The Press Seems Unable To Hear Those Obama Dog Whistles

[babylonsister]

http://firedoglake.com/2008/06/09/the-press-seems-unable-to-hear-those-obama-dog-whistles/

The Press Seems Unable To Hear Those Obama Dog Whistles
By: David Neiwert Monday June 9, 2008 11:57 am



Yesterday the Los Angeles Times ran a story about Floyd Brown's plans to use racially incendiary ads against Barack Obama in the upcoming campaign with the headline "Opening shot in the battle over crime."

Now, did you know that crime was going to be a major electoral issue this year? Me neither. In fact, with violent crime rates continuing to reach record lows, the issue hasn't exactly been burning up the front pages or the wires.

Of course, "crime" is also one of those code words for "black thuggery" that has been used by racists and white supremacists since the 1960s as a way of scaring insecure white men with guns and their insecure housewives.

snip//

Neither, we might add, does the story mention that Brown's outfit, ExposeObama, is being run by a scam artist with a long history of involvement with far-far right tax-fraud schemes.

This is, frankly, a disturbing trend. We know that Republicans are going to try to make race a major issue in the coming campaign, and we know that their favorite tactic is going to be engaging in dog-whistle politics that employ coded but clear racial appeals without being explicit about the matter. Indeed, they already have been warming up for awhile.

The only way that it will work, however, is if the press continues to pretend that it can't hear the whistle -- and that the people doing it are legitimate political operatives, when in fact they're fringe nutcases who the GOP is letting do their dirty work, as always.

So far, they're doing a splendid job of that.

[EFerrari]

1. The press is only reporting on "law and order".

:puke:

[babylonsister]

2. FDL is right; I haven't heard word one about these swift boaters. Maybe

Olbermann will cover them. Not a good omen going forward...

[EFerrari]

3. It's a good enough start that we do. They'll never sneak up on us again.

And the tubes impact the corporate media.

[babylonsister]

4. Sigh. You're right; they may catch up. I'm glad Obama's on it. nt

[renegade000]

5. i like the guy on the left in the picture

very efficient technique. only uses one hand, and you can simultaneously grab someone's attention and flip them off.

:P