Post by Moses on Apr 16, 2005 18:35:47 GMT -5
Beyond The Echo Chamber. Stay On Message, The GOP Talking Points Network In Action.
By Anthony Wade[/size]
www.OpEdNews.com
<br>Sean “The Media sleeper” Hannity has an exclusive interview with Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice tonight. This is how low media has fallen to in latter day America. Thirty years ago, the press was interested in the truth. They were concerned about the interests of the American people. Fast forward to today and all we see are sleepers lined up to pimp you their version of fact and fiction. It is not your interests but the interest of the party, the Grand Ole Party.
<br>The GOP is in the business of propaganda. It has been for some time, setting up a backdrop of “media” outlets that pretend to have some sliver of objectivity but in reality, they are there just to support the party line. They realized decades ago, that in order to break the seeming strangle hold the liberals had on the media, they had to recreate the media from the ground up. They realized that if enough sources said the same thing; over and over again two very important things would happen. First, people would start assuming there was some truth to it and second, that the alleged “mainstream” media would have to pay attention and thus give the false story, legs.
<br>You need to seriously understand the network, and how the GOP masterfully works it. There are talking points generated almost daily, about how issues will be framed and dealt with by the network. You saw this recently when Tom Delay met with Congressional GOP members and instructed them to respond to any allegations of ethics charges by claiming the democrats were pointing fingers because they had no vision. You can see the network more clearly on major issues. These are the issues which stay in the public eye for longer periods of time. Two such recent issues were the social security scam and the Terri Schiavo debacle. You can see the network by simply listening. Listen to what is being said and pick up on the similarities. When the GOP needs to activate the network it primarily dispenses the talking points to three major segments, which work together, to create opinion in this country. Those three segments are:
<br>Talk Radio
Cable News Networks
Contributors to Cable News
<br>Talk radio should be obvious, but for the unaware, nearly all talk radio is dominated by the right. You have people like Limbaugh, Hannity and Savage who have made quite a living on being as vile as they want to be against anyone who does not toe the party line. What they really do though, is set the table. They put it in the minds of people during the day that Social Security will be bankrupt by 2017, even though that is a complete fallacy. They plant the seed that two of five doctors disagreed about the persistive vegetative state that Teri Schiavo was in without saying the two in question never actually examined her.
<br>Cable news is completely overridden by GOP operatives and others who simply go with the flow. Fox News is all too obvious and as I have said before, the real damage Fox News does, is to make other cable news networks appear mainstream, when they are actually right-leaning as well. Proof? Just look at who hosts the shows and what stories get air time. How much did we hear about the Swift Boat veterans for Truth last summer, AFTER they had been debunked as liars compared to stories about how horrific Bush was in the first debate? That is what tells you where their priorities lie. The President of the United States gave one of the worst performances in history at a debate, yet the stories were still remarkably about the Swift Liars. You even had people on cable saying Bush won the debate!
<br>Fox is again, obvious, with such demagogues as Brit Hume, Sean Hannity, and Bill O’Reilly. Then you look at MSNBC who thinks nothing of giving an entire hour to a former GOP Congressman in Joe Scarborough. Chris Matthews is the king of softball, touting the stories the administration wants covered while ignoring those that may expose them. CNN has Wolf Blitzer who gave the softest interview in recent memory to Jeff “I’m a Real sleeper” Gannon, accepting lies from him that had already been debunked. Their primetime lineup also does not instill balance at all. Let’s face it folks, when the only “left” voices with prime time slots are named Olbermann and Colmes, there is trouble in truth city. What cable news does is it decides which stories are covered. By doing that, they decide what are the topics on everyone’s minds. With their talking points in hand, you see the Hannity-O’Reilly-Scarborough team go into action and reiterate what their talk radio brethren have already started. Using the same skewed statistics, they to say that social security will be bankrupt by 2017 and that 2 of 5 doctors say Terri is not in a vegetative state at all. Suddenly, the thoughts start to take root in you mind. They are finished off though with the guests that accompany the cable news circuit.
<br>They call them “contributors” to the cable networks. Fox sets the standard by lining up the shrillest, loudest, most boisterous guests they can manage from the right. Then from the left, they get the most moderate, fair, or meek guests they can find. Proof? Just look at who the contributors are. From the GOP on Fox you get people like Oliver North, Newt Gingrich, Bill Bennett, and JC Watts. From the left to provide “balance” you will hear from such notables as Ellen Ratner and Susan Estrich. Over on MSNBC the panels have such known right-wingers as Pat Buchanan, Ben Gisnberg (GOP lawyer) and Anne Coulter. The balance there is no better on MSNBC with people like Ron Reagan Jr. and Mike Barnicle to offset them. You must understand that the Mike Barnicles and Ellen Ratners of the world are not bad people, they are fair. [?!-- this is bull-- Mike Barnicle is a right wing Archie Bunker who plagerized his columns] They will comment, fairly. They have no agenda. [bull and bull] Their “opponents” in these exercises are there for a purpose. They are there to continue the GOP talking points drumbeat. They are there to say as many times as possible, even if in passing, that social security will be bankrupt in 2017 and 2 out of 5 doctors disagree about the state of Terri Schiavo. You must realize it does not matter if it eventually is proven to be wrong, they get the point out, to reinforce the message. The snippets are in 3-5 minute segments, usually breaking for commercials when the moderate milquetoast “lefty” is trying to respond how social security will not be bankrupt in 2017. The truth gets drowned out in the echo chamber, as it was designed to be all along.
<br>This same script is used every day, every week, of every year. It is used with crisp effectiveness. You do not know where exactly you heard it first, but everyone says social security will be bankrupt by 2017, right? Recently, there was a leaked internal GOP talking points memo about Terri Schiavo and how it was a great “political issue” for the GOP. It was a glimpse into the daily way the Grand Ole Party operates. It was potentially dangerous to them, as an article such as this is. The machine went into action; the network received its talking points. The story was going to be turned around on the democrats and actually blame them for the memo. Remember the truth does not have to be on your side as long as enough people say your lie, over and over again, it begins to take root. The talking points included saying that the memo was not signed, had many inaccuracies, and that not one Senator admits they ever saw it. You saw the GOP blogs, talking radio heads, and cable news anchors and contributors go full out to smear the democrats with a memo that was written by the GOP. Media matters does a brilliant dissection of this issue here:
<br>http://mediamatters.org/items/200504070005
<br>Pay particular attention to the “Timeline of a Smear”. Note the streaming thought processes from one form of media to the next. Note the same exact points being made at each stop along the GOP media network. This kind of pattern can be seen in nearly every major issue. Turn on the cable news and watch for the similarities and more importantly, what stories are being chosen to be covered and how objective do the contributors appear to be? This is what media has become today. Sadly, these tactics often work so well, that mainstream media, such as local news and print media eventually pick up the story as well. Look at the Rathergate nonsense. Everyone jumped on the talking points in this case and strung up a man with 30 years of REAL journalistic experience. What got lost in the translation is that the story was true. The documents were apparently fake, but the story was true. The White House never denied it, because they could not. The very same secretary they used to debunk the documents stated the sentiments were accurate and the documents were forgeries of REAL documents stating the same thing. These facts got buried though in the echo chamber. All you heard was the nonsense about a liberal media bias being told to you by people who are so compromised by the GOP they have no credibility to say anything about objectivity.
(continued)
By Anthony Wade[/size]
www.OpEdNews.com
<br>Sean “The Media sleeper” Hannity has an exclusive interview with Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice tonight. This is how low media has fallen to in latter day America. Thirty years ago, the press was interested in the truth. They were concerned about the interests of the American people. Fast forward to today and all we see are sleepers lined up to pimp you their version of fact and fiction. It is not your interests but the interest of the party, the Grand Ole Party.
<br>The GOP is in the business of propaganda. It has been for some time, setting up a backdrop of “media” outlets that pretend to have some sliver of objectivity but in reality, they are there just to support the party line. They realized decades ago, that in order to break the seeming strangle hold the liberals had on the media, they had to recreate the media from the ground up. They realized that if enough sources said the same thing; over and over again two very important things would happen. First, people would start assuming there was some truth to it and second, that the alleged “mainstream” media would have to pay attention and thus give the false story, legs.
<br>You need to seriously understand the network, and how the GOP masterfully works it. There are talking points generated almost daily, about how issues will be framed and dealt with by the network. You saw this recently when Tom Delay met with Congressional GOP members and instructed them to respond to any allegations of ethics charges by claiming the democrats were pointing fingers because they had no vision. You can see the network more clearly on major issues. These are the issues which stay in the public eye for longer periods of time. Two such recent issues were the social security scam and the Terri Schiavo debacle. You can see the network by simply listening. Listen to what is being said and pick up on the similarities. When the GOP needs to activate the network it primarily dispenses the talking points to three major segments, which work together, to create opinion in this country. Those three segments are:
<br>Talk Radio
Cable News Networks
Contributors to Cable News
<br>Talk radio should be obvious, but for the unaware, nearly all talk radio is dominated by the right. You have people like Limbaugh, Hannity and Savage who have made quite a living on being as vile as they want to be against anyone who does not toe the party line. What they really do though, is set the table. They put it in the minds of people during the day that Social Security will be bankrupt by 2017, even though that is a complete fallacy. They plant the seed that two of five doctors disagreed about the persistive vegetative state that Teri Schiavo was in without saying the two in question never actually examined her.
<br>Cable news is completely overridden by GOP operatives and others who simply go with the flow. Fox News is all too obvious and as I have said before, the real damage Fox News does, is to make other cable news networks appear mainstream, when they are actually right-leaning as well. Proof? Just look at who hosts the shows and what stories get air time. How much did we hear about the Swift Boat veterans for Truth last summer, AFTER they had been debunked as liars compared to stories about how horrific Bush was in the first debate? That is what tells you where their priorities lie. The President of the United States gave one of the worst performances in history at a debate, yet the stories were still remarkably about the Swift Liars. You even had people on cable saying Bush won the debate!
<br>Fox is again, obvious, with such demagogues as Brit Hume, Sean Hannity, and Bill O’Reilly. Then you look at MSNBC who thinks nothing of giving an entire hour to a former GOP Congressman in Joe Scarborough. Chris Matthews is the king of softball, touting the stories the administration wants covered while ignoring those that may expose them. CNN has Wolf Blitzer who gave the softest interview in recent memory to Jeff “I’m a Real sleeper” Gannon, accepting lies from him that had already been debunked. Their primetime lineup also does not instill balance at all. Let’s face it folks, when the only “left” voices with prime time slots are named Olbermann and Colmes, there is trouble in truth city. What cable news does is it decides which stories are covered. By doing that, they decide what are the topics on everyone’s minds. With their talking points in hand, you see the Hannity-O’Reilly-Scarborough team go into action and reiterate what their talk radio brethren have already started. Using the same skewed statistics, they to say that social security will be bankrupt by 2017 and that 2 of 5 doctors say Terri is not in a vegetative state at all. Suddenly, the thoughts start to take root in you mind. They are finished off though with the guests that accompany the cable news circuit.
<br>They call them “contributors” to the cable networks. Fox sets the standard by lining up the shrillest, loudest, most boisterous guests they can manage from the right. Then from the left, they get the most moderate, fair, or meek guests they can find. Proof? Just look at who the contributors are. From the GOP on Fox you get people like Oliver North, Newt Gingrich, Bill Bennett, and JC Watts. From the left to provide “balance” you will hear from such notables as Ellen Ratner and Susan Estrich. Over on MSNBC the panels have such known right-wingers as Pat Buchanan, Ben Gisnberg (GOP lawyer) and Anne Coulter. The balance there is no better on MSNBC with people like Ron Reagan Jr. and Mike Barnicle to offset them. You must understand that the Mike Barnicles and Ellen Ratners of the world are not bad people, they are fair. [?!-- this is bull-- Mike Barnicle is a right wing Archie Bunker who plagerized his columns] They will comment, fairly. They have no agenda. [bull and bull] Their “opponents” in these exercises are there for a purpose. They are there to continue the GOP talking points drumbeat. They are there to say as many times as possible, even if in passing, that social security will be bankrupt in 2017 and 2 out of 5 doctors disagree about the state of Terri Schiavo. You must realize it does not matter if it eventually is proven to be wrong, they get the point out, to reinforce the message. The snippets are in 3-5 minute segments, usually breaking for commercials when the moderate milquetoast “lefty” is trying to respond how social security will not be bankrupt in 2017. The truth gets drowned out in the echo chamber, as it was designed to be all along.
<br>This same script is used every day, every week, of every year. It is used with crisp effectiveness. You do not know where exactly you heard it first, but everyone says social security will be bankrupt by 2017, right? Recently, there was a leaked internal GOP talking points memo about Terri Schiavo and how it was a great “political issue” for the GOP. It was a glimpse into the daily way the Grand Ole Party operates. It was potentially dangerous to them, as an article such as this is. The machine went into action; the network received its talking points. The story was going to be turned around on the democrats and actually blame them for the memo. Remember the truth does not have to be on your side as long as enough people say your lie, over and over again, it begins to take root. The talking points included saying that the memo was not signed, had many inaccuracies, and that not one Senator admits they ever saw it. You saw the GOP blogs, talking radio heads, and cable news anchors and contributors go full out to smear the democrats with a memo that was written by the GOP. Media matters does a brilliant dissection of this issue here:
<br>http://mediamatters.org/items/200504070005
<br>Pay particular attention to the “Timeline of a Smear”. Note the streaming thought processes from one form of media to the next. Note the same exact points being made at each stop along the GOP media network. This kind of pattern can be seen in nearly every major issue. Turn on the cable news and watch for the similarities and more importantly, what stories are being chosen to be covered and how objective do the contributors appear to be? This is what media has become today. Sadly, these tactics often work so well, that mainstream media, such as local news and print media eventually pick up the story as well. Look at the Rathergate nonsense. Everyone jumped on the talking points in this case and strung up a man with 30 years of REAL journalistic experience. What got lost in the translation is that the story was true. The documents were apparently fake, but the story was true. The White House never denied it, because they could not. The very same secretary they used to debunk the documents stated the sentiments were accurate and the documents were forgeries of REAL documents stating the same thing. These facts got buried though in the echo chamber. All you heard was the nonsense about a liberal media bias being told to you by people who are so compromised by the GOP they have no credibility to say anything about objectivity.
(continued)