Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA), in the video below, describes on the floor of the U.S. House this week what anyone paying attention already knows: how the "Rightwing Echo Chamber" works. He describes a completely false charge by Wall Street Journal's professional liar and GOP operative, John Fund, last November alleging --- with no basis whatsoever --- that Rep. Barney Frank (D-VT) and Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) would soon be introducing legislation for "universal voter registration."
Sarah Palin and the Tea Party
Special Commentary by Big Dan: "We were in NYC for 3 days at a Fresh Air Fund conference, so I really wasn't following what was going on in politics the past few days and there was no post. But at one point back at the hotel room, I was flipping around the channels and I saw on several channels on TV live coverage of Sarah Palin at the Tea Party. I believe it was at least on CNN and MSNBC and FOX 'news', among others. It crossed my mind how ludicrous it is, that we are supposed to believe that the corporate owned media is liberal and that the Tea Party is non-partisan and grassroots. Can you imagine while George W. Bush was president, if some group called the Coffee Party received LIVE coverage and featured speakers John Edwards, Jesse Jackson, and Howard Dean and claimed to be a non-partisan grassroots revolutionary group against bad, fascist government? First of all, it would not receive any live coverage from the corporate owned media. Second of all, it would be discredited as a Democratic Group posing as non-partisan grassroots simply because there was a Republican president. We are witnessing proof beyond a doubt, along with everything else I post here, of the SHAM we are supposed to believe: that 5 corporations who OWN almost all of our mainstream media are liberal companies and put out liberal news. The proof of this continues daily. There is no proof of the opposite assertion: that the mainstream media is liberal. As Noam Chomsky says in the video below, if you set about to prove the media is liberal, you'd fall flat on your face and in fact find out the opposite: that it leans right, is OWNED by the right, and it's interests serve the richest few, the military industrial complex, and corporations - you know, the ones who OWN the mainstream media. Why do we think the media is liberal? Because there's an entire system of highly paid shills to repeat it over and over and over 24x7 in the exact news they call liberal: Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reilly, FOX 'news', Ann Coulter, Laura Ingraham, Michelle Malkin, Charles Krauthammer, William Kristol, Dick and Liz Cheney...and hundreds of others. Where can you find them saying the media is liberal and they have no voice in it? In the same media they claim is liberal! ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN FOX 'news', PBS, the NYTimes, Washington Post, NY Post, Wall Street Journal, Washington Times...in ALL media. They ARE the liberal media, only it's not liberal. QUICK! ALL THE CHANNELS ARE CUTTING INTO LIVE COVERAGE OF A NOAM CHOMSKY SPEECH!!! Gotcha!!! That would only happen if the mainstream media really WAS liberal!"
David Brock, the reformed conservative noise-maker, on how the Right has sabotaged journalism, democracy, and truth.
As a young journalist in the 1990s, David Brock was a key cog the Republican noise machine. Writing for the American Spectator, a conservative magazine funded by billionaire Richard Mellon Scaife, Brock gained fame for his attack pieces on Anita Hill and President Bill Clinton. Then, in 2002, Brock came clean. In his memoir, Blinded by the Right, Brock admitted that his work was based on lies and distortion, and part of a coordinated smear campaign funded by wealthy right wing groups to discredit Clinton and confuse the public.
Since then, Brock has continued to expose the conservative media onslaught. In his newest book, The Republican Noise Machine, Brock documents how right-wing groups pressure the media and spread misinformation to the public. It's easy to see how this is done.
Fringe conspiracies and stories will be kept alive by outlets like Rush Limbaugh, the Washington Times, and the Drudge Report, until they finally break into the mainstream media.
Media groups like Brent Bozell's Media Research Center have spent 30 years convincing the public that the media is, in fact, liberal. As Brock says, it's all asham: "I have seen, and I know firsthand, indeed from my own pen, how the organized Right has sabotaged not only journalism but also democracy and truth."
David Brock, the reformed conservative noise-maker, on how the Right has sabotaged journalism, democracy, and truth.
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