Media Turns Its Back On Experts Who Blame GOP For Political Gridlock

[spanone]

Thomas E. Mann, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, and Norman J. Ornstein, resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, are well-respected centrist congressional experts who are often cited by the media. But their recent conclusion that Republicans are responsible for political dysfunction -- laid out in an April 29 Washington Post op-ed and their recently released book -- has been largely ignored, with the top five national newspapers writing a total of zero news articles on their thesis.

http://mediamatters.org/research/201205180007

[Proud Liberal Dem]

1. Apparently

they "can't handle the truth!"


Obviously, the truth isn't very profitable in journalism nowadays.

[spanone]

2. seems there is very little 'journalism' today. national enquirer standards apply.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

4. They will publish anything

and people will believe anything, usually even if it gets disproved later. For instance, I think that yesterday there was a story about Elizabeth Warren plagiarizing but then having to retract it. I would not be surprised at all if the right-wing keeps flogging the story and people keep believing it. *ugh*

[eggplant]

26. I believe the enquirer has higher standards these days....

...simply because they actually HAVE standards.

[lpbk2713]

3. And BushCo usually gets a free pass for driving the country into the ditch.

But, as they see it, it's Obama's fault for not getting us out of said ditch before now.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

5. +1

The Republicans get more airtime complaining about Obama (rightly) blaming Bush than Obama gets trying to explain his solutions to fix Bush's mess.

[zbdent]

11. WhoCo?

I don't remember the name of the guy before Obama. If you listen to repugs, it was probably Clinton ... they never say who it was ...

[emulatorloo]

12. Republicans block everything and say "See Obama did Nothing"

And media reports what they say as if it is the gospel truth

In spite of that Obama got a fair amount accomplished. But media pretends he didn't.

[spanone]

6. the original WaPo op-ed...Let’s just say it: The Republicans are the problem.

Rep. Allen West, a Florida Republican, was recently captured on video asserting that there are “78 to 81” Democrats in Congress who are members of the Communist Party. Of course, it’s not unusual for some renegade lawmaker from either side of the aisle to say something outrageous. What made West’s comment — right out of the McCarthyite playbook of the 1950s — so striking was the almost complete lack of condemnation from Republican congressional leaders or other major party figures, including the remaining presidential candidates.

It’s not that the GOP leadership agrees with West; it is that such extreme remarks and views are now taken for granted.

We have been studying Washington politics and Congress for more than 40 years, and never have we seen them this dysfunctional. In our past writings, we have criticized both parties when we believed it was warranted. Today, however, we have no choice but to acknowledge that the core of the problem lies with the Republican Party.

The GOP has become an insurgent outlier in American politics. It is ideologically extreme; scornful of compromise; unmoved by conventional understanding of facts, evidence and science; and dismissive of the legitimacy of its political opposition.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/lets-just-say-it-the-republicans-are-the-problem/2012/04/27/gIQAxCVUlT_print.html

[coalition_unwilling]

10. And no one from the MSM demanded taht West produce a list of names to back

up his slander. Not one.

[ronnie624]

14. Soledad O’Brien did.

But I still thought her interview was ineffective.

[The Wielding Truth]

30. REPUBLICANS ARE THE PROBLEM!

[JHB]

7. Actually, they're not anymore "expert" than anyone else who's been noting this for years...

...they're just the the "most-Washington-insider" people to do so, and even they get conveniently forgotten.

[spanone]

8. A topic no Sunday show will tackle

Last month, Thomas Mann and Norman Ornstein wrote a piece for The Washington Post’s Outlook section that dared to suggest the unthinkable: Both parties aren’t equally to blame for what ails Washington.

They argued, and expounded on this point in their book, that the Republican Party — by allowing extremists to roam free and by wielding the filibuster to achieve government dysfunction as a political end in itself — were demonstrably more culpable than the Democrats for creating what is approaching a crisis of governance.

The op-ed has been a viral sensation online for weeks, yet neither man has been invited on to the Sunday TV talk shows to discuss this thesis. As some observers have noted, these are among the most quoted people in Washington — yet this topic is suddenly too hot for these Washington-centric shows, or it has been deemed not relevant at all.

Ornstein confirmed that the book’s publisher has tried to get the authors on the Sunday shows, with no success.

http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/opinion/54135968-82/ornstein-sunday-shows-topic.html.csp

[DallasNE]

23. What, You Would Have Them Replace John McCain

For one Sunday. Are you nuts.

[DFW]

9. Norm Ornstein is known as "Washington's most quoted pundit."

With good reason, too. He's one of the most intelligent, engaging speakers and insightful
commentators out there: I don't know Mann, but I've known Norm for years, and ignoring
him on a subject he knows more about than almost anybody means to me that there are
a LOT of folks out there that are terrified of what he has to say.

[Demoiselle]

13. I've always thought that Mr. Ornstein is (comparatively) conservative, too.

The American Enterprise Institute is hardly a nest of Bolsheviks. I'm so glad he and Mr. Mann put this out there. God Bless smart people.

[DFW]

21. Norm has always been a very centrist, fiercely pragmatic type

He was always always the token sane person at AEI.

[lpbk2713]

16. How's Helen these days?

Well, I hope. I don't hear much about her now that she is in her well deserved retirement.

Her absence from the press corps is conspicuous.

[DFW]

20. I plan to have dinner with her Monday night. I'll let you know! n/t

I'm in Washington for my nephew's college graduation. It has already been interesting
as some of the whackos have already been whining about their commencement speaker,
who was HHS Secretary Kathleen Sibelius.

[dmr]

25. Hugs from me to Helen, please.

Enjoy your dinner.

[DFW]

34. Will do!

And I talked to her this afternoon. It's confirmed for Monday night. She makes the reservations,
and we pick her up and take her home--no big detour, as she lives right down the same street
less than 5 minutes from the restaurant.

[marsis]

15. Damn Liberal media!

[Iliyah]

17. DUH

corporate media.....................

Where have all the journalist gone? There are only a handful, and I'll say - night - time MSNBC and CURRENT

[CBHagman]

43. "The NewsHour" on PBS featured them as part of a weeknight broadcast.

Why am I not surprised comments have been disabled for the video? Sigh.

Notice too that Judy Woodruff has to get in the apparently mandatory "But the Democrats are at fault too" dig, which one sees at The Washington Post. (And yes, Dana Milbank, I mean you.)

Anyway, The WaPo Outlook section featured a follow-up on what Ornstein and Mann believe would help improve things...and what they believe would not work.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/want-to-end-partisan-politics-heres-what-wont-work--and-what-will/2012/05/17/gIQA5jqcWU_story.html

[BlancheSplanchnik]

18. ....

[Rex]

22. M$M = GOP

THE REASON we are in such deep shit right now. THE REASON I refuse to watch any M$M channel or support any rag like the NYTs or Newsweek. Crappy propaganda that is hurtful to the country.

[The Wizard]

24. Follow the money (NT)

[tcaudilllg]

27. I would support the development of credible media outlets.

Current does not count.

[fascisthunter]

28. Thats because the 1% have control over the private media

Too bad the media doesn't honestly tell their audience what they are doing... then we could have a true democracy, one which a public was informed, rather than purposely misled by a media contracted by the 1%.

[gulliver]

29. Sales department directive

This year is going to completely blow away the record for media ad sales. For one thing the media don't want to offend their biggest SuperPAC customers, the Republicans. But on the other hand, the media don't want to give away free exposure to ideas (true or not) that the Dems would otherwise have to pay for.

[WillyT]

31. Well... Let's Just Say...

Blond Treehorn Thug: Where's the money, Lebowski? Where's the fucking money, shithead?

The Dude: It's uh... uh... it's down there somewhere, let me take another look.

Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118715/quotes

[maddiemom]

32. GOP GRIDLOCK

Mich McConnell frankly stated that the Republican goal was to make President Obama a one term president. His party has consistently been refusing to act on necessary legislation and blocking legislation they formerly proposed. How much more obvious does it have to get? In some 55 years of following politics, I've never seen anything like it. Is this the influence of Grover Norquist, a man who's never been elected to any office, but has vowed to turn this government into a one party system? How crazy (and actually treasonous) is that? Has nobody considered seriously prosecuting this poisonous toad? Damn right our media is just ignoring the situation.

[AverageJoe90]

41. But then again, the media just has to do hit pieces on OWS......

....by claiming that they're 'secret Nazis' or whatever, or whining about Obama......right?

Truth is, that's how they think these days.

[Odin2005]

33. Everything on the MSM should be assumed to be propaganda...

...unless proven otherwise by other sources.

[gratuitous]

35. Very odd, that

After all, the popular shows just love, love, love showing contrarian and unexpected guests. The Black spokesperson talking up the Republicans or the conservative woman arguing against pay equity. Whoo-eee! It's Unexpected City! Watching the talking chuckleheads, you'd think every last Black man and white woman in the United States was a wealthy conservative.

But here comes a couple of guys with the contrarian view that "both sides don't do it." Crickets.

[freshwest]

36. Doh! I don't call it the GOP owned media for nothing. Look at their biggest pundits!

The one who owns the newsstand controls what's sold.

[SunSeeker]

37. Infuriating.

[certainot]

38. they are afraid of limbaugh and sons on 1000 radio stations and have been well trained

to fear the thousands of dittohead/teabaggers that can be diddled into a lather on a moments notice by the think tank ops that analyze the news and feed the blowhards that reach 50 mil a week.

[nanabugg]

39. Dems need to make an ad on this and run it in the wingnut states and local areas.

"Why haven't you heard about opinions of the once GOP touted experts?" "Is it because they say...."
Something similar. Folks get paid a lot of money to come up with great ads so I am sure there is something that can be used with this information.

[Samantha]

40. Maybe they should start reading the DemocraticUnderground

Posted in April 2011:

Shut down the government -- shut down Obama re-election chances
Posted by Samantha in General Discussion: Presidency
Fri Apr 08th 2011, 01:21 AM
Why do people seem to think this whole shut-down-the-government threat is truly about deficit spending, Planned Parenthood or abortion? President Obama himself said an extended government shutdown can impair our delicate economic recovery. Isn't that truly the Republicans' goal? Let us refresh for a moment. What did Mitch McConnell say was the number one goal for the Republicans? Ah, yes, make Obama a one-term President.

And that I believe is our clue as to what this current controversy is truly about. If there is one thing we learned from eight years of George W. Bush*, Republicans do not truly care about deficits. Remember Cheney's famous "deficits don't matter" comment? Deficits don't matter to Republicans. Elections matter because that is where all of the power and control (read "money&quot rests.

This shutdown is not about any of the reasons commentators report. It is about the Republicans' Number One Priority. Impede the recovery, further impair the economy, take out Obama in 2012. That is it in a political nutshell.

Tell me I am mistaken.

Sam

[protect our future]

42. The media can be forced to report on

important issues if enough people raise a stink so big and so far-reaching that they have to. Never underestimate the power of the Internet.

[LiberalFighter]

44. The GOP is mostly to blame but they get help from the media too n/t