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This is a pretty sloppy sketch, but it's clear to me that Murdoch has instructed his minions to report some version of the truth (up to a point) to reclaim popular support of the jobless, frustrated angry masses. Meanwhile, MSNBC doesn't know what to do. They can't attack Obama from the left. They can't attack Wall Street, Afghanistan or demand New Deal recovery policies because it makes the administration look bad. Under Bush, the neocons made a full court press for their agenda while the dems attacked from the left. Under Obama, the dems are trying to talk about anything but reality while Fox attacks from -- the left! Not because they believe what they're saying, but because they want congress back, and the left is Obama's weak underbelly at the moment.
Don't pick sides!
Remember, this is a shift in corporate strategy, not a shift in reality. Rachel Maddow may have the best of intentions, but the directors of General Electric, who pay her salary, do not. The ruling party defends and the underdog attacks, with the same corporations benefiting from your political alliance to either. Too many people are willing to attack or defend a politician or news reporter for reasons of cultural identity. I find that many of my friends despise Sarah Palin for no better reason than she's a folksy bimbo. This is likely the reason most of her supporters like her. Can anyone say how she feels about whether we should have a national industrial policy?
When we let ourselves be divided along arbitrary cultural lines, we don't force a real conversation. By not attacking Obama's left, you don't give him the pressure he needs to be forced into what he probably wants to do. By supporting him reflexively, you support not Barack Obama, but the Wall Street executives who tell Tim Geithner and Larry Summers what to do next. By attacking Glen Beck, you miss the chance to attack Lockheed Martin.
My guess is that the powers that be are setting us up for a repeat of the "Reagan Revolution" in 2012. We'll get a guy like Mitt Romney posing as a populist businessman who's going to create jobs by cutting medicare benefits, and the blue collar folks who watched Obama waffle for four years will eat it up. If that's the plan, Fox News is doing a pretty good job. You enable the corporate agenda by feeding into corporate politics. You help conspirators by denouncing "conspiracy theory." You hurt the president by playing defense for everything he's forced to read off a teleprompter.
At least we all have Bill Moyers.
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