Well at Least We Know ABC is Immune to Intellectual Embarassment
Creeping Chavezismo in the MSM in regard to President Obama. From Drudge:
On the night of June 24, the media and government become one, when ABC turns its programming over to President Obama and White House officials to push government run health care — a move that has ignited an ethical firestorm! Highlights on the agenda:
ABCNEWS anchor Charlie Gibson will deliver WORLD NEWS from the Blue Room of the White House.
The network plans a primetime special — ‘Prescription for America’ — originating from the East Room, exclude opposing voices on the debate.
Imagine if ABC news delivered a report on religion from the Vatican and excluded non-Catholics. What message would that send? This is an amazing level of sycophancy toward a president by a major media outlet, even a Democratic president.Let us hear no more whining about bias on FOX or talk radio, this stunt by ABC amounts to unpaid advertisng and a de facto government TV program. Why is this happening? Simple Obama-worship at ABC? Unlikely.
John Podesta, is the lead strategist of the effort to coordinate the media with Liberal-Left Democratic political needs, published his think tank’s strategy in regard to censoring talk radio. We can only imagine what advice Podesta gives to Obama administration officials in private, but the report was a strong signal to all broadcasters to toe the political line or face increasingly onerous FCC regulation, escalating fees, fines and denial of licenses over the next four years.
Republicans and conservatives need to wake up that the Obama administration is not playing the traditional “issues” game beloved of partisan interest groups bent on fighting over microscopic technical changes in abortion laws or .5 % of the capital gains tax rate. They could care less about that minutia for now, seeing it as distracting crap; the aim of the Obama administration is creating long-term, strategic advantages for Democrats and progressive leftists by changing the rules of the game for the long haul. So the Obamaites are focusing on controlling the media discourse, turning the Census Bureau into a political tool of the Democratic Party, redrawing the congressional map and raising the barriers to entry to participate in the political process for independent or conservative demographic groups.
Either the GOP gets it together in the next two election cycles or it is finished for a generation.
UPDATE:
ABC refuses to accept paid advertising critical of Obama’s health plan
June 16th, 2009 at 7:28 pm
The model for Obama / Axelrod / Emmanuel is Chicago and Cook County. Among Chicago alderman, anything other than a 50-0 party line vote is anamolous enough to be reported in the newspaper. In the County, the iron grip of the Stroger family allows the board to raise taxes to the highest in the nation and no opposition has any realistic chance of stopping it.
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In both locations, City and County, the Republican party has been completely eliminated. The power of government is used to crush anyone who gets in the way of the machine.
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These guys do NOT play beanbag. They play to win, and to win permanently.
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America, welcome to Chicago. Republicans, welcome to the slaughterhouse.
June 16th, 2009 at 10:46 pm
[…] Well at Least We Know ABC is Immune to Intellectual Embarassment – This is an amazing level of sycophancy toward a president by a major media outlet, even a Democratic president. […]
June 17th, 2009 at 2:02 pm
Zen,
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/barackobama/5557125/Video-Barack-Obama-swats-fly-during-CNBC-interview.html
Hard to beat that for sheer silliness. But then the Brit "quality press" has been moving reapidly downhill ever since they started all this nonsense about royal marriage problems etc.
June 17th, 2009 at 4:07 pm
Politically it is brilliant. Personally, I’m not sure I the precedent–Obama is ‘my guy’, but there is no guarantee the next guy will be, hence the need for rules and precendents that level the playing field on an on-going basis.
June 17th, 2009 at 4:46 pm
Hi Bill,
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Agreed. The legitimcy of our system is a belief in the sanctity of the rules of the game, SCOTUS as umpire that puts protecting the system above partisan advantage and the opportunity of the American dream. Scotch these, or even cast a majority of them into serious doubt for a significant plurality of Americans, and we will have serious problems.
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The US in the last 40 years have developed two worrisome domestic trends – the increasing politicization of all spheres of life and the increasing recourse to the courts and an adversarial system of justice to resolve all social and policy questions. The two trends aggravate one another and spreads maximalist thinking which favors conflict and aggression and discourages compromise and self-restraint.
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Incidentally, Lex above is on target re: Chicago/Cook County. Daley’s father, the much feared original Mayor Daley, NEVER exercised the iron-clad control over the City Council and County government that his son has. Patronage has been shifted to private contractors who dole out jobs to get around the Shakman Decree and is as extensive as ever. There were always independent voices and even some respectable electoral challenges to Daley, sr. ( and more newspapers BTW).
June 17th, 2009 at 7:12 pm
For me, the idea that a sphere of life wasn’t already politicized is odd, as politics–broadly understood–is a natural state of affairs (it’s life, really) that doesn’t require governments and politicians. I was more coming from the perspective that altering the rules of the game, while beneficial in the short term, may not be worth it in the long term. For example, all the discussion by Republicans about eliminating the filibuster when they are in power–silly, in my view, because at some point they knew (or should have known) that they would be back in the minority. So why alter the rules of the game in the short term–unless with that move you could guarantee some permanenet dominance. If you can’t, you are taking an option away from yourself in a future position of weakness. Same idea with making certain interactions with the media ‘acceptable’ here–that is my worry, because when the Democrats no longer control, well, 2/3 of government they won’t have much to complain about.
June 18th, 2009 at 3:08 am
[…] An excellent analysis of this by Zenpundit: Well at Least We Know ABC is Immune to Intellectual Embarassment. […]
June 18th, 2009 at 3:34 pm
Lex wrote, "The model for Obama / Axelrod / Emmanuel is Chicago and Cook County….In the County, the iron grip of the Stroger family allows the board to raise taxes to the highest in the nation and no opposition has any realistic chance of stopping it.
In both locations, City and County, the Republican party has been completely eliminated. The power of government is used to crush anyone who gets in the way of the machine. These guys do NOT play beanbag. They play to win, and to win permanently.
America, welcome to Chicago."
Well-said. I am a conservative "trapped" in the Chicago area, and I can tell you the truth whereof Lex speaks. Mayor Daley is a modern-day Huey Long, a virtual dictator who along with the local and state Democratic machine, pretty much runs things how they choose without meaningful opposition. Lex, your last comment is especially apt, "America, welcome to Chicago." To give you an idea of what you are getting, our infastructure stinks – the roads here are terrible, to name one example – taxes are very high, government institutions are bloated, inefficient, costly, and do not work. The public schools are awful, even by the degarded standards of that sphere of education. Cronyism is rife within the CPD and CFD, as well as institutions such as local universities (the big "scandal" of the moment is that politically-connected sons/daughters get into local and state public universities over the heads of students with better qualifications… tell us something we don’t know). Who you know, that’s all it’s about. Politics is hereditary here, so-called "elected offices" are passed down from father to son/daughter, witness Mayor Daley pere et fils; John Stroger and son Todd, both Cook Co. Committee chairmen; and Mike Madigan and daughter Lisa, now state attorney general. As ACORN showed us yet again, this time in a national election, dead people and children of 7-years of age really do vote in Chicago. Oh, one other thing: If you are looking to buy a home within 50 miles of Chicago, bring money, lots of it. Not only to pay for the house, but for the ginned-up property tax assessment you are certain to receieve. Around here, the "house aways wins," aka the government.
Hey, but look on the bright side, at least the garbage gets collected!
As soon as my personal circumstances permit, I am getting the heck out of here for a freer, more prosperous, better-run state. Texas, Alaska, and a few others are on the radar. Still gotta do my research. Maybe I’ll take the plunge and head to Australia or New Zealand.
June 19th, 2009 at 4:32 pm
Oh, give me a break. Most of the stuff Poedesta recommends would just move us back to what broadcasting was like before 1980. Hardly the stuff of Chavez.
Incidentally, if the Fairness Doctrine were in effect ABC wouldn’t be able to steal a page from Fox News. Which seems to be what everyone’s going apoplectic about.
June 20th, 2009 at 8:23 am
I’m pretty sure this is the normal chain of events in a multi-ethnic nation?
June 21st, 2009 at 4:10 am
Um, Fox News Channel under Bush? A little less partisan hysteria, please.
June 22nd, 2009 at 4:00 am
The problem that Obama has is that the country is crumbling slowly but surely under his tenure. He is an incompetent boob who has hired loyalist yes-men to carry out his suicidal policies. No matter how many media flacks he inspires to carry his water, the consequences eventually accrue.
July 23rd, 2009 at 6:08 am
fha gov…
I like that price is adjusting but hoping for housing market collapse seems childish and dangerous, Bob. In 90s it was a struggle to get a job, many people I know was struggling. Japan is suffering with decreasing population (low birth rate) and depres…