now. So by not sending them there will be less troops there than there are now. Therefore, by Rummy logic, that is a troop reduction.

That is so profound. If things were the same they wouldn't be different. I can now look forward to that massive troop reduction they have been hinting at for months.:sarcasm:

[kliljedahl]

11. I did hear about the Mother Theresa Cinnamon roll

on our local TV news this morning. I E-mailed them & asked them if they really thought it was news.



Keith’s Barbeque Central

[spinbaby]

13. Spying? What spying?

I notice that the word "spying" has totally vanished from the news over Christmas.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

15. It is "spaying" as in animal care for new pets.

The fact that the animals have a digital listening device implanted, which allows Big Brother to listen in on your private conversations, ("Fetch spot, no, not the secret surveillance camera, the tennis ball! Come, boy, fetch!") should not worry you one bit.

[Warpy]

16. There's no way to spin an empty WalMart parking lot

two days before Xmas, no way. I imagine they're going to look at the return traffic at the malls and neglect to report the real story except as an "Oh, by the way" at the end of any article. "Hey, look at all these people returning ugly sweaters! Sales must've been GREAT"

It's going to be increasingly difficult for the chirpy talking heads to tell us that the economy is doing just fine. Most of us know there's a real disconnect out there, even if we're not smart enough to connect the dots and realize we're being lied to about everything.

[liberalpress]

17. Come to my neighborhood.,.

where the kool-aid is strong and the well is deep. Everything is just fine. Our glorious leader is in charge. A gram is better than a damn. War is peace. Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain