When a friend on Facebook offered that the anti-[Obamacare] side “short circuited the [healthcare] debate with craziness,” I responded with a rhetorical question:
Did the anti-side short circuit the debate or did the media coverage of their opposition short circuit [it], given the media focus on [its] most extreme elements?
It does seem many in the media wish to define conservatives (& libertarians) by those “zaniest” of Obama critics.
By reporting more on the process than the substance of the debate, the media have made it easier to focus on the zany protesters instead of the actual ideas many protesters, building on and echoing proposals put forward by intelligent editorialists, libertarian think tanks and reform-minded legislators, have presented. According to Washington Post Ombudsman Andrew Alexander:
In my examination of roughly 80 A-section stories on health-care reform since July 1, all but about a dozen focused on political maneuvering or protests. The Pew Foundation’s Project for Excellence in Journalism had a similar finding. Its recent month-long review of Post front pages found 72 percent of health-care stories were about politics, process or protests.
This skewed coverage, however, has done nothing to dampen the opposition to Obamacare and indeed has made independent voters “more sympathetic to the protesters’ views“. Given the growing opposition of independents to statist proposals to reform health care, Republicans would do themselves well to promote free-market reforms more forcefully, more publicly .
This will accomplish two things, frist show that Republicans are not just the party of “no,” that we do have actual solutions to the problems of the day. And second, show their renewed (restored?) commitment to smaller government and free-market principles.
The MSM may not cover these ideas, but with the various forms of new media, these ideas will out. We are already seeing how many Americans have succeeded in bypassing traditional news media to learn the details of Democratic proposals for healthcare reform–and free market alternatives.
Yes and no. As the Opposition Party, the GOP is naturally going to attract some interest because they stand in disagreement to what the Dems want to do. The political climate may even get to a point where this “interest” propels the GOP to victory at the polls for a time. Yet, I am not convinced that the GOP has the conviction of its supposed principles or the sustaining power to maintain any edge for long. Cheer up though, neither do the Democrats which is why we find ourselves continuing this seemingly never ending of cycle of left-right-left-right etc.
I want the GOP to stand up and shout from the rooftops about the types of reforms we want to see and how it will benefit people! Commercials, appearances on newschannels (not just FOX where they are preaching to the choir), print ads in “newspapers”, etc.
I’m so tired of people perpetuating the BS that Republicans want to do nothing and want people to die from no healthcare. Absolutely infuriating! It’s so easy for Dems to get support by telling everyone they’ll get “free” healthcare, while we have the difficult job of explaining why “free” is anything but free and what the alternatives should be. Sigh, is anyone in power at the GOP even listening?
rather the non focus of the meida had with the Tea Parties. Over 1,000 of them on April 15th-many that had 1000’s of people in attendance and they totally ignored it as if it never happned. And 1000’s ever since. Sorry MSM, i does not fail to exist simply because you can’t keep people in the dark about it
This is what happens when you try and bury something really big-it comes back to bite you in the a$$. The media was plenty aware, as was the Democrats in Washington. They just chose to ignore, praying to god the rest of the population would be kept in the dark. That blew up in their face bigtime. 1 in 6 people knew someone that went to a Tea Party. Between word of mouth, the internet and Fox, the whole country knew. The whole country also saw the media trying to sweep it under the rug and lied through there teeth. So it was a twofer idiot move for MSM and Dems in Washington
Well, well, well, looky-here:
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0909/26794.html
The article lays out what Obama plans to say in his healthcare address on Wednesday, and a couple of the points are howlers because they are being presented as though they have always been part of the Dems’ strategy. But the White House isn’t fooling anyone–they’re changing the message because their previous strategies have been complete and utter failures. For example:
“1) Obama will lay out a specific “President’s Plan,” even if he doesn’t call it that. He will make clear what’s on the table, and what he thinks warrants further debate, such as how to pay for the overhaul.”
Wow. It seems Obama has gotten wise to the concept of actually having a plan before demanding universal support and immediate passage.
“2) He will not confront or scold the left. “This is a case for bold action, not a stick in the eye to our supporters,” said an official involved in speech preparation. “That’s not how President Obama thinks. The politics of triangulation don’t live in this White House.”
Uh, yeah. If there’s anything the Obama White House won’t tolerate, it’s triangulation or other political gamesmanship. What you see is what you get with these folks.
“3) He will make an overture to Republicans. “He will lay out his vision for health reform – taking the best ideas from both parties, make the case for why as a nation we must act now, and dispel the myths and confusion that are affecting public opinion,” the aide said.”
Now I’m really confused. The “best ideas from both parties”? Hasn’t Obama been unequivocally stating for weeks that the GOP has NO IDEAS, NO ALTERNATIVES, AND SUPPORTS THE STATUS QUO? When did our party suddenly have any ideas? This morning?
And of course, no Obama sales pitch would be complete without one of his trademark, Orwellian, bizarro-land, opposite-world talking points designed to conceal his disdain for choice and competition:
“We have been saying all along that the most important part of this debate is not the public option, but rather ensuring choice and competition. There are lots of different ways to get there.”
Actually, no Barry. There are not “lots of different ways” to get choice and competition. There’s one way: keep your meat hooks OFF. There are, however, lots of different ways to destroy the private health insurance market. He’s still just trying to figure out which one he can get away with NOW.
Sean, Did you really expect him to come out and say anything different than what he has been saying?
As was pointed out to me on another blog, “He’ll be trying to show that he’s taking more leadership rather than leaving it to Pelosi and Reid.” That’s what this speech is going to be about; however, the same basic story line will remain the same. He’s trying to boost his numbers
Also pointed out to me on the same blog, “Whereas a few months ago, most people, including independents but not conservatives, were generally inclined to believe him or at least want to believe him, I think that’s flipped. I think most people except the left wing of the Democratic Party are now inclined not to believe him.
While I do think this speech will give him a small bump up in poll numbers, it is not without its risks. If he does what you say and just repeats the same liberal lines (lies) over with just a silkier voice, the public will see through it.
If he tries to tone down what he claims to want, our side will have to make sure people understand the idea I was trying to convey in this article, of socialist incrementalism. “
This is just an example of the corporate media purposely demonizing healthcare protesters in order to make the public sympathetic to them as victims of the media just so the media can drive their corporatist campaign to take down Obama.
The ignoring of ideas or complete groups by the msm is certainly nothing new. I remember when we had the massive Gay March in the late 70s or early 80s (I can’t really remember exactly when) on Washington–there were over 700,000 (some said 1,000,000) of all persuasions who traveled from all over the country–and the world–to participate. At the time, it was the largest public manifestation in the history of Washington. This was almost entirely overlooked by the msm, with most of them choosing not to cover it at all–or else, vastly under-reporting the turn out.
Even when I lived in NYC, I remember the 1st time we–yes, we, I was a part of this one–had over 100,000 participants in the Gay Pride march up 5th Avenue to Central Park (1973 or 1974). Even the local television stations, ABC, CBS, NBC, WNEW, WPIX, largely ignored what was the biggest story in decades on a Sunday late in June.
So ignoring the GOP is nothing new, the State-Run Media has always chosen to frame the story “their way”.