Journolist, Sullivan, and Breitbart
26 July 2010 8:46 pm by Taylor Marsh
Nothing much can be learned from the manufactured media uproar over Journolist, except as a case study of how the right-wing propaganda machine still dominates America’s daily narrative — and how conservative journalists remain astonishingly exempt from the standards they are pretending to uphold. - Joe Conason
I’m not sure what Andrew Sullivan thinks he’s got on this one. He’s in an uproar over the latest Daily Caller Journolist dump that details the conversation about the rumors of Trig that Sullivan swallowed whole, which is a pretty decent way to drive traffic considering we’re heading into the dog days of summer. But he goes off the rails a little here on this one, proving Joe Conason’s point, even if Sullivan wasn’t mentioned in Joe’s piece.
One should say this, however: I have no way of knowing what the DC has omitted, and how it has shaped this information. The thread stops rather abruptly. Maybe there is context that adds to what we know. I do not trust in any way the ethics of the Daily Caller. Nonetheless, I was obviously not alone in those August days, when I was pilloried for saying out loud what the entire chattering class was saying in private.
Does it not occur to Mr. Sullivan that some things are better discussed in private if there is no evidence to substantiate what would be ramblings of an idiot confirmed through writings that are pure rumor and smear?
Sullivan damns the “liberal media.” But remember, this is the guy who didn’t make the case for Barack Obama on the merits, which after he won the nomination is exactly what the “liberal media” did, myself included, but instead made the case for Mr. Obama based on his face.
This is your liberal media, ladies and gentlemen: totally partisan, interested in the truth only if it advances their agenda, and devoid of any balls whatsoever. And people wonder how this farce of a candidate now controls one major political party and could well be our next president. One reason is that we do not have a functioning adversarial media uncorrupted by partisan loyalty and tactics.
Sullivan is freaked because he envisions “President Palin.” These latest emails of Journolist posted by Daily Caller have sent him over the edge. But he has more in common with Andrew Breitbart on the Palin-Trig story than he’d like to admit.
If Mr. Breitbart had talked on an email listserv about his Shirley Sherrod video maybe he wouldn’t have leaked a lying video that upended an innocent civil rights worker’s life.
The same goes for Sullivan on the Palin-Trig story, which to date he continues to trumpet, without any proof at all.
Concerning Joe’s quote; it also says a great deal about the laziness of the readers/watchers. While it certainly is not just those that follow the right wing media machine, it does speak volumes that Palin, Huckabee, Breitbart, Beck, etc., have such a vast following yet aren’t held to any kind of standard.
Honestly, one of my biggest battles within my vast family is trying to argue with, say, a Beck watcher, that he never has an ounce of proof to back up his outrageouness.
We now mistake entertainment for news and “journalism” as some gotcha game. All the while, we lose focus and go on to the next story.
It’s impossible to argue with someone who insists on being willfully ignorant. It’s a lot of the reason why democrats seem to be silent much of the time, as I’m sure you’ve no doubt noticed in your interactions with members of your family in the thralls of Beckistan. Its pointless to discuss, much less argue issues of the day with someone whose worldview is totally based on their own prejudices and fears. That’s what the right wing noise machine feeds into and its pretty powerful stuff. It’s a hell of a lot easier to be spoon-fed your beliefs from on high than to try and navigate the all-powerful and hegemonic media and find your own answers. the right wing keeps it simple, stoke your fears, gin up your resentments and slather it with God and country and then you don’t have to fill your beautiful mind with challenges to your assumptions. The right wing offers simple answers to complex solutions, albeit deceptive ones, Can’t get ahead? the government won’t let you because of affirmative action. Can’t make ends meet? The government overtaxes you. I could go on, but you get the idea.
it’s hard to be a Democrat. It asks a lot. It asks you to put aside your prejudices and resentments. It demands you follow no leader, but that you make leader’s beholden to you. It demands that you argue with fellow Democrats, or left leaning persons more than you would anyone on the right. It asks that you swallow compromise in the name of serving the greater good, even as you doubt the process and the result. It demands knowledge, and a belief in the power of government to affect positive change.
We’ve had 40 years of Republican political hegemony in this country. All that you see is a result of that. It is a nihilistic vision dedicated to the service of the self over the greater good. It has been a disaster, not only to the function of government as an entity to improve, nurture and enrich society, but to society itself. Once a society loses faith in its governing authority, all facets of it become frayed.
And the media? All the more happy to gin up anger and fear. We are ruled not by laws, but the 24 hour news cycle. There is too much media, and too little talent to fill it up. Equal time has made truth subjective, he who yells the loudest wins the argument, he who has the most cash gets the bigger megaphone. I can say honestly that I have no opinion of Andrew Sullivan, and could care less what he chooses to prattle on about. It is all noise in a vacuum. Walter Cronkite is dead, but he surely had his bias’ too, but I think he probably did his best to at least be honest with himself about what his lyin’ eyes saw, and that was good enough for me.
man, this is way too long, I apologize
One wonders if we wouldn’t be better off if Mr. Sullivan spent more time advertising for bare back no strings attached sex as he has in the past in spite of his positive HIV status and less time writing this dreck.
Obviously he cares as much about journalistic integrity as he does about the saftey and welfare of his faceless sex partners.
Heh heh
I have no love for Sarah Palin, but as far as I’m concerned, Trig Palin should not be treated as a political football. While it’s clear that Gov. Palin’s office probably exaggerated the circumstances as they existed in the 24 hours immediately preceding Trig’s birth, her OB-GYN confirmed that he is her son, and we have no reason to doubt otherwise.
Those aforementioned circumstances are undoubtedly far less heroic than was intimated by Palin’s media staff at the time, and if anyone was responsible for the subsequent and persistent rumors surrounding Trig’s birth, it would be those bozos for concocting a tale of the Arctic supermom.
If I were to hazard a guess, I’d say that while she was in Dallas, Gov. Palin had a passing series of false labor pains that subsided, but still understandably caused her some concern. After consultation with her doctor by phone, she decided to cut short her trip to return to Alaska, where she would be under the care of her own doctor. Once back in Wasilla, and given the fact that she had leaked some amniotic fluid, her OB-GYN decided to induce labor to prevent possible complications, and Trig was born some six hours later.
And that’s the last I’ll say on this matter.
OT but it seems that there is another virus/spyware attack on your website. Everytime I visit my system informs me that a virus / spyware has been detected and moved to quarantine.
We continually run tests, Isis, and there’s nothing there. The last was done as a site attack by pissed off people. It’s all good last time we checked.
Any consequences for the lil darlins?