the "librul media" meme is by far the most effective political weapon the right has come up with in the last 30 years.

It is so effective that even the "liberal media" cops to their while liberalness while at the same time arguing the right wing talking point. So it actually gives them license to follow every right wing narrative while at the same time saying they;re not because, of course, "they're so liberal."

It allowed the media to say they were "in the tank for Obama" while at the same time clobber him daily with arugula eating--Jermiah Wright following/William Ayers worshipping/lapel pin denying/why can't he close dithering/lipstick on a pig narratives pounded day in and day out by all MSMers.

Bingo.

And FOX News elevated punditry and opinion to the level of news delivery, then accuses actual news organizations of reporting liberal opinion rather than news.

JG, you do realize that none of those stereotypes you've listed were effective against now President Obama, correct?

With regards to Bob's assessment, I'll tell you exactly why the "establishment press" is quick to "defend" the FOX "News" Channel. It's not that hard to figure out if you've watched the steady decline of not only journalistic integrity within the last decade or so. The situation has reached critical mass. It's no use in trying to see the bright side in the matter. It is a tragic state of affairs no matter what way you look at it.

The reason why they're quick to "defend" FNC is, simply put, they ARE FOX "News." They are all the vainglorious foxes pretending to be sheep. They are all the spreaders of misinformation, as they beguile themselves, and unfortunately, their patrons with sensational objects and articles. We are as pathetically self-indulgent, intellectually indolent, and obsessively opinionated as they are - "they" being, of course, the "establishment press," not just FOX "News." FNC, with all its chicanery, as comical, horrific, and asinine as it may be to consider to critical thinkers, is completely apart of the "establishment." To think otherwise is folly. One must embrace this as a fact. The incestuous nature of the media apparatus within this nation is finally working against us all.

Our only recourse is to either become apathetic and attempt to tolerate the morally amorphous blob the fourth estate has become, or simply wait for it to run out of sensational articles and starve itself. If we wait for the latter, the outcome will resemble the ending to "Network." Shit, we're three quarters of the way there now. It starts with network anchors getting caught in sex scandals involving video cameras in peepholes and is amplified with an at-the-scene reporter getting killed on-camera at some location or other. There are more similar scenarios that can and probably will occur.

You want to make a big deal out of the health care insurance industry profiting from the death of Americans, correct? Then is it so very hard to understand that the "media establishment" at present profits from the degradation of our collective intellect?

Push aside the personal politics for a moment, and observe what the "establishment press" has become: the haven for intellectual zombies. They're all like those zombies in the old version of Dawn of the Dead, pretending to be mere mannequins. They're not mimicking statues just to be cute; they are out to harm the survivors in the mall. The swine media pretends that it is completely gone completely stupid, but it is all a ruse to keep you from realizing that it is you, the patron, that is stupid for not DEMANDING a better source of information and/or entertainment.

Do zombies eat to live, or are they just fucking with us?

Think about it.

Oh, and yes, I do know that there are no such thing as flesh-eating zombies.

Happy X-Mas or whatever that holiday is coming up.

Actually, I am glad to see we're starting to use the rethug tactics against them now. Haven't we seen a bit of reluctance now on FNC's part to drive the goofball memes (birther, tea bag, etc.), and be a bit more "balanced" and objective?

I am not sure you have any control of the advertisements that you put on your web. But, correct me if I am wrong, but I just saw an ad from
Americans for prosperity on your site.

Did I or ?

I think, even more than the fear of liberalness, is the fear of low ratings. They look at Fox and realize that their formula gives the highest ratings. So instead of trying to stick to the truth and ride out the wave of Fox's popularity, they adopted their methods and let the meme live on.

Can I just say, it is amazing to me how many so-called progressives are advocating that the president forgo telling the truth to minimize the political cost? Isn't that supposedly the "left's" biggest complaint about Obama-that he won't speak out strongly enough on health care/torture/war b/c of politics? But, when it comes to Fox News, God forbid you say anything? Of course, the people saying this are people who are strongly invested in the status quo--"lefty" media types who need Fox to stay as the big bad enemy so they don't have to delve into the crap in their own backyards.

Yes, it's been interesting to see how fast the networks have been to come to the defense of Fox as if this is some national outrage , while the same charges have been leveled against MSNBC (not to mention countless other media outlets) by conservatives for years. Remember how much attention MSNBC gor for having Keith and Chris Matthews covering primaries got (which I admit, is a legit story, even though a lot of the times the coverage would be spent on a panel with Pat Buchanan, etc), even though MSNBC eventually took them off to avoid that conflict , to be replaced by David Gregory? Also, Rachel Maddow only got her show a couple of months before the election, the Ed show did not exist, nor did Dylan Rattigan's etc. And let's not forget how many NBC reporters were involved in the Plame affair.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/27/AR2008052703047.html

"It's an organ of the Democratic National Committee," says Steve Schmidt, a senior strategist for John McCain's campaign. "It's a partisan advocacy organization that exists for the purpose of attacking John McCain."

Ed Gillespie, President Bush's counselor, says there is an "increasing blurring" of the line between NBC News and MSNBC's "blatantly partisan talk show hosts like Christopher Matthews and Keith Olbermann