Drinking our own bathwater? Fox News v. MSNBC

Ron Radosh comments here on an article (" The Story Behind the Story") by Mark Bowden in The Atlantic. Key quote from Bowden:

Television loves this, because it is dramatic. Confrontation is all. And given the fragmentation of news on the Internet and on cable television, Americans increasingly choose to listen only to their own side of the argument, to bloggers and commentators who reinforce their convictions and paint the world only in acceptable, comfortable colors. Bloggers like Richmond and Sexton, and TV hosts like Hannity, preach only to the choir. Consumers of such “news” become all the more entrenched in their prejudices, and ever more hostile to those who disagree. The other side is no longer the honorable opposition, maybe partly right; but rather always wrong, stupid, criminal, even downright evil. … In a post-journalistic society, there is no disinterested voice. There are only the winning side and the losing side.

So it's Olberman and Maddow v. Hannity and Beck. No meeting in the middle. What's a "news" consumer to do?

Making Nice with Dictators

Doesn't. Work.

Josef Joffe has it right (money quote):

It took Jimmy Carter until Christmas 1979, when the Soviets rolled into Afghanistan, to figure out that goodwill is not good enough. Let’s hope Mr. Obama learns faster how to shift from “good” to “will.” A reset, no matter how often, doesn’t change the reality inside a computer. The operating system remains the same.

Read the whole thing.

Rules for Counter-Radicals

MSM meet alternative media.

A little ACORN online, and "mighty oaks" of TV and print media fall.


Of events this month, Don Surber notes:

I’ve been a newspaperman for 30 years, doling out opinions for 22. It is unbelievable that a rodeo clown [Glenn Beck] and two kids from High School Musical 3 (as Jon Stewart put it) [James O'Keefe III and Hannah Giles -- with a little help from Andrew Breitbart] are dismantling the most adored, historic and super-duper smart administration since Jefferson dined alone.

I haven’t seen anything like this since the guy who ran the gift shop at CBS — Matt Drudge — made Monica Lewinsky a household name.

An Army of Davids indeed.

NRO has the Rules for Counter-Radicals: beating the Left at its own game.

O-buyer's remorse

Money quote from Jennifer Rubin in "Obama's Cardinal Errors" (read the whole thing):

Had Obama run a campaign promising to excoriate his predecessor at every turn, pass a mammoth energy tax and regulatory scheme, chase private health insurance from the market, outspend George W. Bush, deride America to overseas foes, toss valued allies including Israel, Honduras, Poland, and the Czech Republic under the bus, renege on missile defense in Europe and cut our own systems by $2 billion, and hire a “truther” for green jobs czar and an attorney general who wants to talk more and more about race (but not prosecute the New Black Panthers), it is fair to say he would never have gotten elected. So it should be no mystery why so many voters are having buyers’ remorse. ...

The president could turn this around ... But so long as Obama and his spinners remain convinced the real issue is not enough him or the mean conservatives or racism, there is little chance of that.

Bronco Mendenhall on the Jim Rome radio show, 9/8/09

Give a listen.