Obama’s Admin: Fox Not Legitimate

It’s time to throw some parties!  It’s not the first time it’s happened, and I don’t at this point think it will be the last either.  Two Obama advisers went on two different Sunday TV talk shows and stated unequivocally what most rational people have thought to themselves for years:

Fox is not a legitimate news outlet.

They’re an biased entity with access to the airwaves.  They have opinions, which everyone and every entity has a right to have.  But having an opinion doesn’t make one a journalist or a news network.  They can think of themselves as whatever they want, but it’s impressive and encouraging that the Obama administration is forcefully keeping Fox away with a 20′ pole.  After all, there are thousands (millions?) of opinion-holders out there.  They can’t all get into Presidential press briefings.  Those should be reserved for widely accepted news outlets.

The difference between this administration and the Bush cabal in this arena is stark.  Bush’s cronies used Fox and other non-serious groups (remember the non-credentialed gay prostitute who was allowed into press briefings to lob softballs to the Boy King?) to push their agenda on America by force.  Obama and his staff are serious about actually governing the country.

Republicans Won’t Put Up, Corporations Won’t Shut Up

As the 2009 health care “debate” continues into August, a couple of developments are taking place that the corporate-run media won’t cover.

The first was a real opportunity for Republicans to put their money where their mouths are and vote down a socialized medical system operating in the United States: Medicare.  Rep. Anthony Weiner introduced an amendment in the House Energy and Commerce Committee last Thursday that would have shut down Medicare on Jan. 1, 2010.

The result should shock no one: not one person on the Committee voted for the amendment.  Rep. Weiner’s point was made: despite parroting all the corporate-funded talking points and obstructing any kind of progress on reforming our health care system, Republicans and ConservaDems didn’t put up.  Given the chance to demonstrate that they don’t like socialized medicine and shut down such a system operating within the U.S., everybody chickened out.  Nobody wanted their names associated with a proposal to shut down such a successful, wildly popular socialized medical system.  Cowards, all of them.  Oh – how many times did you see this story on the corporate media this weekend?  I know I didn’t – I had to read about it today on progressive news services.  [h/t Think Progress]

Next, and quite frankly, much more importantly, corporate-funded groups are manufacturing protests at Representatives’ town hall meetings in their districts.  The protests are well-organized from the highest levels – they’re providing talking points and suggestions on how best to disrupt the meetings by trying to embarrass or anger Representatives.  They’re buying transportation to pick up people who don’t know the protests aren’t grassroots organized.

They’re advocating “Rocking the town halls” by sending out viral emails to everybody that showed up to the ridiculous Teabagging Parties earlier this year.  By which, they’re subverting the spirit of small-d democracy:

Try to rattle him, not have a rational debate.

These people are not interested in having a rational debate, by their own admission.  This is the focus of the right-wing wackos that have taken over the Republican party.  Shout at people, yell out scary talking points, don’t let the opposition respond, try to rattle them, try to embarrass and anger them.  That’s their idea of how a democracy is supposed to work.

The corporate-tocracy is spending a lot of time and money to ensure the status quo is maintained – you either spend money on insurance or you get sick and die.

This corporate-sponsored astroturf campaign is immoral and disgusting.