The American media has used up its credibility on vanity projects. AGW was the primary one over the last few years, but the biggest vanity project of theirs was Obama. He’s been elected, and no one in America really has any illusions, on either side of the aisle, that he was “the media’s candidate.” The problem that they face is that they are now tied to him, and he’s sinking fast. Turns out, despite how many times they claimed it wasn’t true or didn’t matter, that he’s inexperienced, indecisive and lacks any sort of guiding principle. They spent all the credibility they had with the American people over the last 15 years or so, and ramped that spending way up to get Obama elected. They are now broke, incredible, and paying the price. Fox News is the only one that didn’t waste its credibility capital on this (and have learned to horde it viciously after being under credibility attack by the others since its birth) and is now thriving because of it. Even leftists in America are now turning to Fox more than the rest of the media when they need hard news, like in a crisis or attack situation. The media wasted the reputation they built up since WW2 on tawdry baubles like AGW and Obama, and now no one trusts them. That’s the state of the US media.
– Samizdata commenter “Phelps”, writing about this.
Anyone who voted for Obama was a racist! Did they vote for any reason other than the feel-good-about-race factor?
And will the Big O get a second term? What do Americans think about that?! Is not voting for him second time around proof of racism?
Most people here in the states do still get their news from traditional outlets – however, keep in mind the large number of Americans who do not read, watch, or listen to any news whatsoever. Some are apathetic about politics specifically, some figure all news sources are rubbish anyways, and some simply wish to stick their heads in the sand and don’t want to hear any of it. I know many individuals who become extremely irate at any mention of politics.
Of those who do have an interest in actually following the news, very few still trust the traditional media to any extent, or believe that the outlets are attempting to report objectively.
Most of those who still believe the MSM outlets are objective, or even mostly accurate, are (1) middle and upper class leftists or (2) journalists themselves (I realize that I am being somewhat redundant here). Witness the outrage expressed on Journolist over the “bad” and “biased” reporting on Fox, as opposed to the NYT, CNN, etc. This falls right in line with their typical “well, everyone knows that…. ” sort of problems.
Lastly, there is another project that the media have also spent their credibility on – selling the idea of an economic recovery. They pour enough effort into it that it probably deserves its own category. The “unexpected” declines in economic numbers month after month are already subject to widespread ridicule.
The US media haven’t blown 65 years of credibility at all. These things go in cycles and the population/electorate has a short memory.
Soon enough the media will be able to embark on its next fad. There’ll be another saviour standing for president or another fashionable scare story to replace AGW.
horde [sic]
Surely the problem with Obama is not that he has “no guiding principle”, but that he has quite a few guiding principles, all of them bad.
Have to agree with you Brian.
I frequently hear things like ‘when is Obama going to start doing thing that help America’ or ‘when is Obama going to be proud to be an American’ ( if he is ! – which I personally doubt ) or ‘ why doesn’t Obama understand the economic problems he’s causing’ and on and on.
I try to explain that Obama is doing EXACTLY WHAT HE IS TOLD TO DO. I doubt he has any personal guiding principles or core beliefs. He is simply putty, a mouth-piece, a tool, a figurehead if you like, that is being used to advance the agenda of people who know EXACTLY what they want – the downfall of America.
The problems that are being created by this agenda is intentional not done through ignorance but through malice !!
As far as the credibility of the MSM in this country. They are viewed by those I know and respect as somewhere between lawyers and used-car salesmen in the integrity/honesty department.
Told by whom, Jerry?
yes jerry, told by whom? give us some clear evidence or even facts, not just some hazy conspiracy mongering.. I’m inclined to agree with your sentiments, and have no love for President Unicorn, but vague insinuation helps no one.
Personally I am inclined to disagree: I see no problem with the assumption that O is advancing an agenda he is very fond of. Obviously he is not acting on his own (duh): he is being assisted by others sharing the same agenda, as well as by useful idiots, but this fact alone does not make him a puppet.
Unlike some of the more cynical, I do think that the MSM HAS blown much of its credibility on the 2 subjects mentioned. Americans who do participate in politics(and many recent awakees) are not happy with either the country’s direction or the economy itself. That is unless they are Euro wannebes, economic parasites, media drones, white guilt liberals, or good Dem party members. Of course that is maybe a solid third of the Americans who bother to vote anymore…
Obama win a 2d term? Don’t bet against it. He is playing that race card hard already, 2 more years will have that pot boiling nicely. Add in the white guilt and a paid for media and you can predict the outcome…
I still don’t believe that he has a guiding principle. Frankly, socialism has a much better record than he does of playing the long game to wreck nations. I don’t think that he is controlled by the Soros crowd as much as that’s just the first thing that comes to mind when a problem comes up.
He’s just lazy and incompetent. I don’t think he has any active plots. Everything points to this being a series of problems that land on his desk, and the answer is always, “what’s the fastest way to get rid of this and get back to golf?” paired with a shallow harvard worldview.
Phelps makes an interesting, if unoriginal point, in my humble opinion. Sadly, his use of the term “like in a crisis or attack situation” suggests that he himself is not uninfluenced by the Cry-Wolf! agenda that the statists propagate through all the media outlets, including Fox, when it suits it.
There is no crisis. It’s not the end of the world. And, frankly, evidence of some type of attack that promised a higher body count than that reaped by the retards round my way who don’t know how to indicate when turning would astound me.
I have no specific names but if you’re looking for a nomination, start with Holder &/or Emanuel.
Hearing Obama speak ‘off teleprompter’ shows, to me at least, that if he were any more vacuous, he’d have to be told to breath regularly. There is no continuity of thought – he simply says what he THINKS is expedient for that moment – a street hustler if you will.
This is NOT an insightful or wise or even intelligent person. I’ve said from the start that he is a sock puppet for someone or some group of someones. He has no accomplishments of his own. No ideas of his own ( just reiterations of the socialists clap-trap that was poured into him from a young age ).
The systematic destruction of this country’s economy, the deliberate ignoring of our boarder issues, the snubbing of our allies and the prostration before our enemies is too effective and coordinated to have come from Obama.
He is being steered/guided/instructed/something, call it what you will, by one or more persons FAR more intelligent than he.
Any of you that have raised children have seen cases where a child is put up to doing something they shouldn’t and gets caught at it. You don’t need to know the name of the child who did the influencing to know what happened.
Obama is no different. His ‘mask’ has slipped frequently enough to see enough of the ‘real’ Obama to know that what is happening in this country DID NOT come out of his head !!
OK, Jerry, I concede that this is entirely possible (after all, I don’t know the man personally, and have not been masochistic enough to watch him speak all that much). But if I were a parent in your example, I certainly would look for that other kid (or group of kids). To me, Emanuel – while a very unpleasant character – does not come across as a major player, at least not of the kind you may be thinking of. Same probably goes for Holder and all the other motley crew surrounding the Big O. Such major players, by my thinking, would stay behind the scenes of public offices.
So who is it, Jerry? Bilderbergers? Illuminati? Trilateral Commission? Masons? Spectre? How deep down this rabbit hole do you want to take us?
Sorry, I just don’t believe that Obama’s strings are being overtly pulled by some sinister, shadowy group bent on world domination. He’s the captive of his past (aren’t we all?), but if anyone is “pulling his strings” it’s the ghosts of a few long-dead (but unfortunately not forgotten) economists and political philosophers. Sure he’s an empty suit, without accomplishment or relevant experience, and is in over his head so far that he can’t see the top. He has surrounded himself with like-minded sycophants who (although they share the same socialist mindset) give him sometimes conflicting advice because fundamentally they are as clueless as he is. So he lurches from one crisis to another, buffeted by forces he can’t understand,* taking whatever solace he can find in golf and vacations (preferably away from his shrewish wife, who probably pushed him into this position as much as Hillary did Bill). I think he will be secretly thrilled to lose the election in 2012, because then he can return to an idyllic life free of responsibility but with a vastly improved ability to make money.
* It is amusing, in a train-wreck sort of way, to watch him being manipulated by Nancy Pelosi.
The news is inherently biased as someone has to decide of all the events of a particular day (week, month) which ones are worth noting. The process of choosing which ones to note have to pass through a filter. This has always been so.
Building and sustaining empires (and the buy in “the street” is supposed to play) is the order of the day in choosing what to emphasize. The process, when unsuccessful over a stretch, will simply transform to meet the nexus point of those who wish to lead and those who wish to be led.
I find myself in a somewhat unusual position – I am going to defend Barack Obama.
The idea that Barack Obama is “indecisive” (about things that actually MATTER to him) or “lacking in any sort of guiding principle” is false.
The man is about as “indecisive” or “lacking in any sort of guiding principle” as V.I. “Lenin” – he just uses different tactics because he is in a different tactical position (an armed revolution in 2008 would have had no chance of victory – but being elected President means that he can do his bit to nudge things along).
“There is Paul – being paranoid again”.
Yes – I am so paranoid I think the man’s parents (mother and father) were pro Soviet Reds, and that his maternal grandparents were Reds, and that his childhood mentor (Frank Marshall Davis) and that he went to endless Marxist conferences as a graduate student and that he spent HIS ENTIRE ADULT LIFE being involved in organizations controlled by Marxists (his personal friends) and going to a Liberation Theology “Church”.
I also believe that 1+1=2 and that water is wet.
As for the “mainstream” media – some may have been so in love with getting a black man elected that they knew nothing about him and did not bother to find out (remember the campaign lasted over a year- and that Barack Obama had been in the public eye since 2004).
Let us assume this was true of some in the media (in spite of having years to do background reseach – and having a vast research staff to do it). This still does not explain the radical links of many of the journalists themselves.
For example, Mr Chris “tingle up my leg” – whose personal hero is SAUL ALINSKY (as he has said himself). Nor is this an isolated example.
That is the problem with expecting the modern “mainstream” media to be fearless Red hunters – many of them are Reds themselves (and the ones who are not DO NOT CARE – they are just making a living and going with the flow).
The “Stimulus” Act (the greatest slush fund in history – written by Jeff Jones and the rest of the Apollo Alliance), Obamacare (which will prove to be the final attack that tips what is left, after all the other interventions, of health freedom in America into extinction) the Financial “Reform” Act (which gives total and ARBITRARY power over finanical services to the government).
And on and on.
Barack Obama not achieved anything, Barack Obama not ready with plans (written well in advance – by his allies) which he has largely put into practice?
If only this were so.
The one thing he has failed to do is “educate the country”.
The msm and the “education system” (the schools and the universities) may still do their “best” to cover up the truth – but it gets out (thanks to Fox News and other sources), for example the msm (the Economist magazine and so on) ignored the vote of more than 70% of the voters in Missouri against Obamacare – but people know about it.
However, Obama (and his allies – his very powerful allies) are aware of all this – and work night and day to discredit sources of dissent.
Easy, look at sources he uses in support of his various college “theses” and other “academic” work. Look at the papers submitted to him, with the perception of gleaning approval grades when he was “teaching”Constitution.
Then run parallel time lines with the loudest “independant” groups that have ALL faced legal and “academic integrity” issues-yet somehow manage to
stay afloat in expedient reincarnations.
Let us know how the FOIA requests go on those issues. No? “Special protections”?
Well alllllllrighty then, follow the money. and the hosts/guest lists of those private TPOTUS fundraisers.
And let’s check the resumes “previous employers” on the folks that make up the company he keeps.
I hope such vague insinuations help prod along others intellectual inquiry, kinda’ like tenured “academics” do when getting their BEST students to do the heavy lifting for their next published CV padding.
Still waiting for that certificate of live birth with a doctors handwritten signature on it. Even illegitimate “anchor babies” get one of those.
Sharing similar beliefs and having common philosophical and even employment/social organization backgrounds does not ipso facto prove the existence of a conspiracy, let along some sort of shadowy group to whose tune Obama dances. Nor does providing mutual aid and support to ones friends and intellectual allies. That’s just human nature.
Try again.
You are being a bit simplistic, Laird. No one (in their right mind) thinks that there is some kind of organized conspiracy/shadowy group pulling O’s strings as if he were a puppet. However, if it is true that the man is indeed indecisive or does not have a clear idea for a course of action (whatever action, for whatever ends, good or bad), then the idea that he has like-minded friends who try to influence his actions is not at all outlandish. This has been the case since time immemorial, with rulers of all kinds and political stripes. It is indeed part of human nature, and it really comes down to what kind of personality the person in the visible position of power (such as a POTUS) possesses. For historical examples, by all accounts Stalin was nothing like that, but Louis XVI seems to have been just the type. And if, in fact, it is the case as described above, then it is not unreasonable for me or you to become interested in exactly who has the President’s most attentive ear. Like I said, I am not at all sure of Obama’s true personality, having never met the man, so I am in no position to rule out such a scenario.
I don’t disagree with any of that, Alisa, but it’s not what I understood either Jerry or CaptDMO to be saying. If all they’re saying is that leftists have Obama’s ear, the only sensible response is “well, duh”. There’s no point to the discussion.
I happen to believe that Barack Obama was born in the United States (because I see no good reason to believe that his mother was out of the United States at that time) – however even if the lady was outside the United States I doubt the courts would rule against him (after all John McCain was born in Panama – although in an American military base hospital?). So the mess over his birth certificate is (to me) not worth pushing.
Actuallly I am a conformist – I give the establishment the benefit of the doubt most of the time.
For example I am often told that the 16th Amendment (income tax) was never rightfully ratified – yet the claimed differences in the wording that various States passed seems to amount to errors of spelling and grammar (the sort of stuff I do all the time – and so lots of other people) and other such (not enough for any court to toss it out – unfortunate, as the income tax stinks, but true).
The trouble with Barack Obama (as I have already made clear) – is (unlike the 16th Amendment and so on) the EVIDENCE keeps pileing up – the more one looks into his background the more stuff one finds. One does NOT find that doubts get less – they GROW.
At some point (which I passed long ago) one has to say that the case against Barack Obama is beyond a reasonable doubt.
He is a Red – his entire life points to this, it is wildly UNREASONABLE to pretend he is not a Red.
By the way the other big thing of 1913 (the first being the Income Tax) is on far less Constitutional ground.
No Constitutional Amendment was passed to create the Federal Reserve – and to claim that the power of Congress to “coin money, regulate the value thereof, and of foreign coin, and to fix the standard of weights and measures” covers the wild and wacky antics of the Federal Reserve is ABSURD.
If paper money (and credit money) is Constitutional – then why get rid of the Articles of Confederation?
After all – the main complaint against the Congress under the Articles of Confederation was that it printed money. It was demanded that only “gold and silver coin” be “legal tender”.
If the “not worth a Continental” paper money power of the government continued to exist AFTER the new Constition was created – well then the Founders who went to Philadelphia might as well as stayed at home and the United States continued to be under the Articles of Confederation.
Two main things were promised by the defenders of the new Constitution – that there would be free trade between the States, and that money would be gold and silver coin only.
The second has fallen apart – and as for the first……..
Well we are told that “regulate interstate commerce” does NOT mean that people can (for example) buy health cover over State lines (State regulations are allowed to strangle interstate trade in this – and many other cases).
But we are told that someone who does NOT sell goods or services over State lines (indeed does not sell them at all – for example just grows stuff and eats it himself) is subject to Federal government regulations on the basis that “interstate commerce” means whatever the Feds want it to mean.
Perhaps the Anti Federalists were correct.
After all there is no way that even the wildest Progressive can use the Articles of Confederation to justify Federal regulations (on top of State regulations) of endless thousands of pages – controlling every aspect of human life.
The work of Barack Obama only just about completes a trend that has been going on for at least a 100 years – the Feds can do anything they like now, to any person in production or trade.
In short – anyone who does business in the United States (or with people based in the United States) is very unwise.
George III would have been HORRIFIED at this unlimited and (in classical terms) lawless government – a government of endless thousands of “laws” and no “rule of law”.
“But Britain is no better” – most likely it is not. But what sort of defence is that?
Laird, there is both qualitative and quantitative difference between “leftists have his ear” and “important decisions are made outside the area between his ears”. I think that, beyond the rhetoric and the hyperbole in blog comments and elsewhere to which most of us are prone, the latter is the actual argument presented by Jerry et al (I tend to disagree in Obama’s case, but again, things like that happened many times before).
Then you’re back to my original point, Alisa: I don’t believe that there is some cabal of illuminati making “important decisions . . . outside the area between his ears”. At least, not one which is overtly “pulling his strings.” Where exactly is it that we disagree?
“Perhaps the Anti Federalists were correct.” Indeed, Paul. Events have proven them prophetic.
“He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.” Time for a new Declaration of Independence, this time from the home-grown occupying force.
Where we disagree Laird is in the use of words such as ‘cabal’ and ‘Illuminati’, which imply that anyone suggesting such a scenario is a crazy conspiracy theorist. What I am saying is that Obama does not come across as someone who would fit in such a scenario, but that the idea in and of itself is not crazy or outlandish, and that it is possible that I am not reading the man well enough for him not to fit the profile.
No one has contradicted anything I have said – it is has just been ignored.
I am used to the “spike” principle from the “mainstream” media – but not here.
The debate about whether “leftists have the ear of Obama” or whether important policy is made by other people – MISSES THE POINT.
The point being BARACK OBAMA IS A LEFTIST HIMSELF.
The Reds do not have to whisper in his ear, or bypass him to make policy is some secret chamber – because OBAMA IS ONE OF THEM.
This whole debate reminds me of the discussions among rebels in past centuries.
“The King is misled by evil councillors”
“No, the King does not even give these orders – others give the orders in his name, without even telling him….”
Such well meaning rebels (Robert Aske and others) did not tend to have a happy ending.
Of course Barack Obama did not do such things as write the thousands of pages of the “Stimulus” Act himself – but anyone who thinks that Jeff Jones and others had to decieve Obama, or that President Barack Obama would be shocked and upset “if only he knew” the contents of such measures – is mistaken, deeply mistaken.
Paul, I am not ignoring your points, and I agree with them, but you may be missing mine: the fact that Obama himself is a leftist is indisputable, but it has nothing to do with actual operative decision making, such as the oil spill or the Sherrod case (for a good example on which see Laird’s last comment here). To farther clarify, I am responding to Jerry’s point about decision making in the current Administration. I have no doubt that whoever makes the decisions is as red as they come (i.e. both Obama and his friends and associates), but beyond that fact I think it is still important to find out who exactly makes the decisions.
Paul, no one here (as far as I know) disagrees with you that Obama is a Marxist. We take it as a given, which is why no one has commented on that point. What Alisa and I have been disagreeing upon is whether he is being secretly controlled by the Illuminati. Clearly, she is a crazy conspiracy theorist! I hope she’s wearing her aluminum foil hat.
Laird dear, I have no need for that link – it has been printed, framed and hung in my living room a long time ago. Still, I do hope others will find it as useful as I have:-)
Smited!
It clearly is a conspiracy!
Someone call Manchuria, fast!!!
Alisa, here’s a book you might enjoy.
Hmmm, I wonder who was pulling his strings while he(?) wrote that…
I would associate myself wholeheartedly with the comments here by Paul Marx. Obama is on inertial navigation, the reference coordinates having been programmed from child-hood much as Marks has outlined. The man is also a street-smart charlatan of the first order–unfortunately is is also simultaneously a buffoon wedded to an outdated ideology he is not smart enough to realize is a real-world failure seriously lacking in explanatory power to act as any sort of guide capable of capturing the modern world in all it’s complexities.
Marks is right, Obama needs no one to whisper in his ear–besides he is tone-deaf to the realities of life anyway–both people and aircraft/missiles on internal guidance need no updates from the external world; in fact are formed/built incapable of processing the data of new realities. Obama is a pre-programmed missile of mass destruction aimed at the heart of the democratic and capitalistic experience/existence.
As someone here once said: “Preview is my friend–I just don’t visit her often enough.” Sorry about the *Marx* bit Paul. As well as the double *is*
I think you forgot to “preview” your preview post, “irgil”!
Alisa and Laird – I apologize.
Xenophon – I could complain that you used the German (rather than the Russian) spelling of my name. But, in the end, Russia turned out worse that Germany (if only it had not been for the Nazi period I would not have had to say “in the end” even for Jewish families).