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After watching this stuff for nearly two decades now, that sums it up for me better than any other explanation.
Yep, the sure do have talking points...and many stick to it to a fault. Yep, from our perspective it's lying that on the point of absurdity, but to the Repugnican base or those who aren't familiar with the facts, it's easily bought and never questioned.
Repugnicans flood the airwaves with their spinners and never miss an outlet to exploit...be it xtian radio, talk radio, news/talk and so on. They have organizations like the AEI and Heritage institute that do nothing but book talking heads and plant news stories...creating an alternative media/worldview that has now expanded into the corporate media.
Add to this a corporate media that gets cheaper and cheaper. Emphasis went from reporting news to the people who report the news...it's personalities and simple. Complex issues don't draw viewers...yelling does.
For years the Repugnicans built up a media/spin machine that is still growing. While the RNC can get their spin points out and in their echo chamber within hours, the Democrats still can't figure out how to get 10 together and agree on something. Yes, there's corporate media complicity in this as the Repugnicans also throw more money (advertising) their way...and this adds to having less chances to get out a message.
Mike Malloy also described this nicely over the years...how the media has been dumbed down to either turn off people or create a lot of apathy. Polarization draw ratings and viewers and revenues and that means a lot more to the owners of these networks than truth or facts of serving as an honest broker of news and information. They tried that and lost lots of money.
While AAR is a good start, it's far from the antidote to the Repugnican media empire. And the coordination between liberal/progressive/Democratic groups is abysmal (been there, done that)...thus I don't expect things to change on the tube...it'll have to be done district by district, voter by voter. Our work is cut out for us...
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