Tag Archive: media

Jeb Bush is Hispanic like …

Famed Hispanic Lucille Ball

Famed Hispanic Lucille Ball

Among the many incorrect or inane items from the U.S. media is the contention that, because white guy, Phillips Academy, grandson of a Nazi-loving Senator John Ellis (“Jeb”) Bush is married to a Mexican woman, Jeb himself is somehow “Hispanic” or part of the Hispanic culture. After all, Bush even listed himself as Hispanic on his voter registration form. If Jeb Bush is Hispanic because of his wife, then the following stereotypes about famous people and their spouses or former spouses would also be true:

 

 

 

 

 

With “#47Traitors,” the netroots find their groove

CNN Center: Capital of obsolete old media?

CNN Center: Capital of obsolete old media?

Last Wednesday, Susie Madrak posted a thought-provoking piece at Crooks and Liars titled: “Dear Media: You Are Not The Gatekeepers Anymore.” Madrak wrote about how the mainstream corporate media, including newspapers and television news, lost all credibility cheerleading and broadcasting Bush administration lies to lead us into the Iraq War, and have their own elitist agenda which includes pathologically attacking Bill and Hillary Clinton, ignoring “the corrosive influence of the Koch network,” and even, in some cases, working hand in hand with the CIA. According to Madrak:

The media is [sic] doing a slow burn, not even over Hillary Clinton specifically, but over our refusal to accept theirs as the only legitimate opinion.

The good news is, our increasing refusal to accept the mainstream corporate media’s elitist group think coincides with a successful streak for the netroots, i.e., grassroots political activists who primarily use the Internet for their activities. In particular, netroots members are using social media, blogs, podcasts and other alternative means increasingly to circumvent the Beltway Blowhards. For example, just last month, Brian Williams at NBC News was taken down by social media users for his Iraq War coverage lies. Shortly thereafter, Bill O’Reilly at Fox News got the netroots treatment, with social media users circulating disclosure after disclosure about O’Reilly’s lies and exaggerations. Likewise, the recent Federal Communications Commission switch to a vote for real Net Neutrality is the result of pressure from millions of Americans, many from the netroots, who filed comments and petitions to the FCC, even at times when mainstream corporate media coverage of Net Neutrality was scant.

Social media and the fall of Brian Williams

Brian Williams as Willi Vanilli

Brian Williams as Willi Vanilli

Chris Cillizza wrote a short Washington Post piece last Friday entitled “Who had the worst week in Washington? NBC’s Brian Williams.” Cillizza’s op-ed described how NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams was taken down by social media. In particular, Williams was placed on six months’ unpaid suspension, and may lose his job permanently, as a direct result of a Facebook comment by helicopter flight engineer Lance Reynolds, who disputed Williams’ oft-repeated story about being on a helicopter that was hit by enemy fire during the Iraq War. The social media takedown of Brian Williams was a keen observation by Cillizza, but social media are responsible for much than just Brian Williams’ job status. The Brian Williams debacle might be remembered as the moment where social media, and the Internet itself, overtook  television.

Using the Jennifer Lawrence nude pictures model for political gain

Jennifer Lawrence at the 2013 Golden Globe Awards

Jennifer Lawrence at the 2013 Golden Globe Awards

If you were anywhere near the Internet this past weekend, you read or heard about the Jennifer Lawrence nude photo scandal. Actually, the private photo collections of numerous models, actresses and celebrities, including not just Jennifer Lawrence but also Kate Upton, Kirsten Dunst, Mary Elizabeth Winstead and others were hacked, put up online, sent around virally and viewed millilons of times. Putting aside the obvious criminal and moral violations of the photo leak, one has to marvel at the speed and magnitude at which people were able to take in the content. So the question becomes, how can we send around our political messages with this kind of speed and impact?

After Ferguson, we’re done with the GOP

Protesters for Mike Brown in Ferguson, MO

Protesters for Mike Brown in Ferguson, MO

The shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, MO by police officer Darren Wilson may well be a tipping point in American political history. The ensuing Right versus Left war over the narrative in Ferguson made it clear that we cannot reason with conservatives and Republicans. They are so invested in their tribalism and Kool-Aid identity politics (in this case, the Scary Brown People narrative) that, presently, there’s no chance of Republicans working with us to solve any big issues. Accordingly, Democrats and progressives might want to focus on the following three things:

Controlling the narrative in Ferguson

Anonymous "Hands Up, Don't Shoot" protester in Ferguson, MO.

Anonymous “Hands Up, Don’t Shoot” protester in Ferguson, MO.

The news coverage of Michael Brown‘s killing in Ferguson, MO is a classic example of conservatives trying to change the story. The facts are that Ferguson Police officer Darren Wilson shot the unarmed teenager Brown multiple times, seemingly execution style, and killed him. But the Ferguson Police, Fox News and other conservatives are trying to distract us from the facts with various narratives.

Would Chris Christie’s resignation help him run for President?

As Chris Christie faced a devastating weekend of Bridgegate accusations, staff resignations and Super Bowl-related boos, some in the media, such as CNN’s Candy Crowley, openly wondered whether Christie should resign his new position as Republican Governor’s Association Chair. Political talk show host Mark Thompson of the Sirius Progress satellite radio channel recently went a step further, stating that, if Christie resigns as Governor of New Jersey, the Bridgegate investigations that are hounding him could go away, preserving Christie’s ability to run for President. The premise of Thompson’s theory, apparently, is that the voters have a short memory and won’t be thinking about Bridgegate in 2015 and 2016 should Christie toss his hat into the ring.

Progressive New Year’s resolutions

In 2013, we saw too many instances of the Republican-Corporate-Media iron triangle pushing stories containing big lies about the Affordable Care Act, Benghazi, and even President Obama‘s rather minimal vacation time. If you’re as sick of these phony stories as we are, then all of us need to make some New Year’s resolutions to try to defeat them. In 2014, we resolve to:

President Obama on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCrE8e-9wto

Last night, President Barack Obama gave an impressive interview to Jay Leno on the Tonight Show. Obama was perhaps as confident and comfortable as he’s ever appeared as President. Why does this matter? Because, in politics, optics matter. Style as well as substance matters. The Tonight Show still gets strong ratings, and viewership across the country soars when President Obama sits down with Jay Leno. So let’s check out what Obama said and how he said it:

Cult of presidency

Last September, we published a post about how, under the Constitution, presidents don’t have individual control over the economy, and that economic improvement requires the assistance of Congress. We noted that many voters seem to be under the mistaken impression that presidents control America’s direction themselves, in part because of the cult of personality that the media have built up around the office of the president. Sure enough, at President Barack Obama‘s press conference on the sequester last Friday (see video above), two “reporters” furthered this erroneous cult of the presidency. Here, from the press conference transcript, are their exchanges with President Obama: