Unhinged in 30 Days: The Right-Wing Media's Obama Era Implosion

[Joanne98]

The Republican Noise Machine doesn't need the customary 100 days to size up the new president. Right-wing commentators barely needed 30 days to come to their conclusion that they hate everything Barack Obama stands for.

In terms of speed and efficiency, the right-wing collection of bloggers, AM talkers, pundits, and yes, newspaper cartoonists, may have set a new land speed record for becoming collectively unhinged, as they wail and moan about how the new Democratic president's turning America into a fascist state, or communist, or socialist, or whatever other bugaboo claim Glenn Beck and Laura Ingraham are tossing out to viewers and listeners on a daily basis.

Barack Obama is "arrogant," "dishonest," and "radical," Fox News' Sean Hannity announced during a single 10-second chunk of prime-time TV last week -- a casually hateful appraisal that didn't even raise eyebrows, simply because that kind of blanketed disdain for the new president has already become so commonplace.

If we just pause and take one or two steps back from the daily/hourly barrage of hate, it's obvious that faced with the new Obama presidency, the Republican Noise Machine has already lost all perspective -- has gone totally loco -- and it's only February, a mere month into Obama's first four years in office. Who dares to even imagine where the right-wing "conversation" goes from here?

Read the entire Media Matters column here.


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/eric-boehlert/unhinged-in-30-days-the-r_b_169379.html

[Richard Steele]

1. K&R

[Median Democrat]

2. Correlation - The More Complaints You Hear About Liberal Media - The More RW The Media Is

Fox and CNN do almost weakly segments complaining about the "liberal" media. This week, CNN profiled an author who less than a week into the Obama presidency, is already marketing a book discussing the media "liberal" coverage that is biased in favor of Obama. Wow, in less than a month, he is already making the talk show circuit.

Don't hold your breath waiting for a segment on whether corporate sponsorship of the media causes the media to be biased in favor of their sponsors.

[mzteris]

3. they might want to take a look at that Poll, again

One month into his presidency, a Washington Post-ABC News poll found 68 percent of Americans approve of Obama's job performance.


In the New York Times/CBS poll, about 75 percent of respondents, including 61 percent of Republicans said Obama has been trying to work with Republicans.

Sixty-three percent said Republican opposed the economic stimulus package for political reasons rather than policy concerns.

Eighty percent of Americans think Republicans should work in a bipartisan way rather than holding fast to their policies, according to the poll.
http://uk.reuters.com/article/marketsNewsUS/idUKN2337343020090224?pageNumber=2


• President Obama's overall approval rating comes in at 67%, with only 24% disapproval. His specific approval on the economy is 68%-27%.

• Congress' approval is at only 31%-59%, but additional questions show a much more complicated picture. The number for Congressional Democrats is at 49%-45%, while Republicans are at 33%-59%. The Republicans appear to be cramping Congress' style.

• Only 30% say Obama hasn't done enough to cooperate with Republicans in Congress -- the GOP base vote, basically -- while 62% say he's doing the right amount and 6% say it's been too much. Flipping it around, only 27% say Republicans have done enough to cooperate with Obama, with 64% saying not enough and 5% saying too much.
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/02/poll-shows-approval-of-obamadems-performance-on-economy-disapproval-of-gop.php


or then again - maybe they only looked at this one: "Democrats and Independents view media coverage of Obama as fair. But 56 percent of Republicans say the media have not been critical enough of Obama," said CNN Polling Director Keating Holland. http://www.upi.com/Top_News/2009/02/22/Poll_Media_fair_to_Obama/UPI-88891235355627/

I mean, the pubs ARE Fox's base.

[Kashka-Kat]

4. Well, if Obama was the Anti-christ & a Secret Muslim Terrorist before the election- where do you go

from there? This stuff has been going on for years now and is only the latest manifestation. Im surprised not that its still going on but that the author is under the impression it wouldve stopped or lessened after the election.

My mother is one who believes that Obama is a secret Muslim whose purpose is to destroy the US from the inside. I asked her, if you really honestly believe that he is that evil, then you must be OK with him being eliminated - if that was to happen?

That is what is scary to me - its beyond just having "difference of opinion," these folks live in their own alternate universe.

[Myrina]

5. This gives me hope!

The more the piggies squeal about Prez O, the more he must be succeeding in thwarting them and their hate for the average American worker.

Look how much they hated Bill Clinton?


:applause:

[Peace Patriot]

6. They will only get worse until we restore the Fairness Doctrine, especially the parts

that ban corporate 'news' monopolies.

But be of good cheer. Hugo Chavez and every other successful leftist leader in South American are doing quite well despite barrages of putrid chemical toxins, called 'journalism,' such as we have never heard/seen here, 24/7, on about 70% of the public airwaves and in over 50% of the newsprint. Chavez enjoys a 70% approval rating. His closest allies, Evo Morales (Bolivia) and Rafael Correa (Ecuador) also have stratospheric approval ratings; so, too, one of their closest center-left allies, Lula da Silva (Brazil). Their newest compadre, Fernando Lugo--the first leftist ever elected in Paraguay--had an approval rating of over 90% in his first month in office. I don't know what it is now (about 6 months into his first term), but I'm sure it's still high.

How do South Americans do it--elect such popular leaders, despite pervasive, corossive, fascist press?

The main key is TRANSPARENT ELECTIONS--which South Americans have been working hard on for over a decade. We have to realize that, despite Obama's election, and some improvement in Congress, the private, rightwing corporations who control the 'TRADE SECRET,' PROPRIETARY programming code in all our voting machines, have the capability--the easy capability--of tossing Obama out of the White House in 2012, and taking back Congress and making it into a rubber stamp for Hitler II. That is the reality. I don't know that they will be able to pull it off. But that is what they can do, with our voting system the way it is.

In Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador and most of South America, now, the leaders know that the people can re-elect them--they have honest aboveboard elections--and so the leaders are beholden, first of all, to the people. Here, I think Obama did win--or rather, was permitted to win--but they significantly and fraudulently shaved his mandate, to prevent any fundamental reform. Among other constraints--the corpo/fascist media included--this is a good part of why Obama is the way he is, has made the appointments he's made, and hasn't proposed the profound, structural, anti-corporate and anti-war profiteer reforms that are so desperately needed. The corpo/fascists who control the voting machines can toss him out. They are who he is beholden to, not us. I do think he cares about the rest of us--what a change from Bush!--but his hands are tied in many ways, and this is simply not the case in the real democracies that are emerging in South (and also Central) America.

The second main key is grass roots organization--and on this, a lot of Latin American activists have it over us, in community relationships which make organizing easier. There are a lot things that make the U.S. different--our many fractured communities, the size of our country, our humongous war budget. We can overcome the organizing problems, and I think we are doing so, with the internet. But the other differences make us a unique target population for control by multinational corporations--corporations with no loyalty to any people or country.

I mainly just wanted to point out how they did it in South America--despite horrendous corporate media. And that shrieking, unrelenting, fascist media is still going strong. So while the media is most certainly a problem here, I would say it's problem no. 2. Our first priority must be to get back public control of vote counting. With the power to elect--and, critically, to re-elect--good leaders, we can begin to deal with media as we have in the past--with regulation aimed at busting monopolies, and at fostering public service and fair public debate.

[8 track mind]

7. If you think this is bad, you should have a listen on shortwave...

they think the new president is the freaking anti-christ.

[opihimoimoi]

8. The GOP is hitting hard to reduce success for nefarious reasons

They are fucking up and they don even know it