McClatchy reporter: 'Alarming power grab' of GOP by 'misguided group of extremists'

[Newsjock]

http://jimromenesko.com/2012/09/28/mcclatchy-reporter-why-readers-are-losing-faith-in-us/

On Thursday, I posted McClatchy Washington bureau chief James Asher’s memo to colleagues in which he says that “the process of journalism leaves a lot of nuance on the cutting room floor. And I suspect a little bit of the truth goes with it as well. … We must work to capture more nuance in our work.”

... Here’s McClatchy national correspondent James Rosen‘s response to the bureau chief.

... Even if we give Romney the benefit of a doubt that I don’t believe he’s entitled to, he’s running for the highest office and most-demanding job on the planet. If he says stupid and thoughtless things about the Chinese or the Russians or the Iranians, will they shrug their shoulders and say, “Gosh, we know Mitt didn’t mean it?”

Romney’s dad was governor of my state when I was a boy, and I loved him. He could mix it up with anyone, from royalty to janitors, he was a real person, and he stood for important things. Mitt has been running for president for six years, and I still don’t know who he is or what he stands for. I would suggest that is why he’s losing ground in polls, not because the anti-Republican crowd is misunderstanding his statements.

I agree with you that a lot of nuance gets lost on the cutting board, and that that is unfortunate. But I think a bigger reason our readers are losing faith in us is that we are less willing to call things by their true names, cut through cant and tell readers what is really going on. One of the important stories of our time that we are missing is how a misguided group of extremists, many of them closet racists like the author of the South Carolina voter ID law I’ve been covering, is trying to take over one of our two major political parties. Romney’s mean-spirited video rant is a cowardly accommodation to that alarming power grab.

[randome]

1. Fortunately for the world, the extremists are not very bright.

The GOP will be a long time recovering from this debacle.

[Sekhmets Daughter]

26. Perhaps,

but they are very rich...

[cstanleytech]

71. Ya know what, people said the same after 2008 and look what happened.

They retook congress and took some key democratic senate senate seats and have been the sole cause imo for why Obama has been largely unable to help the economy and the american people more.
So never ever make the mistake of counting them out by thinking they will take a long time to recover.

[NewJeffCT]

73. GOP policies caused the Great Depression

and they topped that off by supporting Hitler & Mussolini in the 1930s. Yet, they're still around.

Even after Watergate & Nixon resigning, Carter won a pretty close race in 1976.

[Indykatie]

2. Good Read n/t

[IDemo]

3. The extremists who have actually grabbed control are not misguided

Leaving aside the Teabaggers, who yodel their outrage about basically anything and anyone not fitting into their bizarre mindscape, the true extremists are the Kochs, et al. They know perfectly well which direction they want the ship steered: as tightly to the Right as the rudder will allow. Thankfully, that rudder seems to be showing some signs of cracking.

[leeroysphitz]

64. Something is cracking. I don't know where. n/t

[Iliyah]

4. DUH

Extremists have been plotting for a governmental take over for over 30 years. But as the craziest even the crazy are scared of them.

[Grins]

56. 30?

Ha! More like 60-years.

Remember, the movie "Dr. Strangelove" was released in 1964. The crackpots were active well before that.

[Jackpine Radical]

70. Well, there WAS the Lincoln assassination.

Not to mention the failed Putsch against FDR.

[eppur_se_muova]

69. Quite a few years ago, Norquist said "we've been trying to do this for 60 years" ...

coming from someone who is just now 55, and who founded Americans For Tax "Reform" 27 years ago, this is a remarkable statement. Clearly he considers himself part of a movement dating back to the thirties, and it was the New Deal that set off this reactionist jihad.

ETA: Wish I could find the actual quote on DU, but there are too many hits on those search terms to sort through.

[Javaman]

5. mittens is a sociopath

and as such never commits to anything and is a chameleon about everything.

sociopaths never take responsibility for anything least it ever comes back and bites, then and only if it does come back and "bite" him, he will deny it.

We all have seen this pattern in him.

[Buzz505]

6. Romney will do anything

to get elected, but accommodating the Koch brothers by picking Ryan was really over the top.

[renate]

23. that was pretty darned bad, wasn't it!

For him, I mean, as it turned out.

Welcome to DU!

[rhett o rick]

63. I doubt if Mittens even knows who "his" running mate is. He just goes along with the Koch flow. nm

[OldDem2012]

7. I found this Daily Kos article from 2005 to be very informative...

...it describes a very real right-wing plot to overthrow the US Government and remove FDR from office in

The Real Plot to Overthrow FDR's America
[link:http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/02/27/95580/-The-Real-Plot-to-Overthrow-FDR-s-America|

QUOTES:

"But how many of you know of the real plot to overthrow FDR during the early years of his administration, a plot conceived by rich industrialists and bankers concerned that Roosevelt was about to conduct a massive redistribution of wealth?"

"It's a sordid tale of fascist intrigue by some of America's most famous corporate and political families (including members of FDR's own party) which was deliberately covered up by both the only Congressional Committee to investigate the plot, and also by the leading media outlets of the day including the New York Times. And the truly scary part is that the plot might very well have succeeded if not for the bravery of a single, progressive leader: Marine General, Smedley Butler".

Read the article and you'll see very clearly how closely it resembles the current actions by the extreme right-wing.

[myrna minx]

21. Welcome to DU, OldDem2012.

Here's a link to the BBC4 radio program about the attempted right wing coup of 1933.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/history/document/document_20070723.shtml

[LittleRock]

25. thanks for the link...

Your militant working boy, Darryl.

[myrna minx]

29. Ha! It's a great book. Welcome to Du LittleRock.

[LiberalLovinLug]

49. They never gave up

Incredible that not only did Prescott Bush walk away unscathed, but from his ill gained wealth, his family prospered enough to garner the influence in high places again to push his son into running the CIA and then the country as President. One who coined the term "a New World Order".

And then his grandson also is allowed to rise to the highest post in the land. He then pushes the nation even further to the right. And many believe (many do not) that he oversaw the biggest false flag operation in history on 9/11, not so much by initiating it, but by allowing it to unfold, taking the cue from his grandfathers hero, Adolf.

And soon...everyone knows....his other grandson will be crowned as the heir apparent in 2016. And the MSM will once again ignore the sordid traitorous past of that rotten family.

As they say, only in America. I can't imagine Hitler's grandson winning an election in Germany.

[Wednesdays]

68. To be fair, Mussolini's granddaughter is active in Italian politics

But your point is still valid. Neither of them should even be elected dog-catcher.

[underpants]

67. Smedley Butler yes and Ike's letter to his brother in 1952 --BTW welcome to DU

"Should any political party attempt to abolish social security, unemployment insurance, and eliminate labor laws and farm programs, you would not hear of that party again in our political history. There is a tiny splinter group, of course, that believes that you can do these things. Among them are a few Texas oil millionaires, and an occasional politician or businessman from other areas. Their number is negligible and they are stupid."

President Dwight D. Eisenhower, l952-----
http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/bl_eisenhower_quote.htm

They were stupid until news programs starting making (and expecting) money.......aaaaaaand then Fox News

[Hutzpa]

8. Here is the underlying problem

Last edited Fri Sep 28, 2012, 06:33 PM - Edit history (3)

this is an example why the quality of media reporting has deteriorated drastically, what this correspondence
show is how board room editors and bureau chiefs have diminish or replace quality reporting in place of buying
access to these candidates, in turn the electorates suffer in the process because instead of getting fact reporting
we get haphazard reporting combined with cynical opinions shoved down our throats as NEWS, while the most
important facts are left in the newsroom for editors to use as a bargaining chip for other events.

What this does is gives false hope to a party that does not need anything else but the truth of how their party
has gone so far right that there are now factions within the party that are so brave with their racism that they
feel they don't have to pretend anymore. Their outright racism is gone unchallenged because of events as
described above that are gone unchallenged by reporters who want nothing more than to ensure their fridge
is stack full with food while the rest of us gets screwed wondering what just happen.

There are no longer conscious driven reporters, all we have left are those that craves influence so much so
that they will do what ever it takes to be among the elites and do what ever it takes to stay there. How many
reporters or journalists have we seen throwing temper tantrums toward republicans and their outright racism?
No one wants to talk or write about it because they are afraid of losing that network they've worked hard to
establish.

Kudos to James Rosen for challenging his Bureau Chief with facts, maybe he can get him to think about what
led him to becoming a reporter.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

12. Sorry, but your hard line breaks make that very difficult to read because of DU formatting. nt

Try posting without line breaks and keep the blank line between paragraphs.

[Hutzpa]

15. You could be the only one having that problem

I'll suggest that you change whatever it is you're using to view my post.

Please try not to hijack the thread, if you have a problem viewing any post
report it to Elad or EarlG or in any of the following forums;

Welcome & Help

Meta-Discussion


you can even send them an email, but try not to hijack the thread.

[daleanime]

17. Constructive criticism is often intended to be just that,

constructive.

[Duppers]

20. he's not the only one

Having that problem. All the other posts are formatted normally.


Edited my own post due to format problem caused by posting via phone.

[dmr]

24. I have the same problem.

The rest of DU is easy to read, your post is not.

[eqfan592]

31. Having the issue here as well.

And only with your post...

[Bernardo de La Paz]

32. Sorry, but the problem is at your end on text entry

Sorry, but the problem is at your end on text entry.

Look at this screen capture. I purposely widened the browser window by about ten percent to make it even more obvious. You have non-DU line breaks in your text. There are the DU line breaks, for example at "correspondence" in the first line, but you have your own line break after "show is" on the next line.

It looks like you have copy-pasted text from another editor that was formatted there.

I'm surprised you would be so sensitive to constructive criticism. By posting here, you get to see that it is not me that "could be the only one having that problem" (thanks for the backup, folks).

[littlemissmartypants]

34. .

[Hutzpa]

37. I've tried re-aligning the post

let me know if display is better.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

41. You are getting closer.

You are getting closer, but it is still not right. Every line break that you see in the short lines below is a line break that you put in somehow (except sometimes at the end of paragraphs).

You don't have to fix your text for this message, but it would behoove you to figure out your text entry problem for future posts because it is present in all your posts except those that have only short lines anyway.

The problem could be caused in one of two ways that I can imagine: 1) You are entering line breaks manually at the end of each line as it gets near the edge of the DU Message text subwindow, or 2) you are entering text in another program that is automatically adding line breaks.

#2 is more likely because if #1 applied, then I would expect you would get a similar view to what we see because your browser window would have to be quite wide. If you use #1, check the bottom right of the subwindow to see if there is a little dotted triangle. You can grab that to change the width and height of the text entry subwindow.

The simplest text entry is to just enter text into the DU Message text subwindow and never press Enter except when you want to put a blank line between paragraphs and then press it twice.

[kurtzapril4]

65. His post looked fine to me. No line breaks.

[WinkyDink]

46. He's not the only one.

[Le Taz Hot]

66. No he/she is not the only one.

The poster tried to be polite and suggested that you stop using hard line breaks so we could read your post more easily. I assume you post so your position will be read. Why not make it easy on your readers? It's not a big deal and certainly not deserving of snark you just dealt out.

[get the red out]

27. Absolutely

It makes the news look cartoonish as they pretend that extremists and racists should be considered with as much weight as rational, knowledgable people. The reporters act as if they know no better and that makes them look like idiots.

[Hutzpa]

35. I'd actually given up as I thought no one can read my post

Last edited Fri Sep 28, 2012, 02:50 PM - Edit history (1)

hehe -- you make a valid point which is idiots have been allowed to take control of the
conversation, there is a living proof within some threads on DU. They operate within the
realm of rationality by projecting objectionable argument in the form of subtle disguise
obstruction that tend to go unnoticed.

The biggest mistakes we have made is allowing such practices to go unchallenged with the
hope that things can get better, we're also banking on editors and bureau chief to somehow
regain their consciences by preventing these distortion.

[littlemissmartypants]

38. FYI: He is not

from here, short answer. But I am not trying to hijack or pick a fight. If there is a topic switch you don't have to respond to it if you don't want to just switch it back. Some like banter, some like steam rolling some have legit criticism... roll with it.

[Hutzpa]

40. I'm not trying to pick a fight either

I just wanted us to debate the thread, there are those who use silly stuff to deviate from
having legitimate conversation, but I've tried re-aligning the post. We're still friends.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

42. Idiots in this thread? Really?

idiots have been allowed to take control of the
conversation, there is a living proof within this thread.

Idiots?

[Hutzpa]

44. I've corrected that error

now working on the other error which you posted.

Trying to figure out what is causing the line break within my posts.

You said you've notice that on all my posts on DU, is that right?

[WinkyDink]

47. Yes. Every post. If yours are the only ones, it isn't the rest of us "idiots."

[Bernardo de La Paz]

48. Correct, I do see them in all your posts. Solution is simple, but let us know how you enter text

Correct, I do see them in all your posts. The solution is simple, but let us know how you enter text. Do you type directly into the DU "Message text:" subwindow, or do you type into another program and copy-paste into the Message text subwindow?

See my post #41 for more discussion: http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=1432034

[PoliticalBiker]

53. Much of it stems from....

the subtle but continuing migration from journalism in its pure form to what sells.
Today it is all about ratings. Who can say the most outrageous things that garner headlines instead of a little critical thinking and questioning of statements. As far out of whack the polytishuns are, the media (left or right) are just as much at fault for not better vetting what they print/air. Allowing outlets like Faux Snooze to continue to be called a *news* outlet is beyond laughable.
The search for truth and fact are out the window.
When money is the focus, truth, morality and what is RIGHT disappear

[Hutzpa]

54. This.

nt

[ReasonableToo]

58. Investigative journalist are almost extinct

I agree

I was just talking to my mom about this earlier today. It used to be that newspapers had investigative journalist and the tv news would read and expand on the well-researched newspaper reports. Then they started doing their own reporting.

Somewhere along the line both the newspapers and the news outfits stopped doing actual research and investigating. They cover press conferences and have the two-party representatives and corporate lobbyists on to push one side of various issues.

We don't hear from academics that are not on corporate payrolls or belong to partisan "think tanks"

When Mother Jones or Propublica come out with an investigative report many MSM shows dismiss the info.

Even PBS/NPR's reporting is now slanted for its sponsors: Monsanto, gas and oil, defense contractors, etc.

We need truthful, reasoned non-partison reporting!

Any show or network that has "news" in the title should have a TRUTH requirement. And should have to correct (multiple times) any falsehoods that hosts or guests say.

[bigtree]

9. in my lifetime, they've been bigoted, racist, mysoginistic, homophobic, xenophobic, corporatist

. . . hard to get more extreme than that and stay out of jail.

[colsohlibgal]

13. Do They Have A Whig Wish?

They're headed there. Eisenhower, Nixon, Ford, Reagan, Goldwater - they all would be drummed out of today's republican party. Goldwater hated the new mean breed of republicans and was quite vocal about it in his last years.

The top marginal federal tax rate was 91 or 92% every year Ike was in office and he had no problem with it.

If you haven't, watch Eisenhower's farewell address, as he was about to pass the baton to JFK in January 1961. His big warning was that we needed to be vigilant in guarding against undue influence being acquired by the military-industrial complex. It obviously fell on deaf ears from both parties and we'll pay for it for a long, long time.

[mountain grammy]

14. Corporate media, profit before truth, because truth will lower the profit.

It's the fox news 'Merkin way!

[ReasonableToo]

59. Agreed

[pinboy3niner]

18. G.O.P. Shows Its Plan For Rebuilding America in Detailed Image

http://republicanswine.com/2012/06/24/g-o-p-shows-its-plan-for-rebuilding-america-in-detailed-image/

[littlemissmartypants]

39. .

[OLDMDDEM]

19. So Sad

I find it so sad that a person of Mitten's character is allowed to run for president. I can remember the "anybody but Mitt" crowd and now they think he is the one to vote for. The Republican party of now is not the Republican party of 50 years ago. The party then really cared about people, not greed. Congressmen were not bought. Now we have a "businessman" that can't stop putting his foot in his mouth. It makes me question how much he had to do with his success in making so much money and running Bain. I think someone had to hold his hand. He doesn't seem to have the tenacity to be president or run a company. He is a joke.

[fasttense]

55. What Mittens did with Bain really didn't take a genus or much tenacity.

Most children born into wealth are not all that smart. They get through college because of their money not because of their brains. Harvard and Yale are notorious for giving great scholarships to a few outstanding geniuses to get their average college SAT and IQ scores up. Then they can accept the pampered babies of the idle rich with their accompanying dismal scores.

Mittens just used his name and father's influence to get a decent position at Bain then went off and raided (or harvested) successful businesses who had CEO and executive staff that could be bought off. The tax laws had just recently been changed so Mitt could take advantage of the spread between buying and selling the businesses. It didn't take a whole lot of anything but greed, cruelty and lack of a conscious.

But the reason Mitt and W were chosen by the RepubliCONS was because they are both dumb and easily manipulated by their rich friends. Mitt especially, has very strong loyalties to his class - the idle rich. These old, rich men don't want presidents and congressmen who think for themselves or are too smart.

The corporate elite want ruthless loyal buffoons who think wealth determines the value of a life.

[mountain grammy]

22. Loved Governor George?

remember the Detroit riots? Gov George Rmoney was more human than his son, but every bit as inept. Mittens inherited more than cash.

[MrScorpio]

28. George sent the National Guard into the city

Which was responsible for a virtual bloodbath. I saw the tanks myself.

I don't have as fond a memory of George Romney as others.

Folks should bone up on what he did to Detroit in 1968, it wasn't "nice" by any measure.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

30. I hope like hell one of the three asks Obama and Romney about the voter suppression stuff. I

want to hear Romney's answer about is it right to limit the number of people voting despite the fact that there are few cases of voter fraud? do you support this? what is your rationale for supporting?

bet candy's all over it. NOT

[BlueStreak]

36. I think the problem is QUANTITY more than quality

Let me explain.

It was not that long ago that teevee news consisted of 3 networks each going at it for a 30-minute slice each evening, or 60 minutes if you include PBS. That format included 7 minutes of ads and about 8 minutes of soft news. So at most, there was 15 minutes to cover all the issues of national importance. There was little time for opinionating, and indeed on those infrequent occasions where people like Walter Cronkite took time to lay out an extended opinion, it was usually a matter of great weight and that commentary itself was a significant news item.

Because of the limited format, the news programs felt no obligation to present "the other side" on a 50/50 basis. They just tried to get the facts as well as they could.

Having said that, the format also didn't allow them to dig into the soft underbelly, so stories like Watergate and Iran-Contra languished for months before being taken up by the networks.

Today we have the opposite situation -- a vast surplus of time and a virtually unlimited number of microphones. There still is high-quality reporting going on, but much of it is buried by the huge corporate megaphones. The problem is not the journalism. The problem is the 95% of what is out there that is NOT journalism.

[LiberalLovinLug]

52. Good observation

When I read WinkyDink's entry just below:

"Sorry. I ain't buying that "The true Republicans are GOOD PEOPLE!" crap."

I could put 2 and 2 together.

I think BECAUSE these right wingnut assholes have so much time to fill, that its only logical that their true nature will eventually come through. Fox News commentators rail on and on about how all the networks are lefty pinko and America finally has a REAL conservative voice to listen to. And they do. We finally get to hear what they really think after they have exhausted all the carefully worded talking points and with time still left they devolve into spouting out what they really think ie..Obama is racist against white people..

[fasttense]

57. I think several other things also played into TV news coverage of old.

Though your evaluation of which stories the news went with is very good I think 2 other factors also played a role.

1. Equal time. Though the fairness doctrine didn't have the overwhelming control RepubliCONS like to claim it did, what it really did was offer the other side equal time to present their case if they wanted to. If for example Walter Cronkite had a story describing the unethical and immoral behavior of Nixon. The station had to turn around and offer equal time to RepubliCONS to present a differing opinion. But frequently the other side didn't take them up on the offer and/or the rebuttal was not advertised or given the same prime time.

2. Separation of commercial and news. News was only carried because the station, in exchange for having access to the people of the United States, had to show some public service and news was how they did it. Most stations did not expect to make money off their news programs. Not like the money they made off sports and beauty pageants. Most stations offered news as a way to meet the public good requirement of the fairness doctrine. Unfortunately Raygun did away with any public good requirement and now news shows are there to make money not report the truth.

Thank deregulation for yet another problem.

[benld74]

43. Some of the blame COULD lie with his father as well, we really know nothing

about his upbringing, other than being given waaaaayyyy too much

[WinkyDink]

45. Sorry. I ain't buying that "The true Republicans are GOOD PEOPLE!" crap.

[ellenfl]

50. wow. kick for a full read later. love mcclatchy. the only investigative msm left. eom

[Solly Mack]

51. Bother. The GOP invited them in and now someone wants to claim

that the GOP is being ruined by extremists?

LMAO

Please!

The Republicans have pandered to racists and religious extremists and assorted other bigots for years and years. They have built entire election strategies around such groups. Those so-called extremists are the Republican Party. You don't get to invite the robber in, encourage him to steal your stuff, and then get to pretend you're the innocent victim while filing your insurance claim.

[DirkGently]

60. One of many obvious things that somehow never gets said.

Journalists are supposed to make distinctions, not blandly exchange tit for tat and shrug.

[HereSince1628]

61. From where I'm sitting that sure looks like a serious crack in the face of the dam...

republican unity ain't what it once was. I feel like I should probably acknowledge Rmoney for doing that.

[BrainMann1]

62. We have to understand

if Mitt holds true to his base which he has to now because it's to close to the debates. He'll be killing himself with the tea partiers. The extreme right is in turmoil because Mitt changes is views to whoever he is talking to and not holding on to their beliefs. The Republican platform is now for the first time in years under scrutiny because of Mitt and their policies.

[Scuba]

72. Nah, they're all like that.