Reading through the AP and Reuters wire articles last night and today it’s clear that the corporate media wants the public option dead and buried. To use an analogy apropos from the season based on what the corporate media has reported the public option has been killed and comeback from the dead more than Halloween’s Jason. After Senate Majority Reid announced that he will bring the public option to the Senate floor the corporate media wasted no time looking for opposition and reasons that the public option is all but dead.
How does the media try to kill the public option?
- The sold out forth estate still frames the public debate in this country. They are trying to kill the public option with the misleading words they use. While the public option has mass appeal to liberals and moderates they frame the debate as the public option being some kind of wacko liberal idea. The corporate media keeps on claiming it is “centrist” and “moderate” Democrats that are trying to save us from this evil “government run” program even though the Democrats against it are “conservative” and “corporate” Democrats.
- The corporate media reports any lame statement an opposing Senator like Lieberman says against the public option as fact like they did yesterday with no fact checking. Moreover the moneyed media sources print conjecture as fact. One of the new narratives they are pushing is that Senator Reid just put the public option out there as a sacrificial lamb to keep us progressives happy. Of course this is not news they are reporting but just options from strategists who want to kill the public option as well.
- The failed fourth estate downplays the fact that the vast majority of the Democratic Senators want the public option though you would not know it from reports yesterday. While they know the public option has broad support they are trying to take our voices away and report the fewer opposing voices. The paid off media has no interest actually reporting what the majority of the people want.
- The main stream media never reports the real reason that “corporate” and “conservative” Democrats are not against the public option. They continue to spread the narrative that these Democrats do not support eh public option because they are listening to their more conservative constituents but it’s really because they are bought and paid for by the insurance lobby. For over 60% of Lieberman’s constituents in Connecticut, liberals and moderates alike want the public option to compete with private insurance even though Hartford is the like Detroit for insurance companies.
Like I said yesterday the public option is still a heavy lift and the prize is still a ways off but one thing we must keep clear in this fight is who is with us, who is against us and who can be convinced. The corporate media is one of our enemies in this fight for sure. The reason why they are our enemy is simple. They will get ZERO ad revenue from a public plan and less ad revenue from private insurance and provider entities because they will need to cut costs when they compete with a public plan. To keep in the mood of the season, let’s root for Jason to drag down these corporate media demigods while they doze off in their raft in the middle of the lake while millions suffer from out healthcrap system.
KQuark,a really excellent piece!!
When I look at the daily spin on HCR, OBama, and various other issues, I feel like screaming “the sky is falling, the sky is falling” because they are so focused on spinning they have no real understanding of what they have done and what they are doing to this country.
Thanks one of the things that bugs me most is most Americans get their “news” from this version of the corporate media because face it most Americans don’t dig down deep on the issues. So all this misleading bullshite story about the public option being dead and some kind of Socialist scheme really has a negative affect on the sheeple among us.
Bullseye, KQuarks!!!
All of the points you make strike at the heart of what’s going on, the one that infuriates me the most each day is your first point.
How can the Public Option be “liberal” and not mainstream when up to 70% of the public wants it…despite the slanted news they hear from the MSM?!!!
And as you point out, “moderates” want to kill true reform? That’s a “moderate” position? Meanwhile “liberal extremists” are the ones trying to deliver what the majority of Americans want.
What they’re actually saying is that 70% of Americans are extremists and the 30% that includes teabaggers, birthers and dittoheads are the moderates.
Everytime I see a report calling the Blue Dogs “moderates” (don’t newspeople know that Blue Dog MEANS conservative Dems?!) I get plasma burns from strangling my HD tv.
Thanks. Obviously we share the same pet peeve. The ONLY people against this are right wing conservatives and corporatists. In fact most remaining Democrats in the Senate are the moderates who are for the public option. Democrats that are against the “opt out” version of the public option are just being obstructionist corporate fucking tools because the “opt out” clause gives ever Dem a political reason when a vote comes up for cloture.
Happy news doesn’t sell. Even if we remove your more darkside arguements from the equation, which I don’t necessarily disagree with, the reality is that the longer this goes on, the more income the news suppliers make from the counter and counter-counter advertising going on by both sides. But there is the side that says that ordinary journalists have ceased to write anything resembling basic who/what/when/where/why stories and almost every one of them is doing both personal and corporately directed editorializing. Ed Schultz took another good shot at it today. He’s been dogged on keeping people to the fire and the rest of us aware. But the normal media? No. My regional newspaper is so distorted on many stories you might as well not read them (Arizona Republic). Is stirring the pot good business? Yes. Is it good for America? Heck no.
I understand reporting negative news. Like they say you don’t report safe jet landings but the media is making up the news which is far different.
My point was that the news organizations will take even the happy news and find something dark to report in it, because that is what is fascinating to people, sadly. It’s almost as bad as the (insert your hometown name here) stories where they find some smuck locally who knows someone in some disaster location, just for the local tie-in.
As for making it up, they’ve always done it (remember the Maine), but not to this extent nor to so many gullible people who feed on it 24/7/365 (read Fox News). Whether they be sheep or lemmings (another HP banned word) it doesn’t matter, they are lead to their demise by those who should know better but use ignorance, accidental or designed falsehoods, and deception to get them there. The arguement that it is perfectly legal to lie on a news program is an obscenity to me, but we claim it represents freedom of speech.
I know people expect negative news. It’s in our very DNA to respond to negative stimulus more attentively than positive stimulus. It’s part of our survival mechanism. But we should rise about our base instincts if we really claim to be the advanced species we are.
Yes they have always made up news but the proportion of news that is now opinion compared to real news if far out of whack.
It’s sort of sad when any news source has to second guess and then be totally wrong because they have no idea who the man in the WH really is because they have spent so much time jumping on the right wing bandwagon to criticize him.
When the President chips away at the pile of hardened shit that Bush/Cheney left behind for him and slowly succeeds with most of his campaign promises, what then, what will they say then?
I am convinced that Obama will take a beating no matter what he does. Look at the financial sector — it has stabilized since he took office but instead of even a little bit of glad-handing over that, it’s nothing but the negative aspects — only Wall sTreet got the bailout, the rest of us are screwed and so on. It’s incredibly easy to slant anything — and when it comes to Obama, I find it almost always slanted negatively in the media. Call me an Obamabot, but I believe the guy wants to do what I consider the right thing. I do not see him as a “colluding criminal” as Marcos and her ilk constantly call him.
Yes there will always be something to criticize him for and we all are aware of the main reason why. Maybe this deep rooted racism will always be a part of what it fundamentally amiss in America but one thing is for sure, he will leave America in a much, much better state than when he inherited it.
Since when do we listen to the sewer ramblings of the HuffPuff trolls? 🙂
escribacat, I agree completely. And that is what so infuriates me, especially lately, on HP.
The guy can not do enough to catch a break from many people.
Except for maybe to strip off his skin……….