Fuck corporate media.

[porphyrian]

With the exception of Olberman and loose handful of others, what in the fuck have they done for you in six years?! Stop shilling for them, already. Are you guys getting paid for promoting them? You should. Fuck the lying pieces of shit.

[Emit]

1. What is the corporate media up to now?

I don't have access -- and just checked into DU -- anything of import?

[porphyrian]

4. I just spent 80% of the last five minutes ignoring posts about corporate media shills.

What they said, whether what they said was right or not, what we should do about them, blah, blah, blah. It's free advertising for the same people they claim to have a problem with, and I'm not understanding it again. Of course, people will post whatever in the hell they want, and that's fine. I'm just putting in my two cents.

[omega minimo]

6. Fuck all corporate shills

Where is facing corporatism on the Dem/DU priority list?



oh and this died a fast and ugly death

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x2724676

[porphyrian]

10. I just don't get it.

Here, I've got a thread-resuscitator.

[Clark2008]

16. The problem isn't those of us HERE, porphyrian.

The problem is that we know far too many Americans who DO believe the shit the corporate media dishes out and votes accordingly.

We're all worried that our choices are going to be HRC vs. either Guiliani or McCain, if the media has their way, and NOTHING will change. NOTHING.

[porphyrian]

18. We can't change it by obsessing over the media and their choices for us.

Let's decide what we want and get it, without those lying pieces of shit.

[Clark2008]

28. I wish we could.

Maybe in a few more election cycles - when no one but the utterly stupid are still watching the corporate media while the rest of us get real news online - we'll finally get what we want and need.

Until then, bitching about it so that other people realize how insane, how self-serving and how useless the corporate media is, is just about all we can do (until we can convince congress to bring back the Fairness Doctrine).

[porphyrian]

31. Yeah, but bitching about it HERE is redundant and useless.

In fact, it's counterproductive, as it gives them exactly what they want - our attention.

[StraightDope]

2. What the hell are you talking about?

WHO is shilling for the MSM?

[porphyrian]

7. How many posts on the front page are about corporate media or media personalities?

It's a shitload, because I just spent almost five minutes trying to ignore them all. There is no bad advertising save that which leaves you unknown or forgotten.

[bryant69]

3. Don't hold it in.

Say what you really feel.

The mainstream media matters because it is the mainstream media.

Bryant
Check it out --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com

[porphyrian]

8. That's a circular argument, thus I reject it.

Fuck them. And, you know by now that I don't hold much in.

[kster]

5. KICK N RECOMMENDED ..nt

[porphyrian]

24. Thank you. - n/t

[FrenchieCat]

9. Agreed!

The Corporate media is not our friend. If and when anyone forgets this, they will soon be reminded, the hard way!

[porphyrian]

25. Ab-so-lutely. Thanks. - n/t

[porphyrian]

11. And fuck anyone who willingly promotes their lies, too. - n/t

[pretzel4gore]

12. they betrayed bush!

i'd love to see the knuckledraggers go after the pigmedia; subject them to the mindless drone hatred that usually given the dems. the idea is the pigmedia never diciplined the bush admin, unlike the clinton admin. they in fact covered up and promoted bush excesses, whereas they FORCED Bill to make ends meet, and lift all the boats (lol)...
i'd love to see nazipoohs gunning for limbah humbug, woof blitzer brite hum and orally etc....them frigging cowards would dissappear as fast as snow in hell...

[porphyrian]

19. Well, unless you're taking up a collection to buy them, it ain't happening.

Fuck them. We can't work with them. We should stop trying.

[Uncle Joe]

13. Thanks for posting porphyrian

Kicked and recommended

[porphyrian]

20. Someone needed to say it. - n/t

[bullimiami]

14. i totally ignore them except some olbermann and rare other instances

except when we discuss amonst ourselves.

[porphyrian]

21. The problem is when our discussions are all about them.

Fuck them. Who cares what they have to say? They're completely full of shit whores. We don't need them, they didn't help us win back Congress. Fuck them, let them talk about themselves to themselves.

[BlueEyedSon]

15. Media corporations are corporations first.

never forget that

[porphyrian]

22. Right, they're whores. - n/t

[omega minimo]

41. Wrong, they're PIMPS

We're the ones being screwed

[porphyrian]

43. I guess it's time to go independent.

If I'm going to be a whore, I'm keeping the money.

[omega minimo]

47. That's the problem

The ones getting screwed pay the pimps :crazy:

[Canuckistanian]

17. Stop listening to them.

We know their priorities, their alliances and their goals. Stop giving them credence.

K&R

[porphyrian]

23. I have. I just don't understand why so many here give them so much attention.

Fuck them.

[Ron Green]

26. That's it, Choir - just ignore them.

We don't care what all the mouth-breathers believe.

[porphyrian]

27. The only way to stop them is to stop paying attention to them.

Only by hurting their ratings will their bosses shut them the fuck up.

[Ron Green]

30. How can you or I affect their ratings?

I'm not part the Nielsen system, and I sure wouldn't tell any market researcher that I watch any of the horseshit on TV. The masses, however, love this crap and will watch an unlimited amount of it, if it's vapid enough. Even all the Fake News on TV is not really important; it's just to make people watch, to keep them in the habit.

[porphyrian]

32. Never underestimate the power of popular culture.

The media controls, or at least influences, popular culture. However, it only uses a fraction of us to determine it's own success (the Nielsens). If we, a significantly greater percentage of the populace than those sampled, reject the media and ignore it, we change popular culture and perception in ways they can't predict. Eventually, even those they do sample will be influenced, and then they'll be in a scramble to remain relevant.

Even if I'm completely full of shit and not at all correct, surely you can see that all the attention we're giving them, passing on their lies and irrelevant pap to each other and obsessing about it, isn't changing anything or helping us at all - they just keep coming back with more bullshit. WE are the consumers. Let's stop consuming their product.

[Kelly Rupert]

29. Yeah, I totally agree.

Fuck AP and fuck Reuters. I'd also rather get dubious hearsay from the blogosphere than factually accurate information that isn't spun the right way.

(cue: "Blogs are more reliable than the M$M!")

If you want the facts and not truthy garbage, the BBC is a great source. Al-Jazeera's pretty good too, but slightly slanted--I'd estimate in the same way cable news channels are. NPR is fantastic. NewsHour is good too. And AP and Reuters reports are usually good too, but there's too damn many of them to sort through.

The Economist is brilliant, but written by free-traders. Thankfully, it keeps its opinions and news well separated. Foreign Affairs is well-written and usually thought-provoking--better for opinion than news, of course.

[porphyrian]

33. I gave up on NPR in 2004.

I'm not sure what your local affiliate's programming is like, but ours turned into just another right-wing shill-a-thon briefly interrupted by news.

[JohnyCanuck]

34. Here's the best rant I've read in a while

on the coporate media whores, aka "The Ministry of Truth".

Collaborators of Catastrophe: Inside the Ministry of Truth

By Manuel Valenzuela

Storytellers of the American Narrative


The creators of American reality, those propagators of charades and mirages who dwell inside the hallways of the Ministry of Truth – otherwise known as the Corporate Media – continue their dance of deception and whitewash, festering in their offices of propaganda, directing the narratives and the epics hundreds of millions of Americans consider truth. Much like the disappearance of warmth giving way to the crispness of cold arrives with each annual changing of leaves, so the remarketing of American reality is altered by the changing faces of circumstance. Today, this change is the complete disaster that is the occupation of Iraq, an endeavor whose initial fruition could not have taken shape without the blitzkrieg marketed incessantly into every home and mind in America by the Department of Propaganda, the Ministry of Truth and its army of pseudo-journalists.

SNIP

In the upper echelons of the Establishment’s pyramid and the corporatist power structure, there has arrived a realization that Iraq is and will remain lost, a miserable failure turning more putrid every day, forever becoming a gash that will not heal, a ghost whose lack of placidity will for decades haunt the psyche of America. The Bush Crusade, once seen by the elite as a harbinger of empire and hegemonic power, an excursion becoming the genesis of perpetual wealth and richness, has instead transmuted itself into the greatest strategic disaster in the history of the Pax Americana. In the span of three years, Iraq has surpassed Vietnam, in the totality of the circumstances, as a perpetual burn whose scab will continue to be pulled off by the shame of what America did to Iraq, by the embarrassment of such apparent failure, by the geopolitical suicide it committed in Mesopotamia and by the severed image of the nation in the eyes of the world.

For the American masses, meanwhile, a great discomfort at the disaster unfolding and the failure apparent has been born, as if the growing number of rotting corpses throughout Iraq have exported their terrible stench across the Atlantic to the far reaches of America, finally arriving to wake from the doldrums of comfort and laziness the minds of millions of American people. Yet these millions of Americans grow disquieted not because of the genocide committed by their military, not because of the death of 655,000, or the displacement of 1.5 million, but because of the complete failure in not succeeding and winning, because of the death of almost 3,000 occupying soldiers, for creating a new memory of debacle, quagmire, defeat.

The narrative so-meticulously concocted and crafted by the Ministry of Truth, of an America destined by the Christian deity for greatness, incapable of defeat, always triumphant in victory, forever carrying the torch of goodness, chosen to fight the forces of evil, a beacon of freedom and liberty to the world, has been shown as the sham that it is, a fantasy laced with the glazed sugar coating of Hollywood perfection and brainwashed delusions. The aura of arrogance, the spirit of invincibility, the confidence of victory, the manifest destiny of America has taken a severe and humiliating blow at the hands of a mosaic of “rag tag,” “sub-human,” “third-world,” “dark-skinned,” “Arab and Muslim” resistance fighters, or mujahadeen. The glorious mirror of fables of American prominence that has for decades been used to condition and brainwash the masses has been blasted into pieces by a war of choice and by a cabal of mass murder and criminality.

http://valenzuelasveritas.blogspot.com/2006/10/collaborators-of-catastrop_116183596570185445.html

[Swamp Rat]

35. I love it!

:)

[porphyrian]

37. ...and that is a profoundly disturbing graphic. Heh, heh. - n/t

[omega minimo]

40. OW

:rofl: LOL :rofl: :rofl: :woohoo: :rofl: :yourock:


Swampy, when Jello Biafra said "Become the Media" this is what he had in mind. :hi:






B-) ow

[porphyrian]

36. Heh, heh, that is great. - n/t

[Batgirl]

38. I simply must give you credit for backing up your argument

with such an abundance of F-bombs, which certainly add to the overall persuasiveness of your scolding.

You are so right in observing how these internet conversations provide ghastly amounts of "free advertising" for the corporate media. Because there are so many people who read these posts and find themselves thinking "what is this CNN of which they speak? I really must check it out!" Leading directly of course to a sharp uptick in viewership.

Pardon me for a moment while I rend my garments, knowing how I, just by keeping track of and discussing the propoganda efforts of the corporate media, have actually been responsible for helping it along. How can I bear the guilt?

I feel so morally conficted knowing that there are so many television viewers out there who had never heard of O'Reilly, Tweety, Hume, Couric, etc. etc...until stumbling across a thead on the DU. Just imagine the untold damage that is done by websites such as Media Matters. Or by the many fine books that have been written about the role of the corporate media in the political success of the right wing.

How can any of these fucking people fucking live with themselves????!!??

[Name removed]

39. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[porphyrian]

42. Oh, you didn't miss that, did you?

I'd hate to think my reply was removed before you could see it.

[Batgirl]

44. Actually I was away from the computer for a bit.

So I have no ideer what you said but I can guess it was good. Naturally I missed it just like I miss all the good stuff.

[porphyrian]

46. Aw, that's such a shame. You would've found it so meaningful...

...given how much you respect my posts.

[MoeHayNow]

49. well, perhaps I could have used a less sarcastic tone

But in all seriousness, it is a hot button issue with me when someone periodically delivers a lecture on how, just by discussing corporate media issues, we are somehow acting as enablers.

To use myself as an example, I found my way into the liberal blogosphere due to my feeling, after the 2000 election, that the election coverage was heavily weighted in favor of Bush. I wound up at a website called mediawhoresonline which obviously was devoted to talking about this very thing. It's hard to believe now, but no one out there was talking about it.

I can't really explain how important it was to me, to hear that others shared my perceptions.

I personally believe the media bias, which favors rightwing corporate interests, is the number one issue when it comes to educating the public and helping them to recognize the poisonous information they are getting, which is shaping their opinions and influencing their votes.

I believe this is not just a legitimate topic of discussion, but a vitally important one.

So that's why I came off that way. It does surprise me that you were offended by what I said, because it seemed that your post contained much hostility directed at those who want to talk about corporate media issues.

I do want to somehow convey though, that since you're here at DU, and since I assume on good faith that we're on the same side, I don't want you to think that I disrespect you or your posts, in spite of my reaction to this one.

[MoeHayNow]

50. Just realized, I switched browsers and now am posting

with hubby's user name.

But it's me, Batgirl, who is talking to you.

Geez.

[porphyrian]

51. Look, there's a difference between discussing the media and swamping GD with redundant threads...

...about the same thing. The former is constructive and legitimate and, as you suggest, vitally important. The latter is nothing more than advertising to our demographic, thus illustrating my point. Surely, if you are so informed about the media, you understand this, which is why I'm suspicious of your outrage.

[Batgirl]

54. Redundant threads are a DU perennial

as are the periodic attempts to scold and lecture others into not posting about Topic X (not to be confused with Project X).

I find it annoying for instance when the antics of some addle-brained rightwing celebrity dominate GD for a week. In fact I often hesitate briefly before clicking on those threads after the first several hundred times.

Of all the multiple-thread topics, those that focus on the media bother me the least. Far from "advertising to our demographic", I believe this kind of discussion encourages skepticism of what the corporate media dishes out on a daily basis.

And I'm in favor of skepticism in general, so you go ahead and be "suspicous" of my "outrage."

[porphyrian]

56. OK, whatever. - n/t

[Jcrowley]

45. The mistake is in thinking that they are not doing their job

Such mantras as "Take back the media" are naive and fail to understand the role of the US media in our political system.

They do their job well. And for that they are paid well. Mostly they are propagandists, mouthpieces of The State and should be treated as such.

Look at what a former New York Times Journalist John Swinton was saying about journalism all the way back in 1880 in free America:

“I am paid weekly for keeping my honest opinion out of the paper I am connected with. Others of you are paid similar salaries for similar things, and any of you who would be so foolish as to write honest opinions would be out on the streets looking for another job. If I allowed my honest opinions to appear in one issue of my paper, before twenty-four hours my occupation would be gone.”

“The business of the journalists is to destroy the truth, to lie outright, to pervert, to vilify, to fawn at the feet of mammon, and to sell his country and his race for his daily bread. You know it and I know it, and what folly is this toasting an independent press?”

“We are the tools and vassals of rich men behind the scenes. We are the jumping jacks, they pull the strings and we dance. Our talents, our possibilities and our lives are all the property of other men. We are intellectual prostitutes.”


"Americans are too broadly underinformed to digest nuggets of information that seem to contradict what they know of the world ... Instead, news channels prefer to feed Americans a constant stream of simplified information, all of which fits what they already know. That way they don't have to devote more air time or newsprint space to explanations or further investigations."

Tom Fenton, CBS foreign correspondent

"The problem the United States faces is that almost all of its invasions violate international law, and sometimes, as in the case of Iraq, in a blatant manner. So how do the political elite and the news media reconcile this contradiction? Simple: They ignore it. It is virtually unthinkable for a mainstream U.S. reporter to even pursue this issue."

John Nichols and Robert McChesney

" I never saw a foreign intervention that the Times did not support, never saw a fare increase or a rent increase or a utility rate increase that it did not endorse, never saw it take the side of labor in a strike or lockout, or advocate a raise for underpaid workers. And don't let me get started on universal health care and Social Security. So why do people think the Times is liberal?"

New York Times reporter John Hess

"The American press, with a very few exceptions:, is a kept press. Kept by the big corporations the way a whore is kept by a rich man."

Theodore Dreiser

"The man who never looks into a newspaper is better informed than he who reads them; inasmuch as he who knows nothing is nearer to truth than he whose mind is filled with falsehoods and errors."

Thomas Jefferson

[porphyrian]

48. While I don't deny that the media was historically sensationalist...

...there was a point when it began to change, when it became the eyes and ears of the people trying to get to the truth. I guess this was some time between the 50's and Nixon. Anyway, it was a change for the better. Only with the media deregulation that reagan began and every administration since has continued did this integrity regress. If mere propaganda is the natural state of the media, and I'm not entirely convinced that it is by necessity, then they have betrayed the trust of the American people and are a guilty accomplice in the war crimes of this administration.

[snot]

52. What makes me want to tear my hair is

I can't seem to get anyone around here interested in DOING anything about it.

The media don't HAVE to be owned by five major corporations whose primary interests lie in suppressing important news.

I can't tell you how many times I've posted action items on this issue and gotten no reply. Maybe folks are doing something and just not telling me?

[porphyrian]

53. It's social engineering to blame.

While some of us are simply lazy, most of us are too busy trying to live our lives to do much more than complain. This isn't by accident, it is by design. Starve a people just enough that they have to work most of the time simply to get by and they don't have the time or energy to act against you (or to notice that you're lying to their face and stealing everything out from under them). It is starting to backfire, however, as evidenced by the record turnout last election day. I'm not sure what exactly you've posted, but unless you've taken the initiative and planned and organized everything already, I can understand why you haven't gotten much response. It's not that people don't agree with you or wish you well, it's that they don't have the time or energy to attack a mountain right now. They probably shouldn't even be chatting on here.

[Skidmore]

55. Kris Jensing and Monica Crowley on MSNBC are busy

consigning the Dems to the dustbin of history as we speak. Today's leadership vote was a sure sign for them of an implosion.

[porphyrian]

57. I don't know who they are, and I don't care.

I don't watch that channel, and it's not worth talking about what they say, because they don't matter. However, now you've put me in the position of having to let this thread sink, or I'm helping to advertise all three of these pieces of shit in your subject line. Every time it kicks to the top and people view the thread, the names are read one more time, thus solidifying them both consciously and subconsciously in the mind of each reader. Thanks for that.