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The Media, Robert Reich's blog and bitterness


By now must of us have read or heard that former Clinton Secretary of Labor Robert Reich endorsed Sen. Obama. I went to Mr. Reich's blog to try understand why he made the endorsement. After reading the first two paragraphs, he started to get into the area that I find personally more important than his endorsement.  I am always looking for someone on the other side of (or inside ) the media bubble to explain to us, the audience what actually goes on in the studio and behind the camera. I think the audience forgets this a business and rarely questions the financial connections which are all but invisible. Mr. Reich offers a brief look inside the media. I think what Mr. Reich is trying to highlight is the idea of <i>False Consciousness and Ideology</i>.






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Great blog. I book marked it and will go back again. Thanks.

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Robert Reich?

Hummm.

That should be worrying to Obama fans.

I think the link is broken so here is another try try

His endorsement isn't what catches my attention it is his analysis of the media which I find compelling.

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This is the part that I found most compelling:

Listen to this morning’s “Meet the Press” if you want an example. Tim Russert, one of the smartest guys on television, interviewed four political consultants – Carville and Matalin, Bob Schrum, and Michael Murphy. Political consultants are paid huge sums to help politicians spin words and avoid real talk. They’re part of the problem. And what do Russert and these four consultants talk about? The potential damage to Barack Obama from saying that lots of people in Pennsylvania are bitter that the economy has left them behind; about HRC’s spin on Obama’s words (he’s an “elitist,” she said); and John McCain’s similarly puerile attack.

Does Russert really believe he’s doing the nation a service for this parade of spin doctors talking about potential spins and the spin-offs from the words Obama used to state what everyone knows is true? Or is Russert merely in the business of selling TV airtime for a network that doesn’t give a hoot about its supposed commitment to the public interest but wants to up its ratings by pandering to the nation’s ongoing desire for gladiator entertainment instead of real talk about real problems.

But the end is really le coup de grace

Eighty percent of Americans know the nation is on the wrong track. The old politics, and the old media that feeds it, are irrelevant now.

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1849

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