I wrote my journal
The Press v. John Edwards after his campaign had been trashed by the corporate media. This time, I decided not to wait.
What I found when I began to accumulate data was so shocking---through 8 hours of internet research I was able to amass 40 pages of condensed hard core Hillary bashing, most of it consisting of lies and malicious innuendo
and that was without the Chris Tweety Matthews links since they have already been well documented here
http://mediamatters.org/items/200801110014I strongly advise everyone to read this excellent document, because Matthews leads the pack in their attack on Hillary. He emboldens the others. They see him getting praise from his own network---and a token wrist slap followed by the solidarity of his co-workers who have begun to attack Hillary even more in the wake of his forced apology---and they join in like a bunch of school yard bullies.
Media Matters is an invaluable resource. While it does not contain all the propaganda--which a skillful propaganda artist can weave from bad photos, unflattering sound bites and slanted versions of the truth ---it does contain many of the lies and distortions which have been used in the major media skirmishes against Hillary.
I. The Press on the Fatwa (Dana Milbank) went on to characterize Clinton's relationship with the press as "poisonous" and "venomous," and said that journalists "dislike" her. (1)
( Craig Crawford ) "I think there's a tendency here -- I know what's going on. It's all about an old journalistic rule, which is we afflict the comfortable. And so I think that's why many times, many of us in the media tend to gang up on the Clintons. Because they're very comfortable, they're very powerful, and I think sometimes we're actually a little unfair to them, but maybe that's just how it goes." (2)
(In an
La Times interview
Chris Matthews) said he wanted to refine his comment but added that the Clinton campaign used the incident to score political points.
"They created the storm; I had to deal with it," he said. "I think any observant person would say
what I said was true. It might have been said better, more felicitously." (3)
“Part of it is her campaign’s fault,” Andrea Mitchell, the longtime NBC political correspondent, said backstage at the MSNBC debate in Cleveland in Tuesday. “They started with this notion of inevitability. And they were very arrogant.” (4)
( From
Taylor Marsh )Walter H. Shorenstein has put out a memo on the media bias against Clinton (that I've seen and read), which is damning in its conclusive finality. But nothing registered more intensely with me than this one fact revealed within Shorenstein's memo:
Foreign Policy Bias Against Clinton
When it comes to foreign policy coverage--perhaps the most important issue in the coming general election--the media monitoring group, Media Tenor, found that there was not a single positive story about Hillary Clinton and foreign policy in the month of February.
Snip
But in the end, covering the candidates is about giving all sides to the story, including on foreign policy matters. When the guys get covered, with McCain out pacing Obama in coverage, but the one woman in the race does not get covered at all, the deck is clearly stacked in the men's favor. If you don't want to call it sexism, fine, but the facts are still the facts.
(1)
http://mediamatters.org/items/200712310001(2)
http://mediamatters.org/items/200801200003(3)
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/tv/la-et-msnbc26feb26,1,4761432.story?ctrack=1&cset=true(4)
http://www.talkleft.com/story/2008/3/1/10026/83367(5)
http://www.taylormarsh.com/archives_view.php?id=27141II. “Hillary is a Bitch” and “Obama is a Scary Black Muslim”Way before the rude blonde at the McCain meeting said it---and the corporate media played it over and over again on national television---they were laying the groundwork for this particular Big Lie. Indeed, as far back as January 2007,while John Solomon of the WaPo was penning stories about John Edwards’ house and hair for the
Edwards is a phony Big Lie, the RNC under the direction of Karl Rove was already working on its other two Big Lies for the 2008 election season---
Hillary is a Bitch and
Obama is a Scary Black Muslim . Ironically, the press introduced both stories at the exact same time. Here is how:
In December 2006, Republicans with crystal balls were already tarring Hillary as the B word by pretending to offer Obama advice. Media Matters documents that Republican strategist
Mike Murphy said on
Hardball in December 2006:
“MURPHY: Oh, I think a lot of the love is going to be about Obama. He is now standing between Hillary and the nomination. So if I were Obama, I'd get a food tester in, quick.”
12-17-2008 on CNN’s
Reliable Sources conservative San Francisco Chronicle Columnist
Debra Saunders (who said Hillary would be a
“shameless victim in chief” in 2-28-2008 column)
“SAUNDERS: I think the other thing that people are waiting for is they're wondering what kind of mud the Clinton machine is going to churn out on Barack Obama, and they're waiting to see -- for the mud fight. That's what I'm waiting to watch.”
And on New Year’s Day, on
The Situation Room, the last of prescient conservatives predicted:
Bay Buchanan: “That first he goes in his closet, find out everything that's there, what he's done, thought about saying, said in the last -- since he's been 10 -- and reviews it, because the Clinton machine has got him in their targets and they love to work the personal, and so, he best be ready to respond to anything and keep smiling because it's that smile they want to take off his face.”
Well, surprise, surprise, surprise. Guess what happened a few days later?
http://mediamatters.org/items/200701040011When a story from Obama’s memoir about adolescent drug experimentation hits the news (the Washington Post culled a story from Obama’s decade old memoir),
Fox News blames Hillary, citing as proof that every one knows she is the kind of person who does things like that. Even though everyone only knows she does things like that because a bunch of right wingers like them have just spent the last two weeks telling America so!
This is just a taste of what is to come. The Big Lie about Obama, the one that is supposed to torpedo his candidacy in the general election against Rudi Guiliani in the fall of 2008 (this is winter 2006-7, remember) is
Obama is a Scary Black Muslim. The GOP does not dare release this story themselves, so they release it anonymously on a Moonie owned publication, use Fox and right wing radio to propel it, all the while accusing Hillary of being the source
without any evidence . As if Hillary would slime Obama in the Democratic primaries with an issue that no Democrat would care about, like his religious upbringing and take the slime to a Moonie owned rag.
Media Matters does a great job of covering the media skirmish.
http://mediamatters.org/items/200701200003 From the January 19 edition of KSFO's Morning Show:
MORGAN: Well, it is big time finally watching what's going on as Hillary begins the character assassination of "Osama Obama."
Eventually all the mainstream TV news networks like CNN, MSNBC, ABC cover the story, at first implying that it came from the Hillary camp and asking if it is true---promoting both Big Lies. Eventually, the corporate media draws back and admits that both Lies are probably false, although one notorious peddler of Big Lies will not let it rest.
http://mediamatters.org/items/200701300007 The discussion of the smear continued on the January 28 broadcast of Inside Washington -- a weekly news program on ABC's Washington, D.C., affiliate, WJLA-TV -- when syndicated columnist Mark Shields said: "Now we have these smear tactics being used against Barack Obama by Fox News, by Steve Doocy and John Gibson, just running with this story, which is a total fabrication, totally unfair, and this is early in the ballgame. And then, they try to pin it on Clinton. I've got to tell you, this is beyond the pale. Have they no decency left at last in our business?" Moments later, in response, syndicated columnist Charles Krauthammer suggested that the story still had legs and that despite all the debunking, there were still unanswered questions. Krauthammer said: "I don't know where the story came from, whether it was a Clinton leak or not. But there is a question about what was his childhood like, which is quite interesting. He was in Indonesia. Let's hear about it."
Charles Krauthammer is a veteran of “Gore is a liar” and “Edwards is a phony”. He also made phony psychiatric diagnoses of Al Gore back in 2000.
III. The Many Shades of BitchinessYou may think that McCain’s supporter was the first person to call Hillary the B word on TV, but you would be wrong.
http://mediamatters.org/items/200703070009March, 2007,
Imus’s sidekick said “
Bitch is gonna be wearing cornrows” It got big laughs from the other fellows on the show.
http://mediamatters.org/items/200703150011Later in March,
Glenn Beck gets into the act. "
She is like the stereotypical -- excuse the expression, but this is the way to -- she's the stereotypical bitch, you know what I mean?"
Oh my. Edwards was called a “faggot”. Hillary was called a “bitch”. What do you think the GOP would do if we called McCain a “pussy”?
Hillary’s bitchiness comes in all kinds of flavors.
Tucker Carlson is particularly found of
castration imagery.
http://mediamatters.org/items/200703200013"But there's just something about her that feels
castrating, overbearing, and scary." Carlson maintained
http://mediamatters.org/items/200707180009" Host Tucker Carlson replied, "I have often said, when she comes on television, I involuntarily cross my legs."
Some others just think that she is a
scary bitch :
http://mediamatters.org/items/200703220013 Later in the show, when discussing the pro-Obama YouTube video, Matthews asked Bloomberg columnist Margaret Carlson, "But is she Big Brother? Is she Big Brother?" Carlson responded that Clinton is "big mama" and likened Clinton to a "domineering mother."
http://mediamatters.org/items/200705080003 (Rush Limbaugh) "If I were to think about Barack Obama being in any trouble -- needing Secret Service -- I would look to Clinton Inc.before I looked at me. Try that, drive-by media. Get that out there."
http://mediamatters.org/items/200701240005 (Dana Milibank) That's true. By my count, there were 10 in the chamber there. And, in fact, Hillary Clinton was situated immediately behind Barack Obama , making it easier for her to actually place the knife into his back, if that's what she was trying to do.
That last one was so popular, Milbank reportedly repeated it several times that day.
And of course, the press has dredged up rumors about Vince Foster, implying that Hillary had him murdered and that she will murder anyone who gets in her way---or seek some form of diabolic revenge.
http://mediamatters.org/items/200707030007 On the July 2 edition of Fox News' The Big Story, Kellyanne Conway -- the CEO and president of the polling company inc., who, according to the biography posted on her company's website, "has provided commentary on over 1,000 ... television shows" -- suggested that Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (NY) would take "revenge" against the more than 250,000 people who have donated to Sen. Barack Obama's (D-IL) presidential campaign. Conway said: "hese are 250,000-plus people who are willing to publicly go against the Clintons. That's remarkable to me because, you know, Hillary Clinton ... puts a lot of energy into revenge."
http://mediamatters.org/items/200801140006Here,
Monica Crowley compares her to Glenn Close in
Fatal Attraction .
http://mediamatters.org/items/200801210002 Syndicated columnist Dick Morris asserted on Fox News' Hannity & Colmes that Sen. Hillary Clinton's "temper is a cool, angry, 'I'll, you know, slit your throat in the middle of the night' temper."
The corporate media has even called Hillary a
crazy bitch :
http://mediamatters.org/items/200802270010 Between February 25 and February 27, members of the media asserted Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton displayed "mood swings," "could be depressed," "esembl someone with multiple personality disorder," and "has turned into Sybil," an apparent reference to a book and movie about a woman who developed multiple personality disorder after being severely abused as a child.
Participating in this pile on, were
Lawrence Kudlow,
Jack Cafferty ,
Chris Matthews and
Maureen Dowd.
http://mediamatters.org/items/200705160011 However, when Hillary is not being a
crazy bitch she is a
cold and calculating bitch. Yes, I know that those two may seem hard to reconcile. Let’s give the guys and gals in the corporate media bonus points for creativity.
http://mediamatters.org/items/200701260012 “On the January 25 edition of MSNBC's Hardball, during a report on the importance of Western states in U.S. elections, NBC News correspondent George Lewis aired a quote by Sherry Bebitch Jeffe, a senior scholar at the University of Southern California, asserting that Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) is "too New York, too elitist, too cold, if you will, to really talk the language of the Intermountain West."
http://mediamatters.org/items/200701290006 (Andrew Sullivan stated) that it was "hard to disagree with her on the war," and admitted that he "actually her positions appealing in many ways." Nevertheless, he concluded: "I just can't stand her. I'm sorry about that."
http://www.opinionjournal.com/columnists/pnoonan/?id=110010239 (Peggy Noonan wrote) Hillary Clinton doesn't have to prove she's a man. She has to prove she's a woman.She doesn't have to prove to people that she's tough enough or aggressive enough to be commander in chief. She doesn't have to show she could and would wage a war. She has to prove she has normal human warmth, a normal amount of give, of good nature, that she is not, at bottom, grimly combative and rather dark.
Noonan then
speculates without any proof that an anonymous internet site that is soliciting tips about skeletons in Obama’s closet was set up by the Hillary 2008 campaign. Considering who Peggy Noonan is, I think it is more likely that the site was set up by Karl Rove and Noonan was directed to and told to write about it as if it were a Clinton site. For those of you to young to remember, here are
Pat Buchanan’s list of dirty tricks that he came up with from the 1972 election for Dick Nixon.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/longterm/watergate/stories/buchananmemo.htm "The preparation of attacks on one Democrat by another -- and 'endorsements' of one Democrat by another, which has to be repudiated, are examples of what can be done. Nothing should be done here, incidentally, which can seriously backfire and anything done should be cleared by the highest campaign authority.
Which brings me to an important point. There are two reasons for selecting the Big Lie
Hillary is a Bitch . The first is that people will forgive a man in a position of authority for being cool or aloof or even for having a temper. However, women are expected to be
motherly no matter how much stress they are under. A woman lawyer, doctor, judge or politician must charm, smile, nurture----and be a tough as a man in order to satisfy her dual role as mother figure and leader. Margaret Carlson hit the nail right on the head when she said that some people fear Hillary because they project their fears of a domineering mother on her. Many people were not blessed with happy relationships with their mothers---especially men, in our culture which pushes boys from the nest and encourages girls to bond with their mothers for life. Though I have no way of knowing this for certain, I suspect that a poll which compares voter’s comfort with their relationship with their own mothers and their degree of comfort with Hillary would find a close correlation. Younger voters, who are more likely to be in stages of rebellion, may find her “scarier”, because they have recently rejected a woman in a position of authority in their own lives. To them, any woman who tells them what to do is just one step away from bitchiness. So, they are easily lead to believe that Hillary is a bitch.
The other reason to label Hillary a bitch is more complicated. Karl Rove has decided that this election will be modeled on 1968 and 1972. If possible, the Democrats will have a brokered convention, like 1968 which will leave the Party fractured. I have written about this several times in my journals starting last year. The MSM has attempted to bolster Obama’s campaign in order to keep him neck and neck with Hillary so that neither can win.
I suspect that Rove selected Obama to be his “McGovern” when he thought that Guiliani was going to be the nominee. A dirty campaigner like Rudi would be good at making mincemeat of Obama’s character. McCain may not be so good, and it is possible that Rove may be rethinking his “McGovern” and his “Muskie”. But until recently, Hillary was the “Muskie”, the one whom the right wingers attacked in an effort to erode her front runner status. They slimed her in every way possible. And the corporate media jumped right in, some because they were in on the bigger game, some because they just love ganging up on the Clintons. They even made her cry---though the effect was not what they intended.
In the original plan, with Hillary scheduled to be drummed out of the race and Obama slated to be the nominee, Rove needed to lay the groundwork for “Obama is a Scary Black Muslim”--a Lie that has no power in the Democratic Primary but which could prove deadly in the general election--- as soon as possible, since Big Lies are most effective if they have time to percolate in the national consciousness. However, if the story seemed to come from the RNC, no one would buy it. So, right wingers and Republicans went on the offensive way back in 2006, telling everyone that Hillary would start smearing Obama. Then, anonymous stories about Obama’s Muslim upbringing and drug use started circulating through the news media, first at right wing sites, then at the MSM. For no particular reason, the stories were attributed to the Clinton camp, because it was supposed to be her style. No one ever stopped to ask why Hillary would slime Obama with issues that Democrats do not really care about---drugs and religion are general election issues, not Democratic primary issues. Obama supporters were quick to cast stones at Hillary. Obama was slightly slower to acknowledge that she was not to blame----it helped him get ahead when he was way behind in the polls by casting him as Hillary's most serious rival. John Edwards, her real rival, was---of course---ignored.
The first coordinated Republican offensive in the Media Fatwa against Hillary, the January 2007 combined launching of
Hillary is a Bitch and
Obama is a Scary Black Muslim had the effect of slightly weakening her campaign and slightly strengthening his presidential bid. This too was intended.
This journal is much too long for me to continue so I will talk about later skirmishes and more flavors of Hillary's "bitchiness" in part two of this journal. Each media attack continues the same trend.
Remember:
the corporate media is a liar! 
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