Anti-Palin Republican "elites" ain't really so elite.
Syndicated conservative columnist Kathleen Parker, of whom I have sometimes been a fan, made waves in the 2008 election with her vigorous distaste for Sarah Palin. She went so far as to call on her to drop off the ticket because she was supposedly so ill-qualified.…
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— go to most recent comments76 - zingzing
but that's not all the fairness doctrine addresses--radio is not the only important form of mass media. and you should read what i had to say just a couple comments back if you want to know what i think about the subject.
and i don't listen to radio at all, not even npr these days, so i've got no problem if it all goes away. it's a scourge. except college radio, which kicks ass.
seriously though, the world won't end if rush limbaugh gets a tv show. although it would underscore just how ugly he is. if radio would die because it had to be fair, then, well, it deserves to die.
77 - Al Barger
Really now, Zing: "if radio would die because it had to be fair, then, well, it deserves to die."
That seems to get to the heart of the matter, doesn't it? And of course YOUR side gets to pick the referees of what constitutes "fairness."
78 - zingzing
no... why would that be? equal time is equal time. i'm not really sure how to work this, of course, and i think fines would be... better than loss of license. but, you know, the fcc is rather silly about what they fine already, and i don't want to see them have too much power.
i'm not even sure if the fairness doctrine should come back. the POINT was that the idea behind the fairness doctrine is not to shut down conservative opinion on our airwaves. the idea is to be fair.
if conservative opinion was lost because of some sort of "fairness" doctrine, that wouldn't really be fair, would it?
i like the idea of a real "fair and balanced" media. it would shut up conservative yahoos who complain (through the media, as it is) that the media is too liberal. it would also make it so the media, on either side, couldn't get away with too much bullshit.
i don't particularly like the media's political coverage these days, as it just seems like two sides making up malarky. but, i also see the pitfalls of the fairness doctrine as it stands. it needs to be rewritten if it's going to be put into affect.
if a fairness doctrine can be written that truly makes the media fair, i don't see how you could have a problem with that. you'd benefit, if you want to believe in the liberal bias of the media. all the tv stations would have to put on conservative shows... what, do you really think radio has that drawing power? or are you just trying to hold onto what you've got, as small as it is?
79 - Glenn Contrarian
Ruvy -
You neither showed what actual indication there is that Obama is a 'narcissist', nor did you show how someone who has less than a high-school understanding of civics, culture, and geography could actually be as good as a magna cum laude Harvard graduate.
If you are ever in a hire-and-fire position, I hope you take more care in choosing workers than you are in choosing leaders
80 - Al Barger
Ohmygod Zing, would you look at the pile of gibberish you just wrote? Why in the world would the guvment presume to make life "fair"? That cure is far worse than the disease.
Yeah, there's a lot of pinko slant to some of the top corporate news names, but I don't want the government doing a damned thing about it. We're addressing it properly, as private consumers. Many of us get a daily clue to the important issues from Drudge and/or Limbaugh, and especially National Review. Mix that in with a little NPR and the Obama jihadists at MSNBC, and somewhere emerges a decent basis for having a broad picture of what's going on. Add a spoonful of Ann Coulter for flavoring.
No Fairness Doctrine needed. We're supposed to be fighting this out in the marketplace of ideas. Some areas are more left dominated, some other mediums are more right dominated. It works out in a beautifully diverse market equilibrium.
81 - zingzing
then why the fuck do you (conservatives) constantly COMPLAIN about the media?
truthfully, i'm more inclined to believe the leftwing media than i am the right, but that's just the game. and as much as part of me wouldn't mind a liberal bias in the media, i think fairness in media would decrease the amount of bullshit we have to nose through. just how we could accomplish that... i don't know.
AGAIN--the point i was making is that the fairness doctrine is not about destroying conservative opinion in the media. that's where i depart from you. stop thinking i'm saying anything else.
82 - Al Barger
But Zing, you can't be considering any form of having the government dictate content without getting into these other issues. Perhaps you imagine some fairy princess from Imaginationland to be a neutral arbiter of fair opinion. Problem there is that person doesn't exist.
I bitch a little about pinko media types not from sense of being overwhelmed as a partisan, but just because I'm offended by the blatant dishonesty of a lot of it. But the way to deal with that is exactly to call them out and denounce the red bastards - and develop alternate sources for important information to be found and spread without the stranglehold of a half dozen newspapers and tv anchors.
Call bullshit on the bad actors, and then offer better alternatives. That's proper democracy in action for you. Let a thousand flowers bloom.
May the holy spirit and peace of Obama be upon you.
83 - zingzing
jesus, al.
AGAIN--the point i was making is that the fairness doctrine is not about destroying conservative opinion in the media.
you said: "It is, of course, liberals wanting to bring back the Fairness Doctrine just exactly to quash opinions dissenting from the NPR/NBC line."
that's bullshit. i called bullshit. that's all.
if conservatives don't want a fairness doctrine, then just shut the fuck up about liberal bias. you can talk crap about liberal media, but don't talk shit about some grand overarching liberal bias in the media... it's of your own making if it's there.
the basic fact is that those who want to work in creative fields, such as the media, are going to be liberals. that's the kind of jobs we're attracted to. those are the kind of lifestyles that expose people to liberal ideas. they're the kind of people that move to big cities/media centers, where they have to live in diverse societies.
that's why the conservative media is built upon the cheap ass radio, a few silly websites, a magazine and one australian's tv station. you could greatly benefit from a truly fair fairness doctrine, but you're too fucking busy thinking everything is a liberal plot to figure it out.
and that's why your kind will be done in a generation.
84 - Clavos
and that's why your kind will be done in a generation.
Wishful thinking...
85 - zingzing
i know, i know.
but you must admit that american social conservatives are a joke in most of the world. not that they care.
and it's nothing to sneer at that most of the creative (arts, etc) people in the world are liberals. while the most destructive people (war, radical islam,) currently at work would have to be social conservatives.
eventually, you'll wipe yourselves out... if you don't have to many (easily indoctrinated) babies.
86 - Al Barger
But Zing, you're off base on my basis of calculus. I'm not calculating what position to take based on what I think will best advance my partisan advantage. I don't WANT to get the guv'ment to step down on Chris Matthews. I just want people to know what a cheesehead he is - and let them make their own judgments as to the credibility of various media outlets.
I think though that this proper and actually fair democratic method of letting the marketing decide also tends to get the optimal results for everyone all around. Every consumer can cleave to as narrow or as broad a palette of news media as they wish. It's a beautiful thing.
87 - Dr Dreadful
What you lot need is your own version of the BBC*, which operates under a government charter (renewable every sump'n years) and is mandated to be politically impartial.
That doesn't mean it has to be politically wishy-washy, and there are many tough political programmes produced by the BBC. Many of them hit politicians where it hurts, whereupon there is the inevitable whining that they are not being fair.
The point being, of course, that fairness is subjective. Impartiality isn't, or shouldn't be.
* Of course you have PBS, but it's hardly the sort of muscular behemoth that makes politicians squeal.
88 - zingzing
again al... oh, fuck it. fine. fair enough.
89 - zingzing
look, i'm basically saying that our media has become just so much distortion on either side. you can't get the whole truth from any one source, and you can't find the truth by trying to combine two lies. something should change. how we go about that, i don't know. a fairness doctrine that actually works, however that might happen, could be an answer. i doubt it as much as you do--especially as it is currently written.
but the more general point is this: the fairness doctrine is not out to kill conservative opinion. it's the opposite. it's there to make sure that both sides are heard, and if done correctly, it could vastly decrease the amount of lies we have to sift through in order to find out the truth. that's what i said. and that's what i mean.
90 - Ruvy
Glenn,
You neither showed what actual indication there is that Obama is a 'narcissist', nor did you show how someone who has less than a high-school understanding of civics, culture, and geography could actually be as good as a magna cum laude Harvard graduate.
Boy, you're slow.
Read this carefully:
As Sarah Palin is today, she will be no better than anyone else in handling a cataclysm that faces your nation.
But all this is besides the point.
Your nation is headed for disaster - the only question is when the disaster will occur, and how quickly. So it is irrelevant who is the leader. The cataclysm will overcome that leader. That means Obama, Bush, NcCain, or Palin or Biden. It makes no difference.
My comments regarding Palin as a possible American national leader are only after this disaster occurs. And they are pure speculation. Right now, her job is to govern Alaska. That is the third time I've writen that here. I guess ideologues have trouble reading things that they do not agree with.
If you are dumb enough to trust in a Harvard degree on the sleeves of an empty suit over someone who has actually managed a family and been the executive of a town, and then a state, well, you just do not know where to look for talent, do you? Harry Truman was a fellow who was a politician pulled out of the Missouri shit-pile by FDR. He was a haberdasher along with being a machine politician who did what he was told in the Senate. But he proved to be one of the most astute leaders the United States ever had. Sarah Palin would have been something like Truman.
Obama may turn out, at best, to be like Wilson - an empty ideologue who ultimately led the American Progressive Movement into the dirt while the WCTU and a pack of red-baiters took over its heart, and led the United States into a disaster of mob rule. His lasting legacies to you are the Federal Reserve - private anonymous bankers who determine how much money is in your wallet - and the income tax.
Mazel tov!
91 - Baronius
I don't want the government in charge of deciding what speech is unfair. I really don't want the British tv system, in which the government dictates to the media. The British newspapers are much better, because they're overtly partisan. The only growing media in the world is online, possibly because it's the wild west in here.
92 - Glenn Contrarian
Ruvy -
Yeah, I'm slow ;)
That's because when you said that she wouldn't be any better than the others, to me that's an implication that she wouldn't be any worse, either...and the implication is strengthened by your many other comments about Obama.
She managed a town - poorly. Whoopee. She's a governor...and combined with the fact that she has less than a high-school understanding of civics, culture, and geography says a great deal about those who elected her, doesn't it?
You'll see her run for president - I'm sure of it. This much was made obvious by the Republicans who pointed out how unwilling she was to pay attention when they were prepping her on basic facts that she needed to know for debates and interviews.
BUT I think I can safely say you'll see her career crash and burn. There'll still be many who support her if only because they think "she's filled with the Holy Spirit!"...but such will be greatly outnumbered by those who see right through her.
93 - Dr Dreadful
I really don't want the British tv system, in which the government dictates to the media.
That's not how it works, Baronius. The BBC operates by government charter, but it is mandated to be free from political interference and answerable only to its audience. The only requirement is that they be impartial in their political coverage. They do this extremely well, and much of the world's finest journalism is done by BBC reporters.
If you have cable and you get BBC America, try watching Newsnight or BBC World News for a few days. You might be lucky enough to catch one of their trademark investigative interviews, in which some hapless government minister is skewered more skillfully and mercilessly than any American journalist would ever dare.
As far as the newspapers go, yes, most of them are blatantly partisan, but it's very rare, even at the Murdoch-owned papers, that a journalist will be held back from doing a report because it doesn't fit with the paper's political line.
94 - Glenn Contrarian
Doc -
That's a wonderful example of those who assume that a government-run agency can't be impartial. I love reading the BBC online and I have yet to see any partiality in either direction.
95 - Clavos
zing,
While I describe myself (in part) as a conservative, I am very much not a "social conservative." I would very much appreciate that you not lump me in with them, as you did in comment #85.
Gracias anticipadas,
Clav(os)
96 - Baronius
Dread, I'm not complaining about the partisanship of the British papers. They do an overall better job than the newspapers in the US, from what I've seen.
The BBC unfailingly takes the position which would be called liberal in America, with a nasty anti-Israel bent. I assumed that the government oversight had something to do with it. They also have a europarochialism that's not dangerous or anything, but it's a reminder that every continent is somewhat self-absorbed.
97 - Dr Dreadful
The BBC unfailingly takes the position which would be called liberal in America, with a nasty anti-Israel bent.
Your cultural bias is showing, Baronius. Would you care to provide support for your assertions - particularly the anti-Israel one?
98 - zingzing
clavos: "I am very much not a "social conservative." I would very much appreciate that you not lump me in with them, as you did in comment #85."
i know, clavos, and i wasn't meaning to lump you into that general "you." it was more for al, who needs to go have some good anal lovin'. was that too much?
oh, albert b., will you play with me? i will pay the usual fee.
99 - Baronius
Dread, I sure can't provide evidence supporting my impression of the BBC. I don't watch it often, still less often with a notepad and pen.
100 - Ruvy
DD,
You Brits all have trouble acknowledging the nasty anti-Israel slant of the BBC. Chris Rose is no different from you in all this.
The BBC doesn'r exactly come out and call us all Sheeny bastards in their reports - but in their distortions and misrepresentations, they might as well.
I have only room for three links, so here goes. The Jerusalem neighborhood of Gilo is referred to as a settlement in the BBC report talked about in this link. I live in a settlement, Ma'ale Levona. Gilo is a neighborhood in a city. But the liars and distortion artists at the BBC seem to think otherwise.
Quite a bit of argument went on here at BC over this BBC distortion, caught by Honestreporting.com at one of my articles.
Finally, we see how the BBC distorts news by using Arab propagandists to present its "news". Even not terribly pro-Israel sources disputed this BBC version of the death of an Arab.
I don't much care if the BBC is liberal, conservative, sociali$t, fascist, left wing, right wing or if its politics sits inside the cloaca of the British wren, dropping out democratically in the heaths wheresoever the wren should feel the need to eliminate its feces.
But it is a plain fact that British society is not friendly to Jews or Israel, and neither is its government run BBC.
101 - Dave Nalle
Hey now, Britain was the first country ever to have a jew in its highest governmental office. And they haven't had one since despite the fine job Disraeli did.
Perhaps people don't see the anti-Israel bias of the BBC because they share at least some of it? Israel has made plenty of enemies, you know. It's a hard country to embrace wholeheartedly.
Dave
102 - Ruvy
Dave,
I hate to remind you of this basic fact, but Benjamin D'Israeli, who looked every inch the Jew he should have been, and even wrote about them in badly written stories, was baptized in the Church of England.
Only then was he good enough to sit in the House of Commons and later in the House of Lords.
103 - Dave Nalle
Ethnically he was still a jew, and in that time ethnicity meant much more than religion did. He was certainly singled out for criticism as a jew by his enemies.
Dave
104 - Glenn Contrarian
Ruvy -
What you're describing is akin to trying to describe an ocean by looking at a glass of water.
(1) In the first instance you're expecting that the reporter (OR the editor who may have changed the wording) MUST have known that it was a settlement and not a neighborhood.
However, if you would have checked your source's reference, you would have seen that the BBC ALSO called it a 'neighborhood': "Since 1967 the Israeli authorities have extended the municipal boundaries of Jerusalem to include the territory on which Gilo and other neighbourhoods were built for Jewish Israelis."
If the reporter isn't deeply familiar with that section of Jerusalem, is it truly a sign of prejudice that he didn't get it just as YOU expect he should?
(2) Your second and third instances are about the same incident - and again, you're making a mountain out of a mole hill. First, the story was breaking news and the BBC was trying to put out as much information as they had AT THE TIME - which is why they later amended the story. EVERY news agency that deals in up-to-the-minute news works this way.
Second, okay - so the BBC had ONE bad apple for a reporter...so you're going to blame the whole as a result?
Sheesh!
That's why I like to read LOTS of news from different sources - some will report one way, some will report others, and some will report not at all. Frankly, I trust Al Jazeera almost as much as I do Fox News, and I trust the BBC slightly more than I do the New York Times - I hold both in high regard. I trust the New York Post, the Washington Times, and 'World Net Daily' only if I can find corroborative information from a more trustworthy source.
Here's a source you won't like...but they often have some truly good stories that the mainstream media won't cover: rawstory.com - but bear in mind it does have that pernicious liberal bias that's not found too often these days....
105 - Al Barger
Oh Zing you're right, I'm just rock hard in a funky place. And how's your mom?
106 - Jordan Richardson
Al, your article made me want to buy a "Wal-Mart Moms" fridge magnet. Thank you, sir!
107 - Al Barger
Outstanding idea, Brother Jordan. You might consider the links to the whole Sarah Palin 2008 Lipstick Vogue collection - pinback buttons or magnets.
108 - Jordan Richardson
The "Wal-Mart Moms" one is great because I can imagine Palin tossing her baby in that woman's shopping cart and running away.
109 - zingzing
al, she's a freaked out, funky electric mama with double cups... but, u know, i just hate 2 see an erection go 2 waste.
110 - Al Barger
Brother Jordan, perhaps then you'd prefer the Barack Obama Golden Child Inaugaral Collection
Zing, Brother Maurice be around in a minute with a bucket filled up with suqirrel meat.
111 - zingzing
squirrel meat!?
112 - Al Barger
Now go in there and put on that new wig I bought you... NO, NO, the reddish brown one
113 - zingzing
why can't we just dance? why can't we just dance? no, fuck that, fuck that.
didn't you write an article about that song years ago? that's actually the song that michael j. west played for me junior year of high school that made me say, "hey, this prince guy is pretty damn cool."
and now my itunes shows 921 prince songs, and i've got most of his purple period (albums and 12" singles) on vinyl (so that isn't showing up). so this is where my obsession began.
i think it was the glorious rhythms of "that slicked back paddy with all the gold in his mouth" that initially hooked me. although that beat is so damn tight, i can only imagine that that had something to do with it.
114 - Al Barger
Zing- this is yo conscience motherf#$#er!
Prince SO rulez.
Brother Zing, you may wish to review my entire modest Prince site, photos and such, and this essay on "Bob George"
I must also point you to the apocalyptic grandeur of "7"
115 - zingzing
oh, i've seen your prince site. i've read most of it. and i found the bob george essay, on your site (it was the first one i looked at a while back) and, just recently, on blogcritics.
as for 7, i believe it is a great song, but is trumped by lovesexy, which takes his weird religion to album-length. (lovesexy is also my all-time favorite prince album--that doesn't mean i think it's his best... that, of course, is sign--but it's my favorite.)
then again... what is that comic book on the 7 page? did he really have a comic book?
i'll kick yo ass. twice!
turn it out.
116 - zingzing
and do you know the work?
117 - Dr Dreadful
Ooh look, Al links multiple times to his own site. Now there's something we haven't seen before.
118 - zingzing
oh, shut it, doc. he's doing so in the service of the purple one, so he can do what he likes. his cause, for once, is good.
119 - Dr Dreadful
Somehow I'd never have figured Barger as a devotee of the diminutive divo. Or indeed of anyone who doesn't tend to use banjos.
120 - Clavos
"Use banjos" for what?
121 - zingzing
prince crosses all borders! he penetrates all boundaries! he makes every member of the human race purple! he sprays his semen on all... wait. sorry.
122 - Dr Dreadful
In the recording studio. Or for flossing one's tooth. Or the myriad other uses they doubtless have for the instrument down Al's way.
123 - Clavos
My kid sister went to college in Notre Dame, IN.
It messed her up, too; she became the only Dem in the family.
We keep her locked up in a shed in the back yard -- wouldn't want to embarrass the neighbors or scare their kids.
We feed her live rabbits and the occasional stray
Ron Paul supporter.
124 - El Bicho
"[Prince] penetrates all boundaries!"
that sounds wrong no matter how many times I read it.
125 - Al Barger
Dreadful, you just got NO idea about me. I had a big framed poster size print of the Lovesexy cover in my living room for most of three years during college at Ball State. If you didn't want to hear Prince, you just needed to stay off my frickin' block. It entertained me a couple years later when it came back to me that this made some folk think me gay.
The Lovesexy album is a top contender of Prince albums, but it's like picking between Sgt Pepper or the White Album. Lovesexy or Around the World in a Day or Sign o the Times or Parade?
Now go in there and up on that new wig the RNC bought you...