Let's See How It Plays

Olbermann gone, but not forgotten. Perhaps it all boils down to ratings after all. Olbermann has always been near the bottom of the heap. He has talent, no doubt. His talent was overshadowed by his bias. Once bias has been freely and audaciously exhibited, there is no longer any need to watch. Everyone already knew what was coming.

Olbermann is much too smart to let this happen. I suspect he was encouraged all the way. He knew that his ratings suffered. (They all know.) In fact, he had much larger audiences than what was obvious when his clips were played on much more successful shows. These made him out to be a clown and he readily obliged. Why?

I suspect it’s some version of the ‘fairness doctrine’ again: Olbermann on the Left; Beck on the right. “We’ll get rid of Olbermann, if you get rid of Beck. In fact, let’s get rid of the whole bunch of them: We’ll get rid of MSNBC; you’ll get rid of FOX. Let’s start with Beck and Olbermann and see how it plays.”
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"Despite the fact that Democrat policies are hugely unpopular, two factors have enabled the party to continue to present itself as mainstream.

“The first factor has been the media. As has been their practice forever, it seems; the media have helped Democrats by demonizing the Republicans and rightist politicians. Working hand in glove with leftist politicians, the media have implemented the politics of personal destruction against right-wing leaders. By demonizing the likes of Bush, Cheney, Palin, Limbaugh et al, they have rendered the social cost of supporting Republicans and the Right too high for many Americans to bear.

“At the same time, the media have colluded with the Left to present leftist leaders as earthy, heroic, sophisticated and responsible statesmen. By keeping the content of their policies firmly out of the discussion and framing the debate instead around personal attacks and symbols, the media have successfully kept conservative leaders on the defensive and shielded leftist politicians from substantive attacks on their radical policies.“

The preceding has been taken from Caroline Glick’s latest article in the Jerusalem Post. It is not about America. It is about Israel. I’ve taken the liberty of changing a few words.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Dead-Center Left

Candy has it wrong. The biggest story now, and for the past several years, has been the press itself. It has been it’s creation of the Franconian figure that is Barack Hussein Obama. The tea parties have been treated pretty much as one would an afterbirth . No one celebrates it. It figures much more prominently in the process of cleaning up.

Crowley may have misspoken because, when all was said and done, the afterbirth showed more promise, more life than the fetus ever did. Here we are two years later, and the tea parties exhibit a far greater vitality than the awkward mongoloid child. All those having celebrated the birth with such unconstrained enthusiasm, are now faced with having to climb down from their original high expectations. Naturally, they have been reluctant to do so.

In the process they have poisoned their own well of credibility. It seems the child was unable to open the heavens and has had to follow in the footsteps of his elders. The accommodation to ‘tax cuts for the rich’ was just the latest in a series of broken campaign promises. This one in particular represents the crowning achievement of the outspoken tea parties in that the name ‘Bush’ was actually attached to it. There can be no way of flushing it or sweeping it under the rug.

All during the rise of the tea parties, the press has done its best to ignore them. When the final salvo against them failed - pegging them to the threat of violence and making them a target of Homeland Security - it became clear to many that they would have to begin taking the tea parties seriously. There is now an increasing number who are in the process of doing so. Only the likes of the NYT still push the predictable narrative of Obama’s omnipotence, hardly ever mentioning the tea parties by name. They continue to pursue this course at considerable personal risk. From what I hear, the finances of the old ‘gray lady’ are in dire shape. This as opposed to the WSJ who has manage to pick up subscribers just as fast as the NYT is dropping theirs.

Still, the NYT is said to be the paper of record. Any number of U.S. publications - and the international press in particular - take their cues from The New York Times. These are beginnig to suffer equally and we can soon expect a bill introduced in Congress geared to bailing out failing news organizations. In addition, there’s been some serious talk afoot of ‘regulating’ the industry. Long entrenched politicians are becoming concerned. They would like nothing better than to be able to limit the scope of what has come to be known as ‘alternative media‘. The John Batchelor Show radio and blog also fall into this category.

There are of course others far more critical of the ruling classes on both sides of the political aisle. In a head-fake to fairness, both FOX and MSNBC are now in the crosshairs. It’ll be interesting to see how this issue will fare in the next Congress. Lawmakers will feel compelled to deal with it and the tea parties will be watching closely how this heretofore dead-center left narrative develops. America has spoken after all. It will no longer tolerate rank distortions.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Peace in Our Time

Did you hear the latest? Obama has, or is about to solve the problem of illegal marijuana - by making it legal. Similarly, all around the world, he has shown our enemies that he is willing, even eager, to join their ranks. This way, he figures, there will be no one to fight, and no one will want to fight us. Hence: PEACE in our time; the peace dividend to blow sky-high; and accolades from the likes of the UN and Nobel.

Imagine the world without enemies (excepting, of course, FOX, talk radio and Republicans)! Imagine a world without Israel, Taiwan, India and Eastern Europe. Imagine a world without America.

It’s no longer difficult to predict our future. Yet, there are too many who still don’t see. It may already be too late to reverse course. We’ve already traveled too far along this road.

There was never a reason for why we should lose a war. Yet we’re about to lose our second and third in a row. We’ve tied ourselves into knots for too long. Our whole nations has become the like the Republican Party which is afraid to win. Even when we win, we don’t act like winners – we apologize. It’s no wonder that the Marxists were able to step into the breach (no apologies there).

Nothing new on talk radio either. “The next election; the next election”. Over and over again, “the next election”. And what happens in the meantime? We argue about health care and cluck our tongues. “Did you hear what Rush Limbaugh said about slavery?” Did you read Helen Thomas’ latest book? How come Borders isn’t stocking “Liberty and Tyranny” anymore?

Meanwhile the country is slipping out of our grasp. What march? What tea parties? Did you hear? Obama had a party at the White House where ‘Earth, Wind and Fire’ performed. Awesome, dude!

We’ve got to do better than this. At this rate, we won’t last until the mid-terms. Never mind 2012. I no longer worry so much about Obama serving multiple terms. When things get this hot, there’s usually a world war. As soon as that happens, all bets are off.