October 15, 2004
: :
It's the Media, Stupid
[asfo_del]
I don't normally write about the election because I have nothing new to say. I still don't, but it's really pissing me off.... While I have no particular fondness for the prospect of a Kerry presidency, which I don't think will make any real difference in the fundamental conditions that drive the lives of all the world's people, including Americans, I am disgusted and horrified at the possibility that Bush could win. And it seems to be a very real possibility. After all the shameless lies, the needless deaths of tens of thousands, the torture, destruction, unmitigated arrogance, gleeful corporate boosterism, the swollen domestic deficit, increased income inequality, further loss of access to health care, the wholesale shredding of civil liberties ... how could the Bush administration enjoy the support of about half of the American public?
The very obvious -- glaringly obvious! -- answer is that the U.S. mainstream media has not only allowed the administration's lies to go unchallenged, it has reinforced and legitimized them.
From FAIR:
"Major U.S. news outlets are hardly inclined to be up in arms about Rumsfeld’s record of prewar deception when they remain so dainty about critiquing their own. What passes for soul-searching at the New York Times and the Washington Post is much more like autoeroticism than self-flagellation."
"Coverage that insists on a false even-handedness, while pretending to expose political mendacity, actually gives cover for it by neutralizing criticism."
A telling piece of news that has been published today by the UK's The Guardian is that folks in other countries, who are not subjected to the barrage of misleading reporting that floods the airwaves and print media in the U.S., have a much more sensible, it seems to me, and sane view of the Bush administration.
"A June poll conducted by the German Marshall Fund found that 76% of respondents in nine European countries disapproved of Mr Bush's handling of international affairs.... It also found that 80% of Europeans polled - compared with half of Americans - said Iraq was not worth the human and financial cost."
"A poll conducted by 10 of the world's leading newspapers, ,,, show[s] that in Australia, Britain, Canada, France, Japan, Spain and South Korea a majority of voters share a rejection of the Iraq invasion, contempt for the Bush administration, a growing hostility to the US and a not-too-strong endorsement of Mr Kerry." Respondents in eight out of the ten countries polled want to see Bush out of office, and, "on balance, world opinion does not believe that the war in Iraq has made a positive contribution to the fight against terror."
Perhaps even more significantly, "73% of British voters ... say that the US now wields an excessive influence on international affairs, a situation that 67% see as continuing for the foreseeable future. A majority in Britain also believe that US democracy is no longer a model for others. But perhaps a more startling finding from the Guardian/ICM poll is that a majority of British voters - 51% - say that they believe that American culture is threatening our own culture. This is a fear shared by the Canadians, Mexicans and South Koreans."
Meanwhile, CNN reports on anecdotal opinions offered by random voters who seem uninterested in facts but say they will vote based on their gut feelings and a nebulously defined personal comfort level: " 'I don't think [the debates] really explain a whole lot to the public one way or another. I think what will do it will be just gut feeling when we get right down to the election.' For some in this voter group, long-range concerns override debate results. 'Really, it boils down to one thing for me personally. I feel more comfortable with Bush at this particular time. Kerry scares me because of his legislative record. Kerry's got to win me over and he didn't.' "
The most frightening statement made by a voter in the CNN article goes unremarked by the reporter: " 'I listen to Rush Limbaugh when I'm in my car,' she said. 'We can only get one radio station really clear around here. It's so negative. I never heard a good thing about Kerry.' But when she tuned in to the presidential debates, she 'liked Kerry's presence. I liked the way he spoke.' " The only station this voter can hear is the one that airs Rush Limbaugh! And even though she developed a positive opinion about Kerry when she saw him on TV, it was his demeanor that impressed her. Policies just don't matter.
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