Second DU rename-the-media poll

[paineinthearse]

Poll question: Second DU rename-the-media poll

An interesting discussion developed in the General forum - http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x3338852 - The premise was how DU was at the forefront to get the media and politicians to stop using Jeff Gannon, instead referring to him as either "Jeff Gannon" (in quotations) or using his real (but extremely difficult to pronounce/remember) name, James D. Guckert. Apparently Louise Slaughter or a staffer reads DU, because press releases from her office soon adopted our phraseology.

Thus was born the first DU rename-the-media poll - http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=109x19923 – which pitted main stream media (MSM) against corporate media (CM) against corporate-owned news (CON). Some additional media name suggestions came out of that poll, including...

Corporate-Owned Media (COM), suggested by gWbush is Mabus
KKKorporate Media (KKKM), suggested by LiberalEsto
The IRON CURTAIN of CON (I-CON), suggested by diamond14
The Poodle Press, suggested by grannylib
CRAP(Corporate "Reporters" And Propagandists), suggested by number6

So, without further ado, here is the second DU rename-the-media poll. When you vote, please add a comment explaining why you voted the way you did.

[understandinglife]

1. CON -- easy to say and it's not only who they are, it's what they do! (nt)

www.missionnotaccomplished.us

[July]

9. Agree. "The CON today says . . . " nt

[Tace]

18. Yeah, CON's Great -- See Below

[Terre]

24. EXACTLY what came to my mind too! n/t

[The Witch]

2. If you want them to adopt it...

it has to be corporate media. That's the only thing that doesn't sound like a slur. And you can't knock it as a slur, because it's true. The difference between TV and blogs is that TV is owned by corporations. Whoever came up with this gets a gold star for branding and needs to be in PR.

[Pirate Smile]

19. I've also seen it called the "Corporate Media Cartel" - CMC

[GetTheRightVote]

3. Easy to remember due to the closeness of their paid for media

should add a tag labeled, created by * and crime family.

:kick:

[paineinthearse]

4. Az's thoughts from the first post in the series.

Link above.

The news is not entirely controlled by the Corporations in the way we seem to want to believe. It is Corporations and their ways that have rendered the media useless as a news outlet. But its not a deliberate conspiracy that has brought it about.

It is simple corporate profit taking that has done the damage. Instead of investing in the news as a tool benefitting the public they have approached it as a money making part of their infrastructure. This means they do not look to it to perform as a stong news gathering institution. It merely has to appear to be a news gathering institution.

For this reason they have cut back on the capabilities and infrastructure. All that is left is a shell. A shell that merely reports what is handed to it. This has meant that the news cannot stand up to manipulation at the hands of the right.

Forced to rely on the information and spin provided by speakers that come from think tanks and other politically backed groups. These voices and their spin are not investigated. There simply isn't any ability left within the news community to do so.

Thus without deliberately doing so the Corporations have turned the news media into an infotainment branch of the right. Because the right was ready and in part responsible for this conversion they were there to take advantage of it. The left relied on the flow of objective information the media once provided. With that gone the left simply does not know how to move their agenda.

[nolabels]

33. I disagree with that assessment of them

They are far from being some flotsam and jetsam after thought. They have a very active roll in trying to shape public perception to their liking. The very reason they have all been gobbled up and spun into this giant CON machine ought to give you pause. These folks didn't spend all this money on All the CON machines because it seemed like a fun thing to do. There is a very real agenda here. It always was bad, but now it's really really bad. The installation of Bushco and the go-along-get-along attitude will not cut it when a group of gangsters is really the guys calling the shots (illegal as they might be).

The best description of the whole mess I have heard lately is "The RATS are in charge of the cheese"

When I Freudian slip comes out of a Tom Delay in which calls the people he dislikes "A bunch of Do-gooders" then you can bet they are up to no good.

[cry baby]

5. I've been calling it the corporate media for a while now.

The cute factor has to go to the "Poodle Press", however, I think that name makes them seem harmless, which they are not!

[Vadem]

6. CON: Con artists, conning us into believing the unbelievable! n/t

[bvar22]

7. I voted Corporate Owned Media (COM)

but I refer to them as the CorpoMedia and their product as Corpoganda .

Press releases from the DLC are also Corpoganda.

[Eloriel]

8. No, no -- CON - Corporate-Owned-News

Fits perfectly IMO.

And I wish I'd taken note of the DUer who I first saw use this.

[kedrys]

10. White House Communications Officer - you have the CON!

Sounds good to me. :D

[paineinthearse]

11. CRAP

OOPS! Just noticed #7 was "corporate" when it should have been CRAP(Corporate "Reporters" And Propagandists), suggested by number6.

Was able to edit before the editing period ended.

[Tactical Progressive]

12. "right-wing corporate media"

I've been using "right-wing corporate media" for a few years now, since Media Whores Online came onto the scene. I really think that "right-wing" should be part of the description to help counteract the pervasiveness of the dishonest 'liberal media' meme.

I use "Corporate Media Monopolies" sometimes because 'monopoly' emphasizes the corporate nature, and the 'CMM' acronym sounds just like corporate whore 'CNN'.

We had other terms on MWO. Talking Whores, Whoreocracy, etc.

[Nothing Without Hope]

23. Yes, RW-Corporate Media is more accurate than "corporate-owned news"

...which I consider misleading. Not ALL corporate-owned news media are "evil." Helen Thomas, Keith Olbermann, Seymour Hersh and others' work appear in the Corporate News world. I think it's a mistake to paint ALL CORPORATE NEWS as evil sellouts. It's a dangerous oversimplifiation and closes some doors that need to remain open.

[Tactical Progressive]

42. No, I don't mean it that way

I mean it in the opposite sense of the way you took the qualifier.

The 'right-wing' in "right-wing corporate media" isn't meant as a focus narrower, ie. to specify only certain media, like Fox or Scarborough or Rush. It's meant descriptively to tar the broad swath of mainstream media which has virtually shifted wholesale to suppport rightist thought.

In fact, focus-reduction is the inference I actively try to counter. I usually put it in a phrase such as: "right-wing corporate media like CNN, NBC and the Washington Post", specifically to refute the notion that the media is by-and-large 'fair and balanced' except for overtly right-wing outlets. I don't want convey 'the right-wing segment of the media'. Rather I mean, 'the mainstream media which is right-wing'.

See my tag line.

[Clark2008]

37. I miss the Horse

Whatever happened to Media Whores Online, anywho?

[Tactical Progressive]

40. Nobody really knows

They just stopped. I think that the writers were probably tied into the DC culture and didn't want to be exposed. It's admittedly kind of a conspiratorial theory, based on nothing more than how they always guarded their identities and then suddenly just ceased at the top of their game without so much as a good-bye to all their followers. Of course they might have just not had enough spare time to keep up the writing, but then why no farewell.

[Swamp Rat]

13. CON - Corporate-Owned News... PERFECT!

edit: thanks TP! :hi:

[Tactical Progressive]

14. uhhhh.... n/t

[Tactical Progressive]

15. CorpoNews

Smears both ways.

[Tace]

26. MediaCo -- In The Same Vein

I'd suggest NewsCo, but there really is one of those. I think it's Ruppert Murdoch's operation.

[Tactical Progressive]

41. 'Corpo' is so much more derrogatory

It's a prefix we should be using in many contexts.

[bpilgrim]

16. M$MW -> Main-$tream-Media-Whores

:hi:

peace

[Tace]

17. Corporatist News Media

There are several great suggestions on these threads. Each has its merits. Corporate-owned Media (CON) works great, and refers to the corporate control of the press.

Poodle Press refers to the vacuous vanity of journalists, especially those in broadcast.

Corporatist News Media, however, makes reference to the fascist tendency of the modern press worldwide.

I used the term corporatist to describe what we're trying to address at World News Trust, but these other terms are great too.

[Nothing Without Hope]

20. Just for fun, here's the thread where I proposed Poodle Press

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=132&topic_id=1668099

We had some fun in this proposal thread and I do use "Poodle Press" sometimes. As discussed in the thread there are also the advantages of being able to give "Poodle of the Week" awards and using words like poodling, poodly and so on. And believe me, being called "Bush's Poodle" has been a devasting insult for Tony Blair - this is not a harmless, cutesy name. (By the way, I hadn't heard that GrannyLib also suggested "Poodle Press" before, but it's a non-issue if we both had the same idea.)

But lately I've been so angry at the lies that are costing us everything worth living for. When I'm in a place where I can call the Administration what it is, Nazi, without eliciting screams of horror, I mostly call them the Nazi-collaborating Media.

But Poodle Press does have its usefulness. I do recommend working through the thread where it was proposed and discussed. It has a lot of useful aspects, more than there might appear at first.

Edited to add: My opinion on CON: Not ALL corporate-owned news is BAD. Seymour Hersch, Helen Thomas and Keith Olbermann, among others, work for coprorate owned news companies. I think this term is appealing for many reasons but it is designating the wrong enemy. It's not that it's corporate-owned, it's that it's GOVERNMENT-DOMINATED. I think this name is misleading and paints low-budget or non-profit news sources into a corner as being the ONLY source for truth.

[AuntiBush]

22. Almost voted for PoodlePress!

I like it, quite frankly. But, why place dogs on their lowly level.

:)

[Tace]

25. I Haven't Had A Chance To Go Through That Thread...

But, You're Right That I Missed the "trained poodle" aspect of Poodle Press. Hey, it looks like we've got a nice quiver to work with. Let's see who can get all of the terms in one sentence!

[byronius]

21. CON has an iconic deconstructivist conventialism.

Conversationally:

Herb: Check the CONs today?

Bertrand: Oh, they were a total stream of CONivity.

Herb: Did you run it through the DECON algorithm? And?

Bertand: Apparently we're all really living in growth vats now.

Herb: Damn! I knew it!!

Bertrand: Yeah, twenty bucks.

Herb: I'm going on a rampage!!

Bertrand: I've already started.

[katinmn]

27. Corporate media seems to be commonly used already

anything but mainstream or liberal media.

[omega minimo]

28. McMedia

Hot, fast, full of fat, empty calories, all sizzle, no steak.
Sexy, flashy, looks good, yum yum, leaves you logey.
Drive-through ideas, in and out, gimme gimme, forgot what you ate five minutes ago.

Who are we trying to reach? If it's an attempt to insert the term into media giant mouthpieces, perhaps the subtle acronym idea will work.

If we want to reach folks where they live, something a bit less cerebral, more gut level may succeed.

McMedia and McNews, McPundits, McTorials, etc. convey the fast food mentality of the product. Fast and to the point, for the short attention span culture that they feed. Folks know fast food is terrible (not really FOOD!) and eat it anyway. They know fast food culture makes them fat and stupid and misinformed and they do it anyway. McMedia and McNews provide comfort food for hyperstressed minds the way McConald's provides comfort food for hyperstressed lifestyles. Both lead to more of the stress leading to more of the consumption. (Puts consumers in a new light, don't it?)

At this point in the spin culture war against anything that can't be spewed in a soundbite (McBites!) subtlety will not cut through the cholesterol! People hear "corporate" and tune it out. Rank and file America knows that corporations run their lives and feel helplessly powerless to do anything. McBurgers they have a choice about and some power over. McMedia conveys the centralized and syndicated, prepackaged and homogenized aspects of Big Media.

For those that "get it" I love The Senator's "Euphemedia."

And isn't "Mc" the ultimate euphamistic prefix for news that pretends to have content, the way McConald's pretends to have nutrition?

Would you like LIES with that?

:evilgrin:

OM

[Beam Me Up]

30. I advocate CON but I LIKE your "McMedia" and will use it. Thanks n/t

[loudestchick]

32. McMedia...I'm soooo not loving it! Though I do love the term!

and lies w/ that...I'll have mine super-sized like the WMD lies.

[omega minimo]

38. SuperLies Me

:puke:

[BTFSTL]

29. If the term Corporate Media is good enough...

...for Amy Goodman, it's good enough for me!!

Nuff said!

[nolabels]

31. I like the CON acronym because that is all they try do anyway

The whole purpose for them existing nowadays is to try and CON everybody period.

I guess no need to preach to choir though :shrug:

"Basically, The Republicans Conduct Business in a Dishonest Way." And they are Demagogues to Boot.

A BUZZFLASH EDITORIAL

As Michael Moore brilliantly captures the nightmarish years we have spent under the Bush occupation government -- and it came to power through a judicial/media/political coup, which is where Moore begins "Fahrenheit 9/11," so don't start thinking to yourself that BuzzFlash is exaggerating -- he interviews an American soldier wounded in Iraq. The young man recounts his injury and then states matter-of-factly (and we are paraphrasing here) that he is voting against Bush this year because "Basically, the Republicans conduct business in a dishonest way."

And that about sums it up, doesn't it?

All we need to add is that the Republican Party is now run by radical, fanatical, self-enriching demagogues. They rule through the power of emotion, not through the value of their public policy. That is the essence of demagoguery. And they are its most artful practitioners.

Whether they hold the white working class non-union stiff in their power through making the mythical "liberal elite" the source of all their problems (read the brilliant, compelling book "What's the Matter with Kansas?" to learn more about how they accomplish this and how it works) -- or use the fear of terrorism -- the Republican Party might as well be run by Mussolini.

If you just said to yourself, "BuzzFlash is getting all incendiary again," (or something like that), then you just don't get it yet
(snip)
http://www.buzzflash.com/editorial/04/06/edi04044.html

[oasis]

34. CON. That is what they are, that is what they do.

[Califooyah Operative]

35. corporate media. it's too late for me to change it and secret du code -

words only work at du.

[sleipnir]

36. Newsholes

[omega minimo]

39. That'll work

LOL
:hi:

[Tace]

43. He, He : )

[paineinthearse]

50. .

:thumbsup:

[paineinthearse]

44. I think we have a winner

But as there some pretty good new nominations, do we need round 3?

[KansDem]

45. CPR = "Corporations for rePublican fRaudcasting"

Bit of a stretch but just as illuminating...

[donkeyotay]

46. Youse guys are good

So hard to choose! All I noticed is that the mealy-mouthed MSM has got ZERO votes. I like the way "corporate media" can be used more openly than the catchy CON, but I'd just like to add that we're not talking about just any corporations. Really, we're talking about the military-industrial-media complex control of news, aren't we? How do you include that thought - the militarization of information?

[omega minimo]

48. G.E.-- Brings Good Things To Death

:evilgrin:

[iconoclastNYC]

47. Corporate News Filter

An important point to make: Corporations share a common anti-american agenda and filter out of the news anything that imperils said agenda.

[libertypirate]

49. Corporate Media Apparatus, Corporate Media Institution

http://dictionary.reference.com/search?r=2&q=Apparatus

Apparatus
An appliance or device for a particular purpose: an x-ray apparatus.
An integrated group of materials or devices used for a particular purpose: dental apparatus. See Synonyms at equipment.

The totality of means by which a designated function is performed or a specific task executed, as in a system of government.
A political organization or an underground political movement. Also called apparat.
Physiology. A group or system of organs that collectively perform a specific function or process: the respiratory apparatus; the digestive apparatus.
The critical and source material that accompanies an edition of a text.