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bias
February 2009 
Red Meat
Posted on Sep 3rd, 2008
by 
Scott
Scott
I'm finding the media bias for Sen. Obama and against the Republicans nearly unbelievable right now, even in a media climate that makes it difficult to doubt the depth of the unbelievable liberal bias.
This week, in report after report, and story after story, we hear phrases like "...the big winner last night was Fred Thompson. He had the right mix of red meat and McCain biography that sold well..." and "under the weight of Gustav , speeches were light on red meat rhetoric" and "Then came the red-meat portion of the program" and "Now back to the red meat."
I could go on and on finding quotes (these were all just from MSNBC and NYTimes) but how come I didn't hear about the Democrats getting speeches filled with "red meat"?
I guess it's because the Republicans are a bunch of ravenous wolves and uncouth hicks, and the Democrats are classy organic vegetarians.
I mean, for fuck's sake, could it be any more obvious? These are the moments that it's sickening to see the mainstream media in operation.
This week, in report after report, and story after story, we hear phrases like "...the big winner last night was Fred Thompson. He had the right mix of red meat and McCain biography that sold well..." and "under the weight of Gustav , speeches were light on red meat rhetoric" and "Then came the red-meat portion of the program" and "Now back to the red meat."
I could go on and on finding quotes (these were all just from MSNBC and NYTimes) but how come I didn't hear about the Democrats getting speeches filled with "red meat"?
I guess it's because the Republicans are a bunch of ravenous wolves and uncouth hicks, and the Democrats are classy organic vegetarians.
I mean, for fuck's sake, could it be any more obvious? These are the moments that it's sickening to see the mainstream media in operation.
Access: Public
I'm fairly sickened by both our political parties. They are both prostitutes for money and votes. The lowest common denominators rise to the top.
My version of the two real platforms on health care (for instance):
- Democrats: put trial lawyers and Congress in charge of your care
- Republicans: put the “for profit HMOs” and Pharmacutical companies in charge … and
support the tobacco industry
… either way you and I lose.
I agree completely with Tom, it is hard for me to muster much excitement either way for such a corrupt political process as our coming election represents. If you need reason to feel good about the media support for the republican criminals as opposed to the democratic ones seeking office, you could try watching Fox news, they seem to lean in the opposite direction of MSNBC and the N.Y. Times. So long as you stay focused on differences between the two parties your not likely to notice the fact that they are both bought by lobbyist who in turn work for the same people with power and money and are not interested in any form of meaningful change in the lives of people like us.Was not the principal of “conquer and divide” codified over a thousand years ago during the Roman Empire?
Look, I'm a basically lifelong Republican who is voting for Obama/Biden in this election. So I know I can watch Fox or MSNBC as I want, they've both become impossibly stupid. I get my news every day from some combination of the web sites of New York Times / MSNBC / DrudgeReport / BBC News / Al Jazeera / CNN / Wall Street Journal / Arts & Letters Daily, with other sites occasionally mixed in. I've started to include Le Monde, both to improve my French (which isn't very good) and to get some perspective from the French-speaking world, which still has a lot of influence in Africa and Southeast Asia.
What I do want to say is that we each have a choice… either we participate in the two-party system and try to improve it by voting for who we consider to be the best choices, or we can withdraw from that system either by not voting, or by joining some sort of alternate party.
The choice is up to you. I'm choosing to participate in the current two-party system for now. Not because I'm ignorant of the effects of money on the system, but because it's the system that's in place right now. When the time comes that an Integral Party starts to take shape (and it will, probably starting around 2020) I'll happily join that and support it and use it to drive agenda changes in the other two parties.
I have to ask you: does your cynicism keep you warm at night? Does it make you feel better or worse? Does it make you more or less optimistic about the future? The world has always been difficult (manifestation is messy, no?), but it's never been better than it is right now. You can either recognize that and celebrate it while keeping in mind that it still needs improvement, or you can focus only on what's wrong. You have a choice, too.
When I was younger and thought that the political system that you choose to be a part of was subject to or responcive to the will of the majority, I participated.Not only did I vote as you do,I spent 15 years in the military and another five working in a county jail.My point in saying that is, that I think I have done more then most to try and support and improve the political system in this country.It was a big waste of time, over the years things have gotten worse not better and didn't matter which party was in power.
Your right the choice is mine and I choose apolitical, I would much rather have a political system that works but it doesn't.I am not going to waste my time and effort in a desperate hope that it might. Your point that my vote makes a differance seems almost theoretically possible if one chooses to look over the workings of the electorial collage.The point that the two party system is the only game in town doesn't inspire me either.
Instead I choose the third choice, I do not participate and send a message that I do not buy the lies and will not play along that things are getting better for me,when they are not.There have been times when I have thought about mailing the IRS a letter telling them I want a refund, I am not satisfied with the government that my tax dollars is buying me.That's the que for all the Rush Limbaugh types to jump up and yell,”America, love it or leave it !”as they wrap themselves up in their American flags.My answer to that would be,if I was eating as many loritabs as Rush has, I might not mind the job the politians are doing.But that sort of idea that I should move on if I am not happy with the corruption is what I find to be truely cynical.Like I said earlier I have done my bit for God and Country, I deserve better then what I am getting and no I am not moving on.
Does my disatisfaction keep me warm at night? lol, I find that the way you decided to phrase that question most ironic.It illustrates your lack of understanding about why I choose to say no to politics as we find them in our country.I live in the south, I run my air conditoners from March until November,here we do not worry about staying warm so much as we work to stay cool.I could focus on politics and allow my disatisfaction with a government that breaks it's own laws, roll to a boil,but to what purpose? Motivation to action,perhaps? I have already told you that I have climbed into the machine and became part of it and it made no differance what so ever.
I instead choose not to be a part of it, in so much as that is possible. I can't stop my tax dollars from buying Predator drone aircraft that drop laser guided bombs on Pakistani childern or pay to fund torture operations in Gitmo but I do not have to participate and pretend that voting will make the worst of those sorts of excesses go away.Worrying about things that I can not change, does me no good. I am not ignorant of it,I am not burying my head in the sand, I am just not taking any ownship in it.Instead I spend my time and effort trying to make the world a better place on a much smaller scale, interpersonal rather then global.I do better focusing on trying to make kids smile,that is what helps me to sleep at night rather then worrying about the fact that my tax dollars are paying to kill kids on the other side of the world and I can't do anything to stop it.But if voting helps you to feel better at night, then by all means do so, I would give you my vote to use to that end if I could.