I turned 60 this year. Maybe my memory isn't as accurate as it used to be.

[Atticus]

I seem to remember a time when there was something called "decency" that was a mostly-unwritten requirement of maintaining a national audience on TV or radio or in print. The decency I recall had little to do with "wardrobe malfunctions" but had everything to do with honesty, integrity, tolerance and fair play. It was the scalpel with which Special Counsel Joseph Welch eventually eviscerated "tailgunner Joe" McCarthy: "Have you no sense of DECENCY, sir?"

Serious or repeated violations of the decency standard were met with near universal condemnation if not genuine outrage. Outright lying, intentionally hurting someone with mean-spirited remarks, name calling or a gratuitous invasion of their privacy were indecencies which "good people" refused to condone or countenance.

Did I imagine that or did it really used to be that way? If my memory isn't defective, what the hell happened?

Rush Limbaugh? Glenn Beck? Ann Coulter? Michelle Malkin? Folks, these are mentally ill hate-mongers, plain and simple! They have made the choice to prostitute themselves and all remaining notions of decency in exchange for truck-loads of cash, soaring ratings and a measure of warped political power. WHY---IN---HELL would any self-respecting, patriotic---DECENT---network continue to offer them an outlet for the rank sewage they spew into the automobiles, offices, neighborhood bars and living rooms of America on a daily basis?

The answer? No self-respecting, patriotic, DECENT network would!

Some of these rants border on treason and many are clear-cut efforts to stir up racial hatred and incite violence---against Obama, against Sotomayor, against any minority, against "liberals"---the catch-all for all who don't worship at the altar of reactionary neoconservative bigotry.

Have WE no sense of decency, at long last?

[villager]

1. we are in the latter days of Rome -- the bread & circuses are thusly amped up

to keep peoples' minds off the clamoring storms at the gates....

[bvar22]

23. Indeed.....

....only these days its LESS bread and MORE Circuses.
The BIGGEST Circus in town is the "Democratic" Congress.

[Voice for Peace]

74. and the pleasures of watching people being eaten by lions

as entertainment.

[Brigid]

91. That would be reality TV.

Don't know why anyone watches that crap. x(

[jaysunb]

2. K&R

And if permitted to continue unabated, will in turn stir up some pretty awful results.....

btw welcome to the 60's :hi:

[Tangerine LaBamba]

3. Maybe it's the drugs,

but I am thinking lately that Obama's style is setting a standard which just might rub off on some Americans. I like to think that his calm and cool and patience and infinitely good manners are going to make these snarling animals look worse and worse - as well they should - and they'll gradually lose their audience.

A LaBamba can dream, can't she?

[jaysunb]

19. I think it's an element of his appeal

to the masses. :shrug:
i'm dreaming with you....

[spag68]

25. Obama

You can dream, but don't hold your breath. It really was over when he embraced Lieberman.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

35. Do you really think so?

Man, I hope not. We've got a long way to go. I'm gonna hold on to that slender thread of hope that I have, but, yeah, it's not looking real good, I know.

Dammit ......................

[lib2DaBone]

88. .. trying to keep the faith.....

waiting for change I can beleive in...

[lunatica]

77. I wrote about manners too, before I read your reply. Look at reply #76

I guess we're all looking into our youth today

[armyowalgreens]

4. It's hard for me to understand your world because I'm only 19.

I've only ever been exposed to modern media I like to call the circus. It's very hard for me to take any sort of media seriously now a days. I'd like to know what it was like to be able to trust information that came from a news source.

[Atticus]

20. They were not saints, but Edward R. Murrow, who I barely recall, Walter Cronkite,

Chet Huntley, David Brinkley and others reported the news and added well-identified offerings of their opinions on the news. They were, on occasion, wrong, but do not recall ever feeling that they were trying to favor a party or please corporate America.
I also don't recall any of them at any time being anything but professional and courteous to those they interviewed, to those about whom they reported,and to us, the viewers and listeners.

If you want to know what that was like, what journalism used to be---SHOULD be today---watch Bill Moyer's Journal. Bill is a "holdover" from what now seems to have been the golden years of American journalism.

[nancyr]

39. You hit the nail on the head with your comment.

I also remember the apparently long-dead decency and integrity of years past. It seems to me that it all flew out the window with the rise of Rush Limbaugh, and then Fox News came along to finish it all. The original news-people were dignified and courteous and bore no resemblance to the pompous windbags of today. Bill Moyers is the last of them unfortunately. It's very sad.

[eridani]

44. As I recall, the sins of the MSM in that era were mostly sins of omission

Poverty, racism, domestic violence, etc, became suitable topics of discussion only after teh 60s.

[Mika]

55. Yes. They put a decent, professional and courteous smiley face on American imperialism.

If one puts forth manifest destiny in a decent, professional and courteous manner, it makes it more palatable to the home (target) audience.

The curtains may change but the proscenium remains the same.

[RaleighNCDUer]

92. Are you talking about those who Atticus is speaking of?

These were the journalists who did not shy from covering civil rights and the Vietnam War. They did not just reflect what the government wanted us to see.

Not only did they give coverage to the Birmingham marchers, but they showed us just who Bull Connor was. Not only did they talk to Gen Westmoreland and the military PR flacks, but they showed us the images of naked children fleeing a napalm bombing, and an allied officer summarily executing a VC prisoner.

They gave us the truth, and upon seeing the truth the American people rose up for justice and peace.

If we had more of that type, and a platform for them (which is, IMO, the real problem) we'd have never gone into Iraq and travesties like Prop 8 would be laughed out of the ballot box.

[Mika]

96. Where were they during US overthrows of the govs of Iran, Iraq, Chile, Argentina, Venezuela, etc.?

Plenty more.

I stand by my statement.

[Blue_In_AK]

58. I couldn't agree with you more.

When Bill Moyers is gone, we will truly be in the wilderness.

[femrap]

87. There's Amy Goodman with

Democracy Now! She's great.

[October]

67. Nice posts! Welcome! I think journalism ended when they allowed corporations to buy networks

GE bought NBC... and it's been downhill ever since.

It's all about the bottom line and profits. It's about personality, not news. It's disgusting and unwatchable.

I'm still stunned by the changes, though. I can't watch the vapid stuff that now passes for news -- not on any network. PBS, Bill Moyers... and honestly, Jon Stewart (and Colbert) is all I can bear.

[FKA MNChimpH8R]

78. True, but Huntley and Brinkley were accountable

only to David Sarnoff, and Murrow and Cronkite only to Bill Paley, The news media were independently owned in those days, and the Sarnoffs and Paleys of the world viewed the news as a public trust. Truth, not pleasing a bunch of pimply faced MBAs on Wall Street, was the bottom line.

[scentopine]

26. New York Times and Wash Post didn't always shill for Washington

It's true. I think after Iran Contra and the first Savings and Loan disaster, the "scoop" died. Both of these stories were well reported, but justice failed us - few convictions, no lessons learned. Given the free ride given Bush and Iraq and torture and Wall Street and spying on Americans, the media has decided if it can't beat them, might as well join them.

Now we get prater and nonsense from Maureen Dowd and David Brooks. Give these fluffer nutters the boot and bring back hard core investigative journalism. We need truth seeking not reasoned arguments for torture and deception or pithy inside jokes and hear-say.

A circus is a place where you can watch other people perform amazing and risky feats of strength and skill. What we have here in the media is more of a freak show. People are paying good money to stare at a collection of human oddities.

[spag68]

29. Iran-Contra

I differ only in that I believe it was Nixon and his non prosecution that started the public disassembly of news.

[scentopine]

40. Could be...

Still, it was the last time when the press could expose harmful behavior to US with such thoroughness that it could bring down a president or help end a war. Press is now completely impotent, having trained a new generation of bubble headed stenographers and fashion models.

[ldf]

60. the press is NOT completely impotent

just the opposite. they ARE the power, and they are controlled by the corporations, who own congress, for the purpose of increasing profit margin of bottom line, by way of complete deregulation.

i think that is pretty much the definition of corporate fascism.

and if 'the news' isn't seen on tv, it didn't happen.

millions marched against the war, but the media refused to show it, or if they did mention it, marginalized it, lied about the numbers.

they decide what is news and what isn't. they CREATE what is the news. we are led around by the nose, and then diverted by celebrity, gossip, then mis-characterizations and outright lies.

take all the crap about sotomayor. it is crap, but the networks smell blood, and will eagerly fan the flames of lies, for viewers. and that is just the short run. if they in the long run, as a by product, help to bring down obama, and the republicans regain power, they win again.

rupert murdoch was and is willing to lose millions for the purpose promoting the rightwing, conservative agenda.

cnn, the first real news network, actually went to the republican congressional leaders when they were in the majority, and asked how they could be more like fox, so as to get more access to those very republican leaders.

murdoch's right wing rag, the new york post, loses millions a year. it is chicken feed to him.

but murdoch's empire just keeps getting bigger. how many fox channels now exist? every monthly bill i pay to time warner, part of it goes to him. more channels, more dollars. if allowed, i would have every one of them dropped from my cable box. but even though it is possible, they would never allow that. i am REQUIRED to support rupert murdoch.

representing truth on tv, all we have are keith and rachel.

most americans still don't get their news from the internets. and if the corporations have their way with the internets, they will control it, too.

i've always said that the big money democrats just don't want it bad enough. we could have a news network that told the truth. but no one with money will pony up. too bad.

:shrug:

[csziggy]

42. Yes, the press had been ignoring Noxin's crimes for a while

That is what made Woodward and Bernstein stand out - they actually went after the story. But even then, if Deep Throat had not fed them the strategic bits, they would not have stayed on it. He had to hand feed them enough to keep them going.

At one of our Democratic Club meetings we had a panel of Capital (Tallahassee) reporters for our program. The most senior report, Cottrell, answered the question why the reporters did not research the important issues better or more - this was when Jeb Bush was Governor of Florida. Bill was honest - his answer, "Because we're lazy."

His suggestion if we wanted to get the story out was for US, the people, to do the research then feed it to the reporters framed the way we wanted it presented.

Think back - Deep Throat did not just hand facts to Woodward and Bernstein, he fed them the facts in the order to shape the story and the way they reported it.

Maybe we should all become Deep Throats. Use the facts we all know from internet sources, frame the stories the way we want them presented and force feed them to selected reporters.

[tavalon]

50. There was a day when you could mostly trust them, though you still had to use your brain

but nowadays it's just so obvious that they are scamming us and they don't even try to hide it. Yet, many average intelligence Americans don't see through it. It's very frustrating. It's good that you see it for the scam it is.

[Golden Raisin]

52. When I was your age (and younger)

there was a half hour of (national) news at night (anywhere between 6:00pm-7:00pm) on one of the three (count them!) major networks (no cable!). Because of the brevity of the shows you got the more crucial and important international and national news stories. There simply wasn't time for in-depth coverage of missing white girls in Aruba. The news was delivered by the likes of Walter Cronkite, Huntley and Brinkley or Howard K. Smith, (all experienced, professional, ex-field newspaper journalists) who, with all their faults, by comparison to the buffed, gym-bunny, manicured and coiffed robotic teleprompter and cue-card readers of today were Socrates, Aristotle and Plato. They could actually discuss the news intelligently if required to do so, or conduct an interview that wasn't embarassing. They bent over backwards to be impartial and hide any political opinions or personal leanings they may have held as individuals. Most of all there was none of this 24/7, total, non-stop constant immersion with repetitive looped videotapes (how many times have we all seen the footage of the planes crashing into the Twin Towers?) If there was an interruption for a special emergency bulletin it was exactly that: a serious emergency bulletin, like John F. Kennedy being assassinated. Now they interrupt if a 767 is on fire on a runway in Topeka or there's a police car chase somewhere in L.A.

[lunatica]

80. Watch Bill Moyers. Listen to Thom Hartmann

and Randi Rhodes. They are people you can trust to give you the facts and they will also teach you because they all give you background information.

[Lorien]

83. Bill Moyers yes. The other two are openly biased

which is fine for the kind of shows that they do, but their worked can't be compared with journalism of 30 years ago when reporters tried their best to remain professional and unbiased at all times.

[lunatica]

85. I'm not comparing it to journalism per se

I was responding about the issue of trust. True that they are biased but they are not lying because they are quite honest about their political views. Both Randi and Thom solidly base their arguments on facts and knowledge of the material. Both educate the public a great deal. There is no reason not to trust what they talk about or to feel that maybe you're being lied to and they're just making stuff up to deceive.

[RaleighNCDUer]

93. The other two are only biased because the truth has a liberal bias.

It is liberal to inform; it is conservative to conceal the truth.

The acknowledge being liberal, but are they ever caught out being WRONG?

[MrModerate]

5. The notion of decency has been infantilized by zealots, and now means . . .

You don't put your peepee in the wrong hole.

Just like so many other concepts have been dumbed down to sound bites, so decency has been simplified into a stick to beat "the other" with.

[janx]

6. Media and $$$

:hug:

[Booster]

7. Sense of decency or lots and lots of money. hmmmmmm

[virgogal]

8. Meanness has been around for years-Rembember Muskie and Eagleton?

[elleng]

12. Yes, we do remember.

Meanness? I don't recall such at the time, tho there certainly was a lot of b.s. about their situations.

Did the 'bad' stuff begin then?

[frogcycle]

16. Nope

There was plenty of "bad stuff" in Nixon admin - "enemies list", calling anyone against the war a commie sympathizer... McCarthy didn't start it either. The hate against Jews in pre-WWII USA was - widely promoted in the media - Charles Lindbergh was a flaming racist, so was Henry Ford. They just didn't have talk radio and fux news as a 24x7 outlet.

[elleng]

22. Sure, but its more than talk radio and fox.

There were 'gentlemen's agreements,' thats the way things were done, 'civilly,' one might say. NOW its completely UNcivil.

[CoffeeCat]

30. I agree...

I think the Bush Administration's behavior was a big dog whistle to the psychopaths, sociopaths,
racists, sexists, bigots, pedophiles and other random abusers. They didn't say it per se, but
their greed, lies, war, murder, backstabbing, torture and criminal behavior--sent a clear signal to the
worst dregs in our society--that it's cool to be a conscienceless, evil thug.

[frogcycle]

51. good point

an atmosphere of tolerance of evil


Years ago being a Klan member was socially acceptable in some circles. Using racial slurs was commonplace. Then came an era in which some modicum of restraint was the norm - you couldn't use certain words or admit to burning crosses without at least some level of public disapproval. The bushies invited all the closet hatemongers to "go public." Now they can pander to the 20-30% of the population who just love that stuff, and the others just stand by because they have a "right" to say whatever they choose. Limbaugh just does not care what 80% of the population thinks of him, any more than Jack Nicholson did in "A Few Good Men"

Limabugh's outrageous utterances are clearly racist, echoes of the 50s and 60s when white supremicists insisted that if you let "them" into "our" schools the next thing you know "they" will be dating "our" women.

I hope he has a massive heart attack and drops like a stone. soon. Go join Falwell, you fat racist pig!

[onager]

27. Henry Ford had his own newspaper.

The infamous Dearborn Independent. Which published the complete English-language edition of Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion.

The paper reached a circulation of 900,000 by 1925 (only the New York Daily News was larger in this respect), largely due to promotion by Ford dealers due to a quota system. Lawsuits regarding the anti-Semitic material caused Ford to close the paper, the last issue being published in December 1927.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dearborn_Independent

I read a history of Ford Motor Company a few years ago. The author mentioned that Henry Ford's personal doctor was Jewish, and a good friend until Ford started his journalistic venture. The doctor then refused to treat Ford anymore. Or even speak to him.

Strange thing was, Ford seemed baffled by the doctor's reaction. He went around asking his family and friends: "What did I do to make him so mad at me?"

[elleng]

9. They ARE hate mongers;

I don't know that each of them is mentally ill, but they PLAY to those who have a similar disability. (for example, mightn't limpb simply be out for the $? and beck?)

edit: who, not to

[bemildred]

10. Well, I know what you mean.

There are two things: we've become more decadent, and therefore more overt about our immoral and unethical behavior. I don't think self-serving criminality is new, I'm not even sure it is more common, but it's definitely more public, overt, and unrepentant.

[frogcycle]

11. Right you are

It was not always thus.

The spew I heard today is so close to inciting a riot and/or advocating violent overthrow of the government ... or something even more explicit, the perps would have been muzzled in "our day."

Limbaugh's rant today might as well have been a Klan rally.

And they do have no sense of DECENCY. They would stomp a kitten if they thought it was a librul.

[The River]

13. You Remember Correctly

I'm the same age and I remember it that way too.

We the People still have a basic sense of decency but
TPTB, through their corporations, media and spokespeople
in Congress want us divided, angry and fighting among ourselves
for the scraps they allow us in the form of cheap goods,
pointless entertainment and propaganda that passes for news.

[hfojvt]

14. decency got killed in the 1970s

When Archie Bunker flushed a toilet on national television, and it's been downhill ever since. Then we had the 1980s. You remember 'greed is good'. Along with that are things like 'nice guys finish last' and 'decency is for suckers'.

Winning isn't everything. It's the only thing.

[janx]

24. Archie Bunker was satire--and good satire. n/t

[Bobbie Jo]

34. classic

[madamesilverspurs]

15. I remember decency.

At least I did when I turned 60 last year. Or was that the year before...

Damn, now I have to get out the calculator. Right after I find my bifocals.



What?

[frogcycle]

17. I remember indecency

snicker snicker

[madamesilverspurs]

21. Me, too.

But I also remember when we weren't allowed to be pregnant. We could be expecting or 'with child', but never pregnant.

[Jackpine Radical]

86. How 'bout "knocked up?"

Back in my day, girls used to get knocked up all the time.

[tabasco]

18. The war machine Eisnhower warned us about took over the country.

The corporate propaganda media is a department of the war machine.

[peacetalksforall]

28. You're right and this is the way it hits me: There are now endless

circumstances where people will say - well, it's not against the law. In every situation where I've heard it, I want to scream -it may not be against the law, but it is against decency. It's not a decent thing to do. From the simplest thing like spreading harmful, but not illegal, gossip to the opposite end where corporations twist the law to cheat someone out of a right or corrective compensation or demean them, shame them, ruin them. The corporations have done this endless times. They have won the race for not quite doing something illegal, but doing things sadly and tragically indecent.

Politicians are tied with corporations. Step by agonizing step, the Republicans used millions of dollars and the work time of Congress to smear Pres. Clinton with the ultimate moment being the live testimony in the Map Room carried all over the world. Did the fool Starr have the law on his side? Obviously yes. Was it decent in any way? Absolutely not. It was one of the worst scenarios in our history. Indecent politics. They didn't kill off the Clintons, but they ruined things for Gore, the American people, Iraqis, Afghanis, and many Moslems and then the 'Mexicans' - a race too close to override thefts of votes. How decent was was stealing our votes?

I talked to someone recently who met the criminal Starr and heard him speak - a Democrat who didn't approve of the character assassination of Clinton - but, this guy said Starr seemed to be a sweet man and a DECENT person. Decent? A criminal who misused the FBI and the legal system for how many years to try to nail, catch, trap, and ruin the Clintons?

I'm glad you wrote. I'm older than you and I do remember.

How decent was Liddy today or yesterday? Did he break a law? Nope. Was he decent? Absolutely not. It's impossible for him to be decent. The Republicans are masters of indecency.

And how decent is torture? And how many lawyers are still struggling to make it legal retroactively? The U.S. is the ultimate mastersd of indecency because it wasn't in our culture in international relations on the surface and everyone involved should have known better - just as Israel is indecent to Palestinians and the ultimate was the Gaza Strip and the buring desire to bomb the xxxx out of Iran. Israel should have known better and still don't.

Decency - gone with the barons agenda 100 years ago. Decency - gone with a big per cent of Americans after the assassination of Kennedy. It's been down hill for 100 years and nearly 400 years for Native Americans and African slaves and their American descendents.

How proud can a person be about their country. Overly proud since it's lacking in decency in general.

[janx]

31. A kick and a recommendation

[sallylou666]

32. Not nostaligic

Pardon me for not sharing your nostalgia but I would never have been able to go to law school had I been in your generation. Women my age can not even relate to how women were treated back then. I'll stay with the here and now. Maybe real journalism can be restored.

[Atticus]

41. Sorry if I failed to make myself clear.

I wasn't being nostalgic for those times, just lamenting the loss of and longing for a return to the intellect and rigorous integrity that shaped most of the journalistic world of that era. I, too, live in the here and now and I am sorry you can't relate to the way women--- and black people, and gay people and opponents of war---were treated "back then".

And, you are just plain wrong about not being able to go to law school "in my generation". There were quite a few extremely competent women in my law school class who are still "fighting the good fight" beside their male colleagues. You are standing on their shoulders.

Let's all hope that journalism can be restored.

Thanks for the response.

[timtom]

47. When could you not have gone to law school?

Just to get a time frame.

[Senator]

33. K&R

[Greyhound]

36. Before my time, but it seems that, particularly the news departments, took their role

in society very seriously. The entertainment and news divisions were divided and existed for different purposes. I remember a story where Walter Cronkite related the debate that was happening in the 70s over whether news should compete with entertainment in ratings. According to him, both he and Paley were vehemently opposed to the idea and predicted just what we have now, news divisions that are constantly pressured to increase rating against entertainment and eventually they would become nothing but another entertainment segment with no news at all. Corporate consolidation and the attendant lack of real competition has only made it worse.

So I don't think it is a matter of decency in the puritanical sense (i.e. Archie Bunkers flushing 'terlet'), but rather an understanding of the difference between reality and make-believe. Remember the Smothers Brothers Show, Laugh-In, or some of what was said on Hollywood Squares?

[RaleighNCDUer]

94. That argument was fictionalized in '76 with 'Network', and that outrageous

satire has been topped by reality today.

In the words of the immortal Lily Tomlin - No matter how cynical I get, I can't keep up.

[Greyhound]

95. LOL! Damn, but she had some great ones.

I think, "The problem with the rat race is that even if you win, you're still a rat" was her's too.

[abq e streeter]

37. I've just started rereading David Brock's The Republican Noise Machine

and finished Eric Alterman's What Liberal media.....good analyses , history etc in both.

[Statistical]

38. Three reasons....

$ $ & $

[marybourg]

43. You were born in the "sweet spot" of post-WW II

optimism. You're too young to remember Father Coughlin. He was, I believe, worse than anything on the air today:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Coughlin

[KT2000]

45. Decency and integrity

beyond the media, we are being played by just about every corporation out there.
Health care insurance, all kinds of insurance, shoddy products replacing qualiity products. Lies are an acceptable form of communication, corporations cost shifting anywhere they can.

I often think of my father and am glad he is not around to see this decline. He lived with a code of integrity that we do not see anymore but was common in the earlier 90's. He worked in aerospace and took his job seriously because lives were at stake. In fact, one of his planes was the KC-135 tanker that is still in use after 50 years.

[jotsy]

46. make decency valuable

I often wonder why and how, as a society, we've landed in a place where decency has no monetary value and therefore lacks relevance, but that's how I'd put words to the changes I see, so no, it's not you. We all just have to be more adamant and persuasive with those around us by insisting that building a world full of people with integrity helps us all live in a better place.

[chill_wind]

48. Great OP. K & R. n/t

[old mark]

49. I'm about to turn 62. Decency went away as part of the

policy of celebration of ignorance and stupidity by the media. Watch any "news" programming and see what I mean. Great hair and teeth, no brain. Owned by the RWers.
Since the RW "religious" coopted values, decency is dead.


mark

[Golden Raisin]

53. Bravo. And there were actually

occasional Senators and Congresspeople who put mutual National Benefit above constant and relentless partisan bickering, squabbling and finger-pointing.

[SmileyRose]

54. Sorry but I'll take THIS over the 1950/60's

If I have a choice between nice refined chat on the TeeVee and Radio but in society it is acceptable to beat your wife and lynch the darkies or what we have now - spew and spit from airwaves but much more decency in the real world - then I'll take this.

[Atticus]

71. I'm sorry, but that "choice " is not only a false one,

it was not proposed by my post or even implied by it. Please see my reply to SallyLou666 above.

Certainly, many aspects of society are much improved since the 50's and 60's, but, in large measure, wrongs were able to be righted BECAUSE of the decency standard in public discourse which I described. Frankly, today I usually do NOT believe what I hear on the MSM. At the very least, I assume it is slanted, exaggerated, or just not the whole truth. It is difficult to react appropriately when you're not sure what is true and what is spin.

Maybe it's just a matter of emphasis, but I don't think I actually agree that there is "much more decency in the real world" today. Some areas, as you mentioned, are better. But, others have deteriorated beyond what some of us would have believed possible.

Thanks for your remarks.

[LuckyLib]

56. What happened? You said it so well: truck-loads of cash, soaring ratings and a measure of

warped political power" --

our corporate media on steroids with interchangeable Ken and Barbie dolls who talk the "snews" with a side dish of complete lunatics.

[solara]

57. Hear! Hear!

:kick:


:patriot:

[RebelOne]

59. No, your memory is not failing you.

I am 70 years old and I remember those days of "decency" in the world of TV and radio. But those days are no more.

[yy4me]

62. 67 here and I also remember the days of courtesy and decency

on TV. Walter Cronkite and his other network associates did their best to present the world as it was. They would have been laughed out of town if they spent time on some of the frivolous stuff that is today's headline news.

What was considered scandalous years ago would be non-newsworthy today. I wish I could remember the topic involved but I remember Jack Parr getting into trouble for something that was, by todays TV terms, laughable. Remember "Payola"? Today that would generate a shrug and nothing more. It was penny candy compared to what is happening now.

Say what you want, there were good things going on back when we were kids. We just did not appreciated it at the time.

[ananda]

61. I hear you!

I turned sixty last October, and twenty
years ago I never would have dreamed
that the uninhibited id of rightwing
hatemongers would be unleased over the
air waves in a public display that would'
end up bringing down the Republican party
in such an amazing fashion.

[KoKo]

63. Your memory hasn't failed you. It's hate speech to bring in viewers...

What kind of viewers, one might ask. Perhaps ones that wouldn't understand the word decency even if they looked it up. Where is the outrage? Well I remember when folks tried to write Rush's sponsors and boycott them. It was a big effort in the early days of blogosphere. We can see how that turned out. There once was a sense of outrage. I think it passed after the years of the Bushies took a tank to it.

[Faygo Kid]

64. ". . . mentally ill hate-mongers . . . " I'm TOTALLY with you on that.

Those who get their science from Rush Limbaugh and theology from Ann Coulter are insane, yet they are about 20 percent of the population.

Rush is destroying the Republican Party, though, and for that we can be grateful.

[babsbunny]

65. Ahhhh, those were the daze......

We can hope......

[geckosfeet]

66. Rec'd

[secondwind]

68. I'm 62. When I watched Miss America contests back then, the contestants didn'tn

have siliconed breasts, blinding white teeth, etc.

They were REAL .

Women commentators on TV ( there weren't really many) also were REAL. No hair extensions, botox, etc.

They were REAL.

I miss the good ole real days.

[spanone]

69. i grew up in the fifties & sixties...walter cronkite, huntley & brinkley

there is no way we can compare these sensational teevee shows that pass as 'news' with the reporters/anchors that went before them....imo


:shrug:

[Atticus]

81. You're right. There is no comparison.

For those who were not aroung when "Uncle" Walter Cronkite was "the most trusted man in America", consider this. After returning from an investigative trip to the battlefields of Viet Nam (let that sink in: Walter Cronkite, the most watched and listened to anchor in the news business, went to Viet Nam to INVESTIGATE), on February 27, 1968, Mr. Cronkite ended his broadcast with a carefully worded opinion to the effect that the bloody conflict was destined to end in a draw and that we should negotiate an end to the fighting, not as victors, but as honorable people who had done their best to defend democracy.

When President Lyndon Johnson heard about Cronkite's remarks, he said: "That's it. If I've lost Cronkite, I've lost middle America!"

Can you think of ANY one of today's talking heads that could have that impact on a President? On the future direction of the nation?

Comparison? It's not even "apples and oranges"; more like apples and bat droppings!

[earth mom]

70. I'm getting close to 50 and I well remember when scum like Limbaugh & O'Lielly would be shunned.

Back then those bastards would have been called delusional fringe hate mongers and avoided at all costs.

Now they are preaching their nazi-esque sociopathic hatred from coast to coast.

Who knows how many people they've brainwashed?!

I refuse to listen to them or watch tv news anymore.

Fuck all of them and their bullshit, hatred and lies.

[madrchsod]

72. 62 here and there`s nothing wrong with your memory...

[rasputin1952]

73. As a geezer, I share your sense of betrayal by what has become...

the "news".

I can recall a time where Journalists had integrity, and if there were any "pundits", they were few and far between. Very few outlets these days have anything even coming close to news, it has become "entertainment". For the record, this was not an overnight occurrence, it has been happening for a long time, the days of Walter Cronkite reporting from faraway battlefields is over. The days of investigative Journalism are over.

We have accepted what was offered, and all what passes for "news" now, is that which will drive fear into out minds, and cloud our thoughts with obfuscations.

People like Limbaugh, Coulter and Maklin do little more that espouse hatred and mistrust. They exist because they have a "following", those that will take anything at face value simply because they heard it on the "news". There is no "Liberal Media", it is dominated by conservatives that have nothing more to offer than death and destruction, they live through the ignorance they foist upon the population...and they live well...x(

[santamargarita]

75. This Country really started going to hell with Reagan

~

[lunatica]

76. Your memory isn't faulty

When was the last time we heard the word 'manners' used to describe how someone should behave? I'll be 61 this year and I used to hear about manners all the time. Table manners, social manners, even manners in relation to people you don't know in public situations. It was these manners that make interaction between people a civilized activity. But when Clinton was President the opposition started pushing the envelope of bad manners even as they were attacking Clinton's manners.

It's the hypocrisy and the blatant lies that have grown out of that time when the Right felt the power of being able to impeach the President. Suddenly they knew what they had to do to gain power again. Lie and attack everything. Then every time they came to some invisible limit (or what decent people think is a limit) they just went further past it. Slowly they have lost the boundaries that simple manners used to keep us civilized. It's influence is almost lost in our government and our media, and we're seeing the result.

[omega minimo]

79. Thank you Ronnie "Homeless Are Campers" Reagan. Mission Accomplished.

[Lorien]

82. I remeber a time when we had this thing called the Fairness Doctrine

then Ronny Reagan took it away. Decades later even so called "liberals" repeat the GOP talking points about it because...well, because there hasn't been a Fairness Doctrine for decades!

Mission accomplished, RNC!

[Atticus]

84. Tru dat. n/t

[defendandprotect]

89. It's like asking what happened to Germany after Hitler 's entrance . . .

Presume you also remember an America that didn't TORTURE . . . ??

The rise of the right brings destruction, indecency -- as you saw with
Joe McCarthy -- perversion as we've seen in rising sexual enslavement of young
females and males.

One of the primary aims of the Drug War, IMO, was to create a violent view of
America -- make citizens frightened of one another.

General Electric, one of the most notorious of right wing corporations, put
Pat Buchanan on Crossfire and kept him there for decades. Buchanan is one of
our most sexist, racist and homophobic political personalities.

Clear Channel has long supported Rush Limbaugh and although Randi Rhodes outdrew
him, CC refused to syndicate her show.

The right wing has openings for people willing to sell themselves and tell lies
all day long. They always have openings for people who'll do dirty work and
destructive things for them. Keep in mind, our CIA created the Taliban/Al Qaeda,
financing it thru ISI-Pakistan. And used these religious fanatics in a scheme
intended to "bait the Russians into Afghanistan . . . in hopes of giving them a
Vietnam-type experience." The US went into Afghanistan 6 months before the
Russians with this plan in mind.

There is a long history of patriarchy/elites using the most fanatical among us
to serve their own purposes.

Look behind the Limbaugh's and Beck's to those who finance them and keep them on
the air. Who sets them up to pander to the baser instincts of an audience --
and who is that audience?

A call for decency isn't going to do it -- we need to end the reign of corporations
and corporate monopoly -- and we have to understand just how damaging and how counter
to our ideals the right-wing/corporatism/elites are.

And the beginning of the trail is campaign fund BRIBERY --



PS: The McCarthy Era was an attack on the ideals of democracy, necessary because of
the liberal propaganda used to win the war! Those stated ideals had unleashed a quest
and movements for equality - among women, African-Americans, Jews, Homosexuals.
Democracy was out of the box -- and they were doing all they could to murder it.
Recall the shut down of the film stars -- Bogie, in particularly -- who were shown that
times were changing and anyone in the way of the right was going to be hurt, badly.

You might also be interested in this --
http://journals.democraticunderground.com/defendandprotect

[Brigid]

90. Your memory is just fine.

This society has deteriorated so badly over the past few decades it's unbelievable. Just turn on TVland and watch anything over about a decade old, and you'll see. And the worst part is, if you look at old movies (TCM, for example) you can see it even more. :(