And this:
How do they manage to do this? Because Democrats ceded the field. Above all, they do not understand language. Their initiatives are posed in impenetrable policy-speak: the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. The what? - can anyone even remember it? No wonder the pejorative "Obamacare" won out. Contrast that with the Republicans' Patriot Act. You're a patriot, aren't you? Does anyone at the GED level have a clue what a Stimulus Bill is supposed to be? Why didn't the White House call it the Jobs Bill and keep pounding on that theme?
The media are also complicit in this phenomenon. Ever since the bifurcation of electronic media into a more or less respectable "hard news" segment and a rabidly ideological talk radio and cable TV political propaganda arm, the "respectable" media have been terrified of any criticism for perceived bias. Hence, they hew to the practice of false evenhandedness. Paul Krugman has skewered this tactic as being the "centrist cop-out." "I joked long ago," he says, "that if one party declared that the earth was flat, the headlines would read 'Views Differ on Shape of Planet.'"
But really, you gotta read the whole thing. You can check it out here.
6 comments:
Thanks for linking to this - great piece. Depressing, disheartening and scary - but great.
Ron Suskind, writing in NYT Magazine, 2004, "The aide [later identified as Karl Rove] said that guys like me were "in what we call the reality-based community," which he defined as people who "believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality." ... "That's not the way the world really works anymore," he continued. "We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality—judiciously, as you will—we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors…and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do." (article)
So Obama (and the dems) lacks persuasive narrative savvy, but on the plus side, he be savvy working the "news" cycle, dropping the EPA bomb late on a Friday on a three-day holiday weekend. Yay?
Mainstream media is evolving into corporate news media, and it is heartbreaking, for reasons big and small. Makes me damn grateful for the news sources I still use, and, on the plus side, with less "reality-based" news to read, I got more time for writing. Yay? (Sigh. I'd give it up for strong fifth arm.)
Bravo Mike Lofgren and Truthout. Already more than 1000 "likes" and 500 comments.
It's brilliant and insightful. Unfortunately, the people who really NEED to read this (i.e. morons who get all their political analysis from Rush, and people who support Perry and Bachmann) won't. It's too long and makes the issues too complex. The average Fox News viewer can't handle anything that isn't broken down into a soundbite - and as the article pretty much points out, nobody's as good as the far right at packaging their message.
It's deeply ironic how we now have more news coverage than most generations in this country, but less insight and probably less understanding of the real issues. Both parties could take some lessons from this article - but I'm not holding my breath.
I -
I wholeheartedly agree with you. One of the best pieces I have read in a long time. Might surprise you to read this from me but I couldn't agree with the conclusions more.
J
I wish that I was smart enough to write like you.
My words could never express how right I think this article is, and how sick it makes me that our "leaders" don't give a damn about anything but themselves.
Thanks for the link to this site ... it's posted to my facebook news now and I check it out daily.
Keep 'em coming!
Irwin, well done! Great peice. Great blog. Trying to get mine cranking. See TheAmericanMonocle.Blogspot.com
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