The Issue is NOT Elizabeth vs. ann coulter.

[MarianJack]

That was a loss for coulter as soon as she spoke to Elizabeth. She was the unarmed "person" in a battle of wits.

The issue is, as it has been for longer than I care to torture myself to remember, our lazy, incompetent, corrupt and complicit "news" media.

This week Dick Lugar, a republican senator who would be a likely Secretary of State in a sane republican administration, broke publicly with this twice un-elected criminal of a president over his catastrophic war. He was cheered on by 2 other republicans including John Warner, who is hardly a foreign policy slouch himself. We also saw the vice-president boldly and publicly wipe his ass with the Constitution to cover up his lies and law breaking

What have the big stories been the past few days?

Paris Hilton, a steroid fiend wrestler murdering his family and himself and Elizabeth vs. ann the man.

Disgusting.

I am usually the most critical of the CBS Morning "News", which should be called the morning comedy show instead. This week however, I have to tee off on Meredeth Viera. She who paraphrased Gerald Ford to refer to paris hilton's release from jail as "our long national nightmare is over". Even if said tounge-in-cheek, this was irresponsible. This morning, she barely held her own as Vince McMahon espoused that the problem with Chris Benoit was NOT steroids.

What makes coulter's recent exposure so detestable is that ALL responsible news outlets now know that this "woman" brings NOTHING to the table. She is compelled to raise the level of shrill venom to try to keep herself in the headlines. It seems that the media feels a need to lift the rock high enough for ann coulter to crawl out when they have to cover up bad news for president moron.

I don't buy the argument that they present what the public wants to see. A responsible media shows the public what is really going on.

During the Vietnam war, the public didn't want to see a Vietnamese girl running down the road naked as napalm burned her skin off. They did not want to see a South Vietnamese officer blow a Vietcong's brains out. They saw it anyway and became outraged.

During the Civil Rights movement, the public didn't want to see Blacks being fire hosed or Freedom Riders being beaten. They saw it anyway and became outraged.

Celebrity news was what filled in the few seconds between weather and sports.

The past few days have made or reconfirmed 3 points to me.

1. WE have to be the media. What we have now is an international embarrassment.

2. I will wait until voting actually begins to consider the race for the nominations over.

3. I had been leaning toward HRC because I considered her to be the only D willing to fight the rw moron punditry. ChicaAzul and I are now looking HARD at the Edwards campaign.

I look forward to the day when we will be able to get responsible news coverage from more than a former sportscaster and 2 comedians. I'm 52. I hope I live to see it.

PEACE!

[MadMaddie]

1. I agree with you....but until "The Fairness Doctrine" is brought

back and the ownership of many news and communication outlets are cobbled together and owned by 5 companies is stopped....nothing will change....

[MonkeyFunk]

3. Coulter appears almost

entirely on Cable TV - which wouldn't be covered by the Fairness Doctrine.

The FD will NOT be a panacea to fix what people think is wrong with America. That, and it has almost no chance of ever being reinstated.

[MarianJack]

6. You're Right,...

...but we can support the sponsors of the Olbermans, Stewarts, Colberts, etc,.

[MarianJack]

5. Ahhh,...

...the joy of corporate media!:sarcasm:

[venable]

2. amen nt

[MarianJack]

7. Thanx!

:patriot:

[frogcycle]

4. what we need is a "white night"

someone with billions of dollars (who is NOT Rupert Murdoch) who believes in the concept of journalism of government of the people, of an informed electorate, to decide to "just do it." Start a news service, buy media outlets, and frigging change the course of history. I don't mean build a left-wing mouthpiece, I mean build what CBS news was with Edward R Murrow, what some of the great papers once were. It should have a huge web presence, of course, and be creative in getting "we the people" engaged in both consuming and producing the news.

Maybe someone who is, say, serving as mayor of our biggest city for $1/year, rather than screwing up the competition by trying to buy the presidency, just be a philanthropist, only instead of trying to cure malaria in Africa like Gates and Buffett, try curing our debacle of a "free press"

There might even be a founder of a populist cable network who could offer some pointers, before taking on that job the mayor is thinking of buying.

[MarianJack]

8. Nice Idea.

Ultimately, I don't think Bloomberg will run. Especially if he thinks it will lead to 4 more r years. :puke:

[frogcycle]

9. I started a thread on the topic a week or so ago - went nowhere

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x474927

[MarianJack]

12. Went Nowhere?

Kind of like this one?

[frogcycle]

15. yep

it really amuses me how threads lamenting coverage of trivia get thousands of responses saying, yeah, right, I hate talking about triva

recall the axiom of news:

if it bleeds, it leads
if it thinks, it stinks

ah, well...

[PA Democrat]

10. I think the fact that more and more people are turning to the internet for news

says that you are not alone in your disgust with the corporate media. I also believe that some of the MSM's obsession with the latest celebrity scandal has to do with the fact that many of their sponsors would be upset if they did too many hard-hitting stories on corporate malfeasance.

Just think, a series of investigative reports on why we are paying so much for our prescription drugs might result in a loss of ad revenues for that network for all of those Viagra, Celebrex, Nexium, Lunesta, Boniva, Zelnorm, Plavix, etc., etc., etc. ads. Spend too much time covering Dick Cheney's secret energy meetings and there goes that revenue from Exxon and BP ads. Do an honest investigative report on single=payer health care and say goodbye to all of those health insurance ads.

[MarianJack]

13. As I, and many others here,frequently say...

...WE have to be the media!

[Ganja Ninja]

11. Mathews was trying to create a controversy to exploit when he ...

invited Coulter on. As if there isn't any important topics he should have been covering. Damn right the the issue is not Elizabeth vs Coulter. The issue is, Why does Chris Mathews still have a job at MSNBC? I contend that Mathews colluded with Coulter before they ever went on the air. He knew every offensive word that was going to come out of her mouth and he approved. He's as big a piece of shit as Coulter.

[MarianJack]

14. How about the "heart-warming" moment...

...when he was trying to get John Edwards to admit that the woman who ridicules his deceased son is
"a pretty good writer" and intelligent.

Reprehensible! Especially if that drunk ass is a parent himself.