protecting their election night advertising revenue (4.00 / 2)

Maybe they are invested in a close campaign (absolutely).

This. They want you to tune into their coverage on Nov. 4 which you might not do if the result is a foregone conclusion.  

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by: redwards95 @ Thu Oct 09, 2008 at 16:16:35 PM CDT

awesome (4.00 / 1)

I was preparing to blockquote the same sentence.  This is a money interest for them... they want Obama ad money pouring into their pockets, and the best way to insure that happens is to propogate the myth that the race is razor close.

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by: winston smith @ Thu Oct 09, 2008 at 16:25:40 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Invested (0.00 / 0)

invested in a close campaign

Yep. My bet, too.

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by: Dan_allnews @ Thu Oct 09, 2008 at 20:23:16 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

nor should they (4.00 / 5)

in my opinion. i don't want anyone on obama's side to stay home in the mistaken belief he's already won (which he hasn't). secondly, i want the entire nation (including mccain supporters) to be shocked at the margin of victory on nov 4.

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by: TA13 @ Thu Oct 09, 2008 at 16:19:47 PM CDT

News is news (4.00 / 2)

I don't think you should try to suppress it just because it cause a problem for your candidate.


"It sounds wrong...
     ...but its right."

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by: SpitBall @ Thu Oct 09, 2008 at 16:22:08 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

informed viewers (0.00 / 0)

informed viewers already know the news. it's out there if you just look. no excuse in my opinion. buyer beware in a free-market capitalist society.

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by: TA13 @ Thu Oct 09, 2008 at 16:27:08 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

So, we should not expect any novel news from the M$M? (0.00 / 0)

Your original comment said, "or SHOULD they"(emphasis mine). That's where I read your wish to suppress information that you consider potentially damaging to the Obama campaign.

The M$M should, most definitely, make effort to present true, up to date, and pertinent information, should it not?

"It sounds wrong...
     ...but its right."

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by: SpitBall @ Thu Oct 09, 2008 at 17:25:17 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

should or shouldn't ... (0.00 / 0)

...misses the point. In reality, nothing can suppress the truth. It's out there if you just look. Do I wish that all media presented the truth? Absolutely. But it's not necessary. And even if they did, many still wouldn't understand it (due to bias, ignorance, interference, etc) in the extreme version of free-market capitalism we live in.

Personally, I don't think much will change our current path in the US as long as people have "bread and circuses." As long as people have the dollar menu and football, very little will change. Watch the film Idiocracy.

Perhaps the looming market crash will knock some sense into the consumers of America. But I'm not holding my breath.  

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by: TA13 @ Thu Oct 09, 2008 at 18:48:40 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

OK, I see your point (0.00 / 0)

I disagree, but I understand it more than before, thanks for taking the time to explain.

P.S. I'm not being a smart ass.


"It sounds wrong...
     ...but its right."

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by: SpitBall @ Fri Oct 10, 2008 at 07:32:44 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

the consumers of america have plenty of sense... (0.00 / 0)

and cents.  they just have debt instead of dollars, and that's because of unionbusting.

what they don't have is internationalism or sympathy for the underclass, which might have provoked them to move more strongly and quickly against the republicans and other neoliberal technocrats / pro-rich class warriors.

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by: dr anonymous @ Fri Oct 10, 2008 at 10:58:43 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

For the Record (0.00 / 0)

NPR actually is currently showing a projection of 273 Obama - 174 McCain.

Their projection has a little tiny check mark next to Obama's name. (Oh, and they reach that 273 without calling Florida, Ohio or Virginia).

I dunno if NPR counts as big or small media, though...

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by: mcc @ Thu Oct 09, 2008 at 16:20:33 PM CDT

it does count as non-commercial (4.00 / 2)

and they dont get ad revenue from the candidates.. so they can afford to be honest.

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by: winston smith @ Thu Oct 09, 2008 at 16:27:26 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Correlation. (0.00 / 0)

That is the most interesting correlation of all. Pretty hard to explain why the only non-profit big media is able to get it right when their rich commercial cousins can't. Your free market at work again?

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by: DaveW @ Thu Oct 09, 2008 at 16:46:43 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Some Odd Things (0.00 / 0)

NPR shows Colorado as "Leaning Dem" and Virginia as "Tossup" but Obama's lead in Virginia (5.1) is bigger than his lead in Colorado (4.0) according to their RCP Poll Average.

They have Pennsylvania as "Leaning Dem" with Obama's lead at 13.8.

Even though their outlook shows 273 electoral votes for Obama, the bar chart shows him stopping exactly on the 270 line. (Yes, I took a screenshot and blew it up.)

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by: kirkaracha @ Thu Oct 09, 2008 at 18:08:44 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

I agree with you BUT (0.00 / 0)

they have a case, if they take the conservative view for every possible McCain state.  For example, RCP has Virginia as lean Obama, but Pollster has it as tossup.

Of course, that isn't a very good methodology - and what's even crazier is how, supposedly, certain states "lean" McCain, such as Indiana, or even more so North Carolina, when they are so CLEARLY toss-up.  

That is a flagrant violation of what the data is showing - across all maps.

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by: JC @ Thu Oct 09, 2008 at 16:30:00 PM CDT

Sad But True (4.00 / 2)

The complaint used to be that the big media were all about the horserace.

Still mostly true, but they suck at it.  All they can do is bogus color commentary.  For actual information, you're SOL.

It's almost like they want to make themselves irrelevant.

They are McCain's base, after all.  They "think" as one....

My friends.

"You know what they say -- those of us who fail history... doomed to repeat it in summer school." -- Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Season 6, Episode 3

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by: Paul Rosenberg @ Thu Oct 09, 2008 at 16:32:46 PM CDT

the false dichotomy (0.00 / 0)

they established between McCain's attack on Obama for Ayers association (irrelevant and petty mudslinging) and Obama's attacks on McCain for his Keating 5 corruption (totally relevant to our current degulation meltdown) is a great example of their simplistic bias.  

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by: winston smith @ Thu Oct 09, 2008 at 17:19:01 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

I vote for all of the above (4.00 / 1)

They're wedded to a close race narrative, and to the McCain as Maverick myth. Being an underdog--but still running close--allows them to wed the two.

He's running close! He's a Maverick! It's down to the wire! They're both going negative!

He's a Maverick!

Also the fear of being accused of being in the tank for Obama, because, of course, saying that the numbers greatly favor Obama means exactly that. So, next time they predict sunny skies, does that make them in the tank for good weather?

Like nearly everyone here, I look to blogs and smaller media outlets like the Nation for facts and substance, and the establishment media for a sense of, well, what the establishment is saying, because that's where the majority of Americans still get their facts and opinion. Plus, it's an addiction that's hard to beat.

"Those who stand for nothing fall for anything...Mankind are forever destined to be the dupes of bold & cunning imposture" -- Alexander Hamilton

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by: kovie @ Thu Oct 09, 2008 at 17:14:37 PM CDT

purged voters and secret racists (0.00 / 0)

A lot (how many?) of voters think they are registered and plan to vote, but they've been purged. (good segment on purges on Democracy Now this morning). There is also the phenomenon of people who know they ought to vote for the black guy, and say they will but don't.

Not to be too Chicken Little, but none of the polls consider these unnusual factors. As many as 5% of voters may have been wrongly purged, mostly democrats. Secret racists were as many as 6% in some studies, though logic so overwhelmingly favors Obama that logical secret racists can probably vote for him.

I hope the Obama campaign plans to put his national volunteers to work at the polls on election day standing up for wrongly purged voters.

 

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by: annzillion @ Thu Oct 09, 2008 at 17:18:23 PM CDT

Denial video (0.00 / 0)

http://snipurl.com/483ql

Denying reality is all McCain has left and it's all the media's got to keep it interesting.

dk

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by: mccainbush08 @ Thu Oct 09, 2008 at 17:39:08 PM CDT

could be (0.00 / 0)

I suspect it's just that big sites are more conservative (not in the political sense) and are less willing to throw states that have newly-tipped to Obama into his column.

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by: ccarollo @ Thu Oct 09, 2008 at 17:51:47 PM CDT

As per usual, it's all about the Benjamins $$$$$$$ (0.00 / 0)

Are you kidding me, for the first time in years news is genuinely profitable again. Nobody in the media business wants this gravy train to end. Big bucks for the corporate owners and giant bonuses for network executives. With the ratings that these debates are getting, the networks can charge the advertisers Super Bowl rates.  Doubtless the networks would like to have a hotly contested election like this every year.  Perhaps their lobbyists will propose a constitutional amendment to that effect.  :-)

And of course CNN is totally in the tank for anyone who is not Obama, along with much of corporate America.  To their credit, MSNBC saw which way the wind was blowing and did the right thing.

Of course we all know that power mad corporate slime who just milked America's economy for everything it was worth over the last eight years and then stuck the American people with the bill for their piracy and thievery (nice work if you can get it), would never use THEIR media to try an influence an election, or set the stage for another stolen election, explaining away the surprise McCain triumph on the Bradley effect, and those young people who just didn't show up to vote.  No doubt there will be some attempt made to subvert the will of the American people, just as in the last presidential election, but this time everybody is watching very carefully.

Voter fraud is the Republicans last best hope.  If we see predominately African-American districts coming back with zero votes for Obama, as we did in the Democratic primary in New York and a few other places, then you will know beyond a shadow of a doubt that the fix is in, and we're all just along for the you ride in a country that's been totally hijacked out from under us. But I imagine the forces of evil who are at this very moment aligning themselves against the American people, will be more subtle in their adjustment of the numbers in places like Virginia and Florida.  Doubtless a plethora of contingency plans are being formulated at this very moment by those rat bastards who think they own this country.

One thing is certain, there is about to be a long overdue reckoning in America, and one way or the other the American people's voice will be heard.  Let's just hope that there is no blood in the streets, and that no one dies, and tanks don't have to roll through Dupont Circle to quell unrest, should the American people be forced rise up in furious anger to throw down their oppressors.  For the sake of the oppressors and slave massas in this country, I hope not.  Hope is our watchword, hope for the best, and prepare for the worst.

Sidenote:

By the way, I happen to own one of those Sony Digital stereo MP3 recorders (the red one) that you've been advertising on your site recently.  Nice little piece of equipment that works very well, and is automatically recognized by Windows and Apple systems without loading any software.  It's also compatible with Dragon NaturallySpeaking. I recently used it with a microphone at the Biden Palin debate.  

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by: AaronBBrown @ Thu Oct 09, 2008 at 18:16:13 PM CDT

glad to see you read my comment yesterday! (4.00 / 2)

No thanks necessary.  :)

I can add from what I said there :

ABC News has IN, NC, and MO all as lean McCain; NH, OH, FL, VA, CO and NV are toss-ups; and states like MI, NJ, and OR are listed as lean Obama. And CBS News is the best: they have NC as a solid McCain state (they don't list leaners), while OR, MN, WI, MI, and PA, among others, are toss-ups.

And the Washington Post has Indiana as a solid red state, but New Jersey as a toss-up.

All of these are part of the universal pattern of big media orgs having a pro-McCain tilt to their electoral maps, relative to the objective, poll-based sites.

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by: Chachy @ Thu Oct 09, 2008 at 18:22:48 PM CDT

Should have mentioned you in the post (0.00 / 0)

Will update to reflect.

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by: Chris Bowers @ Thu Oct 09, 2008 at 23:23:16 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Fake close race is now a good thing. (4.00 / 2)

   I want Democrats to turn out for downballot races, and they will turn out better if the presidential race is perceived to be close.  Studies from 2004 show that youth turnout, at least, was MUCH higher in swing states.  So I'll happily go along with the morons who made the "poll of polls" and think it's unique (and Jerome Armstrong), and say this race is tight, tight, tight!  

John McCain lets lobbyists shape his economic policy

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by: cilerder86 @ Thu Oct 09, 2008 at 19:35:47 PM CDT

This Morning (4.00 / 1)

This Morning on MSNBC, Joe Scarborough, Pat Buchanan and Andrea Mitchell were discussing the desperate acts of the McCain campaign.  At the end of the conversation, Mitchell reminded everyone that no one has voted yet and anything could still happen.  Buchanan reminded her that the polls continue to move in Obama's favor.  And Mitchell responds, "I know, I just don't want it to end"

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by: Kane @ Fri Oct 10, 2008 at 07:04:41 AM CDT

Computer voting and why this is not over (4.00 / 1)

We are all aware the vote is still rigged right?  I don't see any comments raising this fact. This is "Open Left", right? We're reading Mark Crispin Miller and RFK Jr....right?...?

Once again, exit polls in the swing states will show a Democrat victory.  Once again, the e-voting systems, controlled by Republican interests and born-again freaks will facilitate a huge number of switched votes and fabricated Repub. votes via trojan horse programs in the tabulation software no one is allowed to inspect.

The media will scratch their heads and wonder, once again, how in the holy Christ the exit polls were so wrong.  They will surmise it was a bunch of white people telling pollsters they were voting Obama but lying because deep down they couldn't vote for a nigger.  Everyone will believe the MSM nonsense as usual.

"President" McCain will die in office in 2011 and Sarah Palin will bring Jesus back in a swirl of corpses and mushroom clouds when the Mayan calendar ends with the vernal equinox entering Aquarius in 2012.  

Praise Him.

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by: jamie @ Mon Oct 13, 2008 at 21:31:40 PM CDT