Avedon at The Sideshow reviews the case of the Demonization of Cynthia McKinney.
What was her problem? She asked the wrong questions, questions our betters didn't want asked. McKinney kept asking, but most don't.
Journalists learn what they can and cannot ask and what they can and cannot write. That is they quickly learn if they want to work. Even journalists who've established themselves outside the usual corporate structures are affected by the pervasive repetition of the corporate message.
Most Democrats in Congress also accept the terms established through GOP/corporate control of the media. Few go up against the media whip for long. Think just how compliant Reid is. Think just how agreeable Hoyer is. And Polosi? Is there the possibility that she started out thinking she could actually perform her job as Speaker of the House without being demonized by the media? Whatever her goals to begin with she's been mauled into line now. She's following Reid's example. Reid repeatedly says one thing while quietly working to accomplish the opposite.
And Obama? Notice that once he and the media eliminated Clinton from the race Obama now follows the dictates that requires he betray his supporters and his own stated beliefs and demonstrate that he will be a good and compliant little Democrat should he still have a chance of getting elected after he's run the gauntlet on the corporate press' terms.
So who's the crazy one? McKinney? Obama? Us?
UPDATE: Anonymous, in the comment section, appears to think it's the media which is being maligned and not McKinney. Perhaps? But was the media being maligned when they correographed the accusation that Gore said he invented the internet. Was the media being maligned when they correographed the 'evidence' of the Dean Scream. It goes on and on. But I'm sure Anonymous must have the inside story. He/she just didn't see fit to give it to us here. She/he just commented like any blogger would ...
1 comment:
Having covered McKinney as a reporter working for a living in the mainstream media -- whatever that is -- I read a lot of blogs about the former Georgia Congresswomen, and many -- most -- perpetuate the half-informed view that she has been "demonized" by the mob of corporate hacks, networks, and, you know, just generally no-account,shiftless, gutless journalists.
Of course, none of these bloggers that I can discern, or have ever met in reporting a story, have ever set foot in her old hometown and tried to cover her as a political figure or simply as a human being.
No, they are more content to take the hooey they read second, third, 28th thousandth hand and spin their own version or revision of reality andn or so it seems -- and proclaim it a great and noble and, well, hell, COURAGEOUS act of enlightenment where before them only went numbskulls, cowards and the scurvy rabble or bums otherwise known as reporters and journalists (YEAH, we know about THOSE guys).
Please.
Could you get off your wazoos and do a little work? Do a little first hand reporting. Make a few phone calls. Hop on a plane. Knock on a few doors. Ask people who know Cynthia about Cynthia. Ask her enemies. Ask her supporters. Check her voting record. Check with the Federal Elections Commission on her campaign funds. Go to a few campaign rallies. Read everything you can about the woman.
Then do this Travel back in time to a period say, oh six or eight years ago, and, as a reporter try to get a call returned from a U.S. Congresswoman. Try to get an interview. Try to get some kind of accountability, or at least comment, from her about her performance in Congress as an elected official.
Even harder, try to get an interview now. She doesn't return calls. She doesn't grant interviews. Because, as we know, they will "demonize her."
Could you guys just give it a rest, or at least put into perspective your own bias and gasbaggery,which is profound.
Or, even better, just do a little work as reporters and a lot less spin-doctoring as bloggers. But, you know what, I know that ain't gonna happen.
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