The press nods as absurdity, lies prevail in the budget debate
COMMENTARY | August 18, 2011
By Henry Banta
henrybanta@aol.com

Several times recently Paul Krugman, the New York Times columnist and Nobel Prize winning professor at Princeton, has placed a large part of the blame for the appalling level of the budget debate on the media. (Here is one example.) The problem, he asserts, comes because there is no political cost to being outrageously wrong, irresponsible, stupid or even dishonest. In the eyes of the major media all opinion is equal. The content of political rhetoric does not matter. The truth or falsity of claims does not matter. All that matters is who is on what side. As a result we have had a crucial public debate in which perfectly absurd notions were reported as if they had serious merit. Rationality, civility, not to mention sanity have been major casualties.

This is a very serious accusation, one that responsible journalists should deal with. If it has merit, the profession needs some major self-examination. Granted that, in Professor Krugman's view, the most outrageous rhetoric came from the Tea Party and its allies, but his accusation cannot be dismissed as mere partisanship. There is nothing new in the charge that the major media are indifferent to factual issues, but the budget debate has conspicuously raised to a new level the media's inability or unwillingness to discuss factual issues.

The Cult That Is Destroying America
by Paul Krugman
July 26, 2011

Think about what's happening right now. We have a crisis in which the right is making insane demands, while the president and Democrats in Congress are bending over backward to be accommodating - offering plans that are all spending cuts and no taxes, plans that are far to the right of public opinion.

So what do most news reports say? They portray it as a situation in which both sides are equally partisan, equally intransigent - because news reports always do that. And we have influential pundits calling out for a new centrist party, a new centrist president, to get us away from the evils of partisanship...

Ex-News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks has been arrested by police investigating phone hacking and bribery at the News of the World.

 kurtster wrote:  These days there is no such thing. Churches are in on the act too, some going so far as to name specific candidates.

Why does Media Matters have a tax exempt status ?

They are hardly a neutral organization.

It's getting so that I have to do an internet search every time I want to buy something

Murdoch Gets Rich Off High-Profile Evangelicals

 kurtster wrote: 
You are wrong. Implying that someone is a Jew hater is hardly a silly nudge so don't expect me to buy that shit, Kurt. His attacks, though mostly veiled insinuations, have been growing in frequency & have taken on an increasingly personal bent. I have nothing against the guy but this day's snakery by him was enough for me.

If its a cause you're looking for, Kurt, you can do a whole lot better than this Swedish creep. Like FREE PALESTINE ! for example.  But then you'd have to become a Jew hater too.
fucking ridiculous

 ScottFromWyoming wrote:

Damn, I can't even see the end of the line from here!

 ScottFromWyoming wrote: 

 nuggler wrote: 
Did I miss a sign-up sheet or what? How did Hazze luck out?

 nuggler wrote: 
Yea, that was pretty frakkin lame, dude.

 kurtster wrote: 
Thanks K !

 nuggler wrote: 

I just gotta say, you blew it on this one.  H sent you some support in confidence and you turned it against him.

For what ever reason, in H's case, I know when he is nudging me, as he did to me earlier today.  I didn't take it as an attack, didn't even think that way for a second.  We've communicated both publically and privately for many years as I have with you and he's a standup guy.

I saw his remark about you as a silly nudge, not as an attack.  I may be wrong on that, as I am not privvy to his inner thoughts. 

But you lost the most by violating a trust.

2¢

 nuggler wrote: 
WAWAF

 HazzeSwede wrote: 

From:	HazzeSwede
Subject:	Cheers
Sent:	Jul 4, 2010 - 9:25am

  Please DO stand up to the not so bright Peeps
My english is quite good enough to follow but to jump into the forum
I'm at loss.
Happy 4th !

hazze.

———————————

I have nothing to run away from, you leech. I stand by all I've said. You, on the other hand just showed your true colors, & its a sickly yellow-green, like cowardly shit.

Adios you snail. I have nothing more to say to you.

  

 nuggler wrote:  WAWAF...Loon !

 ScottFromWyoming wrote: 



I think we are pretty much on the same page on your main points.

From:	HazzeSwede
Subject:	Cheers
Sent:	Jul 4, 2010 - 9:25am

  Please DO stand up to the not so bright Peeps
My english is quite good enough to follow but to jump into the forum
I'm at loss.
Happy 4th !

hazze.
_________________

And only yesterday the subject of personal integrity came up. My opinions are well documented,  Hazze.

You, on the other hand, are going to have to live this one down because you wear 2 faces, my viper friend. I saw that many moons ago. You sell snake oil of the most toxic grade & then accuse others of doing so.

 nuggler wrote: 
Sorry LOON..I have to WAWAF you !  

 kurtster wrote: 
It happens, but we're talking about mainstream programming for the most part. These shows (Stewart and Fox etc) might outrage a slice of the population but most reasonable people just turn the channel if they don't like it. If enough people turn the channel, advertisers will abandon the program and the boycotters will claim victory when it was just the TV show running its course. Jumping the shark. If the message or content of the show is offensive, "quality" viewers will abandon the program and quality advertisers will follow. I don't know what is advertised on Jersey Shore but I'm sure it isn't Ameritrade. Probably Four Loko.