I know all eyes are on what's happening in the Gulf, and continuing evacuations and assistance to Katrina victims, but I am so mad at media ignorance I could scream.
Here's Lou Dobbs on CNN welcoming a fucktard from the Evergreen Freedom Foundation, a neocon "think tank" just like all the others set up years ago to beat the drums for the GOP's drown the government club. The EFF "expert" is there to blame Nagin and the locals because school buses are under water, state and local government failed, etc (Rove's talking points).
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To find out more about Evergreen, visit Media Transparency:
http://www.mediatransparency.org/recipientprofile.php?recipientID=106
Why does the damn national media let these assholes, whose expertise is scant and agenda is clear, get time on stage?
When the water drains, and the smoke clears, we need to develop a project for either creating new media or taking back the one we have. I know I could stand on the street corner right now in my town (which has a university and is statistically well-educated and higher income) and ask 100 people what the Evergreen Freedom Foundation is and not a one would be able to answer.
The GOP/neocon/Norquist/Hoover/K Street misinformation machine is damn dangerous. Here on dKos people are always talking about evaluating sources and double-checking facts -- something media honchos with very high salaries cannot be troubled to do. What is our strategy here? Do we need to fund our own competing think tanks to counteract the bullshit stream? If so, maybe we ought to set up shop on K Street, or right outside network studios, as these GOP hacks have so shrewdly done. And we need universities with reputable journalism schools to start screaming loudly and regularly so that media gets a clue it's being watched and judged -- and embarrassed whenever possible by calls on the carpet and shout outs about it's miserable performance.
I work in journalism and I am sick to my stomach every day. I'm going to have to do something positive soon, or get out of the business.
The media is a serious part of our problem -- not only today with Katrina and the fallout -- but for the past decade through Clinton's impeachment, the elections -- and going forward. What people hear first on national TV sticks -- I know it's their own fault for being ignorant, but we have to work with the idiots we have --
Here we are in a nation that spends billions on media, and we're waiting breathlessly for the Oprah show.
I just can't bear SOS much longer. Let this diary die its deserved death -- I know I am writing to avoid having a goddamn stroke -- and I'll try to think of practical things we can do.