Comments on: This election is surreal… https://habitablezone.com/2016/09/15/this-election-is-surreal/ Fri, 01 May 2026 19:15:10 -0700 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: ER https://habitablezone.com/2016/09/15/this-election-is-surreal/#comment-37485 ER Fri, 16 Sep 2016 18:45:04 +0000 https://www.habitablezone.com/?p=59808#comment-37485 During the Watergate affair, the Conservative elements in American politics devised the theory of a great Liberal Media Bias against Republican candidates and politicians to explain away the revelations concerning the Nixon White House that were bubbling up through the press. Although an objective view of press behavior shows examples of bias on both sides of the political spectrum, and in various amounts ranging from subtle to outrageous, the Right soon seized on this meme to neutralize all criticism against their guys and to posit a corresponding phenomenon that sought to cover up and otherwise minimize criticism against Liberal politicians and policies. The myth of the Mainstream Liberal Media struggled out of the cesspool of Right Wing Authoritarianism and the Left-wing and middle-of-the-road press, by trying so hard to show their fairness and objectivity, have actually helped it along. A word-view was carefully assembled and disseminated of biased and elitist Left-leaning journalists and editors determined to destroy American patriotic, religious and cultural values. Why those who made their living commenting on political and social issues should preferentially be selected from one side of the political spectrum was never fully explained, but it fit in well to counter the obvious observation that those who were trained, prepared and otherwise successful in the communications disciplines (and who did not ally themselves with commercial and financial agendas) did seem to offer fairly well-reasoned and consistent (i.e., "Leftist") analyses. How else could you explain the obvious fact that Liberal voices consistently sounded smarter and better-informed than Conservative ones? Obviously, the colleges had been taken over by Reds (using the original connotation of that color). This branding bias also fit in well with the ubiquitous and all-pervasive American anti-intellectualism and distrust of education in general. The Kolleges are full of Kommies, after all. Other forms of intellectual achievement such as science, scholarship, academia, the arts, and entertainment could also be conveniently lumped into this meme of effeminate, smartypants, wise-ass and conceited know-it-alls. America has never liked its intellectuals, unless they were engaged in sports, business or the military. All others were suspect, and "suspect", in America, is spelled "Communist". This led to several unusual but not totally unexpected consequences. Responsible news organizations developed a double standard when reporting on political controversies; information critical of the Left was eagerly reported, sometimes on the flimsiest of evidence, simply to be able to demonstrate the "fair and balanced" policy of the news outlet. The Watergate criticisms had stuck, and honest journalists were eager to show they were not biased. For very much the same reasons, reporting on Conservative crimes and criminals demanded truly extraordinary corroborating facts and strict adherence to the rules of evidence. Carter lost a handful of air crew in Iran and it cost him the Presidency. Reagan lost a company of Marines in Lebanon and nobody seemed to even notice, primarily due to asymmetry in the press coverage. I do not comment or allege blame on the events, I simply point out the differences in the reporting emphasis. Compare the coverage of Watergate and Iran-Contra, or WMDS with, say, Monicagate or Benghazi or Hillary's emails. No doubt you can provide your own examples. HRC gets walking pneumonia and it becomes front page news and a constitutional crisis. Trump obscures, lies and bullies his way around the rules and common decency and only Mother Jones and Keith Olbermann seem to notice. And in order to counter this surging tide of Bolshevik journalism, the Right has countered with Talk Radio, FOX news, Neofascist blogs, mass-produced viral email chain letters and other blatant and unapologetic propaganda devices. Even the responsible Right-wing journalists and commentators, the Buckleys and Wills and Krauthammers, are now being deprecated and shoved aside as being too "Establishment". In short, Trump gets away with murder, not only completely from the Right-wing press, but to a great extent from the Left as well. Hillary is right. There IS a vast Right-Wing Conspiracy and it IS out to get her. 8) During the Watergate affair, the Conservative elements in American politics devised the theory of a great Liberal Media Bias against Republican candidates and politicians to explain away the revelations concerning the Nixon White House that were bubbling up through the press. Although an objective view of press behavior shows examples of bias on both sides of the political spectrum, and in various amounts ranging from subtle to outrageous, the Right soon seized on this meme to neutralize all criticism against their guys and to posit a corresponding phenomenon that sought to cover up and otherwise minimize criticism against Liberal politicians and policies. The myth of the Mainstream Liberal Media struggled out of the cesspool of Right Wing Authoritarianism and the Left-wing and middle-of-the-road press, by trying so hard to show their fairness and objectivity, have actually helped it along.

A word-view was carefully assembled and disseminated of biased and elitist Left-leaning journalists and editors determined to destroy American patriotic, religious and cultural values. Why those who made their living commenting on political and social issues should preferentially be selected from one side of the political spectrum was never fully explained, but it fit in well to counter the obvious observation that those who were trained, prepared and otherwise successful in the communications disciplines (and who did not ally themselves with commercial and financial agendas) did seem to offer fairly well-reasoned and consistent (i.e., “Leftist”) analyses. How else could you explain the obvious fact that Liberal voices consistently sounded smarter and better-informed than Conservative ones? Obviously, the colleges had been taken over by Reds (using the original connotation of that color). This branding bias also fit in well with the ubiquitous and all-pervasive American anti-intellectualism and distrust of education in general. The Kolleges are full of Kommies, after all. Other forms of intellectual achievement such as science, scholarship, academia, the arts, and entertainment could also be conveniently lumped into this meme of effeminate, smartypants, wise-ass and conceited know-it-alls. America has never liked its intellectuals, unless they were engaged in sports, business or the military. All others were suspect, and “suspect”, in America, is spelled “Communist”.

This led to several unusual but not totally unexpected consequences. Responsible news organizations developed a double standard when reporting on political controversies; information critical of the Left was eagerly reported, sometimes on the flimsiest of evidence, simply to be able to demonstrate the “fair and balanced” policy of the news outlet. The Watergate criticisms had stuck, and honest journalists were eager to show they were not biased. For very much the same reasons, reporting on Conservative crimes and criminals demanded truly extraordinary corroborating facts and strict adherence to the rules of evidence. Carter lost a handful of air crew in Iran and it cost him the Presidency. Reagan lost a company of Marines in Lebanon and nobody seemed to even notice, primarily due to asymmetry in the press coverage. I do not comment or allege blame on the events, I simply point out the differences in the reporting emphasis. Compare the coverage of Watergate and Iran-Contra, or WMDS with, say, Monicagate or Benghazi or Hillary’s emails. No doubt you can provide your own examples. HRC gets walking pneumonia and it becomes front page news and a constitutional crisis. Trump obscures, lies and bullies his way around the rules and common decency and only Mother Jones and Keith Olbermann seem to notice.

And in order to counter this surging tide of Bolshevik journalism, the Right has countered with Talk Radio, FOX news, Neofascist blogs, mass-produced viral email chain letters and other blatant and unapologetic propaganda devices. Even the responsible Right-wing journalists and commentators, the Buckleys and Wills and Krauthammers, are now being deprecated and shoved aside as being too “Establishment”.

In short, Trump gets away with murder, not only completely from the Right-wing press, but to a great extent from the Left as well.

Hillary is right. There IS a vast Right-Wing Conspiracy and it IS out to get her.
8)

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