Thom Hartmann meltdown: "I'm trapped on RT because they pay the bills. Did I sell my soul?"

[uhnope]

...I was just going to tell you about FOX News when I realized my show appears on a network just as bad as FOX. Now I realize what happens when you get in bed with dictatorships like Russia, I mean, my God, Russia Today is like FOX plus The Onion, except we know we're supposed to laugh at The Onion. Oh God, Putin has closed down the free press and has pretty much wrecked democracy in Russia, but I'm trapped on RT because they pay the bills. Oh my god, did I sell my soul. Why did I let my manager talk me into this. First Liz Wahl quits, now Sarah Firth quits and says "Every single day we’re lying and finding sexier ways to do it” and now I'm supposed to slam FOX? I'm getting soooo drunk this weekend, I swear. And not on the free vodka, either!

heh

[genwah]

1. I have a hard time telling around here; is this snark?

[TexasTowelie]

2. The video does not agree with the excerpt provided.

You also did not include a link. Please provide, thank you.

[KoKo]

6. Video I saw has nothing to do with the OP's Title for Video or

Content. It's quite deceiving. Seems an attempt to get views for a "hit piece showing Hartmann as a mouthpiece for RT....with no verification in the video which is an attack against Fox Network and MSM Disinformation. Also...no date on the video because the OP posted their OWN comment without the usual "You Tube" Posters snip of Show Content.

[JDPriestly]

8. Please see my post #7. I agree with you.

[LovingA2andMI]

13. That makes two of us.

Why is this lie allowed to be on DU Again, since the video does NOT in anyway concur with the title of this post?

[Schlomo Morgenstern]

3. Media whores

Just another media whore. He knows it and does it anyway.
Just like all of CNN who later admitted that they broadcast propaganda for Saddam Hussein in Iraq for 8 years - so that they could have 'access'.

So if that is what they did in Iraq, I imagine that were CNN around in 1938, they would have spread Nazi propaganda for Hitler if he let them have a Berlin office.

Pathetic presstitutes.

[hardcover]

5. The CNN thing just pissed me off so bad.

They felt justified because it was the only way they could get access. !!!!!!!!!!!
What the Hell good is access if you can't report the truth?
At least with no access they wouldn't be spreading lies at call it news.

[JDPriestly]

7. I quote from Glenn Greenwald's book "No Place to Hide."

At page 190, Greenwald describes the tactics used to deceive and damage reputations.

"One PowerPoint slide presented by GCHQ (the British surveillance service with which the US collaborates in spying on innocent people and spreading disinformation) surveillance officials at the 2012 SigDev conference describes two forms of attack "information ops (influence of disruption)" and "technical disruption." GCHQ refers to these measures as "online Covert Action," which is intended to achieve what the document calls "The 4 D's: Deny/Disrupt/Degrade/Deceive."

Further, a power point slide states again at page 190 of Greenwald's book cited above"

EFFECTS Definitions

- "Using online techniques to make something happen in the real or cyber world"

- Two broad categories"
- Information Ops (influence or disruption)
- Technical disruption

-Known in GCHQ as Online Covert Action

- The 4D's Deny/Disrupt/Degrade/Deceive.

Speaks for itself.

Russia uses, of course, the same techniques. Very unfortunate when they are used in the US by any person or country because some one of us who is so used to and tired of the deception of our own media -- deception for pay not for ideology -- is bound to point out what it is.

Deny Disrupt Degrade Deceive.

We see a lot of that on DU. I'm sure it is heartfelt, but it is what it is.

Unfortunately, a lot of people come to DU naively believing what they read and hear elsewhere. Their posts in their early time here reflect those borrowed ideas.

We all need to inform ourselves well enough that we can read and listen critically and make informed decisions about what may be true and what is obviously not. Having to defend your ideas on DU develops a lot of critical thinking. I know it has for me.

RT is what it is. Thom Hartmann is a great, independent commentator.

If you don't like RT, you can also hear an hour of Thom Hartmann a day on KPFK Los Angeles -- independent, listener supported radio. I don't always agree with it either, but it at least doesn't repeat the same old same old corporate garbage.

[JDPriestly]

4. uhnope, I trust Thom Hartmann no matter what channel he is on.

That does not mean I trust RT. I don't watch RT much, but I have seen excerpts from it that were blatant lies.

I wholeheartedly agree with Thom Hartmann that Fox News lies.

It is sad that news media, whether it be Fox or RT is allowed to lie and never have to back up its "so-called news" with evidence. But that is the price we pay for the First Amendment, and the price is, in my view, worth it.

In reading your comment, I am reminded of the firing of Dan Rather from, was it CBS?

CBS fired Dan Rather for not corroborating the facts behind a story. Unfortunately, CBS was not so picky, not so discerning in its stories leading to the Iraq War. The reporters who repeated the utter lies of the Bush administration kept their jobs as thousands died. That's just one example of the sloppy reporting that passes as "news" in our American media.

No one expects much of RT. It has some good programs like Thom Hartmann.

If our media were concerned about presenting various sides of issues and not just the corporate/establishment side, an American TV channel would have the courage to pick up Thom Hartmann and give him time along with the likes of some of the utterly bigoted and loud right-wingers that people the TV screens and radio receivers across the nation.

Thom Hartmann's video above is well taken. The written comment on the OP is, I fear, irrelevant and misleading to people who do not have audio reception. What is good for Fox is good for RT. It's viewer and listener beware because, as Thom Hartmann says, no media is required to be honest in America. They are all permitted to lie. It's free speech.

I prefer Thom Hartmann's free speech to Fox's. How about you, uhnope?

[valerief]

9. +1

[reorg]

18. "I have seen excerpts from it that were blatant lies"

I don't read much RT either, most of the time nothing, occasionally maybe two or three articles per day. They have an open bias, they don't pretend to be neutral. But I haven't seen a single "blatant lie". So, I'm curious, could you cite an example?

[JDPriestly]

21. I could not give dates and times. Just watch and sometimes you will

notice such a slant that you turn it off. Just utter propaganda. Perhaps lies is not the correct word, but more a point of view that is so slanted you don't want to watch it. That is my opinion. I often react in that way when I watch Fox News or Morning Joe. It's just propaganda.

I don't read as much as two or three articles a day. I just watch occasional videos on DU. I like some of the economic commentary and some of the guests they have. I don't like some of the commentators who are I think clearly Russian. I lived on the edge of Eastern Europe during the Communist era so I may be somewhat anti-Russian. In fact, I probably am. I was in Munich when the Russians marched into then Czechoslovakia in the summer of 1968 and just struck up a friendship with a very wonderful family at a campground in what was then Yugoslavia.

[conservaphobe]

11. If he had an ounce of integrity, he'd recite that verbatim. nt

[navarth]

17. Thom Hartmann has no integrity?

Riiiiight....

[conservaphobe]

19. That goes for anyone whose show displays the RT logo.

I'll stick with MSNBC.

That's the brand closest to my ideology and I don't feel like needing a shower after watching its programming.

Except maybe the prison shit on the weekend.

[navarth]

24. sorry, can't talk now....watching Thom on RT.....really good!

..........

[demwing]

29. Stick with the brand closest to your ideology

or stick with the voice closest to your ideology.

MSNBC is fine (better without Morning Joe, but hey...), but Thom Hartmann has more integrity in his stool than any three other networks's combined roster of "journalists."

Instead of knocking Hartmann, how about starting a letter writing campaign to MSNBC to hire Thom (and Papantonio) as full timers?

[cantbeserious]

12. To Those Awake - This Is Obvious

eom

[freshwest]

14. And what do you object to in the video?Why silence that message?

This is not working for you.

[polynomial]

15. To lie with no responsibility

The key idea is the lie. The “at will principle” to lie with no responsibility, or integrity giving unpredictable effects in social reaction is a monumental problem in American Journalism.

Especially by the Fox news media, moreover supported by the Supreme Court is antithetical to basic Constitutional values.

Now to understand from Thom’s presentation the Supreme Court supports Journalist that lie is totally against the grain, against good values, against the blessings, against all that is moral.

This Supreme Court has to be the most neurotic to make such judgments. That type of judgment only induces a neurotic chaotic society.

That is exactly what is happening because of our Supreme Court, our social issues are too out of control.

This social phenomena Journalist lying, or corporate lying is wasting away the American dream, the basic culture that good. This lying cheats America from the strength or influence to improve society. America’s highest court has failed the American people and failed to defend the Constitution. They failed God’s blessings.

[navarth]

16. Great Suffering Bloodstained Godz, is this a joke???

If it ISN'T a joke, it's the lamest attempt to discredit our most trusted broadcaster I could possibly imagine.

If it ISN'T a joke, some people here in this thread are totally not earning their filthy money.

Either way, I really enjoyed Thom's clip; this reminds me: I have to check our RT more often. Thanks uhnope!!!

[Cha]

20. Just don't call out Putin on his homophobic crack down on Gays in Russia, his stomping on

journalists who don't agree with him, or his internet suppression.. and I'm sure you'll be fine, Thomm. Putin's RT will continue to pay your bills.

[pa28]

22. So who is the liar?

You are!

Those statements are nowhere in the video.

[suzanner]

23. I listen to Thom on the hands-free radio

on a local station. I know I'm quaint, probably irrelevant. I don't care what broadcaster pays Thom's bills as long as he's on the air, I guess. I think I'd know if his viewpoints suddenly or subtly veered into another world. I've observed that lefties are less susceptible to propaganda than the righties just by nature, overall.

[navarth]

25. who says RT pays Thom's bills?

...other than some questionables in this thread, that is...

[ErikJ]

26. Hartmann is the most honest well-informed talker on the media, period.

Last edited Sat Jul 26, 2014, 07:58 PM - Edit history (1)

I cant believe all the things I've learned from him. He backs up everything with historical and/or scientific context which is unheard of in the media. I have a biology degree and am very impressed by his knowlegde of that alone.

[JDPriestly]

30. Excellent!

[MADem]

27. Do you have a link for that written material in the shaded box? Or is that your own work?

It's not clear.

If this is your own commentary, you might want to take it out of the "excerpt" box.

[malokvale77]

28. Very dishonest of you...

heh, is right.

Why are you here?