Maddow: Media adopts Republican narratives for midterm elections

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

I remind readers as often as I can that the conventional wisdom of the media villagers and Beltway bloviators is one and the same with the GOP talking points and an echo chamber for right-wing talk radio and the FAUX News Fraudcasting Network (FOX PAC).

I have been posting as often as possible about how the conventional wisdom (sic) is often just conservative propaganda — and more often than not wrong.

What you are witnessing is a predetermined media narrative for this midterm election that Republicans are resurgent and will win in a "wave" — a media narrative that began just weeks after President Obama was sworn into office when CNBC reporter (and derivatives trader) Rick Santelli called for a "tea party" to "take back our country." This was not spontaneous. Oh, no.

The media narrative has been orchestrated every step of the way by the Republican Party and billionaire-funded conservative corporate front groups (e.g., FreedomWorks) working in tandem with the right-wing noise machine of conservative media, led by FAUX News. Their goal is to convince voters that their media narrative is a foregone conclusion and thus it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. They can then pat themselves on the back about how brilliant they all are on election night. Mission accomplished.

This kind of media manipulation is the very definition of political propaganda. It is unconscionable, and it is illegal in this country — not that anyone has ever been prosecuted for it or lost a broadcast license. Media is no longer the watchdog of democracy but the protector of the corporatocracy.

Monday night, Rachel Maddow delivered a devastating commentary on the Beltway media's GOP media narrative "conventioanl wisdom" for this midterm election. It is "must see TV." Monday, Oct. 18th – msnbc tv – Rachel Maddow show:

It is two weeks until the elections. And now, two weeks before the elections, it is finally become clear what is going to happen in those elections and why. It had not been clear before because over the past few weeks, in particular, the media narrative about what‘s going to happen in this year‘s elections has turned into a Republican campaign ad. There has been no daylight over the past couple of weeks between how the Beltway media has been explaining what‘s going to in politics and what conservative candidates say they want to happen in American politics.

There [is] not an ideological coherence to what‘s going on in right wing politics. There‘s not a cogent argument to make about what kind of challenge these folks present and what‘s going to happen in these elections.

It‘s not the deficit. It‘s not big government. It‘s not the stimulus.

It‘s not Obamacare. It‘s not populism. It‘s not that all of these people are outsiders.

It‘s none of these things. These things are all provably not what‘s going on. They‘re not bolstered by the facts no matter how many times you hear from the Beltway media. This is not what‘s happening.

But the media dressing these guys up like there is some coherent narrative, like there is some cogent argument here, that conveniently obscures what‘s really going here, which is that we are on the precipice of elevating to federal office, the most extreme and in some cases strange set of conservative candidates in a lifetime.

Yes, this has happened to a smaller degree before. In 1994, in the first midterm election after the last Democrat president was elected, we got a slate of candidates that included Helen Chenoweth of Idaho, Steve Stockman of Texas. These two were so close to the militia movement in this country that Mr. Stockman actually received advance notice that the Oklahoma City bombing was going to happen.

There are extremist candidates who from time to time survive the churn of electoral politics and actually make it into the mainstream. There‘s always a few. But there has never been this many.

None of this makes any sense. We‘re just about to elect a whole bunch of extremists—unless things change in the next two weeks.