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Bush's Kill the Media Strategy Is Working

by Rob Kall, editor, OpEdNews.com

Bush said today, "My opponent has taken so many positions on Iraq that his statements are hardly credible at all."  Of course, Bush's number one strategy in his campaign has been to attack the credibility of Kerry, to call him a flip-flopper, to find contradictions in every statement he makes. So, is it that big a stretch to speculate that Karl Rove and the right wing propaganda machine are doing all they can to weaken the strength of the most damaging threat they face-- the truth that surfaces daily in the news.

 

So... are you disgusted? ...With the pathetic mess that is going on at CBS?  -- the complaints about the trustworthiness of the documentation? The ignoring of the underlying facts about Bush?  That irregardless of the verifiability of the documents, the fact that Bush did fail to follow orders and did fail to live up to his commitment to the national guard?

 

Are you sick of watching reporters acting more like stenographers who just write down what they are told, rather than journalists, who are supposed to ask questions?

Today Bob Frankel of CNN reports, and I paraphrase, "If  you forget about the substance of what is happening in Iraq, then both candidates are making derogatory remarks about each other." Well, dammit Bob, the substance is what you should be talking about,  not their tone of voice, not their emotions, but the charges. Kerry gives detailed criticism. Bush uses his campaign's flip-flop allegation to suggest that Kerry can't be trusted at all. There are surely millions of Americans who are getting disgusted with all the bullshit.  .

If you are sick of the media, then Bush's Kill The Media Strategy is Working. But you don't have to go with your own personal disgust as an index of the state of the media. All the media are seeing drops in activity.

When the only news that's coming out is hurting you, and you can only do so much to control the news industry, your best strategy is to get people to stop paying attention to the news, to get people to be so turned off to the confusion, the mud that is being slung, that they no longer trust the media.

 

Take a look at the web activity/rating stats (from Amazon.com's subsidiary alexa.com) for some of the most active media sites on the web-- CNN, NY Times, CBS, Drudge Report, Fox News

There's been a drop in activity and ranking across the board. Now look at some of the busiest progressive/liberal left leaning websites. Same result, except for one, Truthout, we see a drop in rankings, reflecting decreased web activity.

Here are some stats on some of the most active news sites. Again, there's a clear downward trend.

In the old Soviet Union, the communists controlled the media and the message. Here in the US, the right wing has taken major strides towards influencing the media-- virtually all the mainstream TV networks are right-leaning, going easy on right wing spokesmen, happy to support the daily talking points of the right wing. The handful of moderate or impartial producers, journalists, anchors who remain are being attacked and beseiged. Soon, all the American public will have to depend on as news sources are the likes of right wing whores like Brit Hume, Joe Scarborough, and unfortunately, even CNN people like former journalist and now, most of the time, stenographer, Wolf Blitzer, who routinely allows right-wingers to make their claims without questions or challenges. As I write this, he's interviewing RNC head Ed Gillespie, who attacks the Kerry team regarding the CBS memos, and Bllitzer fails to ask Gillespie if the content of the memos hold any truth.

Voltaire said that "in the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king." Perhaps it is news blindness that the right wing wants, just as the communists had, with the exception of their propaganda media.

The Bush-Kill-The-Media strategy seems to be working-- people are turning off the news. The land of the eagle is becoming the land of the ostrich. But there are alternatives-- there is a healthy field of progressive media-- some in print, some on the web and some on the radio. There are even a tiny handful of TV programs. Here are links for progressive websites and here are links to progressive radio and TV sites. Lately, I've been attending gatherings of Kerry supporters. I am continually amazed at how few people are aware of the range of progressive news sites. If you're reading this article, you're probably already aware of some. Do your liberal, progressive, democratic, independent, left-leaning and even centrist friends a favor and get them familiar with the progressive media. Help them to see that it's not all fog and muck.

Rob Kall rob@opednews.com is editor of www.OpEdNews.Com living in Bucks County , PA.   You can find over 150 additional articles by Rob Kall at this Archive