Of course I had to turn on the talking heads this fine Sunday morning. One would assume the weekend after a Presidential election the talk would be all about Obama, the campaign, the results, and maybe some thoughts on what lays ahead. Of course that’s not what happened, it was all about how Republicans are going to deal with the many elephants in their house with hints of the evil deficit monster closing in yet again. Exhibit A of our broken celebrity centered media.
I found this on Hullabaloo taken from the clip above and it’s quite illustrative. Frum states the obvious and the entire assembled panel simply ignores his valid point and moves on:
Since the loss of the election, we have heard an enormous amount of discussion from Republicans on television and newspaper columns about immigration as an issue…but all of us who are allowed to participate in this conversation, we all have health insurance. And the fact that millions of Americans don’t have health insurance, they don’t get to be on television. And it is maybe a symptom of a broader problem, not just the Republican problem, that the economic anxieties of so many Americans are just not part of the national discussion at all. I mean, we have not yet emerged from the greatest national catastrophe, the greatest economic catastrophe since the Great Depression. And what are we talking about? The deficit and the debt. And these are important problems, but they’re a lot easier to worry about if you are wealthier than you were in 2008, which most of the people on television now are again, if you are securely employed, which most of the people on television now are. But that’s not true for 80% of America. And the Republican Party, the opposition party, needed to find some way to give voice to real urgent economic concerns held by middle class Americans. Latinos, yes, but Americans of all ethnicities.
And how did the so-called liberalist wing, MSNBC, of the so-called liberal media respond when Frum pointed out the gaping chasm between comfortably paid talking heads and the struggling people listening at home? It was like he had whispered it into the ether, they went right on with their predetermined deficit angle.
Here’s a newsflash folks, most of us don’t care so much about the fiscal cliff or the deficit or GOP strategy adjustment that we’re on the edge of our seats is suspense waiting for any sign of how it will go. And yet that’s what the media seems obsessed with covering at the expense of everything else.
Well this is no surprise. Its part of the larger trend toward a global neo-feudalism.
To be fair, this is Morning Joe, who is one of the bigger examples of Republicans who totally agree with the party but try to run as far away from it as possible…not really the best examples of MSNBC’s liberalism.
And MSNBC is only barely liberally biased. If Fox News is a -100 in terms of bias, MSNBC is maybe a +3 or +4. (CNN is like, -60).
Wow. Frum seems to be coming closer and closer to being a generally reasonable human being instead of a right-wing shill. Regarding the endless blithering about the deficit, etc, the Repubs have no choice. Their position is that we need to cut government spending on poor (darker-skinned) people, and the only conceivable justification for that that masks the underlying bigotry is to insist that if we don’t, there’ll be even bigger problems. They’re lying, of course, but I’m pretty sure that’s why they won’t shut up about it.
Joe Scarborough is also the MSNBC Republican clown who called Nate Silver a blind ideologue for his predictions and tried to pretend super-rich conservatives weren’t throwing obscene amounts of cash at Romney after Citizen’s United.
He’s not exactly representative of the network’s liberal-bias.
Whether or not, and to what extent, MSNBC has any actual liberal leanings, is irrelevant. Conservatives call all traditional TV media “the liberal media”, and it is this to which Stephen was making a reference. Although I suspect that this is not unknown here.
Yes. MSNBC can often be ridiculous, especially the likes of Joe here, and S.E. Cupp.
(S.E Cupp, by the way, gets no political quarter from me simply because she declared herself openly godless. Coming out WAS brave and good of her, but she is so foolish on so much, I wish sometimes she go back in)
Obviously, there are much better (OBJECTIVELY better) sources of info available than MSNBC in general. Sadly, very few people get exposed to these sources.
I do think MSNBC needs to step up their game. They ought to do better; but as far as mainstream T.V. goes they are by far the best. I encourage people to watch “UP. With Chris Hayes” on Saturday and Sunday mornings. It is on very early so DVR is probably the best option there. “UP’ often dives much deeper into issues than you see elsewhere, and panelist on the show often bring their brains to the discussions. “Up” is followed by Melissa Harris Perry. MHP is another show that is generally better than average. Then, of course, MSNBC airs “The Rachel Maddow Show,” and thank you MSNBC for that. TRMS may not offer the deepest discussion possible, but WOW it sure beats anything else available on T.V. in prime time.
There are progressive options in addition to MSNBC. Current shows good stuff regularly. Link is good too.
AND Folks! Here is a tip: Just for fun, not for edification, watch or listen to The Stephanie Miller Show! I LOVE HER and her crew. They make me laugh every day.
dfarmer1584:
Understatement. MHP’s Saturday afternoon (at least for me on the west coast) special show was the first time I saw anyone on any mainstream TV outlet explicitly refer to both cis and trans* men and women.
Melissa is easily the most social justice-conscious person on that network (the above is seriously just the tip of the iceberg) and I recommend her show to absolutely everyone.
That being said I will also throw in Lawrence O’Donnell simply because he is both wonderfully snarky and so hard on the religious right that I think he’s a closet atheist.
But that stuff could have a serious effect on the value of your investment portfolio!