The Lies Corporate Media Tell When Bernie Sanders Is "Extreme" and Trump's GOP Is "Mainstream"

[Uncle Joe]

(snip)

By these standards the Republican Party is as extreme as any major party in our history. Given the unpopularity of its views not surprisingly it has ceased any pretense of practicing parliamentary democracy. And recognizing its own isolation many members of the party are willing to countenance any available means to hold power and promote its agenda. Applying comparable standards one can reasonably conclude that the Sanders campaign stands well within the confines of earlier democratic reform movements. Consider Sanders on Social Security:

(snip)

The DC political center today was born from and contributes to an extremist movement, a counterrevolution against the New Deal liberalism that dominated U.S. politics from Truman through the first two years of the Carter Administration. Andrew Bacevich, drawing on the work of Yale Law professor Samuel Moyn, argues:

members of the post-Cold War political mainstream… share a common worldview. They believe in the universality of freedom as defined and practiced within the United States. They believe in corporate capitalism operating on a planetary scale. They believe in American primacy, with the United States presiding over a global order as the sole superpower. They believe in “American global leadership,”which they define as primarily a military enterprise. And perhaps most of all, while collecting degrees from Georgetown, Harvard, Oxford, Wellesley, the University of Chicago, and Yale, they came to believe in a so-called meritocracy as the preferred mechanism for allocating wealth, power, and privilege. All of these together comprise the sacred scripture of contemporary American political elites.

(snip)

[Delaware] Supreme Court chief justice, Leo E. Strine, Jr., is a highly influential and outspoken voice on corporate law…[He argues]. "When people talk Bernie Sanders as if he’s a communist, they show a profound ignorance" of the market and of history..…Sanders’ proposals…[are] not actually radical from a historical or global perspective. Sanders is actually a centrist by the standards of some of our closest and most prosperous European allies.

(snip)

https://www.commondreams.org/views/2019/10/30/lies-corporate-media-tell-when-bernie-sanders-extreme-and-trumps-gop-mainstream

[crazytown]

1. CNBC Interview

John Harwood: The DSA website said, “We can’t eliminate private corporations in the short term, so we have to confront them.” Would it be your intention, in the medium or long term, not to have private corporations?

Bernie Sanders: No, that’s not my intention. What is my intention, though, is to make sure that workers have representation on those large corporations.

CASE CLOSED

Sanders 'Political Revolution' Is nothing more (nor less) than getting Billionaire and Corporate dollars out of politics. This is mainstream FDR liberalism -

The American people know from a four-year record that today there is only one entrance to the White House—by the front door. Since March 4, 1933, there has been only one pass-key to the White House. I have carried that key in my pocket. It is there tonight. So long as I am President, it will remain in my pocket.Those who used to have pass-keys are not happy. Some of them are desperate.
https://liberalarts.utexas.edu/coretexts/_files/resources/texts/1936%20FDR%20New%20Deal%20Liberalism.pdf

Same as it ever was.

[TidalWave46]

2. In a bit of irony....

Two campaigns currently have attacking the media as a cornerstone of their campaigns. Both of those campaigns appeal to the extremes.

[crazytown]

3. Populism

A political doctrine or philosophy that proposes that the rights and powers of ordinary people are exploited by a privileged elite, and supports their struggle to overcome this.

[TidalWave46]

4. Populism is one of the least historically understood things today.

Historically, populism ends in failure, deaths, and the decline of states. Most of Trumps campaign was based in populist rhetoric.

Look at the article we have here. An outlet funded by dark money attacking the media and propping up a "populist."

[beastie boy]

5. Populism has been associated with the rise of many dictators to power.

From Julius Cesar, to Hitler, to Putin, with many other characters in between. It is especially dangerous now, when dictator wannabes can manipulate the media to circumvent democratic processes. This is what Trump understands and exploits every day.


"Media populism means appealing to people directly through media. A politician who can master the media can shape political affairs outside of parliament and even eliminate the mediation of parliament."
- Umberto Eco

[Uncle Joe]

7. A "politician doesn't master the media"

as there are only 5-6 corporate media conglomerates which control 90% of everything the American People see, hear and read.

In today's America, it's the other way around.

The corporate media conglomerates have mastered the politicians, at the expense of the American Peoples' best interests for the past 40+ years whether for the decades old tradition of having to raise mega-bucks from the wealthiest and most powerful in today's society to run for election or reelection to 24/7 one sided propaganda to support corporate-centric candidates to diminishing any candidate championing the public interest.

Putin is not a populist, he's an oligarch as is Trump; a "wolf in sheep's clothing" but the corporate media conglomerates are okay with that because their self-serving interests intertwine, they feed each other.

I remember when for a critical period of time when they rehabilitated or "shined" Nixon's image after his disgraceful exit from the Presidency and any scandal was followed by the word "gate" to diminish the original, of course that only served to move the Overton window to 2016 and Trump.

This is a long read but I believe an excellent analysis.

(snip)

As before, Nixon continues to idealize strategy and tactics as the meaning of politics, if not the meaning of life. He continues to focus on the means and not the goals. He continues to subscribe to pragmatic advantage as the ultimate justification for action (Sidey, 1983). In his treatise on leadership, he writes of the need for deceit and duplicity on the part of those who make important decisions. However, he does not see how the exigencies of war are exceptional circumstances and not the definitive character of leadership, which also involves vision and compassion. He does not address the relationship between the leaders and the followers in a democratic society, nor does he see how routine duplicity and deceit borders on totalitarianism (Nixon, 1982). Though he is older and more experienced, his vision is still quite narrow.

(snip)

III repute is not just the negativity of nihilists and haters, smallminded people who hold a grudge and do not forgive. Sociologically, it has very important consequences for people's understanding of moral conduct (Garfinkel, 1956; Schwartz and Skolnick, 1964; Erikson, 1969). Indeed, it is by the allocation of ill repute that the members of a society effectively establish moral boundaries. III repute illuminates the behavior that is not acceptable in terms of the prevailing value schemes. Those whose biographies are blemished by the stigma associated with such unacceptable behavior become walking reminders of what happens when people go too far.

(snip)

His ability to maintain this impression in the face of everything that has been revealed about the inside workings of the White House during his administration and in the face of the indictments, guilt, and punishment of many of those who collaborated with him as part of that administration is impressive. A lesser man might have given up in despair, surrendering to those oldfashioned ideas of truth, justice, and honor. But Mr. Nixon stood fast and stood firm. Gradually, people came to forget why he was infamous, and he became famous again.

(snip)

In addition, of course, there have been numerous political scandals since Watergate. Abscam moved public attention from the White House to the Congress; the IranContra scandal then returned the focus to the White House. So perhaps we see in the "rehabilitation of Richard Nixon" not the change in moral character of a single man but the transformation of community standards attesting to acceptable moral conduct (Ermann and Lundman, 1978; Eisenstadt, Hoogenboom, and Trefousse, 1979; Vidal, 1983).

(snip)

http://userwww.sfsu.edu/kazbeki/NixonRehab.html

[beastie boy]

8. Your critique doesn't seem to include social media

Putin is, indeed a media populist, since he has managed, as no other political figure ever has, to take control of the vast majority of Russa's media outlets.

As far as Trump, his entire presidency is full of populist connections. It, and not his control of the Executive Branch, is at the core of his staying power and his choke hold on the Republican party.

[Uncle Joe]

11. That's oligarchy and state controlled monopolization not populism.

Vladimir Putin could be the richest man in the world. Take that, President Trump.

Last year, Hermitage Capital Management CEO Bill Browder told the Senate Judiciary Committee that he believes the Russian president is "the richest man in the world" with a net worth of $200 billion. Browder has some bona fides to back up his Russia connections; the financier's firm was once the largest portfolio investor in Russia.

Celebritynetworth.com has a more conservative estimate: $70 billion, which matches the figure Russian political analyst Stanislav Belkovsky gave the Bureau of Investigative Journalism in 2012. Forbes, the universally accepted source of wealth information, has dubbed the former KGB agent "the world's most powerful person" but does not give an estimate of his net worth.

(snip)

https://www.townandcountrymag.com/society/money-and-power/a14480615/vladimir-putin-net-worth/

Trump was/is also exceptionally wealthy and he was a corporate media conglomerate; creation, whom they love to hate now or at least for the time being insofar as public consumption is concerned.

The Apprentice is an American documentary reality television program that judges the business skills of a group of contestants. It has run in various formats across fifteen seasons since January 2004 on NBC.

The Apprentice was created by British-born American television producer Mark Burnett.[1] Billed as "The Ultimate Job Interview," the show features fourteen to eighteen business people who compete over the course of a season, with usually one contestant eliminated per episode. Contestants are split into two "corporations" (teams), with one member from each volunteering as a project manager on each new task. The corporations complete business-related tasks such as selling products, raising money for charity, or creating an advertising campaign, with one corporation selected as the winner based on objective measures and subjective opinions of the host and his advisors who monitor the teams' performance on tasks. The losing corporation attends a boardroom meeting with the show's host and their advisors to break down why they lost and determine who contributed the least to the team. Episodes ended with the host eliminating one contestant from the competition, with the words "You're fired!"

Seven of the show's seasons featured aspiring, but otherwise unknown, businesspersons who would vie for the show's prize, a one-year $250,000 starting contract to promote one of Donald Trump's properties. There have also been eight seasons of The Celebrity Apprentice since 2008. In this format, several celebrities would participate to win money for their chosen charities, with the final prize being a large donation to the celebrity's charity and the title of "Apprentice". A reboot of this format, The New Celebrity Apprentice, aired in January 2017. The U.S. series originated a franchise of international television shows collectively known as The Apprentice, which has had over 20 local versions.

Real estate tycoon Donald Trump was the show's host for the first fourteen seasons, with the show affording him popularity that contributed to his rise to the presidency of the United States. After Trump declared his candidacy for the presidency, NBC announced that actor and former California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger would become the new host of The Celebrity Apprentice,[2][3] starting January 2017. Lifestyle mogul Martha Stewart hosted the one-season spin-off The Apprentice: Martha Stewart in 2005.

(snip)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Apprentice_(American_TV_series)

[beastie boy]

12. Media populism has nothing to do with the types of media, its ownership or channels of distribution.

It has everything to do with political figures using the media to circumvent and undermine established democratic (small d) institutions. It absolutely doesn't matter how a political figure has gained control of the media in question, or what types of media are being used. In general, populism involves claiming popular support for actions that are not otherwise permissible by current political or legal standards. Media populism merely denotes using the media, in all of its forms, to achieve this outcome.

[Uncle Joe]

13. Sure it does, the average American can utilize their First Amendment rights via the Internet

but trying to buy commercial space or to get your political message across on a major network or cable channel costs serious money.

small d institutions; whether it be print or radio have slowly eroded and/or monopolized since the advent of one way, top down, hypnotic communications by television in the early 1950s.

The elimination of the Fairness Doctrine and Citizens United only made a bad situation worse.

I'm convinced the corporate media conglomerates saw the rise of the Internet as democratizing force to be a threat against their own wealth, influence and power, so the preeminent political champion; (Al Gore for opening the Internet to the people) was subsequently trashed ie; "Al Gore invented the Internet" etc. etc. etc. instead of being given credit for his vision and as a result we got Bush the Least, the war with Iraq and Citizens United while climate change was largely ignored until Al wasn't in power.

The corporate media conglomerates and their oligarch owners played Zeus to Al Gore's Prometheus, the virtually free flow of instantaneous mass communication and dissemination of information without their corporate filter being fire, only instead of sending a buzzard to eat his liver every day, their well paid pundit armies waged a continuous war of slander and libel to tear at his credibility.

[beastie boy]

14. The issue is not access, but dominance.

Russian trolls, organized by Putin, have dominated the internet traffic during the 2016 election cycle. A clear case of media populism (this time by a foreign government) used in circumvention of the established US election processes in favor of a preferred candidate.

[Uncle Joe]

20. Perhaps you can present a link wherein it's stated

Russian Trolls "dominated" the Internet?

"Dominating" would be more like actually owing the network, and paying every single poster on what to post or think, I find that proposal to be ridiculous.

I certainly didn't get any paychecks from them and I can't imagine that hundreds of millions of Americans did while I missed out?

[beastie boy]

21. No, I don't have the numbers. My conclusions are based on the numerous US intelligence reports.

The reports made clear that the social media campaign under the direction of Putin himself, was successful in influencing the outcome of the US elections. If you like, I can take back the term "dominate", but it doesn't change the substance of my post.

On edit: the last thing on my mind was to insinuate your personal connection to what I am writing about, Uncle Joe. I respect every sincere dissenting opinion, and even if I don't understand why people would quote such highly partisan and narrow-minded publication as Jacobin, I respect your right to do so despite my sentiments. In fact, I welcome it, since your input gives me an opportunity to bring up my objections to the content pusblished in Jacobin.

[Celerity]

16. 'as no other political figure ever has, to take control of the vast majority of Russa's media outlet

erm......

Lenin, Stalin, Khrushchev, etc

and outside of Russia/USSR

Hitler

Mao

Pol Pot

Ho Chi Minh

the North Korean ruling Kim dynasty

etc etc

[beastie boy]

17. I was clearly talking about Russia's media

Last edited Thu Oct 31, 2019, 09:48 AM - Edit history (1)

And the media landscape in Putin's Russia is vastly more expansive than it ever has ever been before. It has become global in scope, all but small outlets in firm grip of Putin. And just as case in point of media populism: whereas in Soviet Russia control over media had been exercised through government bureaucracies, it is not, with some rare exceptions, the case under Putin, who exerts his control outside of government institutions through his oligarchs and kleptocrats, who are in turn dependent directly on Putin for their survival and prosperity.

[Celerity]

18. Putin does have more control than Yeltsin ever did, agreed there

[LanternWaste]

9. It must be rather convenient...

to blame all of Sanders' shortcomings on the media and polling.

Guess the "name-recognition" excuse got worn out pretty fast by the end of September*. Let's keep out fingers crossed we can keep blaming the media and polling as long as BS remains a second-tier candidate.






* Such simpler times when we could blame Biden's consistent lead on name-recognition only, but the year gets old pretty quickly, and new excuses have to be created to rationalize poor performances.

[redqueen]

6. "Sanders is actually a centrist

by the standards of some of our closest and most prosperous European allies."

Precisely.

So when I see people claiming that our democrats are all liberals and anyone who calls any of them moderates (et alone centrists) is lying / suspect, it demonstrates how skewed the perception of political ideas has become in this country.

[Uncle Joe]

10. I agree redqueen.

"So when I see people claiming that our democrats are all liberals and anyone who calls any of them moderates (et alone centrists) is lying / suspect, it demonstrates how skewed the perception of political ideas has become in this country."

[Turin_C3PO]

15. But candidates

like Biden are definitely liberal in the American sense of the word and would have been considered liberal in the past also. It’s true that our politicians wouldn’t necessarily be considered “left” in Europe.

[redqueen]

22. "In the American sense of the word"

Yeah. The sense which has pushed us so far to the right that Nixon is arguably the most recent liberal president.

[MrsCoffee]

19. When is he gonna start calling it fake news?

[redqueen]

23. It is spin designed to keep pushing us right.

Call it fake news, call it manipulation, doesn't matter what the label is, the effect is the same.