Robert Parry--media backing may result in McCain win

[eridani]

http://www.consortiumnews.com/2008/080508.html

Although there are some Internet sites that challenge the major media’s errors, the imbalance remains tilted heavily toward the ideological Right. Especially when prestige newspapers like the Washington Post contribute to the distribution of false or misleading information – as with Milbank’s quote about Obama – the pro-Republican media eagerly amplifies it and most Americans never hear the other side.

Right-wing Internet sites also have proven to be very adept at inserting completely false claims about Obama that stick with many Americans, such as the oft-repeated lie that Obama is a Muslim or that he trained at a radical Islamic madrassah.

To assume that people will somehow see through such distortions has proven to be naïve in the past. More likely, many millions of Americans will head to the polls in November having internalized a hodgepodge of negative themes about Obama. Indeed, a significant number who have absorbed the uglier accusations will have come to hate him.

So, even if a McCain victory guarantees that the United States would solidify the policies of a deeply disliked President, many Americans may set aside what may be good for the country – or even good for their own pocketbooks – and vote against Obama, more based on perceptions than reality.

[babylonsister]

1. I hope he's wrong, but we'll get who we deserve. If the majority

of Americans are that stupid, we're doomed either way.

[alstephenson]

2. I couldn't agree more.

But what do we do about it???

[eridani]

3. We must be feet on the ground

That means outreach by phone and walking. We should write letters every day to our local media either slamming McSame or praising Obama.

[Doctor_J]

6. you might as well hook up your hose and run it inot the Pacific Ocean, expecting

it to change to fresh water. You can walk until your feet are numb and you can't come close to matching Big Media's bombardment of Aermica with lies, slander, and rumors.

[eridani]

7. If it's just me, you're right

What about millions of us?

[MasonJar]

4. If Americans are trying to live their lives, struggling to make it, and they

get their news from the MSM, which is all they have time for, how can they be blamed for the misinformation being poured out. The corporate media is to blame for much of our woes. It is going to destroy our democracy and our earth.

[Doctor_J]

5. yup. it's practically in the bag

these filthy whores are badly in need of long stays at Gitmo

[OneBlueSky]

8. why McCain may well win = they STILL control the voting machines . . . n/t

.

[depakid]

9. "Prestige" and the Washington Post don't belong on the same sentence

Unfortunately, while informed and educated people realize that they've essentially sunk to the level of the tabloids, others will simply parrrot their material on the corporate media like it was the gospel truth.

It would be nice to see the camapign do the samrt thing and go after McCain with their own ads- using McCain and his crony's own statements and lunatic positions on the issues, but instead they seem inclined to act with the same high road hubris as Dukakis, Gore and Kerry did.

If the Dems lose again, that will be the reason- quite apart from the obvious nature of the corporate media which ought to be taken as a given.