Report? what report? Media DEAF to Experts Who Blame GOP For Political Gridlock

[Bill USA]

Corporate message purveyors, the M$M seem to be unaware of the recent publication by Norman Ornstein (American Enterprise Inst) and Thomas Mann (Brookings Institution) entitled: "It's Even Worse than it Looks" which sites the "insurgent outlier" Republican party as most responsible for our disfunctional government.

(emphases my own)...

http://mediamatters.org/research/201205180007

[font size="4"]REPORT: Who? Media Turns Its Back On Experts Who Blame GOP For Political Gridlock[/font]

Thomas E. Mann, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, and Norman J. Ornstein, resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, are well-respected centrist congressional experts who are often cited by the media. But their recent conclusion that Republicans are responsible for political dysfunction -- laid out in an April 29 Washington Post op-ed and their recently released book -- has been largely ignored, with the top five national newspapers writing a total of zero news articles on their thesis.


[font size="4"]Congressional Experts: Republicans At "The Core Of The Problem" Of A "Dysfunctional" Washington[/font]

Mann And Ornstein: "Let's Just Say It: The Republicans Are The Problem." In their April 29 Washington Post op-ed, the duo lay out the thesis of their latest book, It's Even Worse Than It Looks: How the American Constitutional System Collided With the New Politics of Extremism:


[div class="excerpt" style="background:#eeeeff"]We have been studying Washington politics and Congress for more than 40 years, and never have we seen them this dysfunctional. In our past writings, we have criticized both parties when we believed it was warranted. Today, however, we have no choice but to acknowledge that the core of the problem lies with the Republican Party.

The GOP has become an insurgent outlier in American politics. It is ideologically extreme; scornful of compromise; unmoved by conventional understanding of facts, evidence and science; and dismissive of the legitimacy of its political opposition.

When one party moves this far from the mainstream, it makes it nearly impossible for the political system to deal constructively with the country's challenges.

"Both sides do it" or "There is plenty of blame to go around" are the traditional refuges for an American news media intent on proving its lack of bias, while political scientists prefer generality and neutrality when discussing partisan polarization. Many self-styled bipartisan groups, in their search for common ground, propose solutions that move both sides to the center, a strategy that is simply untenable when one side is so far out of reach. [The Washington Post, 4/29/2012]

NOTE: to their great credit (yes, acts of legitimate journalism are nowadays grounds for great praise!) PBS Newshour did interview Ornstein and Mann about their book. Congrats to PBS NewsHour for this gutsy programming!

[Tigress DEM]

1. KICK!!

Republican's don't like facts, but I sure do.


Tig

[cyberpj]

2. Saw them on MSNBC's weekend morning show with Chris Hayes a couple of weeks ago, and on

The Daily Show with John Stewart.

The do seem to be doing the book tour rounds but I haven't seen them other than that.

Don't people on the book tour rounds eventually get around to Fox shows somewhere?

Until we once again have a news show that both sides watch and where both sides are represented we're just screwed. We watch our channels and our people and they watch theirs. Unfortunately, people with actual brains know which is more correct.

Sigh...........

[Bill USA]

5. well, Jon Stewart yeah, but he doesn't claim to an impartial news broadcast.

I am pleased they had them on Chris Hayes show ..as was Rachel Maddow.

..http://maddowblog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/06/04/12053275-mann-ornstein-get-some-airtime?lite

"After all the complaining I've done about the media ignoring Thomas Mann and Norm Ornstein of late, it's only fair to note that the two respected political scientists finally got some must-see airtime on a Sunday show over the weekend. The fine folks at "Up With Chris Hayes" welcomed the scholars to the show yesterday for three -- count em', one, two, three -- segments on the program."


but I am really talking about broadcast networks, e.g. NBC, CBS, ABC and Fox.

BTW I only watch M$M to see how badly they mangle the truth.

[Viva_Daddy]

3. This is no surprise. The M$M is owned by the same folks that own the RepubliCON party.

[tanyev]

4. Selective deafness.