ABC News - Thanks so much
Well Karl Rove must be proud. ABC News began their broadcast tonight by saying that Clinton and Obama voted against funding the troops. Thanks so much for taking a complicated situation and framing it with a phrase right off of the Republican talking points list.
Tom
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I know what you mean. All the news today was about what the Republicans thought about how Hillary and Obama voted. Hey! Who cares?!! Their votes were like throwing dirt on the coffin at the cemetary.
The dead are still dead.
What's so newsworthy about that? They're professional politicians, for cryin' out loud!
And WHY would a democratic candidate care what a republican candidate thought about how they voted?
The republican responses were so damn predictable that it didn't even constitute "news." On the other hand, it would have been newsworthy if John McCain had said, "Yeh, I would have voted it down, too, if George's friends and the conservative base of the GOP weren't paying for my campaign."
(One can only dream for such candor ....)
When will mainstream media GET OUT OF THE WAY and stop using the "get a response from the opposition to be fair and balanced" taught in J-school that is so damn predictable that Rove has it engraved it in his political playbook?
Why aren't journalists looking beyond the moment and asking, "Given that MOST of America wants the troops to come home, what does the (insert political party/candidate name here) plan to do now that this president has gotten his way -- again?"
Al Gore was on Jon Stewart's "Daily Show" this week promoting his book and pointed out that Stewart's COMEDY show was more relevant and to-the-point than mainstream media.
Amen.
Debra Morgan Pardee
"The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and, if they can't find them, make them." -- George Bernard Shaw
May 25, 2007 10:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yes. I watched that piece too, just shaking my head. The kind of narrative script the corporate news propagates across the spectrum really is amazing . But what bothered me more was the clip of Obama saying he would never vote against funds for the troops. The crux is not that he reneged on his pledge, but that he said such a vote would deprive troops of body armor and hum-vees.
Clinton and Obama have been the worst in all of this. They are supposed to be leaders in Congress. Obama has consistently pushed the fallacy that de-funding would “endanger troops in the field.“ Clinton's position on the war is whatever is politically expedient.
ABC news was right, in that the vote was sham politics. They wouldn’t even allow an open debate on it as Feingold asked. They sent the first bill up so it could be vetoed, then capitulated, afraid of owning the thing, giving Bush everything he wanted including a renewed image as the Decider again.
The Dems marched into D.C. last fall with their chests puffed out, breathing fire. The people had spoken. Their will be done. Bush said softly, boo…and they scampered back to their safe, comfortable (and re-electable) role as the whining opposition. “Please, Mr. President, this war isn‘t really going that great…please just think about bringing our troops home… you’re the president-it’s your call, of course…we wouldn’t dream of fulfilling our constitutional role and duty stopping a misguided war by retracting authorization through de-funding, but c’mon, we’re asking, please…”
I have not been that surprised by any of the crimes and misdemeanors of the Bush administration. But the Congress that was elected overwhelmingly to end this fiasco that is killing and maiming ours and theirs, is betraying every voter who put their hope in a Congress that would take back the American government.
May 25, 2007 11:03 PM | Reply | Permalink