Democrats & Liberals Archives

Sometimes, Paul, the mere mention of an “issue” can be planted in a so-called discussion for the purposes of being prejudicial. What would be more prejudicial to moderate Democrats harboring concerns about national security issues than the idea that Obama was actually a closet Muslim? The people who planted such stories would probably hope such anxieties would overcome moderate’s concerns over Clinton’s truthfulness, or lack thereof.

Paul, considering the number of articles of yours I’ve read which expand at length on some innuendo or semi-factual account of Republican behavior that you’ve found in a newspaper account or editorial, I’m glad that you’re finally seeing how the media operates. Maybe you’ll now want to go back and revise many of the articles you’ve written over the past couple years? Or do you actually like this kind of trial by innuendo and unproven allegation—that is, unless it is directed against Barack Hussein Obama?

Ever hear the rant threatening to sue George? I gave it to CNN and I think they hosted it awhile ago. Check the url to download. Long but worth a listen. Here it is.

Ever hear the rant threatening to sue George? I gave it to CNN and I think they hosted it awhile ago. Check the url to download. Long but worth a listen. Here it is.

How is all this “spam” getting in here, and why??

http://members.shaw.ca/index.html

Paul

The news media reports news. News may correlate with truth, but it is not truth. Those of us more to the right of you have long understood this. You should not let this minor and relatively indirect attack on Obama bother you. We get it all the time in the media. I suspect it was a fellow Democrat who put them up to it, BTW.

Speaking of media, you probably heard that a large proportion of the concerned citizens who asked questions at the CNN Republican debate were Democratic activists. Of course, CNN did not identify them as such. This is a persistent problem of the media. If you have two people equally distant from the center to the right and to the left respectively, the media will usually put the adjective “conservative” or “right” in front to the guy on the right, while not doing the same on the left. So you will get something like this, “a citizen at the debate ask about …” versus “a conservative activist said …”

I think most of this bias is unconscious. Since most mainstream journalists themselves are left of center, they just think that is normal. But it is bias. Or to take another example, if you drew a line down the center of the U.S. political spectrum, Fox would fall to the right of it and CNN would fall about the same distance to the left. Neither is very extreme, BTW, and both feature pundits from both sides. Nevertheless, many commentators take great pains to describe Fox as right wing; they rarely refer to CNN as left leaning.

The Washington Post leans moderately to the left. It is interesting that you find them not fair enough. How far left do you have to go?

If you actually read this Washington Post article, you’ll see that it’s very far from endorsing any views that Obama is a closet Muslim.

The article includes numerous rebuttals from the Obama campaign and is at great pains to link these allegations to “conservative magazines” and “conservative talk-show hosts.” The very title suggests that this is the work of Obama “foes” trying to “fuel” rumors.

So what is Paul complaining about here? He seems to think that it’s the job of the media to completely censor information about the very existence of rumors about his favored Democratic candidate, to not even mention these rumors in the context of an article which blames it all on conservatives.

What’s even more interesting is how Paul’s complaints follow right on the heals of articles about this very subject this evening on DailyKos and Media Matters (look for yourselves). Right now, this is all the buzz on the hard-left extremist internet fringe.

In a nutshell: The Washington Post should really try to go a little deeper in the tank for Democrats! They should try to measure up, you see, to the journalistic integrity and impartiality of DailyKos and Media Matters. Pro-Democrat spin isn’t enough. We need outright censorship and left wing propaganda!

Jack,

Of Course,by saying that the Post leans moderately left you mean it doesn’t lean far enough right. It’s impossible to tell where center is when you yourself are leaning.

Paul,

This parsing of words looking for political bias was started by Republicans looking to create nonsense. The use of Republic as opposed to Democracy to describe our government for instance.
It’s equally nonsensical when used by the left.

The Post isn’t perfect, but it’s a damn site better than most.

This whole “rumor” is an attempt by the wacko right to put a PC blanket over a pile of crap. Fact is they are useing this to cover,”Don’t vote for an uppity nigger.”I am sure this will garner plenty of shrieks of denial with examples of various bought off house darkies brought out to parade. I give you Bob Jones “University” and the historical political fact that the treason prone Southern states switched to the Rep column when the Dem party put civil rights laws in place and actually tried to enforce them. Apoligies to the Reps this does not apply to. Perhaps you should hang out with a better crowd.

Welcome to the real world Paul. Certainly you don’t expect the media to always be fair and accurate. Surely everyone remembers the Dan Rather debacle regarding George Bush. He finally got fired for his gross partisianship and pandering. I heard he sued CBS over the firing but don’t know the outcome. I have read, seen and heard outrageous reporting from nearly every media source, conservative and liberal and using my brain really don’t have a problem sorting out the nonsense. It hurts when it’s your guy being gored, but grow up and accept reality. By the way, we discuss “rumors” in nearly every post on this blog. Remember the rumor that the Democrat Congress was going to stop wasteful spending, be open and honest, stop the in-fighting and do the people’s business? There is a rumor that the American people give the congress an approval rating of about 23%.

Jim
Congress has low rateings because so many feel they have not done enough to get us out of Iraq and even then the Dems poll higher.The greatist “wasteful spend” is funding for the war and the Dems are fighting that.

I started that rumour BUT they only printed half of it … Hillary will come out of her closet aswell.

It was reported in the media that Carl Rove has said that Bush was very reluctant to go to war in Iraq but, the Democrats insisted that he do so.

Paul,

Count me in the pro-WaPo camp.

Rumors pose a genuine dilemma for good journalists. They don’t want to help propagate them, but the ones that have picked up already picked up steam are not going to go away. Especially in the Internet era. In the case of a silly, persistent rumor like this, the best approach is to bring into the light so intelligent people can discuss how implausible it is. Sunlight kills the germs.

so paul is disturbed by politicaly motivated rumors being circulated by the news media that may or may not be true. HOW IRONIC!

“Jim Congress has low rateings because so many feel they have not done enough to get us out of Iraq and even then the Dems poll higher.The greatist “wasteful spend” is funding for the war and the Dems are fighting that.” Posted by: BillS at December 1, 2007 01:06 PM

BillS, if that were true, DEms should poll at 80-90% and Repubs at 0-10%. We saw public outrage over bills that inadequately addressed closing our border to illegals and Congress quickly responded by withdrawing their horrendous bill. If Congress perceived the same kind of public outrage over Iraq it would have acted quickly with enough votes to override a veto. That didn’t and won’t happen. You ascribe attitudes to the public that are not accurate. 33 Dem senators voted against making English our official language which was clearly against the vast majority of public opinion. Included in the 33 Dem senators are your leading candidates for president. Are they blind, illerate and deaf? Please, don’t tell me that the low Congressional approval rating is the fault of Republicans. I believe both parties share the blame for their dismal performance in following the wishes of the electorate.

Jim
You may find this hard to believe but making English THE official language is not a hot issue and not particularly productive. Although immigrant bashing has a long history in this country it is not good policy either morally or politically.Just one more nail in the Rep coffin.
There simply currently not enough votes in the Senate to overide a veto regarding war funding at this point.This is the fault of a slim Rep chickenhawk minority defying the will of the American people.We are not stupid. Americans know who to blame.

Amen to that, Paul. I’ll tell ya, though, the WP is in much better shape than CNN. And, you can thank the “new” media (internet, talk radio, and FNC) for exposing the MSM.

Jack,

Bernard Goldberg called and said he wants his rant back. You should have just posted a link to “Bias” on Amazon and saved yourself the carpal tunnel. News flash people: despite what Fox, Mr. Goldberg, and the rest of the Ranting Right would have you believe, the media is SUPPOSED to be slanted to the Left! The entire point of the media is to expose the foibles, missteps, and outright abuses of those in power, and that is, by definition, a Liberal pursuit. We should be no more surprised that Dan Rather is a registered Democrat than if we found out that Charlton Heston is a registered Republican.

LO,

Umm, the difference between Paul and the WP is that Paul is guy blogging on his own time for the Blue side of a political blog, while the Post is a newspaper with a daily circulation of almost 700,000 papers. Can’t hold them both to the same standard, friend.

Jim,

Congress’ problem is not that they are doing nothing, (though I think they could try harder) but that every Democratic agenda is either being stymied by filibusters or vetoed by Dubya. Without a majority approaching 60% or a Democratic President, this will continue. For great examples check out the crap in today’s speech. The AMT is stuck because Republicans want to increase the national debt to cover the shorfall, the Defense spending bill will be vetoed because Dubya doesn’t want a timetable, though the American Public does, and the budget includes such “fiscal irresponsibility” as increases in the Child Tax Credit. This congress does nothing because those in the minority will not allow it to do anything.

L

..and speaking of news (?!):

http://www.nytimes.com/?emc=na

Claranec is right Paul. You just do not love Big Brother enough.

Here’s a rumor about Cheney’s medical treatment.

American Chaplain discovers the truth.
What is the Bible - REALLY?
http://bibleislam.com

I’ve spoken to several people in different parts of the country by telephone and many of them falsely believe that Obama is a Muslim. I saw a video of a reporter (I believe he worked for ABC) and he interviewed a man who said that he supported Obama even though he’s a Muslim.

So real life people really do think that, the comments we hear on the internet are an indication of that.

-ralph

Liberal or Constitutional democracy are the dominant form of democracies in the 21st century. During the Cold War, liberal democracies were contrasted with the Communist People’s Republic or “Popular Democracies”, which claimed an alternative conception of democracy.
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Peter
MLS