MSNBC MONSTER Super Tuesday Diary: The Very Scary State of American TV Journalism

[McCamy Taylor]

Here is what passes for television journalism in America:

MONSTER Super Tuesday on MSNBC*

* (When I called the corporate media’s coverage of the Democratic primary Monster truck madness I had no idea that they would actually call it that)

(All times are CST)

4:38 PM Got to see Dan Abrams use one of the oldest tricks in the book, pull out an extreme poll which shows Obama winning California by about 20 points (ignore large margin of error). They are focusing almost entirely on that poll, as if today’s primary is only a race in California and nothing else matters. The last minute announcement that your candidate will crush the opponent in the must win state is a classic, designed to discourage the opponent's voters and to encourage trend followers to ride the wave.

Non atrocity: Richard Wolfe was asked to comment. Big mistake. He pointed out that this was one poll of several, that this was an extreme result with a large margin of error, that there were similar weird polls before NH and SC that did not pan out. Dan Abrams looked like he was gonna cry (but you know he will go back to reporting on that poll every 5 minutes for the rest of the day).

Bonus points to Wolfe for being the first MSNBC person not to call McCain a "maverick". Yeah! Even Tom Brokaw of "we should let the election take care of itself" fame used the "maverick" word today.

5:55 PM Tweety just called Obama an African-American who can "Talk." I guess this is the politically correct abbreviation of "talk so well."

Bonus points to Matthews for calling McCain a "maverick" within moments of opening his mouth at the round table. Every time an MSNBC pundits calls McCain a "maverick", GE gets a new Pentagon contract.

Here is why:

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/McCamy%20Taylor/139

Pat Buchanan is playing idiot savant truth teller this evening. He announces that Obama is the equivalent of McGovern for the Democrats or Goldwater for the Republicans. Everyone just nods.

On the plus side, the pundits gathered around the table agree that they would never discuss minutiae about Barack Obama (even in the general campaign, they promise), because he is do darn charismatic. Chris Matthews and Pat Buchanan were there. Make a note of this in case Obama is the nominee. We might have to remind them of what they said.

6:15 PM Tweety proclaims Obama the “anti-establishment candidate”. Does not mention that 3 out of 4 newspapers endorse him. Does not discuss “anti-establishment” Kennedys, Shriver, Kerry.

I guess this proves that “establishment” is in the eye of the beholder.

7:15 PM MSNBC pundits wowed that Obama can attract White voters in Georgia. Clearly, they believe that White Democrats in the South are still of the George Wallace-Segregation Forever Type. No one has told them the Southern Democratic Party is made up of what was left over when the Segregation Forever types fled to the Republican Party. When I get through picking hayseeds out of my teeth and get my truck off of the cinder blocks, I will drive down Tobacco Road and see if I can find someone literate to write a letter of protest.

9:45 PM Someone tried to bring up an actual issue in front of Tweety. Matthews looked like a deer caught in front of the headlights. I almost expected him to say “That isn’t in my contract.” He quickly changed the subject. My 16 year old son astutely noted that the pundits only like to talk about bullshit.

Tweety has proposed a theory that he keeps discussing as in Look at my theory. It is mine! I made it up. Me, me, me! His theory is that McCain does best in Blue states. He keeps asking other people what it means. He is fishing for the answer that it means that McCain has broad appeal, but maybe he does not energize the base and should consider a conservative running mate, like Huckabee.

Funny, Tweety does not notice that Obama is doing best in Red states. All through the night, he keeps remarking upon how McCain is such a Blue state guy, but never says a word about Obama’s Red state strength.

Eventually, Tom Brokaw comes on to offer the Republican Party some sage advice. They must not go to their convention without a designated nominee. This will be a terrible thing for their party (and presumably for the country). They must nominate McCain and make the country love him. Brokaw reminds Republicans of 1968 and what happened when Humphrey was the default nominee at the Chicago convention. He warns Republicans that McCain could be their Humphrey that helps them elect a Democratic Nixon (either Hillary or Obama) if they do not rally around him now. Everybody listens quietly while he speaks. This is what “fair and balanced” journalism is all about.

The MSNBC pundits all get excited when they talk about how the Democratic race will probably be undecided all the way to the convention. No one offers advice on how to speed up the selection process. They call Obama’s loss a “win”. And Hillary’s win is a “win”. So the race is neck and neck. No one ever suggests that Hillary and Obama run on the same ticket to capitalize on her Blue state strength and his Red state strength.

When Tweety speculates that the Republicans might go to the convention without a declared winner he looks like he might cry and the table gets all quiet.

11:22 PM Hillary’s seasoned Democratic voters are either too smart to fall for the Your candidate is 20 points behind in the polls so stay home ploy or else they do not watch MSNBC (second is more likely), because Hillary is called the winner in California, despite the weird poll that only Richard Wolfe doubted. McCain wins California, too. Tweety celebrates McCain’s ‘bicoastal power’, dismisses Hillary’s bicoastal wins as some sort of left over effect that Obama would have overcome if he had only been given more time.

12:30 PM Is someone at MSNBC reading my posts? After I posted about their use of “maverick” they stopped saying it. After I posted that Tweety did not address Obama’s Red state strength, he is now talking about it.

BTW, I do not believe that the folks at MSNBC favor either Democratic candidate. As best I can tell, they are trying to keep the Democratic race too close to call all the way up to the Convention so that Tom Brokaw’s prediction about Humphrey in 1968 for the Republicans becomes true for the Democrats. If Hillary and Obama fight long enough and hard enough, then they will be unable to reconcile and form a team. Clinton/Obama or Obama/Clinton is the GOP’s worst nightmare. It energizes the entire Democratic base. It covers Blue states and Red states. It leaves McCain/Huckabee in the dust.

I think what the bosses at GE are hoping is that if Hillary is nominee, Obama will think to himself “If I take my votes and go home, and she loses, then I can run again in 2012, and I will win.” Of course, seasoned Democrats know that this will be the kiss of death to Obama’s presidential aspirations . Republicans like Reagan can get away with it, but Dems are supposed to be made from finer stuff. Plus, Obama will be fresh and new only one time.

If Obama is the nominee, it will be easier to slime him than Hillary, since he is running on “character”, and character is vulnerable to lies and innuendo, both of which are easy to spread if you have the press in your pocket.

The important thing is to keep the two of them feuding, If they were to combine forces, they would be unstoppable. So, we see the MSM propping up which ever is faltering, like sports announcers who have been paid by the bookmakers to keep the odds low in a boxing match. The pundits at MSNBC want us to see lots of blood, but they do not want a knock out.

Post script: 1 AM "John McCain has wrapped up the nomination for the Republican Party" Did I miss something? Or was that woman reporting the news just really, really eager to please her corporate masters at General Electric.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

1. Kick And Good Night

~

[WatchWhatISay]

2. I kept waiting for them to "notice" that in state after state

including red states, the total turnout for the Democrats was way more than the total for Repubs. But I never heard anyone say it.

[McCamy Taylor]

5. I think a Democrat said something about it, but the pundits were not interested.

They had decided in advanced that it was going to be John McCain's night. Man! I am so relieved to hear that he has all the delegates that he needs to win on a first ballot. But I am not sure how he did it with just those few states he won.....

[Dogmudgeon]

3. Another excellent discussion

I am becoming increasingly astounded at the commentariat push for Obama. It isn't even subtle. They even have Olbermann doing it, though he's keeping his cool the best (I think MSNBC is grooming him to be the next Cronkite or Murrow).

As I have written many times, it's very apparent that the press is driving the contest as close to 50/50 as possible. I think they plan to see Hillary down by about 5-10 points for most of the rest of the campaign. They know her support is rock-solid but that Obama's is new and volatile, so they want a buffer zone. All the recent support he's picked up is about 5 weeks old. He's faced with the difficult task of conducting his campaign as a fad phenomenon and transforming it into an ongoing organization.

I am nearly certain that a Clinton/Obama ticket has been a done deal since at least the fall. Obama has little ability to maintain a poker face, and he's made too many "tells" with subtle expressions and movements. And Krauthamer spilled the beans on an all-purpose GOP team approach back in October. I think it will be C/O v McC/H.

Another complication I think will emerge is that Hillary's percentages will drop precipitously, and Obama will likely make a series of blunders once the questioning becomes even semi-tough. He is utterly untested in dealing with press scrutiny. Hillary will rally, but the public will become enamored with McCain especially given the MSM's pimping, leading to an overall loss of enthusiasm for a Democratic resurgence. That's when the team ticket approach will be bruited in the press, a signal for them to announce their joint venture.

That's my 20 millibucks.

--p!

[Berry Cool]

9. Olbermann isn't doing anything but reporting.

He just tells what he sees, and people think he's shilling for one person or another. Amazing.

[No Blood for Hubris]

23. Yes, but he could hardly get a word in

edgewise with Tweety in his manic phase.

[McCamy Taylor]

35. Agreed. Can we get KO with Richard Wolfe up there? That would be a good team.

[inna]

42. wow. thank you.

"millibucks" ??? hey, that was THE most revealing insight i've heard/read in a long, long time.

[joshcryer]

4. You are absolutely right, they are trying to create a horse race of epic proportions.

[droidamus2]

8. Not only that

I think the msm not only wants the Democratic primary to be a horse race but in the process they want to make it very divisive. All I hear from the pundits is black/white voters, black/hispanic voters, young/old voters, women/men voters when it comes to the Democrats (the only one I haven't heard is gay/straight voters). Their main chorus is what is going to bring the Republicans together while trying to create as many divisions in the Democratic base as they can make up. That's why it is important that the Democrats come together even before the end of the primary and agree that they will strongly support whoever gets the nomination.

[McCamy Taylor]

6. Oooo. Now they are kicking Romney. Wanna take bets how long before they demand he drop out?

[corkhead]

7. morning kick of this MUST READ!

[southern_belle]

10. kick

[MelissaB]

11. I saw the "talk" comment and didn't think it was a racial slur. He pointed out that

Americans want a president who can communicate, and this one can't. :shrug:

I wasn't offended.

[Enrique]

12. DU really shouldn't criticize the media anymore

compared to the relentless stupidity here lately, the MSM is brilliant.

Just on its own terms, I think MSNBC's coverage has been pretty good. I've been listening to their videos online for the last couple of hours.

[BleedingHeartPatriot]

13. K & R, MT, for describing so well the surreal experience of watching the

hte MSNBC speculatorium last night.

(BTW, "speculatorium" is a gem from the writers at TDS)

:kick:

:toast:

[andrewv1]

14. Great Article, but Clinton/Obama or Obama/Clinton is the GOP’s worst nightmare?

I think just the opposite. This ticket either way will insure the Republicans a Win in November. The media actually wants this matchup so they can put the independents in McCain's column. I am convinced. The Democrats will have to look at someone else at the top of the ticket if we go all the way to Denver. Obama is a VP running mate and Clinton has too high of Negatives to be the Democratic nominee. Both camps better start facing reality or they will be "Republican Roadkill."

[Barb in Atl]

15. I've got a great idea...

I propose that Clinton and Obama proceed from this moment on like they did at the debate after John Edwards suspended his campaign. You know, where they were complimentary to each other and disagreed but were agreeable on a number of issues.

No more digs, no more gotcha's - and especially clamp down on their campaign staff(s).

And then sit back and watch the Republican field go at each other until even the R nominee is a bloodied mess.

If they stay positive, there is a clear, obvious choice in the general election.

(And I worry about a Clinton/Obama ticket. Not that I wouldn't support it, but I'd like to see him as president and not many VP's get to make that move upward - can't think of anyone besides poppy.)

[shimmergal]

19. On your last point

("not many VPs get to make that move upward") -- not so! In the 20th century, there were Coolidge, Truman, Nixon (albeit time-delayed), L. Johnson, Gerald Ford, as well as Poppy Bush. In the 21st, there would have been Al Gore except for the monkeyshines in Florida and the S.C.

Not that we'd want it to happen after Hillary for most of those reasons, but. . . I'd say VP is a more likely way to move up than a second presidential campaign after losing a first. Only Nixon accomplished that.

But I very much agree with the rest of your post. No more dueling designed to draw blood!

[Tanketra]

26. Uh ...

Only 2 of the 6 VPs you mentioned actually made the jump to prez by being *elected*--and one of them had a false start. Considering that the time period you're covering includes 6 more VPs who tried to make the jump and failed, most of them pretty miserably ... it's not really a very strong point.

[The_Commonist]

16. You do realize, of course, that every time...

... you watch and write about the Corporate Media, god kills a puppy?

Also, every time you watch the Corporate Media, advertising rates get higher? Every time you watch, Corporate Media gets more powerful, and its influence in all our lives grows. Every time you give your eyeballs to MSNBC's advertisers, they take that as a "yes" vote for their agenda of divide and profit. Every time you write about what you've seen, whether in the positive or in the negative (it does not matter to them which), the controversies that they groom become more controversial, the seeds of confusion that they depend upon germinate further, and the discontent that the entire system requires in order to sell more crappy consumer goods spreads.

While I do think that you've done great work here, and I read every word of it, I believe it is counter-productive. I believe the best way to complain about network coverage, is to rarely watch and never write about it AND make certain that their advertisers understand that the educated, middle-class consumer is NOT going to purchase their products if they keep sponsoring and paying for this agenda of divide and conquer.

We have many differences among us in our fairly narrow idealogical band here, yet I'm certain that we can all agree that the Corporate Media and its right-wing agenda of confuse and control is one of the main problems in this country. And, it's one of the few things that we can actually do something about. Yet we keep watching, night after night, and we keep complaining about how bad it is, day after day!

Please... think of the puppies! Turn off the damn TV and let the advertisers know that you've done so!

[mojowork_n]

30. Cruella deVille, maybe, but she's a cartoon character.

I think it's enough to listen and monitor what they're saying. Like what you'd do in a dark room, and you know there's a rattle snake slithering around somewhere.

During the Cold War, from behind the censorship veil of the regime, on the other side of That Wall, it got to be sort of a game. I was reminded of this line:

"...In today’s triumph of global capitalism, the argument goes, true resistance is not possible, so all we can do till the revolutionary spirit of the global working class is renewed is defend what remains of the welfare state, confronting those in power with demands we know they cannot fulfil, and otherwise withdraw into cultural studies, where one can quietly pursue the work of criticism..."

From Slavoj Zizek, noted Slovenian marxist (a disciple of Groucho, not Karl):

http://www.lrb.co.uk/v29/n22/zize01_.html

[McCamy Taylor]

36. Dude(tte), do you work for the MSM? TV news is MSM propaganda. Truth kills bs. We must speak out.

TV news exits nowadays to provide propaganda to increase the revenues of the parent corporations. Any advertising revenue which it generates is just an extra. Sure, individual media stars like to have high ratings to make themselves look good. That is why O'Reilly gets so mad if KO beats him. However, the important thing is for Fox News to get Rudi into office so that his FCC can rule in favor of NewsCorp 100% of the time---and for the rest of the MSM to sink Rudi's campaign like a lead zeppelin so that his FCC can not rule in favor of NewsCorp 100% of the time. CNN will tell the news that helps AOL-Time Warner. ABC will tell the news that helps Disney. NBC will tell the news that helps GE.

Why do you think that NBC turned on Bush in the winter of 2005? It is because the Pentagon refused to invade Iran, because it was a dumb ass idea. The Pentagon controls GE and it told GE to tell the US public that invading Iran was a dumb ass idea. Before W. was even sworn in for his second term, MSNBC assembled a panel including good old isolationist anti-NeoCon Pat Buchanan to tell the nation how dumb ass an idea invading Iran was. I remember the panel. They have been at it ever since. They do this, because General Electric, the world's largest company and the Pentagon are like that (imagine two fingers held up together). Now, the generals want McCain, so Tweety and Co. had damn well make it look like they are promoting maverick John McCain just as hard as their lying little lips can utter bs.

Why do you think that NBC never got in board "Fear the immigrants"? GE needs immigrant labor in its factories.

ABC made a mockery of "The Path to 9/11" the Hindenberg of Propaganda and then outed Tom Foley before the 2006 elections, because they wanted Dems in control of Congress to eliminate the threat of A La Carte cable which a GOP Congress might enact. A La Carte cable would do serious damage to Disney.

All of the corporate bias of the TV news networks is documented in my journals. Some of their interests have changed recently. The Bush administration has been attempting to take away AOL-Time Warner's cable business and give it to the telecoms as a reward for their part in warrantless spying, so I would expect that CNN would start looking with more favor at a Democratic candidate (I do not know, because I have not watched CNN in years. I guess I will have to check them out and see it they are doing what is in their best economic interest. That would be Hillary Clinton. The GOP candidate would be too likely to cost them cable business).

ABC-Disney should have serious reservations about McCain, because he was one of the proponents of A La Carte cable that threatens Disney's empire.

CBS-Viacom wants a Republican FCC that will allow them to keep their out of media compliance since 2000 TV holdings.

Same for NewsCorp, plus Murdoch has an ideologic bias.

These guys do not care if I watch or boost their ratings. They care if people like Media Matters reveal to the public that their supposedly truthful journalists are biased---like Tweety and his anti-Hillary bias. They care when people learn how to spot their propaganda.

That is why I write what I write in my journals. I am writer and editor of science fiction, so I know the tricks people can use to make any Big Lie seem real. In fiction it is called suspension of disbelief. Once people see how it is done, they can start watching the news for the Big Lies. They know which journalists are most likely to lie and how and about what issues. They know the techniques of propaganda that each journalist employs.

Question: What did the FCC do for the nation's corporate media giants within two months after they mislead the country into blindly following the Bush administration into its war of choice in Iraq?

Answer: Under Michael Powell, the FCC illegally relaxed federal media ownership rules (essentially an executive branch writing legislation), making Viacom's and NewsCorp's illegal assets legal and giving the others green lights to grow, grow, grow.

[The_Commonist]

38. Thank you for your well thought out response.

My father spent his career at the New York Times, and died heartbroken at what it had become. I've had jobs on the edges of journalism. I appreciate what you are saying here, and I understand the games that are being played. I know it's propaganda, and not just coming out of the news divisions.

I was being more silly than serious, and wishing for something that will never happen. (people turning off their TV's forever and telling the advertisers that they have done so.) You see, I believe that propaganda is only as powerful as people's willingness to believe it. I think the work you do is important, and one day, maybe, people will wake up to the abuse they are being subjected to by the propaganda-meisters.

In the last days of the Soviet Union, EVERYBODY knew that the news was bullshit. We haven't gotten to that point yet in this country, and maybe through efforts of people like yourself, more people will start to understand this is the case, here and now. Don't really stop. However, and again, I think the only way to stop it is to create the conditions for a revolution - an advertiser's revolution. "You guys start telling the truth on your TV news, or we will pull all of our advertising. Our customers are on to you." Make TV a vast wasteland, and the owners will behave, or sell off their assets.

And by the way, I was only kidding about the puppies!

[SteppingRazor]

17. Good analysis, but some of it's a little over-critical...

for example, when that lady says John McCain has wrapped up the Republican nomination, she's right. McCain now has more than twice the delegates of any other candidate, and more than half the number he needs for the nomination. It's all over but the crying on that side.

[McCamy Taylor]

37. Not true. What if Huckabee and Romney made a deal? CC might like that one.

The powers that be in the Republican Party and GE-NBC want McCain to be declared the winner, but until he has the delegates sewn up, anything could happen.

[K Gardner]

18. I love reading your posts, McCamy. I am glad I'm not the only one

picking apart this biased coverage and seething. I found out this morning that all the uneducated white women in the next few contests will come out for Hillary, and the latte-sipping educated people will vote for Obama. I learned last night that unless a state has a high black population, Obama cannot expect to carry it. Not to mention how many races they called and had to retract.

Aside from what they've done to our Democratic nominees.. don't get me started on Kucinich and JE.. did you see the looks on their faces when Huckabee started winning? They were aghast and spent the entire night trying to rationalize it away. That evidently wasn't in their script. Although, Morning Ho & Co have spent a fair amount of time arguing about how they "created Mike Huckabee". Despite surprise wins and outraged RW anti-McCainism, McCain is being (and has been for weeks now) heralded as the inevitible nominee. Romeny was frozen out weeks ago.

All in all, MSNBC is a disgrace to journalism. CNN is bad, but from what I've seen in the past few days they're a bit more balanced and not as full of harmful and divisive vitriol and unsubstantiated commentary/biased opinion.

[pingzing58]

20. "Stir the pot" Sensationalism is what passes for reporting. I like the DU and get my info here.

[Irishonly]

21. K&R

[No Blood for Hubris]

22. You're right. It was outrageous, and

sexist, and ageist and racist.

Woo, "an African-American whotalk'! What a shocker to Tweetybird.

Tweety kept blabbing about Obama's "moving relentlessly toward" swamping Clinton.

He hyped Obama as "new!!" while framing Clinton as "a throw-back to the past." Talked about adding up delegates with "this gives the Clinton(s) . . . since gurrls always run for president in couples. Didn't talk that way about the McCains.

What a charmer.

[robbedvoter]

24. I can't watch them anymore - so thank you so much for the brilliant summary.

Bookmarking. One of the finer moments on DU - this forum (and any of them)

[Pappy]

25. 100 dollar haircut, 5 dollar brain, should U be surprised?

[Cameron27]

27. I know that I keep coming back to DU

for a reason. That's a well thought out OP, and you even made me laugh a few times!

K&R

[mojowork_n]

28. K & R The Pentagon Praetorian Guard has always favored McCain.

Sharp-eyed criticism.

Should we ever be saddled with a future McCain administration, Gary Trudeau wouldn't even have to come up with a new icon for The Commander in Chief. The empty, imperial Roman helmet will continue to do just fine.

On the other hand, since the decline of the Old Republic (when they turned a blind eye to subverting privacy rights and Habeas Corpus, and expanded the job description of The Decider to include making unilateral declarations of war, without asking for "consent") it has been the main responsibility of those toga-clad servants of the people, in the imperial Senate, to administer the patronage system. Protecting the surreptitious, unimpeded access of all sorts of corporations to profit-making activities, without oversight or control. (That is, when they're not busy actively sponsoring corporate welfare for K Street lobbyists.)

The list of corporate prime movers includes GE, of course, which has a "GE Healthcare" division making magnetic resonance imaging devices, along with all the nuclear power plants, and equipment for the military.

But along with the War Party and Praetorian Guard, there's also the Money Party. The F.I.R.E. Group -- finance, investment and real estate.

These are the folks Dubya famously referred to as "his base," the biggest prize-winners for the tax cuts he passed as soon as he got into office. For the most part, there has been no conflict at all between the Money Party and the War Party.

Until now, the Republican Golden Rule has always been, "speak no ill of a fellow Republican." Their ranks were tightly disciplined and any disagreements were settled overnight, behind closed doors, so that all could march in lockstep to the next day's Talking Points.

The squawkers on your car radio differed only in their degree of approval and enthusiasm for individual Republicans.

But now that the whole corporate/bureaucratic apparatus that's evolved to fight the 'War on Terror' has been in Iraq for almost five years, and some of the loonier investment schemes on Wall Street are beginning to decompose:



I think we're starting to see a tug of war between the generals, and the guys in the gray flannel suits. Last night, crawling home from the airport in blizzard condition, 25 mile per hour freeway traffic, I listened to our own local, late afternoon drive-time hate-monger, Mark Bellowing, berating an amicable, older white male listener for supporting a McCain candidacy. The chubby oxycontin guy with the cigar has been doing the same thing. I've no doubt they're both reflecting the will of their paymasters as the folks on TV, last night, were for theirs.

Push could come to shove. Financing this endless, Orwellian war is bankrupting the economy:



The White House can only be conferred on the most loyal and trustworthy of servants, so on my car radio last night Mark Bellowing was completely unwilling to even discuss the merits of a McCain candidacy. ("He voted against the tax cuts, ...he was against water-boarding.")

Apart from the fact that he once co-sponsored a campaign finance reform bill with my favorite senator, Russ Feingold, I don't have any particular high regard for John McCain. (Okay, voting against the tax cuts and standing up against water-boarding were good things, but the guy never saw a Pentagon appropriation he didn't start to drool over.)

Anyway, when we're trying to read past the moving lips of the news talkers, sorting through the talking points and hunting for clues about their agendas, the attacks on McCain suggest that all is not well with our hidden overlords. {"Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.")

When I stated to write this reply, I did a search (john McCain + praetorian guard) that resurrected an essay from the 2000 campaign, written before the South Carolina primary:

http://209.85.175.104/search?q=cache:vGHgJXaJhMYJ:www.antiwar.com/justin/j021400.html+mccain+corporate+praetorian+guard&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=2&gl=us&client=firefox-a

Back then, for a little while, it looked like McCain was the front-runner.

If his candidacy suddenly and without warning has it's own Howard Dean moment, or something else happens to take him off the top of the pile (again) -- I'm going to be very, very afraid.

[Mosaic]

29. Shame on GE...

MSNBC is so blatantly promoting McInsane it pains me to watch that channel anymore. There should be a warning, like a cigarette warning, at the bottom of the screen that says:

Warning this network and it's parent GE is part of the media-military industrial complex. The news and opinions you hear may be dangerous to the future of this country and people.

[geardaddy]

31. Smart AND entertaining!

:hi:

[Divine Discontent]

32. I K&R'd

because I believe MSNBC, which seemed to be turning a corner last year, has fallen back into "LINE". They even seem to have Keith on a chain. There's so many issues that should be getting discussed and aren't.

[xxqqqzme]

33. Thank you for the summary.

I was a poll clerk in California - @ the polls @ 6AM...finally got home @ 9:30PM and I live across the street from the polling place. I was too exhausted to watch any coverage; reading your play by play, I am SOOOOOOO glad I avoided MSNBC. I love KO's reporting but I simply cannot take tweety sucking the air out of the room. The ONLY person worse than tweety is russert. They are both SOOOOOO impressed w/ the sound of their voices.

Thank you.

[rodeodance]

34. msnbc's first mistake is passing this off as 'Journalism'!!

[madmom]

39. Did anyone hear Bay Buchanan witty remark?.....One of them I think it was

Tweets himself, asked if this was a republican(might have said conservative) war? She said "conservatives don't start pre-emptive wars". So now what does that make bush.....never mind!

[AnnieBW]

40. And Keith tries to get a word in edgewise...

I didn't see that much of the coverage, since I got home from class after 10 last night. But I kept waiting for Tweets to STFU and let Keith say something!

[McCamy Taylor]

41. Read "Dark Interlude" of "Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72" Just Now

in the bathtub. McGovern emerged from the Democratic Convention and the press was calling him two faced and a liar within days of him getting the nomination, all over the Eagleton affair which was Eagleton's fault for not telling McGovern about the skellies in his closet.

Even the WaPo (where Katherine Graham was on Nixon's enemies list and Woodward and Bernstein were working on Watergate) was hard on McGovern. The NYT was worse.

His campaign was doomed before it ever got onto the racetrack.

Since I think that journalists should be recognized for their work:

William Greider, WaPo writer at that time used a sailboat analogy to portray him as a waffler, also tacitly accusing McGovern of hypocrisy, suggesting that his "new politics" was just the same "old politics." WTG Greider. Nice to know that The Nation numbers among its current staff a journalist who helped lower McGovern's character to that of Richard Nixon.

James M. Naughton for The New York Times. "McGovern appeared, even to disillusioned members of his own staff to be saying one thing and doing another." Naughton writes that McGovern is now unable to say that he is more "idealistic" than Nixon. "He is, after all, a politician." He writes that Daley is being courted "implying that the only issue separating him from former president LBJ is the Vietnam War" and that a former chairman of the DNC has been installed in McGovern's staff. He charges that McGovern threw a vote to get more women on the South Carolina delegation without revealing that this had been planned in advance with the women as part of a parliamentary strategy to keep Humphrey from splitting the winner take all California delegates which could have allowed Humphrey to steal the nomination. He accused McGovern of holding a "closed door meeting" and of seeing the movie "The Candidate" (the last is an accusation presumably because the candidate is supposed to be a projection of McGovern selling his soul.)

Funny that I can not find a link for this NYT special feature. You can find links for all kinds of old stuff at the NYT. If anyone can find a link to the whole article, please post it so we can all see our hope and dreams of 1972 go up in smoke.

[ramapo]

43. Just say no

Watching any of these "guys" is just a guaranteed way to raise your blood pressure or lose your lunch, if not both.

I will watch CSPAN but get most of what I want to know from the Internet's series of tubes. I think if Obama wins the GE, I'll tune in the MSM just to watch them fall all over themselves. Otherwise, I'll rely on Stewart and Colbert to pick out the best of.