CNN’s Bachmann Debacle: How Mainstream Media Fails the American Public

Last night, Rachel Maddow questioned the integrity behind CNN’s decision to air Michelle Bachmann's Tea Party Express speech, citing this arrangement with a PR operative:



This PR placement hardly qualifies as a legitimate news story; yet CNN gave Bachmann a national stage for blaming chronic unemployment on the Obama administration. More than merely a false narrative and a propagandist revision of recent events, it offends our sense of cause and effect.  Consider this sequence of events:

The most severe recession since the Great Depression DID NOT begin in the Obama administration. It started in 2007 - in the Bush administration. The first warning was sounded by then Secretary of the Treasury Hank Paulson - of the Bush administration. The TARP bill was rushed through Congress and signed into law - by the Bush administration.

When a speeding car runs out of gas in one administration and coasts to a dead stop in the next administration, who is at fault? The fault is with the administration that forgot, through lack of oversight, to put gas in the car - NOT with the administration that got stuck calling the tow truck.

Mainstream media lets lies such as these go unchallenged. In giving national exposure to Bachmann, CNN allowed a falsehood to go viral without making even a token effort to fact check the speech or offer a critical analysis. This is how CNN dumbs down the American public and lets political hacks get away with factitious murder.

There is more at stake behind this story. When propagandists and hacks game the system, how can the American public rely on accurate news? Junk journalism such as this puts our democracy at risk.

BYE, BYE, MISS AMERICAN PIE - BYE, BYE TO LIBERAL MEDIA

Act 1: Last August, Comcast removed MSNBC from its Digital Starter Package and moved it to one of its premium offerings. Of course, Fox News remained in the basic Starter Package because Comcast is a conservative media conglomerate and wants to spread the Fox-Beck-Hannity-Billo message. According to beachwriter429 at Daily Kos:

What this means is that one now has to pay an additional $17 per month ($204 per year) to view anything progressive enough to even remotely balance out FNC's right wing extremism (…) The neighbor who alerted me to the situation is an attorney, and he thinks this appears to be to be an FCC/Fairness Doctrine violation.

Act 2: Some Daily Kos readers in the Jacksonville area ganged up on Comcast with a letter writing campaign. In response, Comcast restored MSNBC to all customers in the Jacksonville area and sent this reply (excerpt):

Thank you for the email. First and foremost, I wanted to let you know that today we restored access to MSNBC for all of our digital cable customers in the Jacksonville, Florida area (…) Please know that this week's disruption was not at all targeted at MSNBC - it was due to some changes to our digital channel security system (…) This issue was isolated to the Jacksonville area, and we have no reason to believe that Comcast customers in any other areas experienced any interruptions of MSNBC.

Except for the fact that Comcast customers in the suburban Philadelphia area still paying extra for MSNBC (and how many other markets that we don’t know about). Comcast = L I A R S !

Act 3: Advance the calendar to November 4, 2009. In the Pittsburgh area, MSNBC has been replaced by the Golf Channel. When an irate Comcast subscriber called to complain, this is what Comcast said:

I was told that at my level of service, basic cable, it is no longer available. No way can I afford to upgrade my service, (and nor would I....it is Comcast after all) so no more MSNBC for me (…) The agent on the phone also told me that Comcast had nothing to do with this decision, but that because MSNBC is a national cable network, it was no longer available in a non digital format. Oddly enough, CNN and Fox are still in the same place.

Act 4: If you can’t beat them, buy them out:

General Electric and the cable giant Comcast have moved closer to a deal giving control of NBC Universal to Comcast (…) After a series of meetings last week, the two companies reached a tentative agreement on Friday over the main points of a deal, these people said. Comcast would own about 51 percent of NBC Universal, contributing several billions of dollars in cash and its own stable of cable networks to the new venture (...) Other potential bidders have surfaced, including the News Corporation.

Does this mean bye, bye to Keith Olbermann? Bye, bye to Rachel Maddow? Bye, bye to liberal media? Sorry folks, but this wave of media consolidations spells b-a-d * n-e-w-s ! Once MSNBC is gone, that leaves only us, the netroots community, to keep the liberal flame from flickering out.

Maddow: "Corporate Parasites"

Maddow takes on Tim Phillips of Americans For Prosperity, an astroturf group behind the tea party movement and sponsor of the Right Online conference:

Thoughts Inspired By Goddess Rachel Maddow

I have a crush – a serious crush – on Rachel Maddow of MSNBC. In fact, I have considered giving up blogging at Swashzone because of Maddow. I’ve been thinking – all I need to do everyday is post “See Rachel’s broadcast last night” & that pretty much sums up SQUID’s current view of the universe. And this from a woman (me) who complains frequently about the incessant hero-worship of Shakespeare (sorry Dino). So yes – I confess – I worship at the shrine of GODDESS MADDOW.

So tonight – my fav intellectual Rachel – used a football analogy. Simultaneously intelligent & hilarious. I laughed my head off. Feminist Rachel M. using a FOOTBALL metaphor – co-opting Americana’s classic archetypal reference to the Joe-Six-Pack American male (mercifully she did not acknowledge the J-6-pk tie in). What is more MALE than football? – according to media generated American ideology, that is. BUT – my dearest Rachel – brought the football metaphor to a whole new level – surpassing the tired old “Hail Mary” & infusing her metaphor with – well – intelligent campaign/political analysis. An analysis that compares the current campaign to the painful one of 4 years before. Very Clever - & informative. With little blue helmets vs little red helmets lined up on the field - should be a diagram in future American Civics textbooks. Anyone in doubt of the lay of the electoral land take note - Obama is winning the game in McCain’s end zone – state by state. (So much for CNN’s John King’s “magic blue/red computer board”)

Then R.M. interviewed Ed Rendell – quite a political character - gov. of battle-ground Pennsylvania. I’ve spent much of my life living in the now all important PA – I am personally familiar with many corners of the state. Let me tell you from experience – it is a skitso state politically. I lived there most of the time in its bible belt portion - during the days of Specter, Ridge & Santorum. But now Ed Rendell – colorful democrat from Philly – rules. Don’t get me wrong – I like Rendell. Somewhat of a live wire – but that’s precisely what PA needed to shake it up from its Santorum meltdown. Oi!!! I was frankly amazed to learn – when I had moved elsewhere – that he’d managed to win the governorship. PA is geographically a RED state. Oh yes it is. The BLUE hotspots are Philadelphia, Pittsburgh & Harrisburg. The rest? White – oh SO white – working class, small town, Christian-conservative America. And I’m NOT just talking about Amish & Mennonites. Oh - & lets not forget those “fiscally conservative, socially liberal” (i.e. cheap as hell) folks living in the burbs of these cities.

Not to slam PA or small town America – but food for thought - I have only once in my life seen – to my horror – a Klansmen in full white regalia & hood – in PA. A sight I will NEVER forget. AND!!! I saw said Klansmen early on a SUNDAY – hello church!! – morning. Whilst I was living in the BIBLE belt. No – racism is NOT strictly southern grown. My point is not to slur PA - but there are elements in now-all-important PA - like other parts of this country - that are incredibly narrow-minded & behind the times.

(AND - I like PA. Really. It's my second home.)

To get my rambling back on track – unlike CNN - which has been concertedly ignoring the rest of the world for months when it supposedly reports the NEWS – Maddow does – in her “underreported” portion of her show – actually occasionally mention the disintegration of things in Pakistan, Afghanistan & now Syria. (Talk about ego-centric – we Americans are so quick to forget the rest of the world when we have an election – the world we also presume to be leading – the world we are presuming to be electing the next leader of.)

So – Squid – having gushed about her HEROINE worship of R. Maddow – is now going to slither off to her sanctimonious ocean depths . . .