Take Back the Media

Yeah

Sign a petition organised by a fanatically political and utterly biased organisation that represents a far-left fringe.

Yeah, that'll work.

There is no situation so complex it can't get even worse

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by: ZoeB @ Sat Apr 19, 2008 at 03:01:40 AM CDT

Fanatically political?

So you're against citizen participation?  Better to allow the Wall Street nobility to make all decisions for our country, I guess?

What I like about MoveOn is that they operate with a relatively high degree of democracy as an organization.  They try to include the 3.2 million strong membership in decision-making and priority setting.  (They're not as independent and bottom-up as they used to be, but they do retain some of their founding spirit as a grassroots response to the GOP campaign against America of the 1990s.)

What positions has MoveOn taken that you disagree with, I'm curious?  Or are you just a Hillary dead-ender?

"Our Liberties We Prize and Our Rights We Will Maintain" -- Iowa state motto

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by: Sportin' Life @ Sat Apr 19, 2008 at 13:35:26 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Oh, the Irony!

The irony of it moveon.org being called fanatical is that it was launched to attack and impede the impeachment movement.  

"In order to maintain an untenable position, you have to be actively ignorant."  The Colbert Report

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by: Lev Raphael @ Sat Apr 19, 2008 at 13:51:24 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Although

I don't agree 100% with Zoe about Moveon

Unfortunately Zoe is right, but for the wrong reasons. The mass petitions and pre-generated emails from groups like move on, GLSEN, etc. don't work (as well) anymore.

A lot of large corporations now have a policy that allows the first one or two to get through.....than every email after is blocked.

I did see one great email generator (although you have to buy the service), were it allows people to select from 5-10 different text elements and the program takes those elements and creates an individual email to send out (you can preview it first). I think it even created an individual subject line, to get around the subject line filters.

nothing new at this time.....

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by: Mattkazoo @ Sun Apr 20, 2008 at 08:02:25 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

But the point of this petition is to use the numbers--

--in an ad.

At least that's how I understood it.

So the whole point is an advertisemnt, not simply a petition.

That's different, and will make more of an impact.

Check out the link in my diary.

"In order to maintain an untenable position, you have to be actively ignorant."  The Colbert Report

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by: Lev Raphael @ Sun Apr 20, 2008 at 08:14:14 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

If you don't want to sign the MoveOn petition, or even if you do....

... please consider sending ABC News an individual complaint.
http://abcnews.go.com/Site/pag...

If you want allies, you have to be an ally.

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by: dale @ Sat Apr 19, 2008 at 21:46:35 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

That has some credibility

And a complaint from a registered GOP voter about the shoddiness of the reporting would have even more.

Complaints from MoveOn/GeorgeSorosEnterprises, or CodePink will be ignored (rightly or wrongly) as mere partisanship.  

There is no situation so complex it can't get even worse

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by: ZoeB @ Sat Apr 19, 2008 at 23:57:55 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

You loved the debate?

Does that mean you think the debate was terrific, smart, well-focused?

Have you bothered to even look at the link?

Have you considered that 200,000+ people already have signed the petition?

Have you even read the petition?

And if you think Moveon.org is fanatically leftwing, what are you doing on The Blend, which is called worse than that all the time?

"In order to maintain an untenable position, you have to be actively ignorant."  The Colbert Report

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by: Lev Raphael @ Sat Apr 19, 2008 at 05:55:41 AM CDT

What am I doing on The Blend?

Well, I don't know about others but I am here because I am a radical and fanatically left wing. I am here to advance the radical lefty Lesbian liberal agenda.

Oh, and to destroy the sanctity of marriage and force teachers in religious schools to crossdress, or something like that.

I am the worst of the lot, cute Pam notwithstanding. I belonged to the Irish Labour Party, which is part of the Party of European Socialists.(Go Team)

Rabid Secularist, Promoter of the Homosexual Agenda(which I've STILL never seen, I suspect a conservative male plot to hide it), the enemy of the motherhood and apple pie crowd, an internationalist....could there be any other place for me? Do I sound like a fit for Free Republic?


I tell you Chica that no greater abomination exists than women denying their spirit of sisterhood and instead becoming the oppressor. -Rebeca, Universidad Complutense de Madrid

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by: MauraHennessey @ Sat Apr 19, 2008 at 18:31:17 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Not you!

I posted my reply to ZoeB in the wrong spot!

"In order to maintain an untenable position, you have to be actively ignorant."  The Colbert Report

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by: Lev Raphael @ Sat Apr 19, 2008 at 21:54:57 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Lev, it was just humour

Your question to Zoe left an opening

I tell you Chica that no greater abomination exists than women denying their spirit of sisterhood and instead becoming the oppressor. -Rebeca, Universidad Complutense de Madrid

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by: MauraHennessey @ Sat Apr 19, 2008 at 22:33:06 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Corporate media

We do need a president willing to break up the corporate media.  Dean said he thought companies like GE had too much power and look what happened to his campaign.

But we also need citizen protest, and moveon.org is one engine of that protest.  It did make the point powerfully in the late 90s that impeachment was stupid.  Not that impeachment was stopped, but citizen voices were given a stage.  

"In order to maintain an untenable position, you have to be actively ignorant."  The Colbert Report

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by: Lev Raphael @ Sun Apr 20, 2008 at 06:33:03 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

Corporate Media?

   Corporate everything. Their richer than the government. The government eats out of their hands, and sacrifices us. We've been sold out, I think since John F. Kennedy was murdered.

I'd rather be a lion for one day, than a sheep for my entire life.

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by: PhyllisMs @ Sun Apr 20, 2008 at 07:52:21 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

And I don't think Hillary

   will do it.

I'd rather be a lion for one day, than a sheep for my entire life.

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by: PhyllisMs @ Sun Apr 20, 2008 at 07:53:34 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

I knew you were being funny--

--but wanted to clarify the placement of my reply.

Top 'o the morning to ya!

"In order to maintain an untenable position, you have to be actively ignorant."  The Colbert Report

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by: Lev Raphael @ Sun Apr 20, 2008 at 06:34:31 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

You Don't Qualify

Do I sound like a fit for Free Republic?

I have the honour of not just being banned from FR, but having every post I made on any subject whatsoever deleted, the full Orwell Treatment they reserve for special occasions.

I was making too much headway you see.

There is no situation so complex it can't get even worse

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by: ZoeB @ Sun Apr 20, 2008 at 00:05:41 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

Is there a list started someplace that shows all who have been...

...banned from freepi land?  If so I need to add my name to the list.  And I wonder if the banned list would have more members than the active freepi list.

If I make sense? it was quite by accident.

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by: HappyCat @ Sun Apr 20, 2008 at 02:29:10 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

Go to Darwin Central

That's where the sane conservatives hang out.

Of course most people here would consider "sane conservative" to be an oxymoron, but never mind.

Being banned from FR these days is no big deal: all you have to do is say that the Earth wasn't miraculously created 6000 years ago, and it will happen sooner or later. But there's only about a dozen of us who have been "vapourised", as Orwell put it.

 

There is no situation so complex it can't get even worse

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by: ZoeB @ Sun Apr 20, 2008 at 23:10:53 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Thanks for posting this Lev

It's actually gotten to the point where these ridiculous teevee heathers are asking questions about flag lapel pins--rather than about the destruction of our economy, our constitutional traditions, and our standing on the world which has been perpetrated by this administration.  It's truly sad, and a far far bigger issue than who the Democratic candidate is going to be this election cycle.

"Our Liberties We Prize and Our Rights We Will Maintain" -- Iowa state motto

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by: Sportin' Life @ Sat Apr 19, 2008 at 13:48:55 PM CDT

You're welcome!

They started with looking for 100,000 signatures to support the TV ad (viewable at the site) and got twice that, and now they're going for 250,000.

We thought when Clinton was asked "Briefs or jockeys?" on MTV that it was just some silly thing "kids" would ask; well, the grownups aren't asking anything more substantial, and that's a shame.  No wonder network news is losing viewers (and newspapers, readers).

"In order to maintain an untenable position, you have to be actively ignorant."  The Colbert Report

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by: Lev Raphael @ Sat Apr 19, 2008 at 13:56:04 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

And of course the continuation of the joke

regarding "boxers or briefs?" is when the same question was put to Dole, who thought for a second, shrugged, and answered, "Depends..." (bad, I know...)

Click HERE and sign up: Campaign For Military Partners

Click here for DADT photobook

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by: Louise @ Sun Apr 20, 2008 at 16:23:13 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

But you're absolutely right

that the media has grossly let down the American voters in the years since. A large part of the reason I started seeking out political/news blogs in the first place was to fill the vast gaping holes left by MSM...

Click HERE and sign up: Campaign For Military Partners

Click here for DADT photobook

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by: Louise @ Sun Apr 20, 2008 at 16:25:14 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Exactly!

Many of us turned to the blogs and sites like Raw Story to find what was really going on.

I also found that British newspapers were reporting on the war more honestly, as was BBC News here; and the also found sites like Der Spiegel International.  But they reports all sorts of things that American media ignore.  I remember recently when Bush proposed some bullshit global warming plan when he went over there, it was presented as new and dynamic here, whereas in Europe the French, Germans and others thought it was nothing new and ridiculous.  I kept looking for American reports of the European reaction and didn't find them.

This is why I stopped subscribing to the Washington Post weekly and the daily NYT, though I do scan their web sites, and I'm mildly encouraged that the Post has published too objective stories about McCain lately.

"In order to maintain an untenable position, you have to be actively ignorant."  The Colbert Report

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by: Lev Raphael @ Mon Apr 21, 2008 at 13:39:40 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Two not too :-)

"In order to maintain an untenable position, you have to be actively ignorant."  The Colbert Report

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by: Lev Raphael @ Mon Apr 21, 2008 at 13:40:11 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Taking back the media

Well I'd be that last to defend the MSM, but they are privet interest for the most part.

NBC et-al is owned by General Electric.   It is a huge media outlet, a broadcast network and many cable news outlets and channels.   Does it make money and contribute to the bottom line?   Or is it a mass media propaganda machine shaping the public opinion to support an immoral and unjustified war of preemption that is being used to bolster the worlds largest war profiteering corporation and their corporate masters?

In news as in everything else, follow the money.

In the last century they had muckrakers.   Not yellow journalism, but fighting to expose the facts as they affected the people of the land.  

We have the internet and a few independent film makers today that struggle to get to the truth, but when you need huge money to get on the mass media, well you have to find it.

But by all means, let's at least get the Fairness doctrine back.

 

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by: mike mid city @ Sat Apr 19, 2008 at 19:44:27 PM CDT

NYT today: "Behind TV Analysts, Pentagon's Hidden Hand"

Read this - Behind TV Analysts, Pentagon's Hidden Hand and tell me it's not scary.

It is amazing how irrelevant news shows on the major channels are anyway (80% random BS) - but this gets worth: not only irrelevant, but also propaganda, that helps to keep alive a war, that started with lies.

I am wondering whether anyone will ever be held accountable for things like this?  Why is it that this can happen and there is no major outcry and sanctions?

My conclusion:  I will increase my hours on NPR and write them checks - seems to be on the best causes possible.

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by: rupi3000 @ Sun Apr 20, 2008 at 08:13:06 AM CDT

For news

I now watch BBC America. I mainly turn the channel to US news programs, so I have "back ground" noise while I write papers for class or play computer games.

Watch US media for news? Why? Its more info-tainment than news.    

nothing new at this time.....

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by: Mattkazoo @ Sun Apr 20, 2008 at 08:57:33 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

Not only BBC America

but we also watch C-SPAN 1,2,&3.  

Click HERE and sign up: Campaign For Military Partners

Click here for DADT photobook

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by: Louise @ Sun Apr 20, 2008 at 16:27:19 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

And don't forget about FOX news,

  They claim to be fair and balanced. {snark}

If I make sense? it was quite by accident.

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by: HappyCat @ Sun Apr 20, 2008 at 22:03:37 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

RSS feeds

for BBC American and MSNBC are adjacent in my Firefox Bookmark bar.  I like to compare what each thinks is newsworthy.  That alone is informative.

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by: Jami @ Mon Apr 21, 2008 at 12:17:24 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Gotta figure out a way

to undo all the damage Michael Powell's FCC tenure did to media allowing corporate gobble up and consolidation of media markets...for starters...there's NO local radio anymore.

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by: Karen in Kalifornia @ Sun Apr 20, 2008 at 10:44:55 AM CDT