So the Republicans have learned a new trick under the tutelage of Karl Rove these last few years. Say anything you want to. It doesn't matter if you lie through your teeth because the vast majority of people will never hear about it. This is what the Bush administration figured out. The lie is page 1, lead story. The correction is page 13, if at all.
When we talk about the McCain/Palin campaign's incessant lying, don't you think it would be important to point out the reason WHY they lie? Why they know it's a good campaign strategy?
There have always been lies in politics. Nothing new there. What is new is that since the Cheney/Rove administration, lying has become a preferred strategy. Not just something you do to get out of a bind. But a proactive technigue to shape the news cycle.
They adopted this brilliant strategy because they knew they could get away with it. Front page on USA Today: Terrorism Down. Correction a week later in some other paper: Whoops, not so much.
Not only does the morally vacuous corporate media never call them on it, sometimes, it appears, they do it themselves - like calling John McCain a governor, showing a screen crawler labeling disgraced Republican congressman Mark Foley "D-FLA".
The Bush presidency and now the McCain campaign have marked a new era in information warfare. In just the absolute lowest form of politics. But they can't do it alone.
What they count on is a corporate media culture that serves power instead of the people. Why, most can't even bring themselves to utter the word lie. Much less call someone on it. And that's the good ones. Most go beyond mere enabling and actually perpetuate the lies.
So McCain and company know they can say anything. And while a few journalists and the lefty blogs will catch it, the big networks will not only not catch it, they'll repeat it endlessly.
And this leads to my point.
A while back Kos did some posts about not calling the corporate media the MSM. He thought it better to use the term "traditional media".
"Corporate media" can work. But my preferred term is "traditional media" -- a nice, neutral, non-negative way to differentiate old media versus the newfangled stuff.
But wait, say some, why do we want a "nice" and "neutral" term for those newspaper and television guys? Aren't we supposed to hate them?
Absolutely not. We need an effective media, one that reports the truth, whatever it may be.
Well, I hate to break it to ya, but the media is very effective. At manipulating the public for their own aims whether it be ratings or a political agenda. And make no mistake, the corporate media does have a political agenda. Every media whore on TV has a purpose.
It is not relevant for this diary to get into motives though. The main point is that this election is a corporate production. And one can attribute any chance in hell that McCain has of winning to the blatant malfeasance of the corporate media.
No, we don't need to be nice and neutral. We will never get our country back until the hacks on TV and other outlets have been discredited. And we should pursue that task with all the fight that we put into discrediting Republicans.
I am at a loss for words trying to describe the degree with with CNN, NBC, ABC, CBS and Fox are controlling this election. Day after day they censor and distort the substance until, I hear, we blew two days talking about lipstick on pigs.
Who does that serve? Not the public.
I have said it before and I'll say it again: The corporate media is the enemy of democracy and the American people. They are the ones who gave us George Bush. And they are trying to give us John McCaibn and Sarah Palin. And there is no low to which they will not stoop. Do not be fooled by the two hours of Democrat friendly airtime they give us with Olbermann and Maddow. It is a token compared to the thousands of hours of pro corporate, pro conservative airtime spread across many networks including entertainment programming, movies, sports broadcasting and commercials.
I didn't even mention radio. Americans are inundated across the spectrum with right leaning, pro market, anti democracy messages. It's so pervasive one can accurately view the entire corporate media as one big infomercial for corporate power.
As the late Dean of the Washington Press corp Walter Lippman observed, the role of mass media is to manufacture consent. In other words, the power elite fear the masses, view us with contempt, and believe we are to be controlled. How do you control the masses in a democracy? With mass media propaganda.
Know the real enemy. And for God's sake, don't play nice. They aren't.