Bittergate & Activist-non-gate: Declaring Independence and the Coming War
Sat Apr 19, 2008 at 04:34:30 PM PDT
One could argue that the episodes are similar. Both involved comments at closed door fundraisers that could be used as fodder for gotcha politics.
But barely 24 hours after the story broke, you get the sense that the media is ready to let Hillary's comments about Moveon.org die. Quite a difference from "Bittergate," in which the media was eager to make Kerry-Dukakis elitism into media narrative du jour even though there is little evidence the voters are particularly outraged by what Obama said.
This despite that Hillary's comments are demonstrably worse than "Bittergate." Hillary's words had a clear lie - Moveon.org opposed Afghanistan. She contradicted earlier statements praising Moveon.org. Her comments channel Judas since Moveon.org helped save the Clintons during impeachment. Most importantly, Hillary just kicked the very groundtroops she would need if she were to be the nominee.
So why aren't the media jumping on this story like they did bittergate?
I am sure the media people would say that swing voting Reagan Democrats decide elections and so their reactions are more important than Democratic activists'
If that is their argument, it is easily refuted. Papa Bush lost in 92 in part because he pissed off his loony right base breaking his "read my lips" pledge. You can't win an election without your base. And a polarizing candidate like Hillary who unifies Rebublicans against her and turns off independents can hardly afford to lose the democratic activist base. After what she has done to black voters, this latest kick to the base is the final nail in the coffin of the notion that Hillary can ever be elected President. Hillary has triangulated away whatever shread of a general election chance she might have had left.
I think the media know this, but they shall persist in assigning more weight to Bittergate.
Why?
We know the notion of a "liberal media" run by General Electric, Disney, Viacom, and the New Corp is a fairy tale, so to speak.
That bittergate merits media feeding frenzy but the activist comments elicit a yawn crystalizes the reasons why the corporate media is determined to kill Obama's candidacy.
It's because they are the true elites. But the problem is that the elites, by definition, don't constitute a powerful voting block.
The way these corporations retain their power is one the greatest examples of Chutzpah in modern American life. They use their media subsidiaries to cast candidates who actually want to help working class folks - i.e. Democrats - as elitists and they lionize candidates who support corporate hegemony and unaccountability - Bush, McCain, Clinton & the DLC crowd - as anti-elitist, regular folks.
And so they fictionalizes rich actor Ronald Reagan as regular plain spoken guy. George HW Bush is transformed from blue-blooded northeasterner into a quaint Texan who plays horeshoes. His war-dodging, Ivy league legacy son is spun as brush clearing, regular guy who you'd have a beer with if he hadn't so bravely quit drinking.
And now lobbyist-powered, tax cut perpetuating, press-worshipped McCain gets to be the anti-elite candidate? Please.
Democratic candidates, who advocate policies that actually help working class people, are turned into "elitists" through selective distortion of their words and actions to fit a manufactured media narrative.
The shamelessness is breathtaking. The corporate media elites spin elite candidates as in-touch and pro-working-class candidates as elitists. To paraphrase Al Gore, the they turn up into down and down into up in order to perpetuate their comfortable existences. That's why they worked so hard to bring down Gore candidacy. He dared use the theme "people vs the powerful."
Then they blur the distinctions on policy issues or fail to cover them at all because they are "boring." Instead, they rev up culture wars to make the elections referenda on the supposed cultural elitism of Democrats instead of the palpably real economic elitism of the corporate media.
The only time the Democrats are able to break through this Orwellian headwind is in the aftermath of Nixon in 1976, a tanking economy in 1992, and a failing war in 2006. Usually the corporate overlords successfully use their power to choose the subject of national coversation to keep their shills in office.
This is why they get their tax cuts. This is why they get their loopholes. This is why they get their (ratings generating) wars. This is why they get to kill universal health care. This is why they get to widen income inequality in America.
When you think about this sordid history of American politics for the past few decades, Obama's call to declare independence from this kind of politics sees the media's chutzpah and raises it with revolutionary clarity.
Wow.
Obama is declaring independence from the media-driven decay of American life that has enriched the few and stagnated the many.
And that is why they are ignoring his historic rally in Philly last night..choosing not to quote his call to declare independence. They bury or ignore his quote because he dares to question the elitist goal of the modern political journliast to distract the American people with Jerry-Springer-like sideshows to manipulate them into supporting the corporate media's elite interests above their own.
That's why they go after Obama so hard. That's why they try to bring him down over Wright, over bittergate, by sandbagging him in a debate. That's why they declare any fair coverage they occasionally give him as pro-Obama media bias. If they were so biased for Obama, would they tell us they are biased for Obama? They're not just disingenuous, they're liars.
The media are like the corrupt British empire and the "activist democrats" they spurn are like the revolutionary colonists, attempting the extraordinary with the hope that things can finally get better if they can overcome entrenched opposition.
The media will not go quietly. They are corrupt corporate oligarchs who claim to love America, accuse Democrats of not loving America, but can't themselves bring themselves to do what is best for America.
Shame on them.
The executives of the corporate media can't claim to love America when they piss on most Americans from the perches of their penthouse offices.
Our response to the ABC Debate was like our Boston Tea Party.
Now Obama has declared independence in Philadelphia.
But as in 1776, we have a long war ahead. John McCain is the latest heir to the throne of the media royal family of Viacom, GE, Disney, and News Corp. Their armies are powerful because they have shortchanged education of the masses to keep them docile and gullible.
The Revolutionary war was not an easy stuggle. Even after we won, the British still managed to attack us and burn down the White House in the War of 1812.
It won't be easy.
Yes, we can.
Yes, we will.
We have no choice.
The media empire must be defeated in order to make America great for all Americans.
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