Your Liberal Media at Work

Daily Kos: John McCain's assigned reporter

Ms. Howell (Washington Post ombudsman) gave her usual tortured rationalizations to excuse shoddy reporting. But there was one interesting bit in her explanation:

The Post has teams of reporters on each candidate. Stephens, who came from the investigative unit, has been assigned to report on Obama; another reporter, Kimberley Kindy, is doing the same on McCain.

Joe Stephens is an investigative reporter who has won three Polk Awards, and is a two-time finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. And Kimberly Kindy? She was hired by the Washington Post in May and hasn’t been heard from since writing two articles about McCain at the end of May.

The Financial Crisis is BACK!!

U.S. Considers Takeover of Two Mortgage Giants - NYTimes.com:

Alarmed by the growing financial stress at the nation’s two largest mortgage finance companies, senior Bush administration officials are considering a plan to have the government take over one or both of the companies and place them in a conservatorship if their problems worsen, people briefed about the plan said on Thursday.

The companies, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, have been hit hard by the mortgage foreclosure crisis. Their shares are plummeting and their borrowing costs are rising as investors worry that the companies will suffer losses far larger than the $11 billion they have already lost in recent months. Now, as housing prices decline further and foreclosures grow, the markets are worried that Fannie and Freddie themselves may default on their debt.

Under a conservatorship, the shares of Fannie and Freddie would be worth little or nothing, and any losses on mortgages they own or guarantee — which could be staggering — would be paid by taxpayers.

I've written many times that the Perfect Storm must have an economic basis. Economic pain is a required element, even if it seems tangential to policy problems or personalities.

Gas prices, alone, would be enough to sink John McCain's increasingly ridiculous Presidential campaign.

The failure of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac could easily take down the mortgage market, ending all house buying for a time, and threatening the solvency of the U.S. banking system, which is already in serious doubt. Yet, rescue would involve vast sums, and could well imperil the credit of the Federal government. And, of course, rescue is unmistakeably an act of class warfare.

Good times!

Congress abolished; President rules by decree

Bipartisan Group to Speak Out on Detainees - NYTimes.com:

"A bipartisan group of 200 former government officials, retired generals and religious leaders plans to issue a statement on Wednesday calling for a presidential order to outlaw some interrogation and detention practices used by the Bush administration over the last six years. . . .
"A White House spokesman, Tony Fratto, noted that Mr. Bush last year issued an executive order on interrogation that outlawed torture and other abuses while preserving the C.I.A.’s right to use some coercive interrogation methods. He said Qaeda terrorists should not be treated the same way uniformed soldiers were."

An Executive Order is now necessary to "outlaw" torture, because Congress is no longer the legislature, I guess.

Parody

Kevin Drum: "It's as if McCain is trying to become a parody of himself . . . "

Indeed, he does. It is a truly remarkable development: I have seen several newscasters on television remark that this is the first Presidential election in their memory where the choices and contrasts were so stark and divergent. And, it is true: usually, the candidates are at least pretending to be like one another. "I care about the environment, too." or "I am strong on Defense, too."

Nixon was a master at this: he always, always posed in public as being just as committed to the goals of the New Deal as any Democrat, he was just differing as to methods and means. It was a wonderfully subversive approach, and one that George W. Bush was still following in the 2000 campaign against Gore.

But, somehow the mask has fallen askew.

The Media Won't Care

Ezra Klein notes that McCain's tax plan would reduce Cindy McCain's taxes by almost $400,000: "Sigh. It's hard to know how to write these posts sometimes. Is snark really enough? This sort of thing should be a scandal. Yet the media won't care. Catty reporters will not emblazon $373,000 into voters minds In 2000, everyone know the line (or a misrepresentation of the line) 'I took the initiative in creating the Internet.' In 2004, everyone was aware that Kerry said 'I voted for it before I voted against it.' Yet there's no way that reporters will stitch '$373,000' into the DNA of this election. But they should. McCain is running for president, during a war, despite a deficit, amidst a likely recession, on a plan that gives him and his incredibly rich family almost $400,000 in tax cuts. It's absurd."

Media delenda est.

Media delenda est

The news Media must be destroyed.

A recognition has been growing over a number of years that the news Media -- broadcast television networks, cable news nets, mass-market radio and leading newspapers -- have evolved into a monolithic platform for corporate and right-wing propaganda, the most visible feature of which is an elite corps of pundits and celebrity-journalists, who are incompetent and untrustworthy.

The underlying problem is not just, say, "Maureen Dowd’s wholehearted failure as a person." Maureen Dowd has attracted the attention of a wide variety of critics. The Times' own Public Editor allowed that she "went over the top this election season." That sort of makes it official. But, the official version is that the problem is "sexism" or other impolite language. The deep problem with Maureen Dowd, and the corporate Media, in general, is that it fails to inform and that it misinforms.

The choice of "personalities" is, itself, part of the misinformation involved. Riffing off of the London Telegraph's list of the 50 most influential American pundits, Digby at Hullabaloo had this to say:

"I have long held that the reason so many people hate liberals in this country is because the right convinced them that all of those pictured above [the Telegraph's choices for the top ten most influential U.S. pundits] who are not right wing icons --- are liberal. No wonder they hate us. With the exception of Jon Stewart, they are all immense jackasses.

The list includes a few Democratic political operatives and a handful of intelligent liberals like Paul Krugman and Rachel Maddow who are listed at 48 and 50, but for the most part they are rich, mainstream gasbags and conservative dickheads. . . .

When three of the top liberal pundits in the country are actually comedians (no matter how funny), you know there's a problem.

But hey, the fact that a sociopath like Michael Savage even makes the list should tell you just how screwed up our national discourse really is."

But, the essence is the misinformation.

Truly stupid arguments are given prominent play. (See "Supply-side economics")

And, the Right-Wing gets to have its own truthiness and facts.

This isn't just about low-information voters. This is about a Justice of the Supreme Court basing his opinion on an "urban legend". Think Progress » Report: Scalia’s Claim That Released Gitmo Prisoners Have Killed Americans Is An ‘Urban Legend’

Update and Self-comment: Trying to write a cogent, coherent blogpost of finite length is hard work. Never have I admired the work of Digby more than when I got to the end of writing this abject failure of a post.

If anyone should read this, I apologize. I use this blog as a kind of diary, where I take notes. Oh, well.

Regret

Atrios at Eschaton: "Democrats will regret embracing the expansion of executive power because a President Obama will find his administration undone by an 'abuse of power' scandal. All of those powers which were necessary to prevent the instant destruction of the country will instantly become impeachable offenses. If you can't imagine how such a pivot can take place then you haven't been paying attention."

I echo this comment from the perspicacious Atrios, because I agree with it. And, because I am always amazed at how poorly Democrats play this game.

Republicans knew that they were immunizing Bush, when Ken Starr was abusing the office of Independent Prosecuter to death, and when the House Republicans impeached Clinton, they knew they were taking impeachment off the table.

Republicans have been playing a long game, in terms of building up an authoritarian government, for, literally, decades. The Federalist Society, which, thanks to Bush, now peoples the Federal judiciary with authoritarians, who would not know a genuine principle of law, if it hit them over the head, will do everything to blockade the Democrats.

The Iraq War was played with a brazenness, which often took my breath away. Bald-faced deception in the State of the Union. Lying to the United Nations Security Council. But, the fix was in. The Media Pundits played their assigned parts. (I am so glad Tim Russert is still dead.) And, Democrats like Hillary Clinton could not seem to see their way through the fog. Idiots. And, did the Democrats learn anything; when the Surge came along, it was obvious that they had not learned anything whatsoever.

The thin thread of hope is that Republicans have overplayed their hand a bit, maybe messed up the timing slightly. But, when Democrats play so badly, with so little institutional awareness, it is quite discouraging to watch. And, hard to believe that small slips in timing will make any difference.