Presidential Race - Media: "Oooh, Bright, Shiny Objects"

[johno]

The Economy: Ignore the unemployment rate (8+% - double it to 16% if you include workforce dropouts), gasoline prices approaching $4.00 per gallon, anemic productivity growth, and that 57% of Americans think the economy is headed in the wrong direction.

Edit: And ignore national debt at 16 Trillion.

Foreign Policy: ignore that a US ambassador & 3 others were murdered on 9/11, in a Muslim Brotherhood dominated country whose power grab was assisted by Pres. Obama's military action; ignore that we also undermined the previous Egyptian gov't so that the Muslim Brotherhood could dominate that country, and that mobs stormed our embassy; ignore that the Smartest President Ever didn't even know whether Egypt was our ally or not, and had to be corrected by Jimmy Carter; ignore that Obama doubled down on the hopeless shithole that is Afghanistan, and left Iraq to slowly fall apart.

NO!

Instead, watch the bright, shiny object of the news cycle:

Romney's family dog on the roof of the car
Romney's wife rides a fancy & expensive horse
Romney cut a gay kid's hair 45 years ago
Romney, when asked, stated the obvious about the Olympics' security in England
Romney called an apologetic US embassy statement "disgraceful"

Now, the latest shiny thing: Romney tells donors that the likely Romney voter is not a government-dependent hobo, a Georgetown Law Student who wants free contraception, or an Occupy Wall St. type. Not a 47%'er.

More Bright, Shiny Objects to come. Ignore the economy & foreign policy.

[Gene]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... e3aGJfDSg4[/youtube]

[DrDonkeyLove]

At the top, it's a deliberate magic trick. Axelrod and Plouffe are evil geniuses supplying the misdirection. The media are their willing shills, and the sheeple graze. Loving or hating Obama/Romney is a personal decision but the fact that a huge % of "journalists" don't even think to ask O the hard questions is beyond disheartening.

"Nearly the whole art of sleight of hand depends on this art of misdirection." (Harlan Tarbell, The Tarbell Course in Magic Vol. 1)

[Protobuilder]

Instead, watch the bright, shiny object of the news cycle:

Romney's family dog on the roof of the car
Romney's wife rides a fancy & expensive horse
Romney cut a gay kid's hair 45 years ago
Romney, when asked, stated the obvious about the Olympics' security in England
Romney called an apologetic US embassy statement "disgraceful"

Now, the latest shiny thing: Romney tells donors that the likely Romney voter is not a government-dependent hobo, a Georgetown Law Student who wants free contraception, or an Occupy Wall St. type. Not a 47%'er.

More Bright, Shiny Objects to come. Ignore the economy & foreign policy.

You could rewrite this from the other perspective - Obama is a Muslim! Socialist! Kenyan! Bad student! Guy who is unable to go right on the court! Smoker! etc! etc! etc! OMG! You didn't built that!

Nobody in the mainstream media is pushing either candidate and neither campaign is doing anything beyond managing 6-second sound bytes and criticizing the other guy.

[Turdacious]

The great thing is that a degree in journalism is a Rosetta Stone-- it makes you an expert in everything.

[vern]

johno, years ago the "Divertor" sketch on SNL nailed it...

http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/ ... or/1351627

[johno]

More Bright, Shiny Objects to come. Ignore the economy & foreign policy.

You could rewrite this from the other perspective - Obama is a Muslim! Socialist! Kenyan! Bad student! Guy who is unable to go right on the court! Smoker! etc! etc! etc! OMG! You didn't built that!

You are confused. No mainstream media treated those issues as serious. Except to correct conservatives about "You didn't build that."

Latest example - Google "Obama Egypt Gaffe." After our Egyptian embassy got invaded by a mob, Pres. Obama bungled Egypt's status as an ally of the US.
See if you get hits from major newspapers. And the story died almost immediately. Romney's dog on the roof had more hangtime.

Expect Bright, Shiny Objects delivered weekly, from now until Election Day.

[Protobuilder]

More Bright, Shiny Objects to come. Ignore the economy & foreign policy.

You could rewrite this from the other perspective - Obama is a Muslim! Socialist! Kenyan! Bad student! Guy who is unable to go right on the court! Smoker! etc! etc! etc! OMG! You didn't built that!

You are confused. No mainstream media treated those issues as serious. Except to correct conservatives about "You didn't build that."

Should they treat them as serious? Have major media outlets really not covered any of them in the past five years?

Latest example - Google "Obama Egypt Gaffe." After our Egyptian embassy got invaded by a mob, Pres. Obama bungled Egypt's status as an ally of the US.
See if you get hits from major newspapers.

Replace "gaffe" with "statement" or "comments" and everybody is talking about it.

http://articles.cnn.com/2012-09-13/midd ... onstrators

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/19/opini ... -east.html

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/09 ... t-is-ally/

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/ ... story.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/huff-wire ... bya-egypt/

All fairly major, methinks, though not all are newspapers. Romney's dog........returned a pair of blogs.

The thing about the modern, 24-hour news cycle and, especially, the Internet, is that anybody can see what you want to see. Gone are the days when reporters went for the masses as you needed to garner at least 33% of the country's attention to remain relevant. Here to stay is boutique journalism where reporters tell people what they already know in an attempt to get them to watch for a few moments longer. You want to see the media sucking off Obama and slamming Romney? No problem. However, to say that the reverse isn't happening as well is closing one eye to what's out there.

Outlets like Fox and MSNBC have clear biases though you know that when you turn either of them on and I hope that nobody turns to either for serious policy debate. However, do you really believe that the rest of the networks really give a shit one way or the other? Think back to the coverage given to Clinton's love of fat chicks and oral sex. Now, fast forward to the stupid shit that GWB said. It's all theater at this point.

[cleaner464]

Much better to focus on the people who got us into this predicament - the poor!

[cleaner464]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... e3aGJfDSg4[/youtube]

Post something useful for once, ~@~. Your suicide note would be a good place to start.

[climber511]

Thank God the election is in a couple months and they will all shut up.

[Andy83]

I did my laundry. And I have a new nose hair trimmer.

[Grandpa's Spells]

Blaming the media is part of a losing campaign's strategy.

[WildGorillaMan]

The media's job isn't to ask hard questions, it's to fawn over the leadership of the nation.

Was the financial media doing hard hitting exposes of the big banks' sucker bets prior to 2008? Were they holding Wall Street's feet to the fire?

No, they were writing slobbering hagiographies about what a genius this hedge fund manager was, or what a visionary this investment banking president was.

They were, as Jay so eloquently put it, licking both sides of that cock.

Even post-meltdown the financial media hasn't exactly crucified the financial sector. Why would you expect them to excoriate the political sector? It's not their job.

[nafod]

I get my Obama news from Andy 78

[Turdacious]

The media's job isn't to ask hard questions, it's to fawn over the leadership of the nation.

Was the financial media doing hard hitting exposes of the big banks' sucker bets prior to 2008? Were they holding Wall Street's feet to the fire?

No, they were writing slobbering hagiographies about what a genius this hedge fund manager was, or what a visionary this investment banking president was.

They were, as Jay so eloquently put it, licking both sides of that cock.

Even post-meltdown the financial media hasn't exactly crucified the financial sector. Why would you expect them to excoriate the political sector? It's not their job.

The Prince of Darkness had no successor, that is clearly.

[johno]

Latest example - Google "Obama Egypt Gaffe." After our Egyptian embassy got invaded by a mob, Pres. Obama bungled Egypt's status as an ally of the US.
See if you get hits from major newspapers.

Replace "gaffe" with "statement" or "comments" and everybody is talking about it.

Exactly my point. When Obama does it, it's not a gaffe. The Press labels it a "statement."
And the Press doesn't followup with, "OMG, the Obama Campaign is imploding."

[milosz]

Latest example - Google "Obama Egypt Gaffe." After our Egyptian embassy got invaded by a mob, Pres. Obama bungled Egypt's status as an ally of the US.
See if you get hits from major newspapers.

Replace "gaffe" with "statement" or "comments" and everybody is talking about it.

Exactly my point. When Obama does it, it's not a gaffe. The Press labels it a "statement."
And the Press doesn't followup with, "OMG, the Obama Campaign is imploding."

Let's get this straight - in order to prove that the media in question lacks a liberal bias, they would have to use loaded words giving the story a right-wing slant?

[johno]

When Obama does it, it's not a gaffe. The Press labels it a "statement."
And the Press doesn't followup with, "OMG, the Obama Campaign is imploding."

Let's get this straight - in order to prove that the media in question lacks a liberal bias, they would have to use loaded words giving the story a right-wing slant?

Treat both candidates' statements the same. That is fair.

Don't call a statement by Romney a gaffe, then gloss over Obama's ignorance of Egypt's status as an ally. At a time when Egypt is in flames and on the front page.

[johno]

Can't identify the size of the national debt. See 00:15.

But that's not a gaffe.

[milosz]

Treat both candidates' statements the same. That is fair.

Don't call a statement by Romney a gaffe, then gloss over Obama's ignorance of Egypt's status as an ally. At a time when Egypt is in flames and on the front page.

I'll await your in-depth study on the matter - but you won't need that, will you? You'll 'see with your own eyes' that the media is out to get Romney and regularly attributes 'gaffes' to him but wouldn't in equivalent situations with Obama.

Confirmation bias, you've heard of it?

While you keep repeating the Egypt talking point, David Frum doesn't seem to think it was a 'gaffe.' http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2 ... gaffe.html

Frum, of course, is a raging Marxist.

[DrDonkeyLove]

Treat both candidates' statements the same. That is fair.

Don't call a statement by Romney a gaffe, then gloss over Obama's ignorance of Egypt's status as an ally. At a time when Egypt is in flames and on the front page.

I'll await your in-depth study on the matter - but you won't need that, will you? You'll 'see with your own eyes' that the media is out to get Romney and regularly attributes 'gaffes' to him but wouldn't in equivalent situations with Obama.

Confirmation bias, you've heard of it?

While you keep repeating the Egypt talking point, David Frum doesn't seem to think it was a 'gaffe.' http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2 ... gaffe.html

Frum, of course, is a raging Marxist.

You are a master troll or tilted so far left that you are upside down.

[dead man walking]

whinging from the right will not win votes.

[Protobuilder]

Latest example - Google "Obama Egypt Gaffe." After our Egyptian embassy got invaded by a mob, Pres. Obama bungled Egypt's status as an ally of the US.
See if you get hits from major newspapers.

Replace "gaffe" with "statement" or "comments" and everybody is talking about it.

Exactly my point. When Obama does it, it's not a gaffe. The Press labels it a "statement."
And the Press doesn't followup with, "OMG, the Obama Campaign is imploding."

Let's get this straight - in order to prove that the media in question lacks a liberal bias, they would have to use loaded words giving the story a right-wing slant?

That is.......what he said.