The Republican/Corporate Masters of the Universe are expert arm-twisters. He had his joints twisted a bit, and is now prepared to say anything he can to back off.

Just like everybody else in the Republican/Corporate side who EVER spoke one bit of truth in the last 8 years....they take it back by the next news cycle.

First, they get very few defectors. Second, they own the media so they can mute a whistleblower. Third, they own the media so they command the counter-message to any truth that happens to accidentally fall thru the media cracks and into the viewers lap. Fourth, they own the media so when they arm-twist the whistleblower back onto THEIR message, they get it broadcast widely and smother the earlier truth-accident.

Ridge was talked to plain and simple. Not just persuaded to shut up, but to get dressed up and made-up and pushed under multiple lighted studios to mumble-cover what he said previously.

How lopsided can media coverage be? Behold!

Now our government isn't even doing that. There used to be a veneer between the politicians and the Vested Interests....but our government is now a dead body, inhabited by ghastly Corporate Parasitic Animators.

Baucus and his pals are saying, you know what? We have already perfected, and damn near depleted the WASTEFUL process of collecting the citizens taxes and GIVING them to the Corporations. Why don't we just cut out this bullshit, and lift the money straight from the citizen INTO the Corporate pockets. Sure we could do it all the old way, and scrape all the people's money into a pile for them...then let the Corporations come haul it away....OR we could just make it legal for the Corporations to force you to mail it all to them.

Adjourned!

I said the Townhalls were stupid ideas, not that citizens need to be silenced. The Citizens spoke in Nov, we want (overwhelmingly) Universal Health Care.

You don't get a message out by giving the microphone to the enemy.

You have to understand that this is PURE MEDIA INVENTION.

If it were not for the 24/7 positive coverage of these jackanapes anti-reformers....we would not be in this predicament.

This is not so much about the general stupidity of Americans (although there is plenty of that). This is not about the Dems losing messaging. If this were a level playing field, the Dem message would be fine. What we have here is Corporate Media doing everything they can to trumpet EVERY SINGLE STUPID INANE talking point that can be scraped out of the barrel.

This is pure and simple about WHO OWNS THE MICROPHONES. Who runs the airwaves. No matter HOW GOOOD the messages from Dems, they don't get aired. I agree with Mr Gitlin down the line, until he talks about flooding the airwaves with the truth. The airwaves are not controlled by decent folks, they will not allow the truth on 'their' air. We have already seen how Pro-Reform (and anti-thug) ads are rejected, while every single crazy-ass memo from the Corporate Wing has gotten tremendous air.

We need to discredit the Corporo-Media, not try to play their game.

Rightwing crusaders NEVER get profiled. Never have legions of state and federal cops snooping on them and stringing them up when they go overboard. Nobody is infiltrating the TeaBaggers movement, yet every old Granny Brigade Against War group gets put on the FBI Lists and they spend millions snooping and infiltrating them.

This is pretty much the world over. Rightwing politics is that of the strong, the rich. Leftwing politics is that of the disposessed and the (relatively and politically speaking) weak. The Rightwingers persecute, jail, and kill the Leftwingers. Only in the greatest of upheavals and revolutions do the tables turn....and then it is only temporary and soon swings back to the rich running everything and squashing the left. So we get eternities of the Right with their boots on the necks of The Left, interspersed with very brief flashes of revolt and upheaval from The Left. And again, the Left remains in power only very briefly while the Rich (or New Rich) go back to monopolizing wealth, life, and the right to kill.

Boner and LimpBow are obviously euthanasia addicts. Hannity and Cantor still look a little too lifelike, prob. are not into the heavy stuff yet.

It is Corporate Media covering for the Corporate Party. Hence, you get MSMedia covering for Republicans.

Our "news" industry has been morphing for 30+ years....from an industry that had a journalistic ethos where news and information were disseminated, into an industry that hides more info than they ever expose.

Really, Corporate Media is very much vested in keeping the Consumeristic Greed economy running. They are hiding what the Masters of the Universe do on Wall Street. They are hiding what is going on in the DC weeds about Health Care. Heck, you name it...they are hiding everything. The only thing they will cover is Democratic Malfeasance and missing white girls.

It is a lot more sinister than "they are just doing it for the bucks" or they are "insiders protecting insiders". GE and Murdoch and ABC have a lot to lose if the Corporate Wolves get exposed. They are Corporate Wolves themselves, but who do you think buys all that billion dollar advertising? All the other Corporate Wolves. How long til we wake up in this country and realize it is a well oiled Lie Machine.

Particularly to JEM - Of course I understand that Dems are a big part of the Big Money Betrayal. Of course I understand that Big Money has had a huge influence on our country and government...just like it does in every other country. However...Our Bylaws - Constitution - is not like that of every other country.

And I think, as stated above, there is a huge difference between a Dem who is leveraged into betraying us...and a Republican who never thought of doing anything BUT pulling Corporate Freight.
And there is a big difference between the Populist Impulses and Citizens who voted in a Dem....and the constituency who blindly votes in a Republican. It makes the Dem betrayal STING all the worse.

I cannot blame Dems wholly, though, for bending to the powers arrayed against them. It is basically a hopeless proposition, and it has been a very uphill fight (almost vertical) in this country for a long long time.

However, CORPORATE status is a fairly new and awesomely powerful and frightening development. Before, a very rich person had limited means of controlling EVERYTHING for much more than their lifespan. They had to have a very able, and likeminded HEIR who could keep the fortune growing and use it as wickedly and powerfully as the OLD MAN.

Corporations, on the other hand, are imbued with endless powers, immortality, and free from the corporeal bounds of the flesh.

I don't think there is any crime in labelling the Republicans as the party of CORPORATE. I stand by my initial statement, they have NEVER betrayed money...but they have betrayed everything else. Of modern Democrats, and modern Democratic principles...you can find many who did not betray their constituents and who did not bend over for the monied interests. You can also find many Dems who did not betray their constituents on every level BUT WHO DID occasionally (and usually when it counts the most) bend to the pressure of the Wealth Society we live in. I cannot bring myself to blame them wholly for the situation that was thrust upon them....a completely greedy, pay for play, corporate environment. They never stood a chance.

Again, there is a big difference between somebody who finally gave in after their arm was mostly twisted off.....and the elected Republican officials who were gleefully, wilfully doing the twisting.

I loathe the Dems who do the bidding of Big Money....but I understand that a lot of them are pressured, blackmailed, and manouvered into something that obviously galls them and eats away at their self-esteem and effectiveness. Make no mistake....I want them gone too. But I understand that we got to where we are by having a lot of good people fall by the wayside, seduced by the most powerful force currently on our planet.

My main beef is the Republican party getting a free pass in the Corporate Media for almost a Century, no-one in Media dares breathe the connection between Corporate and Republican. If our population knew that these Repubs were only fighting for Corporations and not for Jesus and Whites and Family Units we would be a lot better off....and Dems would have a much easier time of getting Pro People legislation passed.

Hell, their whole Reason For Being is to spread disinformation. It would be a miracle ( and surely a mistake ) if they DID put an R next to his name.

When you do not have the truth on your side, should we be surprised by ANY of their methods? They have nothing but lies and obfuscation in their quiver....so that is what they are using.

I just noticed your bio. I have spent a lot of my life in your neck of the woods.
Who could ever forget the stretch of road thru Virginny, with the best nickname for any road ever....the FinnTown Freeway.

I used to hit golf balls into your open-pit mine.

I used to work in the BWCA near Ely, and we went to Virginia for culture on our days off. My relatives live mostly in Buhl and Kinney and Dark Lake - Near Britt.