The lucrative business of Obama-bashing
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– Bernd Debusmann is a Reuters columnist. The opinions expressed are his own. –
Four days before Barack Obama was sworn into office, a prominent radio talk show host, Rush Limbaugh, told his conservative listeners that a major American publication had asked him to write 400 words on his hopes for the Obama presidency.
“I…don’t need 400 words,” he said, “I need four: I hope he fails.”
The remark set the tone for a steady stream of unbridled and often bizarre criticism from Limbaugh and like-minded radio and TV commentators, several of them working for Fox News, the network owned by media mogul Rupert Murdoch. Obama responded four days after his inauguration, telling a group of Republican congressmen they needed to break away from a mindset of confrontation.
“You can’t just listen to Rush Limbaugh and get things done.”
What followed should have helped the new administration to reflect on the wisdom of singling out a media critic. But it didn’t. Limbaugh promptly portrayed himself as a man of such pivotal importance that the president of the world’s only superpower needed to pay personal attention to his tartly-worded opinion.
The controversy over his ill wishes for the president caused, as he put, his ratings to go “through the roof,” a reassuring development for a man who makes $38 million a year under an eight-year contract that runs through 2016. The score of that early skirmish: Limbaugh 1, Obama 0.
The White House is now engaged (as in war, not diplomacy) with an even bigger target, Fox News, to the evident delight of Murdoch. “There were some strong remarks coming out of the White House about one or two of the commentators on Fox News,” he told the annual shareholders’ meeting of News Corp, the media conglomerate that includes Fox. “And all I can tell you is that it has tremendously increased their ratings.”
His cheerful observation came a few days after the administration switched from occasional counter-attacks to full-scale offensive. Anita Dunn, the White House Communications director, fired the first rocket in mid-October by saying Fox News was not a legitimate news organisation but operated as a research and communications arm of the Republican Party.
The president himself stayed out of the fray this time but two of his closest aides, Senior Advisor David Axelrod and Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel followed up with similar comments on television news shows. Axelrod went as far as to urge other news organisations not to treat Fox News as a legitimate news outfit. Fox denies its news coverage is slanted and says critics fail to understand the difference between reporters and commentators.
SHOCK VALUE AND SHOW BUSINESS
Past performance is no guarantee of future results but it is probably a safe bet that the controversy will be good for the Fox bottom line – and that the commentators with the most provocative attacks on Obama will benefit most, a pattern reflected by the network’s third quarter results.
They showed Fox News as the dominant cable news organisation. It drew an average 2.25 million prime time viewers (a 2 percent increase over the previous year) – more than twice the combined number of its nearest competitors, CNN and MSNBC, both of which suffered considerable audience declines.
The shows by Fox’s top conservative commentators all showed steep increases, but none more than Glenn Beck (up almost 90 percent), who said of Obama on a Fox show in July: “This president has exposed himself as a guy, over and over again, who has a deep-seated hatred for white people and white culture.”
Commentators aiming for shock value are not in the business of context, such as pointing out, for example, that Obama’s mother was white and that he had close and cordial relations with his white grandparents. Obama was visibly shaken when his white grandmother, Madelyn Dunham died, a day before he was elected president.
Beck’s “hatred for white people” remark prompted several advertisers to abandon his show but that didn’t hurt the bottom line. A Fox spokeswoman said at the time that offended advertisers had shifted to other Fox programmes so there was no revenue lost.
Which raises the question why Fox News, which effectively functions as the voice of the opposition, has been more of a commercial success than its competitors which feature liberal, pro-Obama commentators and give a platform to people who want the president to succeed?
After all, he won the elections with the votes of Americans who bought into his reform agenda. And according to a Washington Post/ABC poll to mark his ninth month into the presidency, his job approval rating stands at 57 percent and only 20 percent of the country now consider themselves Republican, the lowest percentage in 26 years.
Even on the most hotly disputed aspect of Obama’s health care plan, the public option seen as socialism by conservative commentators, a majority of Americans are coming out in support of the president, according to that poll.
So why is the White House acting as if right-wing critics pose a mortal danger? Thin-skinned sensitivity to criticism? John Batchelor, a conservative radio show host, has a different suggestion: ignorance.
“The White House war on Fox,” he wrote on the website The Daily Beast, “shows its ignorance of the network’s true purpose: show business. And Team Obama is giving Murdoch just what he wants.”
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FOX is popular because no other news shows air the real truth about Obama’s motives and the Democrat’s agendas. I listen to all the news shows and it drives me crazy that one only gets the ‘nice’ sugar-coated stories from the non-fox networks. Also, they constantly bring up distractions to portray the GOP as the ‘party of no’—FOX deserves its following because it isn’t just a white house PR firm.
Conservatives are not identifying themselves as Republicans because the Republicans have proven that they are not conservatives where it matters. However, when it comes time to vote, conservatives will mostly vote Republican because they are the lesser of two evils. Neither Republicans nor Democrats are fiscal conservatives, so the best that true conservatives can hope for is that the Republicans will increase government spending at a lower rate than the Democrats.
All the administration did was point out that FOX News can’t keep its commentaries separated from actually fact-based news.
The 9/12 demonstration is a clear example of this. Not only did the actively promote that day in and day out (during “real news shows”, but while “reporting live”, they ginned up the crowd to make it seems more ruckus.
All that is fine, but you just can’t call it NEWS because it’s being fabricated. And channel that spends virtually of its time dedicated to “political news” fabricating things cannot legitimately call themselves a News Channel. And certainly not one that is “fair and balanced” (what a joke that is).
I administration has said it doesn’t have an issue with it, but just wants to call it what it is, talk radio on the TV. I think there may be more danger in legitimizing that type of “news” by treating them as though they were real journalists.
(That said, there are a few actual journalists that work for FOX NEWS, but they are being greatly overshadowed by the majority of folks inject opinion in virtually every political story).
The Obama/Fox feud has been going on for a long time, remember when then candidate Obama said to be sure to watch the debate, but not on FOX! I leave all my TVs on FOX intentionally to register my support for fair & balanced news – it’s well worth the small spike in my electric bill.
Funny how nobody cared when they bashed Bush. Obama needs to put on his big boy pants and stop playing the race card .If he wants respect show us some backbone and make sound decisions .Stop pandering to party politics and run the damn country ..Both sides of the political spectrum need to stop worrying about any other business till we decide what to do in Afghanistan and Iraq .bottom line he may go down in history as the worst president in history !..OH so you dont think im just another republican ,i voted for Obama and have regretted it for months now !
It is clear from this Op ed from this liberal, that the major medias are not capable of understanding their own bias. They instead are running faster off the cliff of irrelevance by refusing to look objectively at anything. Especially when they put it in black in white everyday for all to see.
The old adage applies: Never wrestle with pigs. You will get dirty, and the pigs love it!
I do not believe anyone at Fox News merits mention by the Obama Administration. The best strategy is to mount a charm offensive that addresses matters of substance. Do as Reagan did–get control of the agenda for the day, every day.
And, because Fox News truly is the republican mouthpiece, as they demonstrated by talking about the content of Cheney’s speech BEFORE he gave it, then they are ripe to fall for spoofs and can be easily derailed.
Give Fox News a few head-fakes, send them off on crazy rants of no substance. This should be fairly easy to do in an age when fact-checking is passe.
The following people get it
Mark from page 1
SteveO from page 2
Matt T from page 3
Orgizmo from page 3
JCreezy from page 3
Matt H from page 4
News? from page 5
Rick Wrap from page 5
So out of 154 comments I’ve found 8 people who get the real world.
You guys need to take a step back and listen to yourselves. Why are you always pointing your anger towards your fellow Americans rather than the gov’t? That’s EXACTLY what they want you to do, bicker back and forth and hate your neighbors.
It’s not left vs right, it’s not conservative vs liberal, it’s not republican vs democrat, it’s US (the mainstream americans) vs THEM (US bureaucrats, republican and democrat).
The middle class standard of living has been going down strikingly the last 9 years, during which time we’ve had everything. Repubilican prez and Rep Congress, Rep prez and Dem Congress, Dem prez and Dem Congress, none of it works, why? Because these people have the same motivations, the almight dollar. No Republican cares about you, no Democrat cares about your family, none of them care about your standard of living.
There’s 2 things they care about: getting your money and getting what few of us to come out to vote for them.
Fox News, MSNBC, CNN, Rush Limbaugh, Keith Olbermann, Hannity, O’Reilly, Maddow, all ARE the mainstream media, they’re all spitting the same message. That message is that Democrats and Republicans are complete opposites, and as an American you either have to be with them or agaisnt them individually, which pits us against each other.
I mean just look at the way you guys talk to each other, come on, we’re better than that.
Fux”news”-Fear and Unbalanced Nooze by Moonbats for the Mentally Challenged!The same hateful 25%ers that backed Bush through every failure and still believe the Earth is flat!They have the same amount of viewers that watch Spongebob Squarepants ,only problem,Spongebob is more believable and his audience is smarter and more mature!
Domestic politics is the opiate of the masses. Wake up America. There is no real right or left. Policy is moved by the flavor of the day, not the values of the “Left” or the “Right”. A Snickers Bar to the first reader who can list the last time a seat was added to the House of Representatives. The current “War” between the executive office and the media is nothing but a side show. Wise up America.
Barrack Hussien Obama, like other precedent presidents, never submitted is birth certificate,Q: Is he a special privileged character.
Next, he has surrounded himself with Czars, You all know who they and and what they Socialist and Communist ideologies are, make me wonder what Mr. BHO can be a president who gets advise from these radical Czars. Fox has the courage to brink out all those Americans Radicals, where the Liberal Press act like a bunch of Ostriches, keeping there heads in the sand and only reports one sided news.
I am not a good write for i was not born in the USA,i am not a stupid individual,i know the difference between right and wrong. On both side of the aisle we have self served politicians, instead of working for the PEOPLE, they are in business for them self, and this is what i think
of what is going on i WASHINGTON.
What would you have the President do when for months on end the talking heads are taking vitriolic potshots at him verbally? Should he ignore it forever? It\’s a dilemma for sure. I don\’t think most people would want to hear endless abuse spewed out over TV and radio against them with no end in sight. And it demeans the person(s) who are spreading the hate and distrust.
It would appear that very few people here actually knows what “socialism”, “marxism”, “nazism” or “communism” really means. Did you actually pay attention in school?
Obama has socialistic tendencies and is pushing a socialistic policy agenda, but did you think he would not?
The sheer number of stupid right wing nuts surprised at Obama “destroying the nation as we know it” is incredible. He won the election. What did you think would happen? YOU didn’t vote for change. Everyone else did.
And if you think he was “destroying the country”, well, a lot of us thought Cheney was “destroying the country”, and quite literally so, not just in some abstract manner. Most of us think a little “socialism” is a good thing because, frankly, even YOU don’t feel like paying a la carte for police protection or fire protection or Medicare …
The difference between Libs bashing Bush and the Neocons bashing Obama… the Libs attacked Bush’s terrible policies; Neocons attack Obama personally. I don’t remember any Libs saying Bush hates black Americans, or that they wanted him to fail the second after he won the election. Nor did they attack the dubious manner in which he won the 2000 election (Michael Moore is a filmmaker, not a syndicated news program/channel). Fact is Neocons never gave Obama a chance, and are showing racist and hateful sentiment against this administration. I think people are fed up with this kinda garbage, and while Obama’s WH may not be the best thing since sliced bread, I don’t believe you’ll find many willing to fact Neocon loudmouths that wear the Rush or Glenn Beck seal on their back.
The Obama v. Faux Noise fight is good for both sides.
Yes, the ratings have soared for Fox as the right consolidates around it. Yes, Fox will continue to make more money. And, Limbaugh, Beck and all will become richer.
However, their influence on the actually policies has diminished as seen the response to all that “death panel”-tea party noise from this summer.
Despite the millions spent by them and the health insurance lobby, they STILL didn’t win.
Only 20% of Americans identify themselves with the GOP – down from 25% in early 2009 and people & media now question the extremes of the rightwing.
Just getting traditional media to distance themselves from the rightwing is a political and policy win for the Obama admin.
So, Fox will continue to spin its crap & make tons of money but Obama will continue to please its base and win the political battles it needs to win to look good.
Win-win.
Sure Limbaugh got higher ratings from his fans, who figure Obama is the antiChrist, now listening to him every day instead of every other day. That empowered Rush to start pushing around the entire Republican Party, to the point of having Representatives and Senators apologizing when they described him as “just an entertainer”. That did not pass unnoticed in the rest of America, where most people despise Limbaugh and his bullyboy tactics. Women, especially, are turned off by the guy, which helps the Dems notch up a serious gender gap.
Same thing with Fox: their ratings may be up, but who cares if they get 4 million viewers instead of 3 million? That’s still a tiny fraction of the total electorate, and the Republican Party pandering to rabid Fox-sponsored teabaggers merely makes it unappetizing to the broad center. Every poll shows a consistent decline in people self-identifying as Republican, and in approval ratings for Congressional Republicans in general and the party leadership in particular.
The Dems have rigged up a nice little piece of political jiu-jitsu, where encouraging the opposition’s radical elements also alienates them from most voters. Someone was reading Art Of War into the wee hours on this one, I suspect.
Mr. Obama, I have four words for you:
I HOPE YOU SUCCEED !
So what does it matter if Neocons are saying that Obama is a socialist, or that his policies are incompetent? At least these claims have a basis, some more tenuous then others.
The true issue is the Obama supporters who claim that everyone who attacks Obama is either racist or bitter. Even in this forum, many have taken that approach.
It must be so comforting to be able to say “Nothing you say is worth answering, because you are a racist”. It will always allow you to win a debate, at least when you know the audience is on your side.
Obama’s mistake is that he lumps all political attacks with the Neocons, and wants to create the impression that no criticism against him is of any relevance. This will have bad implications for him, if his approval rating continues to fall.
OBAMA BASHING, OR OBAMA POLICY BASHING?
Tne mainline news media consistently get it dead wrong: FOX News is not just the voice of the “opposition”; they are the voice of the majority of American voters. It is not Obama they are bashing, it is his socialist policies.
The demographics of the FOX prime time viewership shows a healthy (and growing) mix of right, center, and left viewers — and even a few far left liberals. THAT is why the FOX viewership is way up. A broad mix of Americans see their news coverage as “fair and balanced.” A dwindling number of Americans see the competing news media coverage as “fair and balanced.”
America is poorly served by the newspaper and TV media these days — and outside of New York City and Los Angeles, the “man on the street” knows this. He knows he can get better-balanced news coverage from FOX (along with dissenting views and debate) on ALL important stories. Stories which are “uncomfortable” to Obama are not EXCLUDED from coverage, as they are in the mainline media.
We happen to have as our President these days a guy who campaigned as a moderate Democrat, but, once in power, has chosen to operate a decidedly far-left, socialist administration. Obama’s policies and appointees are decidedly far left and socialist. FOX accurately follows this development, and the majority of mainstream America seems to applaud them for doing so.
There is precious little support from mainstream America for the Obama program of massive socialist change. The polls show this very vividly, with the approval ratings for Congress, the Stimulus package, the Health Care packages, and the “Cap and Trade” package all going south.
SAGE ADVICE for Obama, Pelosi, and Reid: When you find yourself in a deep hole, it’s best to stop digging.
Is the head dead yet? Don Henley has a song about this that came out around 1982. “If it bleeds it leads. If it thinks it stinks”. Just as extras are screaming helplessly in hollywood horror flicks, we are advised not to watch TV movies with our kids by another news network because it is assumed that parental stupidity might scare them.
First, you choose the poll with the questionable results comparred to other polls, and one with a history of scewing its sample strongly in favor of Democrats. Then you look at the wrong question. To the extent that Fox’s opinion shows have a bias, it’s anti-liberal/progressive and pro-conservative/libertarian. Many conservative/libertarians have dissociated themselves from the party of Lindsay Graham, Susan Collins, and Olympia Snowe. The poll shows that only 23% of the respondents consider themselves “liberal” while 38% are “conservative.”
Fox News is studiously applying the P.T. Barnum paradigm by delivering a lurid, non-stop freak show that never ever underestimates the stupidity of its audience. Never!
I’ll leave you to match them up yourself here but with Fox News, you’ve got your Chang & Eng, your Bearded Lady, your “Feejee Mermaid” – all these, plus mental midgets, bulimic fire eaters and apoplectic dwarves galore…
Fox News is like watching several old-time circus trains colliding with each other and then catching fire. You may try to look away, but it takes real strength of character not to watch.
Fox News supplies talking points to ignorant, needy people too stupid to observe cellular phone etiquette and who are deeply unsure what to say about anything, yet cursed with the compulsion to say something all the time anyway. These jackasses get all their talking points from Fox News.
And Fox “news” is not only “fair” and “balanced” – it’s “free” right?
More like, lucrative. Making a masochistic audience wade through scads of lurid commercials for inane consumer products on a quest for snippets of random stuff to say and shock other stupid people with *easily* covers the cost of delivery, and quickly turns what some may call a Nasty Profit.
Like Barnum passing out flyers for snake oil to born-again suckers, Fox News revenue derives from driving commercial dogma into the wasted brain-mass of a stupefied audience.
Fox News keeps ugly people off the streets and gives them something to do while masticating in social isolation. In that sense, it may be seen as performing a social service.
Fox News dignifies gossip and chatter like no other TV channel in history by heating up the buttons on randomly-exhumed dead issues until they radiate. It’s a miracle of reanimation. Birthers and Teabaggers, gather round!
Fox News is screwing up the language quite a bit. But, you know, there have been interesting precedents (e.g. Victor Klemperer’s LTI – Lingua Tertii Imperii) so… they boldly go on doing it anyway.
Fox News recycles diligently by packaging waste matter as “news”. This may also be seen as egalitarian positivism in the sense that old bull excrement which would never make it as conversational matter between evolved, intelligent human beings is given a chance on Fox just like real news – and, lo and behold, some of it flies!
Fox News is efficient. Fox News never bothered to “bash” Bush because – obviously – it would have been a waste of time. Throughout his political career, W managed to make a complete and utter ass of himself without intervention on the part of Fox News. So they backed off. Obama seems to need more assistance in this respect. Or, disrespect.
Fox News actually gives viewers an opportunity to think… a single thought consisting mainly of, “It sort of looks like TV News but I can’t believe they actually get away with calling it that.”
Fox News also allows untalented people to feel.
Apparently what they feel is this: “If Fox News can make money peddling this crap, there is hope for me in today’s mega-troubled employment market. One can be as bizarrely greedy, medicated, undignified and useless a blowhard as any of those guys on Fox News and still hold down a job? Wow. Maybe like them, I can get a job holding logic and civility in contempt. No, really, I’m ready to say or do anything for money, anytime. I’d even break the law for a paycheck. And I like wearing suits. So where should I send my resumé?”
For such people, clearly, it’s a career toss-up between Fox News and Goldman Sachs.
Fox News has, however, been known to miss the point on occasion. For example, anyone who thinks that Corporate America doesn’t have its fist inserted every bit as deeply inside Obama as it did inside The Bush Puppets – “because he’s black” – is clearly in need of racial enlightenment as well as a crash course in crony capitalism. But Fox just won’t go there.
I was brought up to believe that courage and integrity are important characteristics in any aspect of news reporting. At Fox News these assets are blatantly and utterly absent. And it gets worse. Fox News marginalizes and sneers at any vestige of dignity in the free-thinking sociosphere.
Fox News goes far beyond “bashing Obama” – Obama’s a big lad who volunteered for the job and should be able to look out for himself – well, maybe he can, maybe he can’t. He hasn’t exactly lived up to his own hype at this point. Not on any issue of any importance at all. Fox should really let the American people do their own bashing of Obama.
But no, Fox News doesn’t come equipped with a brake pedal. Fox News can’t stop bashing its entire audience. That’s what happens with all the hyperbole, synthetic partiotism and sputtering indignation. Bash bash bashing all the time eventually leads to brain damage on a massive scale.
Fox News isn’t just the #1 Enemy of Obama, but also The Enemy of The People.
Fox News is like CNN on PCP. For meth-heads who can no longer afford real meth any more in today’s economy, Fox News is the ultimate Plug-In Drug.
Where’s the AdCouncil when you really need them?
why couldn’t they use some of that cash infusion to keep sarah connors on?
So let me get this straight. If you’re liberal (CNN, MSNBC, ABC, CBS and NPR) you are main stream and balanced, but if you are conservative (Fox) you are a wacky right wing extremist. OK, I think I have it now. A five to one advantage for the safe (liberal) guys isn’t enough?
Middle America better step up to the plate and say something. As a self-defined “Centrist”, I am sick and tired of “cry-baby politics”.
I have supported both Republican and Democrat parties in the past (I am a registered Independant). The partican politics that are being played by BOTH parties is abhorent!
I was a McCain supporter until he picked his running mate. I felt that either Carly Fiorina or Meg Whitman would have been a better choice. Both were his advisors during the election. Afterwards, I listened to both parties, and eventually decided that Obama would be the better choice for our country (note, I said better, not best).
I still feel that way. I’m not happy where we are, but we took a long 8+ years to get here. Barack Obama is not the cause, and from what I see, he is trying his best.
While NOT a fan of the Clinton Administration (I voted for Dole), the Republicans KNEW that Health Care was a BIG Democrat issue. They had EIGHT YEARS to bring something to the table, and did not. NOW they’re coming out of the woodwork with “better ideas”.
HEY REPUBLICANS: Too Late! I’m giving Obama at LEAST 4 years to prove himself. Hopefully, he can unwind the HORRIBLE STATE that the Bush Administration got us into. (I’d be happy if he could improve things by 10% from where George W. left us…)
AND PUNDITS: You’re only Entertainers to me.
The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits. Albert Einstein
Fox and a few other individuals are loudly proclaiming the emperor has no clothes. The big 5 networks are trying to tell us he indeed has some- it’s just that the unwashed masses are too ignorant to see them. If the Big 5 networks started telling the truth, started giving unbiased factual coverage, they might gain viewers again.
The problem is that the Obama Administration is addicted to having its posterior kissed by the media. The reason for the shift in the ratings is that the grownups have awakened from thier long nap of last November and realize that thier children voted in a Chicago Communist with no management skills, who surrounds himself with butt boys and girls who are stupid enough to believe that this crap he proposes will work. Next Nov. there will be a change………BET ON IT!
Wow. The left is sure full of haters.
“Fox News isn’t just the #1 Enemy of Obama, but also The Enemy of The People.”
The Bell is a ‘Ding Dong’
Watch Fox News, it is the most balanced presentation of news out there.
If you want news, there are many sources from which to piece together a decent understanding of world events. If you don’t want to bother with that and would rather have a source of factually challenged fuel for your ire toward democrats (and lots of other people), then Fox is your place.
They don’t compete for the same viewers. It’s a completely different market. Is there anyone who honestly thinks that if Fox went off the air, the Fox viewers would suddenly tune in to PBS? No. PBS is for news. Fox is for rudely yelling factual misrepresentations (as best I can tell) and allowing people an excuse to hold on to irrational beliefs.
Mr. Obama has good reason to be afraid of Fox News and Cable since this is the only news source doing investigative journalism of the Obama administration. Having sampled Fox for a number of years I am perfectly aware that claims partisans make and repeat against it are false. So is anybody else not blinded by partisanship. Anyone wishing to have credible news reporting will find Fox the only game in town. All the other sources are simply carrying water for Democrats and have betrayed basic journalistic responsibilities for ideology. Fox is not the villain but the knight in shining armor. Other media and their journalists should be ashamed of themselves for falling behind and abandoning their standards to push ideology.
Let’s get one thing straight: 2.5 million viewers is not a lot of viewers. There are over 300 million American’s. Do the math. What is the percentage of viewers at Fox as it related to the entire American population? Not even 1%. Fox news is not news. It’s a channel for Obama haters. It’s a channel for right wing extremist. That’s all it is. That’s all it ever will be. Now that the Obama administration has called then out for what they truly are, I say just ignore Fox all together. Let Fox and there audience live in there own world. The other 297 million will live in our world..the real world that is.
surely rupert doesn’t believe that ALL the people checking out this bonehead’s progamming are FANS!?! it’s worth a Laugh to see their Spin Doctors get hold of a perfectly good story ,give it their **SPIN and it’s nowhere near the same story it started out as.DISINFORMATION. False Prophets. only as newsworthy as one chooses to believe.it’s the DUMBING DOWN OF THE AMERICAN PUBLIC. SUCKERS!!!!!!!!!!
it wasnt so long ago that I wanted Fox News gone. Now I catch a glimpse now and then, for whatever reason, they’ve become a voice of dissenters.
Let’s keep it real though, this isnt about left and right, its about whats best for the citizens of this Country. We’re all in this together, if they divide us, we fall.
You got your facts wrong Burnd. Latest national poll has number ofr conservatives around 40%. Thanks to BS artist like yourself that % is growing every day. THANKS!!!!!!
I am a registered Independant. Bush didn’t get us into this mess. It all starts with law. It took more than 8 years to get where we are today. People love to blame Bush for the economy. He didn’t do a good job economically, but if we had a more liberal leader, the situation would be worse.
Barney Frank is one of the people responsible. He pushed banks to do what they hate to do…take undue risk. This then allowed Wall Street to do what it does…Make money while abiding by the law.
Obama is trying his best to radically change the country that we live in. He speaks without thinking. So many promises were made by him that he hasn’t kept. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UErR7i2on W0
This country is about to go places that only a couple of years ago would have been insane to think about. I am an Independant that loves Free Markets, Conservative Spending, Liberal Social Policies (except for Abortion). We need to instill the value of hard work and individual success and responsibility. The moment that risk takers and hard workers that have been fortunate enough to make money with their efforts are punished, look out because the economy will drop like a ton of bricks.
I, like most of you want a unified country that we can all be proud of. Lets think, read and do what is best. What hasn’t worked in the past? What has? Lets do what’s best for all of us. Handouts are never good. We have to be responsible for ourselves and given the choice to help others, not the requirement. Smaller government puts the power in the people’s hands. I don’t trust any of these clowns in Washington.
The primary thing to remember about Murdoch, and Fox News, and to a lesser extent Andrew Brietbart, is that they absolutely do not care whether you agree or disagree, as long as you keep watching.
They don’t have to be right; they don’t have to be accurate; they don’t have to be fair; they don’t have to be balanced. All they have to do is keep you coming back for more.
It is unbelievable that Beck’s ratings have skyrocketed after his accusing of President Obama as a racist. What is wrong with America? Why have some people descended to such low levels? The right wing, although a minority, has become increasingly aggressive and intolerant. Are we heading towards civil war?
Obama is pleasing the Islamists too much! That’s why the Talebans are getting bolder and stronger! The Democrats will lose the next election for sure!
I agree with the Obama administration that Fox News is not news. In fact I believe folk like Glenn Beck ought to be locked up. But we have all learned again the lesson that bashing them directly only energizes their misguided supporters. It is time to recognize a failed strategy, and simply take the high road only, which was a signature strength of Obama in the early days.
Anyone wishing to have credible news reporting will find Fox the only game in town. So true! lol
Kim
“a majority of Americans are coming out in support of the president, according to that poll”
Your article is false the Majority of Americans are AGAINST Government ran Health Care!..Wake up and tell the truth
As disgusting as the agenda for these “Hate” shows are on Fox, only 2% of the US population are watching! Hardly represents a serious threat to civilization. With luck, real people have more positive things to focus on in their lives~!
Listen to msnbc and fox news. Chris Matthews (et al) just love anything liberal (esp Obama) to death. Obvious. Hannity and Beck are conservative and don’t swoon over Obama or liberal policies. Obvious. I don’t believe there is ANY true journalist out there. The difference I see is that the conservatives WANT us to know how much this will really cost and the liberals don’t care what that cost is so they never report on the cost. I want to see Chris and Glenn on the same show for a debate on health care costs. I don’t think Chris has read the bill but I do believe Glenn has. If I’m wrong then it would be a great debate. I have tried to watch Chris M at times but he is so far left I just can’t. I am and do believe in fiscal conservatism so I can’t support bigger government. Bush spent too much but what Obama is spending makes GW look like Scrooge. I think it’s time to send all of Congress packing.
RMB,
It’s too bad we didn’t call for that same debate when we decided to kick off our warmongering nation building escapades.
I agree with you though, we shouldn’t do anything we can’t afford. Healthcare, wars, gov’t spending, welfare, etc.
This whole thing boils down to the fact that the citizens go unrepresented in the media. Our media outlets are not publicly owned. And so they are in business for ratings and profit just like any other entertainment programing. We don’t have news any more. It’s all sound bites, statistics, poll results, opinions and shock drama.
Until we actually have a free media that serves the interests of the citizen we won’t get real news. C-Span is about the only news service that is open about what’s going on in Washington. But this is limiting only because C-Span is the only service of it’s kind that I’m aware of in this country.
We have no honest journalism on main stream media any more. So I get my news on the internet. You get better news there. Because self styled reporters aren’t afraid to investigate. And with the internet you can check your facts a bit more easily. Unfortunately many don’t have the skills of journalists. But it’s worth the trouble when you compare internet news to fox and all that other rubbish.
Bashing is easy. Any fool can destroy something. Being a good reporter or a respected news agency takes work. I see work being put into shiny graphics and catchy sound bites. But I don’t see nearly so much effort and skill being placed on finding out and delivering the facts (drama free).
It’s not just Obama bashing. “News” is nothing more than entertainment. We like our news to single out points of conflict and sources of malcontent. But rarely if ever is the opposite true.
If serious news was separated from entertainment and made democratic this problem would not exist because WE would decide, democratically, what is news.
If we are willing to let the running of our entire countries be democratic, why not OUR news-media?
The most important democratic tool WE have (mass media) should be controlled by US not a few billionaires, this can only be seen as anti-democratic behavior.
I’ve gotten a chuckle out of all the posts talking about how bad the mainstream media is. Where do you think you are? Reuters isn’t some underground site.
It’s main stream media that asked the question. Why would we go elsewhere to answer it?
That would be like starting a war in Iraq when the enemy is in Afghanistan. Who would be so retarded?
Mainstream media in the US= ABC news, Fox news, NBC news, MSNBC, CNN, Newsweek, Time Magazine, Washington Post/New York Times/Wallstreet Journal those are what I’d consider mainstream media in the US.
Maybe Reuters is big elsewhere, but I wouldn’t consider it mainstream media in the US. They’re too honest about Israel to be a mainstream media outlet here.