Open ‘Chicago Is Out?!’ Thread
BIG JOURNALISM
By Frank Ross on tony Harris
In nearly every child’s life there is a painful moment when the true nature of Santa Claus/The Tooth Fairy/Milli Vanilli becomes known to them. Maybe a parent sits them down and explains the facts of life, or maybe the child figures things out for themselves. These moments are painful, but they are part of the growing-up process.
Many people once deluded by the childish hopenchange nonsense have had similar such moments when they finally realize–GASP!–Obama isn’t the Messiah they thought he was. For CNN’s Tony Harris, that moment came when the Hometown-Hero-in-Chief didn’t just lose the bid to host the 2016 Olympics, he was eliminated first:
For one glorious minute of live television, Harris shamelessly removes his professional journalist hat and puts on his Obama Fan Club hat. And with that, we are reminded just how deep the mainstream media’s love affair with our president is.
THE MSM PLAYBOOK: To Suppress Story, Leftist Media Attempts to ‘Swiftboat’ DOJ Discrimination Scandal
By John Nolte on The American Prospect
All through the 2008 presidential campaign we saw it time and again: any potential threat to then-candidate Barack Obama was sought out and destroyed by the Leftist media – MSNBC, Media Matters, Daily Kos and the like– before it could could reach a critical point in the MSM and do any damage to Their Annointed One. Whether it was Bill Ayers, Sarah Palin, Reverend Wright or Obama’s weaker than weak resume, the goal was to blow legitimate stories out of the water using whatever amount of lies, distortion, or double talk was needed to muddy those waters and confuse the narrative.
This tactic was designed to either give the MSM enough cover to ignore the story altogether or hand them the talking points necessary to blow the story back into the face of Republicans and the McCain campaign.
New_Black_Panther_Party
My favorite example of this template at work is how Obama’s ties to domestic terrorist Bill Ayers somehow morphed into a full-blown MSM storm about “hate-filled and dangerous” McCain campaign rallies. Second place goes to how Obama mangling a revealing answer to an honest question from a constituent immediately turned into a media meme over whether or not this private citizen had a plumber’s license. And let’s not forget how we all walked into the voting booth knowing more about Sarah Palin’s tanning bed than Barack Obama’s college records.
SIDE NOTE: Conservative or not, anyone who thinks this happens by accident instead of design needs to get out of the way because you’re part of the problem.
Today, there’s the potential for a real scandal brewing in President Obama’s Department of Justice regarding the charges Attorney General Eric Holder dropped against the New Black Panther Party for what might be the most obvious case of voter intimidation we’ve seen in the last 20 years. We also have a whistle-blower from the DOJ, a man named J. Christian Adams, who says that word came down from above to “Never bring another lawsuit against a black or other national minority, apparently no matter what they do.”
Obviously this is a very serious charge of outrageous discrimination that could do great damage to an already embattled and increasingly unpopular Obama Administration. So naturally the MSM has not and does not want to go anywhere near it — just like they didn’t the ACORN story or Van Jones.
This DOJ story, however, is in full bloom throughout the alternative media and the MSM can sense critical mass is about to be reached where they can either cover the story or once again (like ACORN and Van Jones) be left behind as it reaches a tipping point online. Therefore the next step is obvious…
…Keith Olbermann to the rescue!!! Here you go MSM, here are those talking points you requested.
As Larry O’Connor pointed out, Olbermann (using talking points supplied by The American Prospect’s Adam Serwer) is intentionally trying to muddy the waters over what we call a distinction without a difference. It is simply a fact that the Obama DOJ won a civil case against the New Black Panther Party and then for inexplicable reasons asked that the charges be dismissed.
—–
Olbermann knows this story is bubbling on-line and represents a potential scandal that could do real damage to His One. So, always at the ready to sacrifice what’s left of his integrity, he launches an obfuscation campaign to dishonestly turn legitimate questions into a bunch of silly right-wingery. His reasoning…?
…The Bush DOJ down-graded the charges against the Black Panthers from criminal to civil.
Of course, the DOJ still won the case.
Of course, the Obama DOJ still dropped the charges.
Honest people ask what in the world Olbermann’s point has to do with anything? Well, obviously, nothing. But we’re not dealing with honest people here. We’re dealing with an MSM desperate to NOT cover this story and Olbermann’s piece of ideological look-over-here might just give them the out they’re looking for. And if the MSM is reluctantly pulled into the story, you can bet they’ll use Olbermann’s talking points to put as much out-of-context focus as possible on the fact that the Bush DOJ downgraded the charges. Translation: That can only mean this is no big deal, right?
glenn-beck
Over at Andrew Sullivan’s place, our mercurial friend Dave Wiegel has made the MSM’s job all the easier. As of Monday, he’s officially a ”conservative” who’s on the record buying this absurd argument and taking it a step further. Like something out of Media Matters playbook, watch what Weigel does here:
The conservative narrative goes like this: Eric Holder’s DOJ got into office and skunked a successful case against the racist fringe New Black Panther Party because it doesn’t want to defend white voting rights. (If anyone has a bunch of examples of white voters being repressed in the Obama era, please, send ‘em my way.) In several segments about the case, Glenn Beck has tied the Panthers to Bill Ayers, Charles Ogletree, and Van Jones as the latest “militant group” pulling the strings on Obama policies.
The approach isn’t subtle, but it’s enough to give the MSM the cover it’s desperate for. Essentially, Weigel conflates the legitimate question of why Holder dropped these charges and the reality of a bonafide whistle-blower into some kind of spooky Glenn Beck conspiracy, as though Beck’s involvement automatically disqualifies legitimate questions and testimony.
Obama’s Media Minions can throw all the chaff they want. Nothing changes the fact that two very important questions remain unanswered:
1. Why did Holder’s DOJ drop the charges against the New Black Panthers after they had won the case?
2. Is J. Christian Adams lying, or not?
REAL journalists want answers and are looking for them. Left-wing propagandists are doing everything in their power to make sure the American public never knows those questions have even been asked, much less answered |
