The year the media jumped the shark
ALL THIS ATROCIOUS JOURNALISM WAS, at least to some extent, effective propaganda. The Democrats gained ostensibly impartial support for their talking point that Ryan was a liar. Bill Clinton even cited “fact checkers” in his speech to the Democratic National Convention. (That prompted an AP “fact checker” to fire back with a silly ad hominem attack: “Clinton, who famously finger-wagged a denial on national television about his sexual relationship with intern Monica Lewinsky… has had his own uncomfortable moments over telling the truth.”) The week of the DNC, a reader visiting West Palm Beach, Florida, wrote to me: “Down here in the huge building where my mother lives, all everyone talks about is what a ‘liar’ Ryan is; it’s the media diet they’re fed.”
Whether this summer is remembered as the moment when the mainstream media jumped the shark may be answered on November 6. An Obama victory in the face of slow growth, high unemployment, and Middle East turmoil would demonstrate the media’s enduring cultural and political power. But because their authority rests on the perception that it is above partisanship, further decline seems inexorable.
All the more so when you consider that it is so anxious to portray Ryan as a liar precisely because he has centered his career on telling an uncomfortable truth: that the entitlement state as currently constituted is unsustainable. That’s a direct challenge to what remains of the postwar center-left consensus. It is a truth with which the political system will have to reckon sooner or later—and from which the mainstream media and the liberal left seem determined to distract Americans for as long as possible.
Blowback
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The media jumped the shark at least half a century ago. They pledged allegiance to the godless communist filth who have racked up 16+ trillion in debt.
May they reap what they sow.
Vengeance is Mine sayeth the LORD.
Please LORD come swiftly.
tom daschle concerned on November 24, 2012 at 9:25 PM
May they all suffocate from what they consume, Obama’s crap.
It ain’t Beluga caviar, fools.
YOU don’t deserve to be free to work and live like you do. You neither work, nor live with dignity. In fact, you are lower than the rats in latrines.
Schadenfreude on November 24, 2012 at 9:27 PM
Implying that
2012201120102008 was the first time the media jumped the shark?VibrioCocci on November 24, 2012 at 9:28 PM
1792 (France), they really jumped the shark!
OldEnglish on November 24, 2012 at 9:34 PM
Another loser whining about the media.
Pathetic, but delightful in the sense that it means you’ve learned nothing, giving us an edge up next time around.
urban elitist on November 24, 2012 at 9:35 PM
no, they didn’t jump the shark. They are out and proud high paid members of the left’s apparatus. This is typical of a command and control system..you need your propagandists..and they enjoy a special place in your world
r keller on November 24, 2012 at 9:39 PM
Anyone else hear a squealing noise?
CurtZHP on November 24, 2012 at 9:40 PM
Maranatha.
davidk on November 24, 2012 at 9:41 PM
urban elitist on November 24, 2012 at 9:35 PM
An independent and objective media is essential to your and everyone’s freedom.
You disappoint when you make such inane comments.
Schadenfreude on November 24, 2012 at 9:43 PM
By propagating your message via “That’s So Raven”?
LOL loser….
tom daschle concerned on November 24, 2012 at 9:43 PM
ah…a troll arises.
i see you didn’t dispute the point…but rather choose to re-direct. The press is obviously something that non-leftists have to deal with. The imagery that the media projects about leftists and non-leftists is important is supporting the high self-regard of the left…and the suppression of dissenting views.
The frames always cast leftist as the good guys…and anyone else as suspect. That is obviously not true and requires substantial disinformation and torturing of the facts.
it is what it is.
r keller on November 24, 2012 at 9:47 PM
Voters jumped the shark. Obama phone!
BHO Jonestown on November 24, 2012 at 9:54 PM
Pravda has more credibility today, for so much shame.
Schadenfreude on November 24, 2012 at 9:55 PM
Goebbels, Muenchhausen, Orwell, Pinnochio and Machiavelli are thrilled with the charlatanic thugs in the media and in politics. Their wildest dreams and imaginations are surpassed.
Schadenfreude on November 24, 2012 at 9:56 PM
“The media,” as with all human institutions, is imperfect. This schmuck is irritated that Paul Ryan was called out for his stretchers during his speech. I remember that the New York Times and the Washington Post bought the specious Bush arguments for invading Iraq, and supported the rush to war.
The point is, I think the media screws up because they’re human, easily manipulated, and star-struck by powerful political and economic institutions. But, when they say something I don’t agree with or support a policy I don’t like, I don’t get all 6th Grade about how the meanies in the MSM hate me. On the whole, they produce more high quality information than any other source, and make it available to all of us, and I respect that, while pointing out loudly when they get it wrong.
Republicans/conservatives, at least since the days of unindicted felon Richard Nixon, have chosen to attack the media as a transparent but occasionally effective campaign tactic. Fair enough — politics is politics. But there’s always danger in believing your own BS, and when you you’re reduced to recycling it as an excuse for the failures of your party, it’s tiresome and indicative of an intellectual failure.
urban elitist on November 24, 2012 at 9:57 PM
Fine, I’ll play. What non media propagated data persuaded voters that quality of life in the United States would be superior under Obama II than Romney I?
Kataklysmic on November 24, 2012 at 9:59 PM
Very well said and so true–god help us.
Thomas More on November 24, 2012 at 9:59 PM
Most serious self-analysis I thing you could have attempted. I admire your courage.
tom daschle concerned on November 24, 2012 at 10:01 PM
Hey — want to hit the farmer’s markets with me tomorrow?
urban elitist on November 24, 2012 at 10:02 PM
Really…?
According to the Viet Con, they were three weeks from loosing the war until this was aired…
… Ever since, the United States of America has been forbidden “Victory” by the media.
Anyone else remember the daily “death tolls” in Iraq when President Bush was in office…
… but in Afghanistan as the dead mount due to Oblahblah’s ROE’s, not a peep.
The “press” needs to be called out for who they are…
Seven Percent Solution on November 24, 2012 at 10:02 PM
Quaint, I made my fortune in the market and the close ties between my family and the Gore’s allows me to eat better than you.
Cheers!
tom daschle concerned on November 24, 2012 at 10:05 PM
You think this was an election driven by data?
I think it was driven by the perception — driven home by very effective paid media but nonetheless correct — that Romney has little but contempt for most Americans, and the fact that his economic policy sounded remarkably like the Republican policy that George Bush embraced.
urban elitist on November 24, 2012 at 10:07 PM
In the stock market or the farmers markets?
At any rate, you may be richer than am, and you may have a bigger house and a nicer car, but I doubt you eat better than me. One thing I put a premium on.
urban elitist on November 24, 2012 at 10:10 PM
Thank you for volunteering to be exhibit A for why the author’s thesis is correct.
Pathetic, but delightful in the sense that it means you’ve learned nothing, giving us an edge up next time around.
Kataklysmic on November 24, 2012 at 10:11 PM
So, you’re against paid advertising? Or you think that Romney’s ecomomic policy, as accurately presented in the MSM, had significant differences from those espoused by failed president George W. Bush?
Please, spend another four years telling the middle class that tax cuts for the Romney class are all they need to prosper.
urban elitist on November 24, 2012 at 10:15 PM
Please keep telling people that raising taxes on the wealthy is the panacea for everything that ails America.
tom daschle concerned on November 24, 2012 at 10:17 PM
But we don’t. We just say it’s part of a balanced approach. And that, if the middle class is going to get hit — which they will – the privileged will take a hit as well.
urban elitist on November 24, 2012 at 10:21 PM
But, yeah, it’s not your message. It’s those evil people at the Washington Post. Just like the liberal cabal who lied about the polls.
Wait…..
urban elitist on November 24, 2012 at 10:22 PM
What is on the other side of the scale? What makes your approach ‘balanced’? You are talking about an approach to reduce the deficit and debt right?
So you raise taxes on the ‘rich’. Then what?
tom daschle concerned on November 24, 2012 at 10:24 PM
Idiocy
tom daschle concerned on November 24, 2012 at 10:25 PM
What are some of the best examples of Romney being a heartless plutocrat during his term as governor of Massachusetts? I’ll settle for the top three.
Kataklysmic on November 24, 2012 at 10:25 PM
This is why I voted for Obama.
He stuck it to those evil imported tires while making American made tires less expensive. Good for middle class. :s
tom daschle concerned on November 24, 2012 at 10:30 PM
Would someone please inform urban elitist that Bush’s economy was incomparably better than Obama’s and what drove Bush’s economy into the ditch was the Democrat Party’s CRA. Obama drove the economy out of the ditch and over the cliff.
Basilsbest on November 24, 2012 at 10:42 PM
Hey if these libs want to lie to themselves that 6 trillion debt in four years and 8% unemployment is somehow superior to 5 trillion debt in eight years and 5% unemployment I say we let them.
Kataklysmic on November 24, 2012 at 10:50 PM
so sad. Urban…obama didn’t say that…that was not his campaign.
a balance between ‘slimming down’ the government and ‘asking the rich like me’ to ‘give a little more’…under 250K wouldn’t pay a thing
you have drunk some koolaid somewhere that told you that obama is the Good guy…and Mitt is the plutocrat who is going to stick it to the middle class..and let the rich keep their money.
r keller on November 24, 2012 at 10:55 PM
Yes, we’re all quite aware of how that works.
Especially when, as we know, you also commit welfare and tax fraud.
Typical for the Barack Obama Party and Obama supporters, who really are nothing more than hypocrites and criminals.
northdallasthirty on November 24, 2012 at 11:03 PM
And yet all conservatives can do it bitch and complain about it. That media research center hasn’t made any impact. Face it, unless we actually do something about media bias, a full out offensive, Republicans and conservatives especially will always be on the defensive.
IR-MN on November 24, 2012 at 11:10 PM
But we don’t. We just say it’s part of a balanced approach. And that, if the middle class is going to get hit — which they will – the privileged will take a hit as well.
urban elitist on November 24, 2012 at 10:21 PM
Actually, no; you just lie and shriek about how the rich will cover everything.
But unfortunately for you, Obamaphone Lady is your base, not the conservative one, and unlike your ignorant Obamaphone Lady, we can do math.
The ignorant and incompetent racist Barack Obama has to spend $1.3 trillion in deficits every year to keep his welfare state collapsing.
Confiscating every last single dime of American billionaires’ wealth would raise barely that amount.
Confiscating every last single dime of wealth from every person in the US who makes more than $200k annually would not even fund two years of Obama’s deficits.
Not that we expect you to understand. No one in your party is smarter than Barack Obama, and we know that Barack Obama is an imbecile who can’t tell the difference between collision and liability insurance, thinks there are 57 states, and still believes he bought his house from Tony Rezko at market price.
northdallasthirty on November 24, 2012 at 11:10 PM
Thanks for the LAWLS UE, you retard.
tom daschle concerned on November 24, 2012 at 11:13 PM
And let’s not forget how the desperate urban elitist and his owner Barack Obama openly endorse and support outright theft by members of the Obama Party.
All the Obama media supported Corzine’s theft. Every one. Every single Barack Obama supporter, every single Barack Obama endorser, every single Barack Obama voter supported and endorsed Corzine’s theft.
They are liars.
northdallasthirty on November 24, 2012 at 11:20 PM
Your self-analysis is superb.
“My party” is none. I’ve been a registered indie for a long time, long before it was hip.
You should look around – the media are incestual with the politicians. They scroom all of us.
Also, the middle class will be most hurt by Obama. You really must internalize this.
The rich don’t care. The poor are…well, poor. What kept the US going for so long has been the middle class. Obama is doing a fine job destroying it.
You make me somewhat sad because you ought to think way better than lester and ernesto, really.
Schadenfreude on November 24, 2012 at 11:28 PM
It’s so debilitating because he’s not a “retard”.
Schadenfreude on November 24, 2012 at 11:28 PM
So what are people like UEs problem? It isn’t cognitive ability, it isn’t access to information, what is it? Why can’t otherwise capable humans understand cause and effect? Why can’t they see the destructive and liberty destroying agenda of the left?
tom daschle concerned on November 24, 2012 at 11:39 PM
I see it all the time. My educated friends systematically vote democrat and swallow the MSM’s BS whole, without question. They are like zombies. I cannot reach them with reason and facts, they are incapable of independent thought. All they can do is parrot Bill Maher and Jon Stewert and whatever the other guy’s name is…steven colbert…Total morons.
tom daschle concerned on November 24, 2012 at 11:43 PM
It is, my friend, as I just pointed out.
Over and over and over again.
They continue it because they are profiting from it.
And they continue it because there is no penalty for it.
See them as what they are. They are not dupes, nor are they tragically misguided; they are simply malicious, vicious, amoral creatures.
northdallasthirty on November 24, 2012 at 11:45 PM
I say that you are wrong for saying that it isn’t cognitive ability – the simple truth is that people like urban elitist are stupid, objectively speaking.
People like him are neither fun nor interesting to have debates with, because they are utterly convinced of their own superiority while lacking the least bit of concern for any corresponding evidence with which to back that self-assessment up i.e. they are poster children for the Dunning-Kruger effect.
Anti-Control on November 25, 2012 at 12:06 AM
Looters (as in bad Rand characters) – live well by keeping the
Moochers in modern day plantations, for votes.
Both groups are disgusting but the former is despicable.
Leftists are never truly liberal or progressive. They don’t give a damn about the poor or the “middle class”, or anyone.
Also, it’s easier to live the life of harlots. Their pimps are all in DC.
Schadenfreude on November 25, 2012 at 12:08 AM
Y’all made my point. Thanks
tom daschle concerned on November 25, 2012 at 12:15 AM
To even refer to this corrupt propaganda as shark jumping trivializes it.
We don’t fully understand what we are up against. They have been at war.
faraway on November 25, 2012 at 12:21 AM
Spiritual blindness and wickedness. And we almost all start out that way. God changes some of us.
The Rogue Tomato on November 25, 2012 at 12:26 AM
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