On Demand
RNC/Hurricane Gustav Coverage: Hour 2
WNYC reporter Bob Hennelly talks about protests at the RNC. He's joined by Eileen Clancy, one of the founders of I-Witness Video, who talks about being raided in St. Paul.
Then
WNYC's political director Andrea Bernstein with an update on the RNC's schedule.
Then
More on Hurricane Gustav with WWL Radio reporter Chris Miller.
Then
Our Meet the Delegates series continues with a conversation with Arizona's Casey Jones.
Then
George Lakoff, linguistics professor at the University of California at Berkeley and author of The Political Mind: Why You Can't Understand 21st-Century American Politics with an 18th-Century Brain, deconstructs the political language at the convention.
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The pinkos are at it again... claiming Palin's last child is actually her daughters! And, they have pictures. Jeez...
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/8/30/121350/137/486/580223
To #1:
I couldn't care less whose child that is. But her flip-flop on the bridge to nowhere, and her stance on global warming is ridiculous.
Re the current discussion: Guns vs. video cameras? It's so Chinese-Gov't-Autocratic. Welcome to the 21st century.
Just how pernicious does a politician's lies have to get (say, Christopher Shays?), before a journalist calls him out on it?
Would an intelligent but uninformed listener tuned in to WNYC's convention coverage have ANY idea which side is telling the truth?
Is it the duty of WNYC to simply present propaganda on an equal time basis? Or are the the conventions and political coverage in general simply entertainment, with no truth value?
How much longer can WNYC avoid these questions, and still claim to be a serious news organization?
Or if there's no truth in the world, why even bother with political coverage?
Casey Jones was hysterically funny.
He claims Obama is an empty suit, but when asked how he feels about the Bush record, he says he's "happy with it." He then claims Bush was maligned over Katrina. Unbelievable. Shameless. Unbelievably shameless.
jdalost asks: "Just how pernicious does a politician's lies have to get (say, Christopher Shays?), before a journalist calls him out on it?"
In the US, journalists generally do not 'call people out' because this only makes the person being interviewed become defensive, thus altering what they touch on. Instead, journalists generally ask questions to best let them explain themselves and then present other people with opposing views. This is not the only possible approach. The BBC is much more deliberately confrontational.
Lakoff is wrong. Corporations do not run you if you vote with your dollars for health care. We dont have that now. We have the corporations running government with runs health care. With single payer, the pathologies would be manifest. again, read my wisdom here:
http://www.vaclib.org/basic/gk/SinglePayer.htm
Arizona delegate Casey Jones makes a nasty personal attack against Obama calling him an empty suit and criticizing him for making gaffes. Brian didn't challenge the delegate to list Obama's gaffes.
I hope you'll have someone from the ACLU (or its Twin Cities chapter) on the show to comment on these unconstitutional police activities. Too often at events like these the authorities' main concern with the Bill of Rights seems to be how they can get around it, even as the speakers at the conventions tell us all how great America is. That greatness is *based* on the Constitution & on our rights & is only diminished when those rights are violated.
I want to thank Eileen Clancy for exposing how police have broken the law at protests during recent political conventions, & Bob Hennelly for getting the word out to WNYC's listeners (although I thought most of the video evidence proving the cops in NYC lied came from their own cameras?). I can't wait till the search warrants are unsealed to find out what "probable cause" they were based on, & what the source of the allegations was.
Mike,
Along the same lines, Harper's ran an excellent piece in June that touches on the differences between the British and American press.
You can read it here:
http://www.harpers.org/archive/2008/06/0082039
Gary Krasner from NYC states: "Corporations do not run you if you vote with your dollars for health care. We dont have that now. We have the corporations running government with runs health care. With single payer, the pathologies would be manifest."
Not entirely sure what your post means and I have to confess, I did not read your lengthy blog, but I'm sure the close to 50 million uninsured would rather have single payer than no insurance at all.
Mike from Inwood writes:
"In the US, journalists generally do not 'call people out' because this only makes the person being interviewed become defensive, thus altering what they touch on. Instead, journalists generally ask questions to best let them explain themselves and then present other people with opposing views."
I guess that's why millions of Americans believe things which are patently and demonstrably untrue....
Gary,
I have to admit that, based on your previous posts, which don't quite make sense to me, I, too, have passed on reading your blog.
Still, I wish you the best of luck with it, especially if it feeds you and or your family without your having to work for a major US or foreign-owned corporation.
jdalost replies: "I guess that's why millions of Americans believe things which are patently and demonstrably untrue...."
Perhaps. Being knowledgable about public affairs takes some effort; you have to listen, read between the lines and exercise some judgment. Few people take the time in this inceasingly interconnected and complex world to do this. Sadly, Americans are not alone in this. I took graduate level courses in the social sciences at The New School and Columbia University here in NYC and met a lot of educated foreign students, many Europenas included, who were incredibly ignorant about world affairs. They seemed to simply swallow the opinions of their journalists without questioning anything they said. It was almost as if they didn't want to think but needed something intelligent to say at cocktail parties.
jdalost: Incidentally, I'm not talking about FOX news, I'm talking about NPR. The same NPR which carries the BBC. Media from around the world are available anywhere in the US, at least on the internet. Even if you don't speak the language, many foreign news services have English language offerings. The problem is not the media, it's available. The problem is that people do not avail themselves of the opportunity to learn enough about what happens outside their small world.
Why don't Americans choose to learn about the wider world? I think the answer involves the greater number of hours that people in the US spend at work and also their lack of financial security (i.e. scant unemployment benefits, tenuous access to medical care, lack of pensions, etc). This is what directs their attention toward their immediate circumstances.
Palin's 17-year-old is pregnant, according to Palin
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/us/international-usa-politics-palin.html
right to life? right to idiotic teen pregnancy is more like it.
jdalost also states: "Is it the duty of WNYC to simply present propaganda on an equal time basis? Or are the the conventions and political coverage in general simply entertainment, with no truth value?"
Unfortuantely, journalists who 'call people out' are themselves frozen out and denied access. Media-savvy poiticians and their public relations people don't want to deal with an oppositional press. On a national level, NPR skirts the borders of being frozen out simply because MPR has the audacity to juxtapose alternate opinions. This is the sad reality.
See any one of the links below to read the letter McCain sent to Obama regarding lobbying and ethics reform legislation. McCain's letter is just dripping with contempt for Obama. Remember this letter the next time you hear McCain say I have great respect for my opponent Sen Obmam.
http://www.swamppolitics.com/news/politics/blog/2006/02/mccain_flames_obama.html
http://obama.senate.gov/letter/060206-sen_obama_and_sen_mccain_exchange_letters_on_ethics_reform/index.html
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/02/07/politics/main1289745.shtml
Seth,
you still worried that Palin was a smart pick for the GOP?
What about her 17-year-old daughter's pregnancy?
I'm thinking about setting up a betting pool - how much would you be willing to wager that Palin drops out of the race because "family comes first" and this whole thing was a diversion? A risky, foxy, but unsuccessful diversion?
Eva,
From what I've seen on the web and on tv, it looks like Palin pick was very smart politically for McCain because it galvanized rt wing of the Republican party and they seem to have a new spring in their step.
I've only seen a small handful of Repub commentators criticize Palin's selection. The vast majority of them are heaping praise on McCain for picking Palin.
I'd stay away from the pregnancy rumor. This sounds pretty far out there like rumors of Vince Foster being murdered. I think the best thing for Democrats to do is totally ignore Palin. Any attacks Dems make against Palin will just be cut and pasted into Repub ads accusing Dems of being elitist and out of touch with working class voters.
Eva,
I hadn't read the NYT story about Pallin's daughter being preganat before I posted my comment #18. I still think trying to exploit her daughter's situation is a losing proposition for Dems.
McCain has successfully rolled Pallin out to the public as America's sweetheart and the tomboy gal next door. Sarah Pallin is now coated in teflon. It's best to ignore her altogether and focus on McCain, Bush, and Cheney.
Seth,
I'm not talking about the rumor, which I have no interest in. I'm talking about: Palin just gave a press conference on her 17-year-old daughter's pregnancy. It's in the Times. It's on CNN. MSNBC. Fox.
Check it out.
Seth,
I agree with you that Dems shouldn't bother exploiting Palin's teenage daughter's pregnancy.
The media will do it for them.
This woman wasn't vetted. Not even close. And the America's sweetheart role is... not quite.
But I totally get your point and your concerns. Those are my concerns, too. It's just... as a liberal woman with a lot of conservative friends, I know this isn't going to wash with them. On the other hand, my conservative pals aren't the norm.
Still, Obama's over-reaching and over-achievement look less elitist when the option is a woman who can't manage her own household. Biting off more than you can chew is a totally non-partisan issue.
Mike from inwood:
"Unfortuantely, journalists who 'call people out' are themselves frozen out and denied access."
True enough, but it's the depravity of American corporate "journalism" which makes freezing out the "miscreants" possible.
And you're right, it's not just Fox, it's NPR (and WNYC). Leonard Lopate often has politically reprehensible guests on his show, but the poor guy can't say a word, because publicists would stop putting their authors on the show.
OTOH, it's this media culture which put GWB in the Whitehouse. If we don't do something, we're doomed.
seth,
the beach is calling me, but I am leaving this link to a Joe Klein posting from yesterday (pre-Bristol revelation) for you, in the hope that it will make you feel more optimistic, and thereby more ready to phonebank!
http://www.time-blog.com/swampland/2008/08/focusedthe_sequel.html
Sarah Palin's daughter should be off limits politically and Obama has forcefully made statements to that effect. Democratic bloggers don't help the cause of getting Obama elected by engaging in this sleaze.
In any case, the pregnancy story is trivial compared to the police harassment of the IWitness group reported during this segment.
I'll echo an earlier comment "guns vs. video cams?"
This is a crime against American values. This is Bush/Cheney's America. I would love to see John McCain explain whether he thought that sort of conduct was appropriate.
Eva / Mike,
It's not a "blog". americandaily.com publishes columns by a fixed number of editorialists. it doesn't even accept comments.
You don't have to read it. that's your choice. But I wrote it to appeal to the typical Brian Lehrer listener. It appealed to the University of Michigan law School, because they published it in their continuing education program for attorneys.
I've taken liberal positions in some of my columns. I'm not doctrinaire to a point where I would refuse to read opposing points of view. I do that all the time, which is why many liberals have commended my work, such as on voter fraud issues. I listen.
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