O’s State of The Disunion, Newt’s Appeal to Right-Wing Hatred of The “Liberal” Media

January 25th, 2012 - by: danny

Dissector In The Media

Quoted by Capital New York in a report on the Screening of an AlJazeera Film In New York

Quoted by Dave Lindorff in Story on Unreported War Crimes In Iraq

Essay on Consortium News: UK Silences Iran’s Press TV

The Media Event Of The Month: The State of the Union Address

The President of the United States—applause:

It was BO’s third outing, the moment every speechifier waits for, doing what he does best, a chance to seize the center stage, and position himself as Mr. Practical, Mr.Centrist, Mr. Reasonable by posturing at being post partisan, projecting optimism, and offering well crafted back patting and “sensible” proposal after proposal, even if he has proposed them before and knows they will go nowhere a Congress dominated by the right.

Crisis? What Crisis?

Aside from pandering on National “Security,” Bragging that we are out of Iraq after we begged Baghdad to stay and claiming, falsely that we are winning in Afghanistan. the speech touched issues that progressive care about including plans to finally set up a financial crimes task force three years into the crime of our time. Other wise iy was mostly about taxes and housing, the former controlled by the house, the latter by the banks. Sounded good!

It was a political speech filled with populist rhetoric and an emphasis on jobs intended on cementing union support.

“An America Built To Last”

AP: “In an emphatic State of the Union address, Obama said ensuring a fair shot for all Americans is “the defining issue of our time.” He said the economy is finally recovering from a deep and painful recession and he will fight any effort to return to policies that brought it low.

“We’ve come too far to turn back now,” he declared.

MoveOn is ecstatic because he finally claimed he will investigate Wall Street crimes:

‘President Obama did exactly what hundreds of thousands of us have been calling on him to do—he announced a federal investigation into Wall Street. Here’s what he said:

“I am asking my Attorney General to create a special unit of federal prosecutors and leading state attorneys general to expand our investigations into the abusive lending and packaging of risky mortgages that led to the housing crisis. This new unit will hold accountable those who broke the law, speed assistance to homeowners, and help turn the page on an era of recklessness that hurt so many Americans.”

The best part is, progressive champion New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman is co-chairing the investigation and will make sure it stays on track.”

Unsaid here is that the White House was pressuring State Attorney Generals for a settlement with the banks that would give them immunity from prosecution. The Hugffington Post reports:

“Schneiderman is an increasingly beloved figure among progressives for his criticism of a proposed settlement between the 50 state attorneys general and the five largest banks. His presence atop this new special unit could give it immediate legitimacy among those who have criticized the president for being too hesitant in going after the banks and resolving the mortgage crisis. He will be in attendance at Tuesday night’s State of the Union address.

“The goal of this joint investigation will be threefold: to hold accountable any institutions that violated the law; to compensate victims and help provide relief for homeowners struggling from the collapse of the housing market, caused in part by this wrongdoing; and to help us finally turn the page on this destructive period in our nation’s history,” reads a White House document outlining the objectives.

“This is a big achievement and something the entire progressive advocacy community wanted [with respect to] housing policy,” added the White House official”

NakedCapitalism: Is Schneiderman Selling Out Or Being Used?

New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman has been celebrated as the progressive Great White Hope. But the danger of assuming leadership is that individual becomes a target both of attacks and of seduction. And while I’d like to think better of Schneiderman, an announcement earlier this evening has strong hallmarks of Schneiderman falling prey to the combined pressures and blandishments of the Administration and its allies.

Only a sketchy bit of news has been released, with the most extensive reporting so far coming in Huffington Post which incorrectly anticipated a State of the Union announcement of the fact that Schneiderman will be co-chairing a Federal committee to investigate mortgage abuses (the story appears to have been confirmed in general terms via an announcement from Schneiderman’s office). Key details from the HuffPo story:

The unit will not supersede the efforts already underway by the Department of Justice. Instead, it will operate as part of the president’s Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force. In addition to Schneiderman, the unit will be co-chaired by Lanny Breuer, assistant attorney general at the Criminal Division of the Department of Justice, Robert Khuzami, director of enforcement at the SEC; John Walsh, a U.S. attorney in Colorado, and Tony West, assistant attorney general in the Civil Division at DOJ.

Yves Smith:…”It would be better if I were proven wrong, but this looks to be yet another clever Obama gambit to neutralize his opposition. With all the same key actors in place – Geithner, Walsh, Holder – there is no reason to believe the Administration has had a change of heart until there is compelling evidence ”

Note: DOJ Assistant AG Breuer had been a lawyer representing big banks!

Boston Globe: Text Of State Of The Union

Reactions:

Boston Globe: Enough: The State Of The Union Serves No Purpose and Should End

•Text of GOP response by “moderate” Hoosier Gov Mitch Daniels stresses what GOP Candidates Ignore: Saving the Safety Net

•Herman Cain to Give Tea Party Response; Networks Do Not Carry

•Occupy Gives a Rebuttal

Also Not Live: Response on “The State Of The 99%” Is Delivered Mic-Check Style in DC

Release” This 2012 “State of the 99%” response to the State of the Union will be delivered by a group of Occupiers assembled outside in a well-lit spot at McPherson Square following the conclusion of the President’s State of the Union address and/or the Tea Party response. The presentation will unfold this way: one participant will begin in the center/front of the group, in the middle of the camera frame, surrounded by the others. That person will deliver the first line of the speech, and will then be echoed by the People’s Mic. That person will then read their second line, and as the People’s Mic echoes the second line, that person will move off to the side and rejoin the group, while another person will step into the center spot to read the next two lines, with each line again echoed by the People’s Mic. This will continue, cycling through the crowd, with each person reading two lines and being echoed by the People’s Mic.

•Occupier to Run For Congress

•Threats Against Occupy DC heard in Congress

•Pentagon Budget Cuts; A Shell Game

Assessing the President’s upcoming proposal, Carl Conetta of the Project on Defense Alternatives (PDA) concludes that “The proposal to roll back the DoD budget plan for 2013-2017 by $260 billion doesn’t amount to much of a reduction from recent spending levels. The difference between planned spending for the next five years and the last five will be about 4 percent in real terms.” Charles Knight, co-director of PDA, observes that “The cuts in the Pentagon’s budget in the FY13 plan won’t be the last.

•Guardian: Obama Approval Had Been Rising

President Barack Obama’s job approval rating climbed steadily in December as he fought Republicans over the extension of a payroll tax cut and is now above his disapproval rating for the first time since July, a Gallup report has shown.

The rating for Obama, who is running for re-election in November, climbed to 47% versus a 45% measure of disapproval, according to Gallup’s three-day rolling average of polls, taken between December 21 and December 23. This was up from approval of 41% and disapproval of 51% early in the month.

Huffington Post: After the Speech

Less than 24 hours after the address, he’ll kick off an intense, three-day tour of five states, all of which are key battleground states for his re-election: Iowa, Arizona, Nevada, Colorado and Michigan. The move is a convenient overlapping point for Obama to connect his governing to his campaigning, which has already gotten off the ground but isn’t in full force yet.

Carney dismissed the idea that Obama is using the State of the Union as a springboard for his re-election effort. He called this week’s trips “official visits” that the president is taking to further explain the details of his speech to the country.

“This is a State of the Union address that the president is giving,” Carney said. “The themes of this speech that I just discussed reflect … in many ways the principles that President Obama has brought to public service since he began his career in public service. So it wouldn’t take much to understand where he’s coming from and where he believes the country will go.”

On The Media and Politics

This blog. and our “sista site,’ Mediachannel1.org looks at politics through the window of media coverage and the lack of it.

Many see our media system as above or disconnected to politics. I see it as central to it, in part, part because I worked in “big media” and saw the connections every day.

It seems clear that the GOP primary is all about media—as a tool for promotion and forging ideology, as well as an issue.

I spoke about this on SKYPE yesterday morning for Chris Spannos’ NYTeXaminer.com, the website that monitors New York Times coverage. It is about how Newt Gingrich skillfully played to right-wing antipathy to the so-called “liberal media.”

Later in the day, AlJazeera.com posted my commentary and more extended argument on the issue.

My Latest On AlJazeera: How Gingrich Played to Hatred of The Media

New York, NY – As the Republican primary circus moves South, the media focus remains on the candidates – when it should be on the media itself.

That’s because we live in a mediaocracy – not a democracy. Without the media, we could not have elections. TV news is now the main source of political news and opinion. It gives short shrift to critics and alternative views. The networks frame the issues, fuel the partisan divide and help set the agenda.

In the old days, politicians took trains across the US to speak to the people. Today, they travel to TV studios or set up events designed for media coverage, often by former TV producers and consultants.

Gingrich takes offence at US media charges

We live with the illusion that politics is all about elections and the front men who are running or debating. Those in the US who really still believe that our democracy is run on a “of the people, by the people and for the people” foundation barely recognise that many decisions are made behind the scenes by political donors and lobbyists. What they know comes from what the media decides to cover and not cover.

The assumption is that the media is neutral, they’re just to show us what’s happening. Unrecognised is that they are in a race too, for ratings, revenues and recognition. The TV reporters and pundits who get far more “face time” than the politicians are political to the core, as interested in promotion and attention as the people they cover.

Becoming the issue

The media itself is usually able to remain above the fray and determine what issues to validate and which to ignore. But, sometimes, they become the issue, and that’s what happened in South Carolina.

The voters there who backed Newt Gingrich – whose popularity surged in the final days of the primary ritual – were voting on the media, which is how Gingrich cleverly framed the issue.

It wasn’t about what he stood for – a changing set of positions – but who had embarrassed him. The South, known for its manners, shouted back on his behalf with its ballots.

Playing to an audience of Fox News think-alikes and rightwing radio aficionados who had been pounded with the failures of the “liberal media” for years, voters there were ready to buy Gingrich’s posturing as a victim of media abuse.

For a minute, they could forget issues that evangelicals say really trouble them – immorality in marriage and Catholicism – to send a message to the media by voting Newt.

They hate the media as much as they hate Obama.

Read The Rest on Al Jazeera.com

•Here’s the Daily Show’s Jon Stewart’s Take on this media angle:

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart

Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c

Indecision 2012 – The Gingrich Who Stole South Carolina

www.thedailyshow.com

Daily Show Full Episodes

Political Humor & Satire Blog

The Daily Show on Facebook

More On The Absurdity of Our Politics

•LBN: Romney Paid 13.9 Percent Tax In 2010

Mitt Romney released a preview of his tax returns to The Washington Post late Monday, revealing an income of $21.7 million in 2010 and $20.9 million in 2011. The money is reportedly all from profits, dividends, and investment interest and none from wages. In 2010, Romney paid a 13.9 percent tax rate, or $3 million. His 2011 estimate is $3.2 million, which is about 15.4 percent, as hes told reporters. The 550 pages show that Romney has a Swiss bank account and foreign investments in Luxembourg, Ireland, and the Cayman Islands all are legally taxed and with little income.

•ABC News: What Wealthy Americans Pay In Taxes

The World We Live In

Yousaf Butt, ICH: Stop the Madness

Despite all the hype, Iran’s nuclear program has yet to violate international law. It’s time to calm down, think, and above all halt the rush to war.

Stuart Reigeluth and Dimitris Bouris, ICH: Europe Should Call Israel’s Bluff

The figures say it all. Over 1,200 Jewish colonists occupied outposts in the West Bank in 1972; in 2012, over 300,000 live in fortress-like colonies on hilltops overlooking the Jordan Valley, excluding the illegal colonies and gradual annexation of occupied east Jerusalem.

Egypt: One Year Later

The Guardian reports:”The head of Egypt’s military junta has promised to partially lift the country’s three-decade-old state of emergency, in a last-ditch effort to bolster public support ahead of what are expected to be widespread anti-government demonstrations on Wednesday.”

•Philip Rizik, an independent blogger and filmmaker based in Cairo. He said today: “The official lifting of the state of emergency means nothing until it is backed up by actions. The fact that for example over 15,000 civilians have been tried before military tribunals since the military took de facto power January 28, 2011 reveals that the military junta now in power are above the law.

…. they pardoned around 1,500 civilians illegitimately imprisoned following such military courts. The key matter to pay attention to here is the fact that the generals pardoned them, they did not condemn the practice of military trials. Officially lifting the emergency law is another form of the same logic.”

AP: The War in Libya Is Far From Over

Economy

Jesse Jackson’s 15th Annual Wall Street Summit Convenes Tonight through Friday at New York’s Sheraton Hotel

Website: The 15th Annual Rainbow PUSH Wall Street Project Economic Summit will be held on Wednesday, January 25 – Friday, January 27, 2012 at the Sheraton NY Hotel & Towers in New York, NY. The theme is “We Are One World – Bringing Everyone to the Table: Celebrating Fifteen Years of Access to Capital, Industry and Technology.”

•BBC: Davos 2012 starts with worries about eurozone crisis

Occupy Davos To Build Igloos in Davos

You cant have tents in Zuccotti Park anymore, but what about igloos? Occupy protesters in Davos, Switzerland, are building an igloo village in preparation for the World Economic Forum on Wednesday. Each igloo houses two people, and protesters expect to house about 50 people in all. They’re also setting up Mongolian-style tents and a field kitchen.

Soros Threatens Blood on the Streets? That’s how a right-wing website characterizes Soros’s thoughts on the coming class war in the United States

Daily Beast, IMF: Europe a Recession Threat

Just as the U.S. starts to see stronger signs of recovery, the International Monetary Fund warns that the global economy isn’t out of the storm yet. The IMF sliced its global growth forecast from 4 percent to 3.3 percent and warned that Europe’s debt crisis continues to threaten a worldwide recession. Economic activity in advanced economies is expected to expand by a sluggish 1.5 percent, not enough to bring down high unemployment rates.

Living Off Immoral Earnings
?
True Quote of the Day From Financial Times? Lex column, January 19th, 2012. “The reality… is that banks … support a thick layer of second tier executives, as well as legions of pen-pushing, meeting-loving, middle-and back-office workers who are paid multiples of their worth and contribution, especially compared with other industries.” -

JP Morgan Chase CEO: Jamie Dimon on Fox Business News:

1. “Some Regulations are Anti-American”

2. Bernanke and Geithner ‘Saved the System’

Vermont Barred from Shuttering Vermont Yankee Nuclear Plant

A federal judge has blocked Vermont from forcing the closure of the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant when its license expires in March. The Vermont Senate voted to deny the company a new operating license in 2010, but the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission extended the plant’s license in the days following last year’s Fukushima nuclear crisis. On Thursday, U.S. District Judge J. Garvan Murtha overruled Vermont’s effort, saying only federal authorities can regulate nuclear safety. The Vermont Yankee plant is one of the oldest in the country and has had a series of radioactive tritium leaks. Vermont officials are expected to appeal the ruling.

Other News

•Fluent: ‘Final JFK White House recordings released’ ‘‘Prostitution-free zones’ likely unconstitutional’

•Oscar Nominations Unveiled. Docs Snubbed by Oscars

HP: The nominees for the 2012 Academy Awards were announced on Tuesday morning, and as expected, films about films led the way.

“The Artist,” the silent, black and white tribute to old Hollywood, earned a nod for Best Picture, and, after a series of recent critics and guild award wins, is considered the favorite. Writer/director Michel Hazanavicius received nominations for both Best Director and Best Original Screenplay. Jean Dujardin was handed a bid for Best Actor for his turn as George Valentin, a silent film star who refuses to move into the era of the talkies; he earned the Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Musical/Comedy earlier this month. Bérénice Bejo, for her role as starlet Peppy Miller, earned a nomination for Best Supporting Actress.

“Hugo,” Martin Scorsese’s 3D family homage to film preservation, earned 11 nominations.

What Docs Were Nominated

“Hell and Back Again” Danfung Dennis and Mike Lerner
“If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front” Marshall Curry and Sam Cullman
“Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory” Charles Ferguson and Audrey Marrs
“Pina” Wim Wenders and Gian-Piero Ringel
“Undefeated” TJ Martin, Dan Lindsay and Richard Middlemas

CBS: Dance Doc Is Nominated

Documentary Snubs (Feature)

Battle for Brooklyn
Bill Cunningham New York
Buck
Jane’s Journey
The Loving Story
Project Nim
Semper Fi: Always Faithful
Sing Your Song
Under Fire: Journalists in Combat
We Were Here
Documentary (Short Subject)
In Tahrir Square: 18 Days of Egypt’s Unfinished Revolution
Pipe Dreams
Witness

T/h Carola: Frying Dutchman Human ERROR–Video From Japan

Occupy: Yesterday in Zuccotti Park

The barricades are gone but so were most of the occupiers. A woman who tried to set up a table to give out flyers was arrested by a police swoop. The table was not authorized! A group of activists who had worked at the People’s Library marched over to Police Plaza with a receipt the NYPD had given them for some of the books they seized. They would not give them back because their records said the receipt was given to an unidentified male. They were not convinced that the same male was the one trying to recover them., In short, it was another exercise in bureaucratic hostility.

I picked up a pamphlet on police infiltrators called “Profiles of Provocateurs” recounting cases of activists who became police informants and testified against activists. For more information write

•OWS drops Law Suit on Zuccotti Park

There is no accountability for continuing police abuse here in Bloombergville.

In Romania, after Foreign Minister Teodor Baconshi denounced protesters there as “inept and violent slum dwellers,” he was FIRED.:

Letter

Barry Lipton writes from Canada:

It was great to be introduced to you on the CBC. I will follow your blogs in the future.

I was too bad that Anna Marie did not get what you were saying. The danger of unlimited corporate funding of politics is a prime precursor of fascism. She just did not get it even after you repeated it several times.:

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