By Count me in as a cynic along with Tom Tomorrow regarding this optimistic statement by E.J. Dionne in his review of Al Gore’s new book out today.
“…the larger change is that the very process Gore describes — of propaganda taken as fact, of slogans taken as arguments, of repetition substituting for logic and, yes, of lies and half-truths taken as truth — is now well-recognized. What worked against Gore during the recount and what worked for the administration in the run-up to the Iraq war doesn’t work anymore. That is an advance for democracy and for reason.”
I’ll have to assume Dionne has never read Media Matters, because this happens every single day. And its not just the typical right-wing hate radio and Fox News doing it.
CNN’s relentlessly dishonest coverage of the “oh-so-controversial” Speaker Pelosi’s trip to Syria looked like the RNC was producing segments of The Situation Room (complete with the “Talking With Terrorists” slogan on the screen). “The Most Trusted Name in News” also gets my “Media Douchebag of the Month” award for letting its fake “independent, straight-shooting, average Joe” spew blatantly misleading propaganda on Gore and global warming in his heavily promoted special earlier this May. CNN should really back off on Gore, because the NY Times obviously has dibs on Gore when it comes to making shit up to smear him (see Daily Howler archives).
Additionally, when a guest/pundit says, “timetable for surrender”, “if we leave they’ll follow us home”, and “the Democrats won’t fund our troops”, how often do you see an anchor/host step in and say, “uh…what do you mean by that, I don’t follow your logic?” (don’t hold your breath….that just wouldn’t be balanced, now would it? Just get them on the record, Timmeh)
I would at least agree with Dionne that things have improved dramatically since the media skull-fucking of Gore in 2000. We now have Media Matters and the rest of the blogosphere to quickly debunk this crap, but that doesn’t always mean that the media will be shamed into altering their coverage, which they still don’t for the most part right now (certainly not Chris Matthews, because its painfully obvious that he has no shame.)
At the very least, Media Matters has finally driven Bill O’Reilly clinically insane. Hopefully the Falafel King will be able to stay out of the loony bin so he can continue to explain to us how Emmanuel Goldstein George Soros is to blame for everything wrong in Oceania America.