Monday, September 08, 2008

Conservatives Dictate News Coverage - Pressure Leads MSNBC To Remove Hosts

GE and NBC top brass cave to Republican pressure and remove two of its most popular election hosts, Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews. This basically shows how Republicans are able to dictate news coverage. And it is probably designed to send a message, that if other news hosts, commentators and reporters don't play by the Republican Party's rules, then they can easily be removed from primetime or punished in some way.

Yet Fox News is allowed to have partisan (really ultra-partisan) coverage with no consequences whatsoever.

Who is still doubting that Republicans control the corporate news business?

There is no doubt that Republicans control what we see and hear.
What Progressives and Democrats have to do is establish their own communications network that isn't dependent on Republican/Conservative gate-keepers. Unfortunately Progressives have not figured this out yet.

This was probably mostly about Olbermann, as Matthews tends to be more sympathetic to Conservatives. I can imagine what the 4 political debates will be like....and what kind of negative spin, and bias we will see against Obama/Biden.

This is the media environment in which John Kerry won three straight debates against George W. Bush (winning two decisively) and still lost the election. Why? Because the Republicans were allowed to create their own reality, frame the debate how they wanted...and convinced voters that what they saw was no big deal and that George W. actually did quite well. We will see that same environment again... perhaps worse this time around. Brainwashing is very powerful, as Bin Laden, Adolf Hitler, Saddam Hussein, Joseph Stalin, Kim IL Sung, and The Bush Administration have all demonstrated.

"Ideas are more powerful than guns. We would not let our enemies have guns, why should we let them have ideas."
- Joseph Stalin

"Those who manipulate the organized habits and opinions of the masses constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country."
- Edward Bernays, assistant to William Paley, founder of CBS

"A handful of us determine what will be on the evening news broadcasts, or, for that matter, in the New York Times or Washington Post or Wall Street Journal.... Indeed it is a handful of us with this awesome power....And those [news stories] available to us already have been culled and re-culled by persons far outside our control."
- Walter Cronkite

"The media's the most powerful entity on Earth. They have the power to make the innocent guilty and to make the guilty innocent, and that's power. Because they control the minds of the masses."
- Malcolm X

"All propaganda must be so popular and on such an intellectual level,
that even the most stupid of those toward whom it is directed will
understand it... Through clever and constant application of propaganda,
people can be made to see paradise as hell, and also the other way
around, to consider the most wretched sort of life as paradise."

- Adolf Hitler

"Whoever controls the media, the images, controls the culture".
--Allen Ginsberg

Democracy... Freedom of the Press... It's all Bull----.

6 comments:

lessons said...

Thank you for your posts. I enjoy them regularly.

Angela L. Braden, Writer, Speaker, Professor said...

AI: When I got the news about MSNBC, my heart sank. I was both saddenned and angered that the media is caving in to the pressure of the GOP. Faux News reports everything with a slant. So, MSNBC going underfire for having a left slant is ridiculous.
As a communications prof, I shutter at the even deeper dive that our news media is taking.
I've decided to not watch MSNBC until they, especially Chris, are placed back in their anchor positions.
**I told my friend that if I was Chris, I would quit.**

Angela L. Braden, Writer, Speaker, Professor said...

AI: Can you help me with something?
How can I back up the content on my blog? I'm totally uncomfortable not having a back upon the content on my blog on my personal hard drive. Do you know how to do this?
Actually, anyone can answer this question for me.
Thanks a lot!

Brian said...

Angie,

Thanks for stopping by...

Unfortunately, I don't know if I can be much help on this one. I'm not a techie. Although I wish I was.

I basically have to put my faith in Blogger ....faith that they will keep my work saved.

Although I do save many of my commentary's, photos, and links in a word processor file.

I can generally recreate almost any post that I have done.

Each month I save my word processor file...and start a new one for the new month. That's how I back up my info.

Another thing you can do is.... once you have completed a post...just save the html from that post into a word file.

That's what I do for my bigger postings. I just copy and paste the html into a file and I save it.

Brian said...

Lessons,

Thanks for being a regular reader.

Glad to know I have a readership :)

Thanks for the acknowledgement.

Angela L. Braden, Writer, Speaker, Professor said...

AI: thanks! Although you didn't answer my question in the way you probably thought you should have, you did offer some *great* advice. I'm trying to get in the habit of saving my posts in a Word file, and even by placing all of my e-mail's from my posts into a folder in my gmail account.
I hadn't thought about saving the web page as a html. Good idea...
What I'm going to have to do is sit down and go through each month and just save those pages. **sigh**
I hope you don't mind me asking; but I figured that you would be able to give me some pointers. You may not be a techy, but you are a master blogger. **smile**
Peace,
A