Alarming News: I like Morgan Freeberg. A lot.
American Digest: And I like this from "The Blog That Nobody Reads", because it is -- mostly -- about me. What can I say? I'm on an ego trip today. It won't last.
Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler: We were following a trackback and thinking "hmmm... this is a bloody excellent post!", and then we realized that it was just part III of, well, three...Damn. I wish I'd written those.
Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler: ...I just remembered that I found a new blog a short while ago, House of Eratosthenes, that I really like. I like his common sense approach and his curiosity when it comes to why people believe what they believe rather than just what they believe.
Brutally Honest: Morgan Freeberg is brilliant.
Dr. Melissa Clouthier: Morgan Freeberg at House of Eratosthenes (pftthats a mouthful) honors big boned women in skimpy clothing. The picture there is priceless--keep scrolling down.
Exile in Portales: Via Gerard: Morgan Freeberg, a guy with a lot to say. And he speaks The Truth...and it's fascinating stuff. Worth a read, or three. Or six.
Just Muttering: Two nice pieces at House of Eratosthenes, one about a perhaps unintended effect of the Enron mess, and one on the Gore-y environ-movie.
Mein Blogovault: Make "the Blog that No One Reads" one of your daily reads.
The Virginian: I know this post will offend some people, but the author makes some good points.
Poetic Justice: Cletus! Ah gots a laiv one fer yew...
It’s a weakness endemic to all thinking persons: For some inexplicable reason, or in some cases not so inexplicable, we see human failings in this effort over here and we refuse to acknowledge any impurity in that direction whatsoever; and then we look at that effort over there and see all kinds of skulduggery where there’s little or no evidence of it. We “learn” first, and ask our questions later.
But I would expect some in the “journalism” business to get out of that after awhile, just like the first-in-the-morning Starbuck’s cashier girl to learn not to sleep through her alarm clock. Or perhaps to be selected for this critical task on the basis of her not often falling victim to that deficiency.
It is not to be, evidently. The media has been spinning wild tales about, or using Dan-Rather-Chandra-Levy excuses to ignore, the Tea Party ever since the very beginning.
The Tea Party movement launched one year ago, in response to the unprecedented expansion of government by President Barack Obama and congressional liberals, a massive increase in spending that will create economy-crushing fiscal burdens for future generations of taxpayers.
In that relatively brief period, the Tea Party has demonstrated it is a formidable political force. The pressure the movement brought to bear at the grassroots level put liberals on the defensive for much of the health care debate, and nearly succeeded in torpedoing the entire scheme in spite of Democrats’ overwhelming congressional majorities. And Tea Party activists proved decisive in a string of electoral defeats for liberals, culminating in Republican Scott Brown’s victory in the special election to succeed Ted Kennedy in the U.S. Senate.
So how have the supposedly objective media covered one of the biggest political stories in recent years? MRC analysts reviewed every mention of the Tea Party on the ABC, CBS and NBC morning and evening newscasts, Sunday talk shows, and ABC’s Nightline from February 19, 2009 (when CNBC contributor Rick Santelli first suggested throwing a “Tea Party” to protest government takeovers) through March 31, 2010.
It’s the biggest media disgrace since…oh, well, the events leading up to Obama’s election. Just pondering it for a second or two here, not making mincemeat out of the issue on my Smartphone for weeks or months at a time, my initial ranking would be: Election 2008 first; Dan Rather’s other fiasco second, the National Guard Memo thing from six years ago; and then the Tea Party issue would tie for second place, perhaps leapfrogging over the National Guard thing.
Seriously. If I was any kind of an ombudsman in the industry, I’d be going to work and raising some red flags on the situation in general. My message would be one of “C’mon folks, after that debacle of Election 2008 we need a win here.”
Instead, we have propaganda straight from the White House. The “mainstream news” offers a take on something that, when you match it up against the sound bites coming from partisan resources and official government agencies, or tumbling from the mouth of Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, it’s identical on a word-for-word basis. That alone should sound an alarm.
None of which is news to you if you’ve been visiting the Media Reearch Center. But the tea party thing is special because it has been a sustained event. Many, many opportunities have been offered to restore the missing credibility; few of them have been taken.
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