The Dean Scream, Twelve Years Later: "What Really Happened"

[eridani]

Posting this because it relates to Photogate, a piece of bullshit taken out within 24 hours by simply asking the photographer. This is an excellent illustration of how much things have changed since 2004 with social media. If the Dean Scream had happened this year, it would have been instantly debunked in the same way. Ditto the Swiftboaters.

http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/2/4/1479933/-The-Dean-Scream-Twelve-Years-Later-What-Really-Happened


I watched the live, uncensored C-SPAN feed as Dean stepped before the mike at his Iowa headquarters and began to speak, his voice rapidly shredding as he strained to make himself heard over the increasingly raucous crowd.

Well, you guys—you have already got the picture here. I was about to say, you know, I'm sure there are some disappointed people here. You know what? You know something? You know something?

If you had told us one year ago we were going to come in third in Iowa, we would have given anything for that. And you know something? You know something? Not only are we going to New Hampshire, Tom Harkin, we're going to South Carolina, and Oklahoma, and Arizona, and North Dakota, and New Mexico! And we're going to California! And Texas, and New York! And we're going to South Dakota, and Oregon, and Washington, and Michigan, and then we're going to Washington, D.C., to take back the White House! Yeaaahh!!

I remember thinking that it was kind of a fun moment. Painful though the loss had been, Dean wasn’t dwelling on it. He was optimistic, ebullient even, and ready to take on the task that lay ahead. Dean kept speaking for another 15 minutes, his voice shredded almost beyond recognition, as he thanked the people who had contributed to his campaign and promised to keep up the fight.

And then C-SPAN went to something else, or I changed the channel, or stopped watching; I don’t remember. Eventually I went to bed without giving any of it a second thought.

And when I woke up the next morning, the world had gone mad.

Howard Dean, pundit after pundit assured me, went bugfuck crazy last night! He screamed like a maniac! Did you see the scream!? This guy could be a serial killer for all we know! On and on it went. Dean is toast, the pundits assured us. Nobody could get up there and scream at the voters like that and expect to be elected president.

[Hoyt]

1. Never did understand why that got such a negative reaction.

[eridani]

2. Because the MSM played it in a continuous loop for weeks

Otherwise it would have been a complete nothingburger.

[joshcryer]

3. The pathetic part was when the media went meta.

And showed video that had Dean yelling because the crowd was extremely loud and he probably couldn't even hear himself. And went "oh, huh, maybe we got that one wrong." They basically critiqued themselves making a false narrative over Dean, as if that made it better.

Not that the scream coverage alone caused his collapse, his ground game was also pretty pitiful (compared to Sanders especially), and he got blindsided.

[eridani]

4. The US News and World Report had a good article on that (no longer online)

Kerry hired people who were experienced at campaigning in caucus states, and connected up with local party activists. Dean relied on an influx of people from out of state who didn't know what they were doing.

[Live and Learn]

5. Same as Kerry's swift-boating. Dean-Screamed, McGoverned, swift-boated all mean the same.

Stupid memes that the MSM gladly spewed did them in and the establishment let it happen (even the Democratic establishment because they would rather lose an election than give up there place in the establishment).

But, we have a voice now equal or better than the MSM in the internet and we have the wisdom to know that we can't let even the silliest of memes pass unanswered. We will not let it happen again!

[lostnfound]

6. Media filtered the audio to remove background noise, looked like Dean screaming for no reason

And then they played it over and over and over and over, to make sure that everyone saw it. Described him as unhinged, out of control, etc.

[Odin2005]

7. I was a Deniac and that was when I realized that the MSM was BS and RW propaganda.

[MrMickeysMom]

8. As a then Deniac, I was subjected to further harassment over this at work...

... by the right wing assholes who I worked with.

They loaded a sound file to go off when I powered up my computer at my cubical. I couldn't have been more pissed off.

It doesn't take long for alpha chimps to make their followers start hitting the funny button in unison.