August 2, 2009 - August 8, 2009 | truthseeker77's Blog

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Week of August 2, 2009 - August 8, 2009

Ken Gladney

August 8, 2009, 10:30PM

The conservative man claiming to have been beaten by union "thugs" in a recent townhall demonstration should release his medical records proving that doctors found injuries to his knees, shoulder, elbow, etc., as claimed. Remember the woman who falsely claimed that an Obama supporter beat her and marked a "B" (Barack) on her face? This may be a similar hoax. Or maybe not. The youtube video of the incident seems inconsistent with the alleged extent of the damage. Again, only hospital records would show whether this man is being truthful or not. We progressives should get to the bottom of this.

Anti-Obama "Joker" poster is racist WAPO writer concludes

August 6, 2009, 3:12PM

Color me unsurprised. Sociologist Orlando Patterson managed to label The "3 am" ad as subliminally racist during the primaries, because one of the girls in the video seemed somewhat Hispanic-looking, and stuff. Now this.

Prediction: People who never before voiced the opinion that this stupid poster was racist will now see it that way, because someone in a big newspaper came to that conclusion.

You have to read the article. The Joker poster is racist because it's urban, and urban is a sign of racism. Unless you are an Hard-Core Obama Cultist (Which is more often than not the case here in the TPM reader section), you will find this piece contrived and nonsensical.

CNN poll: Most adults think Gates acted stupidly during arrest

August 4, 2009, 6:35PM

Polls are important to us. We tout those polls that find most people to be in support of adding a public option to the final health reform bill being debated in congress, for example.
Having said that, A poll released today reveals that a majority of adults (53%) in America believe Professor Gates acted "stupidly" in the recent encounter with police officer James Crowley.
Only 33% hold the same negative view against Crowley.
A plurality, by a small margin (41% to 33%) sympathizes with Crowley against Gates.
My particular stance is one of neutrality, since I wasn't there and could not hear what was said or how it was said by each participant in this controversial event.
It's interesting, though, to see how out of the mainstream is the attempt from many on our side to paint Crowley as a racist abusive cop who wouldn't have arrested a white man in the same situation (most in the poll believe a white man would have been arrested, too) .
Most approved of President Obama's handling of the whole situation, but most disapproved of his initial comments to the effect that the police department had acted stupidly.

Keith Olbermann "lying right in your liberal faces," says progressive media critic

August 3, 2009, 7:00PM

As you must know, Jeffrey Immelt, (Owner of General Electric, which owns MSNBC) and Rupert Murdoch (who owns Fox News) reached an off-the-record agreement in Mid-May to tell their journalists (particularly Keith Olbermann and Bill O'reilly) to stop attacking each other, plus the news channels. The results didn't disappoint the moguls, according to the New York Times:

In early June, the combat stopped, and MSNBC and Fox, for the most part, found other targets for their verbal missiles (Hello, CNN).

Keith Olbermann's criticism of Bill O'reilly absolutely stopped on June 1st, while his criticism of Fox decreased almost entirely after that date, as reported Saturday by Glen Greenwald. But despite the fact that Olbermann was simply doing what his boss ordered him to do, K.O. offered the following explanation for his decision to stop targetting Fox and O'reilly:

OLBERMANN (6/1/09): Fox News Channel will never restrain itself from incitement to murder and terrorism, not until its profits begin to decline, when its growth stops. So not so much a boycott here as a quarantine, because this has got to stop.

That I have a commercial conflict of interest here is obvious. So I'll make the first symbolic contribution to this quarantine. One of my pleasures, obviously, is constantly criticizing him [O'Reilly] in that Ted Baxter voice. It is the idea of laughter as a social sanction against inflexible behavior.

But this is no time for laughter. This is serious. Serious as death. As serious as George Tiller's death. So as of this show's end, I will retire the name, the photograph, and the caricature. The words may still be quoted in the future as developments dictate. The goal here is to get this blindly irresponsible man and his ilk off the air.

We're only in the television news business, a profession that is at times about two inches up from carnival barking. We must again separate it, television, from terrorism. And we must again make the world safe for people condemned by the Fox News Channel.

That's Countdown for this, the 2,223rd day since the previous president declared mission accomplished in Iraq. I'm Keith Olbermann. Good night and good luck.

In the above-mentioned explanation, no mention is made about the deal between Olbermann's boss and his buddy Murdoch, claiming instead that after all this years doing the opposite, he (Olbermann) single-handedly came to the realization thatnot speaking up was the method of preference to starve the beast.
Progressive media critic Bob Somerby does not buy Olbermann's tale:

Somerby, today: "We strongly suggest you read the whole segment, understanding as you do that Olbermann is apparently lying right in your faces the whole Fox News-hatin' time.

No, that cri de coeur didn't exactly make sense. BillO had sinned as never before--so KeithO would no longer criticize him!(We know--that isn't quite what he said. But, according to Greenwald's review, all criticism of O'Reilly ended that night, not just the silly-bill clowning.) But then, very few things this big hack says ever make a whole lot of sense. If Stelter's report is accurate, we now know the actual reason KeithO quit BillO that night. And we know he was lying right in your liberal faces as he wept, emoted, moaned and wailed all through that inaccurate segment.

Go ahead, read that whole segment. Don't say we haven't been telling you.

My emphasis.
I recommend both GG's piece and Somerby's. GG focused on the dangers of corporate giants manipulating journalistic freedom, while Somerby puts emphasis on K.O.'s alleged dishonesty.
I would add that Olby needs a pair of balls. Or perhaps he just doesn't want to risk those $7.5 million a year.

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