Meet The Unconscious Press
April 15, 2012
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Posted by Bob Lord It really sucks that so many people rely almost exclusively on TV for information. I’m doing something I almost never do — watch Sunday morning television. I’m currently watching Sunday Square Off, and Braham Resnick actually did a pretty good job of helping Andy Thomas make an ass of himself. I … Read more
The hypocrisy of ‘Mittens’ and his ‘mommy wars’ faux controversy
April 15, 2012
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
Up With Chris Hayes this morning demonstrated the hypocrisy of "Mittens" and his "mommy wars" faux controversy. Romney: Welfare parents 'need to go to work':
The presidential campaign was consumed this week by controversy over Ann Romney and stay-at-home moms. Republicans seized on a stray comment by CNN contributor Hilary Rosen, who said Ann Romney had “never worked a day in her life.” Romney responded to the Rosen comments in a speech to the National Rifle Association on Friday, saying, "I happen to believe that all moms are working moms.”
But video from earlier this year [below the fold], aired today on Up With Chris Hayes, shows Romney campaigning on the proposition that meaningful welfare reform should require parents with children to get out of the home and into the workforce. Responding to a question at a town hall event in Manchester, New Hampshire on January 4th, Romney described his position on work requirements for welfare recipients as governor of Massachusetts.
“I wanted to increase the work requirement,” Romney said. “I said, for instance, that even if you have a child two years of age, you need to go to work. And people said, ‘Well that's heartless,' and I said ‘No, no, I'm willing to spend more giving daycare to allow those parents to go back to work. It'll cost the state more providing that daycare, but I want the individuals to have the dignity of work.’”
That position has been conservative orthodoxy for years. Republicans have railed against the “culture of dependency” created by welfare programs, campaigning aggressively for policies that would force welfare recipients off the roles and “back into the workforce.”
As Romney himself put it in a speech to the Burlington Business Council during his campaign for Senate in 1994, the purpose of welfare “is to get people back into the workforce, that work is ennobling, and that we will do everything in our power to make sure that people who are on welfare have an opportunity and an obligation to go to work, not after two years but from day one if we could.”
The media abandons its role as ‘gatekeeper,’ now just a provocateur of manufactured controversy
April 14, 2012
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
If we learned anything this week, it is that the corporate media is completely useless. It no longer serves its traditional role as "gatekeeper" of what is deemed newsworthy.
Case in point, TeaNN (formerly known as CNN) contributor and Democratic strategist Hillary Rosen appeared on TeaNN's Anderson Cooper 360 and said that "Ann Romney had not worked a day in her life" (she meant to say Ann Romney had never been employed a day in her her life). A faux pas that the Romney campaign and RNC jumped on in an attempt to revive the culture warriors' "mommy wars" from a couple of decades ago. I expect the Romney campaign and the RNC to manufacture controversy, it is what they do.
But what was entirely unacceptable is how the supposedly professional corporate media villagers pounced on this manufactured controversy like a hungry lion on a fresh kill. Media villagers were visibly salivating over this manufactured controversy. It exposed the media villagers for what they are: provocateurs of manufactured controversy with which to fill hours of air time with endless talk.
All of the corporate media engaged in this fake controversy, but the worst offender by far was TeaNN. This was their paid contributor who made a mistake and was criticized immediately for it. TeaNN gas bag Wolf Blitzer got all high and mighty on his Situation Room with Ms. Rosen and she apologized to Ann Romney. Rosen apologizes for Ann Romney comments.
Then TeaNN gas bag John King had the Obama campaign's David Axelrod on for an interview during his segment, and tried to infer that this CNN contributor works for the Obama campaign. David Axelrod To CNN’s John King: Hilary Rosen Is Your Employee, Not Ours – Mediaite:
Chief Obama strategist David Axelrod spoke with CNN’s John King Thursday and distanced the campaign from Hilary Rosen‘s controversial comments that Ann Romney had not worked a day in her life. “She actually is your employee, not ours,” Axelrod told King. “She works for CNN. I think CNN would not allow her to be an operative for our campaign.”
King asked Axelrod why Rosen’s comments were such a big deal that Obama, Vice President Joe Biden and multiple other campaign operatives had to condemn it.
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“I think we have an obligation in politics and public life, when someone, even friends, say things that are inappropriate to say so. In certain ways, when your friends say it, there is more of an obligation to do so. I think that’s true on both sides. I’ve been disappointed on the other side of the aisle just recently when Governor Romney and others were not willing to stand up and denounce speech they felt that most people would call inappropriate. I thought we had an obligation to speak and speak very, very quickly to make clear that this didn’t reflect our point of view and that we thought Hilary should apologize. She did do that. The other thing that we should clear up is that she actually is your employee, not ours. She works for CNN. I think CNN would not allow her to be an operative for our campaign. She is not. She never has been. She is a supporter of the President. The Romney campaign has throughout the day portrayed her as an advisor to the president. That’s simply not true.”
Fact Checking the mendacity of ‘Mittens’
April 14, 2012
Posted by AzBlueMeanie: Steve Benen has this week's post on Chronicling Mitt's Mendacity, Vol. XIII: Mitt Romney recently felt comfortable lecturing journalists about, of all things, "quality control" when sharing the news with the American public. As Ed Kilgore joked, "Now I suppose when you have already developed a reputation for towering mendacity on subjects … Read more
Presented without comment
April 14, 2012
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by David Safier From Sen./Cap'n Al Melvin: “In my view, our unemployment compensation provisions are overly generous and there are plenty of jobs out there.”
You too can be a “Lifetime Member” of the NRA, starting today
April 14, 2012
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by David Safier Romney calls himself a "Lifetime Member" of the NRA, even though he joined in 2007. Liar? No. Here's how you too can become a Lifetime Member — the proper term is "Life Member" — starting today, for a mere one thousand bucks. From the NRA website: I'm not digging up any new … Read more
KPHO expose on ALEC influence in Arizona
April 13, 2012
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by David Safier
KPHO TV News is doing some genuine reporting on ALEC's corporate-led influence on Arizona legislators. Along with the video you can watch below the fold, if you go to the website, you can see an interview with state Democratic Senator Steve Gallardo along with the promise of more stories in the works.
As you've probably heard, corporations are pulling their support from ALEC — Pepsi, Coca-Cola, McDonalds, Wendy’s, KRAFT and Intuit — and Arizona's APS isn't renewing its funding next year.
The lesson is: Lots of people have been making noise, writing about ALEC, demonstrating at their meetings, creating websites and publishing reports, and it's all paying off. The Treyvon Martin shooting brought the ALEC story into focus since ALEC was instumental in spreading the "Shoot First" laws around the country. But without the groundwork people laid, I'm not sure the ALEC connection would have taken hold.
Watch the KPHO news story below the fold.
Ethics, smethics! Tea-Publicans are addicted to lobbyist perks
April 13, 2012
Posted by AzBlueMeanie: Despite the Fiesta Bowl scandal that ensnared over 30 members of the legislature who had to amend their financial disclosures to report trips and tickets for sporting events, no lessons have been learned. There is no mea culpa, no act of contrition. No sense of remorse. No ethics reforms. Tea-Publicans are addicted to … Read more
