On The Media

I listened again on Saturday morning to your far left leaning hour. The first half had two or three sets adoring and kissing the loving ass of Barack Obama--how he was the coming of the new Messiah and how the rest of the world stood in awe. The last half hour skewered the Conservatives for a poorly run campaign, skewered a dead man (Lee Atwater) who was the brilliant strategist for the Republicans in the late 80s and 90s, and praised a communist--Studs Terkel.

I was wondering if you ever had a set that criticizes the media for its far left viewpoint, its overwhelmingly positive pieces on anything in the media that is liberal, and its 70% positive stories about Hussein Obama during the election and only 40% positive stories of the McCain.

I will be listening, but I doubt that I will hear anything of the type. The two or three times that I have heard a fair and objective story from your program, you immediately run home to mama and follow the story with another far left piece.

Sorry, Brooke, I completely disagree that the celebrations, and perhaps the "mourning," were caused by "the authoritative voices on the networks [who] called the race." "Authoritative voices" were not what we celebrators were awaiting. Rather, we sought affirmation that the margin of victory was large -- so large that neither the United States Supreme Court nor a late-breaking Osama bin Laden videotape could have have any effect on the clear mandate of the American electorate.

In the days, hours, and minutes before the polls closed, many of us were waiting for the proverbial other shoe -- news of mass voter disenfranchisement caused by misinformation about voter eligibility, or another last-second White House leak about an Obama family member's immigrantion status, or perhaps an Election Day bomb, bomb, bombing of Iran. Judging by the 2000 and 2004 elections, we had reason to worry.

None of that happened, thank goodness, but many of us would not have been surprised if something had. The spontaneous outpouring of joy at 10:01 Central time was in no way an affirmation of mainstream media's authoritative voices. To the contrary, it was a celebration that democracy had triumphed despite mainstream media's appalling slumber for much of the last eight years.

Brooke,

Will you be as popular in NYC jazz clubs if you stick to your journalistic ethics and speak truth to the Obama administration?

I know I would not want to jeopardize my "in" with the cool kids of the New York jazz scene with any segments critical of President Obama or his administration.

So nice to be blogging in the positive ethos after 18 months of banging out repsonses to god's own party wackos.

This race cannot be celebrated without raising a glass for Senator Paul Wellstone and the training his family's organization has been doing at Camp Wellstone. I am happy Obama took up the effort but am sad no one mentioned Wellstone. I went through one of the first weeks in Columbus O-H-I-O. I gurrantee you that many of those folks made it happen in Franklin County.

Here's to you Paul, David et al !

An allegedly “liberal media” show tells us that only TV can create the “moment?” Funny that the liberal media is presenting the same old tired media as the record of significance, but I do not own a TV.

Obama supports bailouts for large financial corporations, wars in the Middle East, and unilateral military action when necessary; (see Pakistan). The media calls him liberal? It looks more like business as usual … status quo … conservative. He aspires to Regean, no?

I would agree that "liberal" is an inappropriate label for Obama but I understand why the public relied upon the networks for confirmation of his election after the past two national debacles.

We don't trust our electoral system, even more so since the Help America Vote Act. If the vote hadn't been so lopsided, I doubt even the networks would have calmed our doubts.

What I want to know is whether Brooke broke another voting machine this time...