As the debate over public health care and insurance reform has raged this August, I have seen much via the cable news outlets about how President Obama has not been able to get his message across the great partisan divide. The media has been far more interested in giving a platform to those which it describes as the "fringe." They inevitably follow up with: "Where is the clear message from President Obama?" At no time does one ever see the media turn the light upon itself and ask itself if it is doing the responsible thing. It is the very agency that should be bringing clarity to the discussion. It is the very agency who has been entrusted with the public airwaves for this very purpose.
Out of all the polls we see paraded across MSNBC, CNN etc., we have yet to see a poll rating how Americans feel the media is living up to its obligations to actually inform us. We see polls that show that Americans don't really understand the discussion, but very little regarding those who present this discussion to us. I find this to be very curious.
If these "news outlets" put half as much effort into bringing clarity to the public health care debate as it does on presenting every little bit of trivia surrounding the death of Michael Jackson, then I would imagine these other polls that we're seeing would reflect a more informed public. Of course, it doesn't help that some of the interests that oppose health care reform are the MSM's biggest advertisers. It is rare that the MSM will bite the hand that feeds it. Unfortunately it leaves the American public starving for real information to make critical choices.
Last month, when Stephanie Taylor and I turned the tables on FOX's Griff Jenkins, he had "no comment" when asked about the talking points that are distributed to FOX anchors and reporters each morning giving them Republican propaganda to say aloud on the air.
But last night, the single-best progressive talk show out there -- The Young Turks -- went beyond their great news analysis and entertaining commentary. They broke actual news.
Check out FOX's talking points on Al Franken:
Congrats to Cenk Uygur, Ana Kasparian, Jayar Jackson, David Koller, and Jesus Gadoy for breaking this news.
A programming note: I mentioned above that the Young Turks is the single-best progressive talk show out there. I mean it. I listen to their podcasts when I jog and whenever else I can.
Not only is their news analysis absolutely in the same ballpark as Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow, but they are extremely entertaining. Mothers pushing their babies around DC in strollers look at me weirdly because I spontaneously laugh while jogging.
How can you listen to The Young Turks? Watch the Young Turks online for free at TheYoungTurks.com. Join their 59,000 subscribers on YouTube. Or, do yourself a favor and become a $10/month member and get all their podcasts to listen to whenever you want -- like your drive to work.
We've heard about Fox' astroturf "demonstrations" scheduled for April 15th. The blinkered adoption of the term "teabagging" has provided (admittedly juvenile) chuckles for me, and I want to give something back.
Of course gay male fans of "Sex and the City" have got to show up in counter-demos, but Fox is ready for that and eager to run footage of it. It makes their (Fox') efforts look legitimate.
More fun might be to show up in Fox swag and infiltrate the crowd. I mean Fox t-shirts and tote bags and caps. And not just with pictures of their news channel celebrities. Heck, hold a sign plugging "24"! "SAVE US, KEIFER! Mon. 9PM."
This would mock the astroturf nature of the events, and Fox News might not even realize that. Other news organizations might, however, and whether they recognize the sarcasm as such or not, heck, they might run stories talking about Fox' activities.
I have to admit, last week when Barack Obama went on Bill O'Reilly and his spokesperson Bill Burton said, "I think there are people who have yet to make up their mind who watch Fox..." I was skeptical. Especially given pollster Mark Mellman's finding that in 2004:
Fox News viewers supported George Bush over John Kerry by 88 percent to 7 percent. No demographic segment, other than Republicans, was as united in supporting Bush. Conservatives, white evangelical Christians, gun owners, and supporters of the Iraq war all gave Bush fewer votes than did regular Fox News viewers.
But today, I was reminded of how Fox's innovation in the marketplace may truly be bringing in all sorts of new viewers and open-minded swing voters. For instance, what other network offers viewers the chance to watch live shots of Barack Obama's speech and OJ Simpson's latest trial at the same time? Truly amazing:
If I was wrong to imply that Fox is a race-baiting, Republican mouthpiece whose viewers will predominantly never vote for Obama -- in true Democratic fashion, I apologize.
(Of course, if I wasn't wrong, you can always join MoveOn's ongoing campaign against Fox's smears here.)
Ok, this is really weird. Today, Bush National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley was on Fox talking about whether Bush would boycott the Olympics' opening ceremony, and talked about the issue of "Tibet." Later the same morning he went on ABC and discussed the same issue, but he consistently talked about "Nepal."
(As Think Progress and CrooksandLiars point out, these are 2 distinct places.) Very curious -- is Hadley just a moron? Or is there some diplomacy-speak reason that someone would tell him to actively switch from "Tibet" to "Nepal" between shows?
This morning (Oct. 7, 2007) on Fox News Sunday, Nancy Pelosi went out of her way to thank Rupert Murdoch's Fox for being pro-environment. "Look at that, Fox News, leading the way in environmental protection and reversing global warming."
But Robert Greenwald's YouTube video "Fox Attacks: The Environment" shows that Fox is a consistent global warming denier. And while Rupert Murdoch recently said NewsCorp will be carbon neutral, Sierra Club president Carl Pope points out, "The most meaningful action companies...can take to help the planet is to make sure the public knows the truth about global warming. That means rejecting Fox's pattern of misinformation."
