Joe Conason: The hunting of the president resumes

[babylonsister]

The hunting of the president resumes

The right is trying to link Obama to Blagojevich and corruption -- and the mainstream media is playing along. The Clinton rules are back.

By Joe Conason

AP Photo/Charles Dharapak

President-elect Barack Obama speaks Dec. 11 in Chicago about Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich.


Dec. 12, 2008 | Questions are raised. Connections are drawn. Conspiracies are theorized. Guilt is imputed, implied, asserted and very widely associated. And more of the same feckless fingerpointing is exactly what Barack Obama should expect from the Republicans, the right-wing propaganda machine and their enablers in the mainstream media -- even after Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich has met whatever fate he deserves.

From the kooky obsession with his place of birth on WorldNetDaily to insinuations about his Chicago pedigree by the Associated Press, all of the attacks launched lately on Barack Obama give off the same familiar smell. Even a quick sniff is enough to bring back memories from a decade ago, when no perfidious accusation against Bill or Hillary Clinton was too crazy to deserve attention.

The madness that was eventually classified under the quasi-clinical rubric of "Whitewater" began, in no small degree, with the dubious idea that Arkansas, the Clintons' home state, was a peculiarly corrupt place -- and that any politician from Arkansas by definition was suspect (but only if he or she happened to be a Democrat).

Many of the familiar figures and institutions that should be permanently discredited by their roles in the Clinton drama have emerged again to smear Obama. Newsmax, the big right-wing Web site founded by Richard Mellon Scaife, sugar daddy of the Arkansas Project, dispatches daily news alerts with blaring headlines: "Obama Birth Certificate Battle Not Over" and "Obama, Blagojevich Tied to Same 'Godfather.'" Rush Limbaugh, who has never stopped hinting that the Clintons murdered Vince Foster, no matter how many investigations concluded that Foster's death was a tragic suicide, now wonders how Obama could be unaware of "all this stuff swirling around him."

Such are the "questions" darkening the great forensic brains of the right. "Did Barack Obama's transition team know this was going on? Heck, did Barack Obama himself know this was going on?" demands radio talker Neal Boortz. And asking a question is tantamount to winning a conviction, or at least an indictment, according to the perverse norms of discourse established during the last Democratic administration -- or what my friend and coauthor Gene Lyons calls "the Clinton rules."

Everyone playing by those rules, including the mainstream journalists who echo the mindless "questions," understands that mere facts need not get in the way of a juicy scandal. Everyone playing by the Clinton rules also knows that it is virtually impossible to prove a negative -- to prove, for example, that Obama didn't know how Blagojevich was abusing the Senate appointment. (Which is why civilized judicial systems presume innocence and require proof of guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, of course.)

more...

http://www.salon.com/opinion/conason/2008/12/12/obama/index.html

[hlthe2b]

1. Yes, Joe.... Now WTF do we do about it?

:mad:

[babylonsister]

2. This:

"As for the rest of us, including mainstream reporters, perhaps we should be mindful of the vast amounts of money, time, and journalistic, prosecutorial, congressional and presidential effort that were squandered on the mythical crimes of the Clinton era. Can America still afford that kind of stupidity?"


Stop being and acting so stupid and petty would be a good start. Start paying real attention to all the crucial issues that really matter wouldn't hurt either.

[hlthe2b]

4. His admonishment to the press, aside....

How to we make them act responsively this time around....?

[babylonsister]

5. We can't make them do anything unfortunately. Whatever the

trumped up possible scandal of the day is, that's what they'll be pushing.

[roseBudd]

21. Use the MSM web sites that feature comments, and recommends to manipulate what gets "teased" in the

navigation.

Two weeks ago I took a buried Communuty Press guest opinion piece castigating the Republican party and with the help of my Rapid Response team & DUers gave it enough recommends to put it in the navigation of every article page on the entire web site.

[trollybob]

12. Don't be naive. 50 millions people voted for McCain/Palin.

[creeksneakers2]

11. While they witch hunt Obama

Obama should give a free hand to people investigating the GOP, especially the last administration and all who were associated. Knock the stories the GOP is pushing off the front page by replacing them with even more exciting dirt on the GOP.

[Doctor_J]

23. this is not going to end prettily. I don't want to

get really explici, but I predict that when it's over there will be a lot of different people comprising "Big Media"

[stubtoe]

31. What different people, TOJ?

Do you think that the hard right media owners will be replaced by people of a more moderate slant?

Gads, I hope so.

[Joe Bacon]

27. This is how you stop Pre$$titution!

Here's how:

1) Amend the Communications Act of 1996 to:
2) Reinstate the Fairness Doctrine
3) Force divestiture
4) No entity may own more than a total of 5 media properties in the US. Period (Media properties include: newspapers, wire services, magazines, TV stations, Radio stations, Broadcasting companies, computer companies, motion picture studios, talent agencies, software companies, entertainment production companies, cable systems, web pages, advertising agencies, publishing companies, stores that sell books, DVDs, music, broad and narrowband companies, web hosting sites and webpages)
5) Media companies may not have interlocking directorates. Screwpert Murdoch has NO business sitting on the board of directors of the ASSociated Press!
6) No media company may own more than one media property in a market
7) Advertisers are held responsible for the content of media they purchase advertising for
8) Newspapers, and broadcasting companies are responsible for their content
9) All Media companies are taxed at 25% of their gross income, the funds derived will finance real public broadcasting with no corporate ties.
10) The airwaves belong to the American people, not to Murdoch, GE, Redstone or any other billionaire.
11) Enact a Three Strikes Rule in the media. Three lies and you're out. Freedom of Speech does NOT include the freedom to lie!

It wont take a week for Whoreen Dowd to get 3 strikes!

[Wapsie B]

3. All I can say is Obama must have known something like this was coming from the gop.

He ran a brilliant campaign. He's a highly intelligent individual. I just can't believe he doesn't have a plan for this contingency.

[bain_sidhe]

6. well, duh.

:eyes: Anybody who expected anything different hasn't been paying attention to the pubs for the past 20 years.

[WinkyDink]

7. THIS is why I am no fan of "reaching across the aisle"---unless it's to beat the crap out of a Repu

[jwirr]

8. We can back programs like KO, Rachel, Air America, RealNews,

and Link. IF we can make them into the top ranking programs we are what most people will watch. I also would like to see the monopoly broken up.

[babylonsister]

9. I'm doing my part!

:patriot:

[Cha]

10. Rec'd~ This is where our ultimate

fight is..zeroing in on the corporate media. Wouldn't media reform be a miracle..say in the calibre of an Obama win?

[trollybob]

13. Does anyone really listen to Rush Limbaugh

who isn't a complete moron in the first place?

[roseBudd]

20. We still have to expose the dittohead talking points as erroneous....

On the MSM site I police the Obama haters were tieing Blago to Obama.

One claimed Blago donated money to the Obama campaign. I promptly refuted.

We can't let the lies stand.

[Doctor_J]

25. A CNN viewer sent an e-mail comparing Limpballs to God

It's going to take more than explanations to get Hate Radio out of our country.

[greenbird]

30. Actually, yes

To my utter amazement. My husband's best friend for over forty years is an intelligent, capable, resourceful, honest family man who I like and respect in every other way. Then he starts talking "politics". (Actually, he just repeats what he heard on Limbaugh's show.) I don't even know how to respond, because the stuff he comes out with is so contradictory to the way he actually conducts his life. It absolutely baffles me to no end. If the world order fell apart, I swear you'd want this guy living next door. How to explain his political views? I just don't get it.

[agincourt]

14. One of the things I'd wish this country would figure out,

Is that some rich pig with cubic meters of money blasting rightwing shit 24/7, is not a free press. Garbage in, votes for W out. The ditto pigboy media monopoly needs to be broke up, it's not real free speech, just someones asshole pumped into everybodies homes.

[roseBudd]

15. I coined a meme feel free to use it, they are the OHPOs members of the congregation of

the Obama Haters of Perpetual Outrage.

This is what I wrote on a thread about Blagojevich

I see the OHPOs are in full feeding frenzy.

The congregation of the Obama Haters of Perpetual Outrage are all atwitter, with memories of TravelGate, WhiteWaterGate, Haircut on a Runway Gate, & Consensual You Know What Under a Desk Gate!

This just in:

The U.S. Marine Corps knew of the threat posed by roadside bombs before the start of the Iraq war, yet did nothing to buy protective vehicles for troops, according to a report to be released by the Pentagon.

Where is the outrage?

Something tells me this is not what Limbaugh will be sputtering about tomorrow.

And that is sad.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/12/09/us.iraq.ieds/index.html

Additionally, Marine leaders in 2005 decided to buy up-armored, or reinforced, Humvees instead of Mine Resistant Ambush-Protected vehicles to shield troops in Iraq from mines and other explosives -- a decision that could have cost lives

[Hawkowl]

16. Break the Media's back!

Seriously. Break up the media monopolies like AT&T was broken up or like T. Roosevelt went after Standard Oil and the other trusts. Break the living shit out of them. No one company can own more than 3 T.V. stations. Media companies should be prohibited from owning newspapers, radio stations and television networks together.

If Obama doesn't seriously put the fear of god into these companies, he will face non stop smearing.

[Joe Chi Minh]

22. Obama needs to act fast.

[quickesst]

17. Bartcop summed up Obama's.....

...predicament a while back.

"I hope Obama knows that he's head for a massive shitstorm.

The Democrats are after him, the Republicans are after him
and soon the press will turn on him and he'll then become a Clinton.

I wouldn't wish that on anybody."


For some Democrats, this would be interpreted as "concern". Thanks.
quickesst

[acmavm]

18. Look, this isn't gonna work like it has for the past 8 years. People are

hurting.

Barack Obama won by an amazing margin. He even took (with a lot of work and walking and calling) ONE ELECTORAL VOTE FROM NEBRASKA. (That has these bigots so irate they want to change the rules here in E-I-E-I-O-ville).

Yep, there are still a lot a ignorant asswipes out there. But things changed in October of 2008. The melt-down opened a lot of eyes. You can kill innocent brown people by the hundreds of thousands, but NEVER EVER mess with a republicans pocket book. The fools brought down the world's economies and they did it on the watch of a repubic administration. Changed a lot of minds, opened a lot of eyes that did.

All we gotta do is just keep pushing back. Tell the fucking truth. Show the public the damage, give them the numbers, tell them what they're gonna have to pay for corporate America's crimes. Tell them what the tally is on the Iraq/Afganistan wars. Let them sit and toss that around in their little pin heads while they're sitting on their asses in the cold trying to figure out how we got to where we are today. And let them see how a real president of the people handles the situation. (And let's hope and pray that the Obama admin gets it right and doesn't go off on an conservative tangent.)

[Doctor_J]

24. Oh, bullshit

It's already working. Bush rewrites his entire 8 years while Big Media makes up lies about Blag & Obama. We have to think really, really big, if you get my drift.

[acmavm]

26. They can lie all they want. People are stupid, but not that stupid.

Reality has a nasty way of showing itself when you least want it to.

[Doctor_J]

28. Bush was sworn into office twice. How can you say "people are not that stupid"?

Is believing Hate Radio any stupider than that?

[acmavm]

29. Obama, a black man with zero chance four years ago, was elected

president in November.

What's your point?

[Doctor_J]

32. You said people aren't stupid enough to believe Big Media

That has been disproven time after time over the last 14 years. That's my point

[roseBudd]

19. Many of you know I was using an MSM newspaper site in OH to fight smears...

attack mcCain & GOP incompetence and malfeasance.

Well I'm still spending hours every day doing that even after the election, which by the way this county in SW Ohio went blue for the first time & denied McCain a county he had to hold in Ohio, a state he had to win.

DUer have the writing & research skills. I urge DUers to adopt abn MSM site & write LTTEs, guest columns & comments supporting Obama.