firedoglake - Arianna Huffington’s Right is Wrong

[bonito]

I haven't seen this posted here It's a good read imo.

"A key to understanding the fanatical Right’s takeover of the Republican Party and how these ideas spread to the rest of the country is looking at the role of the media—not the Fox News pseudo-newsmen or the talk radio blowhards—but the respectable, supposedly liberal media. Without the enabling of the traditional media—with their obsession with “balance” and their pathological devotion to the idea that truth is always found in the middle—the radical Right would never have been able to have its ideas taken seriously. . . . By reporting everything through this prism the media missed the big story: the hijacking of America by the lunatic Right."

"The other not-so-innocent bystanders to the Right’s takeover are the Democrats who have continued to tread far too lightly when it comes to holding the GOP’s fanatical core accountable. Time and time again, the Democratic leadership has allowed itself to get played, run over, or distracted."

"Democrats are in the majority today because the positions they campaigned are in line with mainstream America. But if the lunatic fringe group now known as the Republican Party is to be stopped in its efforts to radically remake this country, Democrats are going to have to step up and defend the mainstream that swept them into power in 2006."

more... http://firedoglake.com/2008/05/03/arianna-huffingtons-right-is-wrong/

[DJ13]

1. K&R!

:applause:

[midnight]

2. Democrats are going to have to step up

and defend the mainstream that swept them into power in 2006. It was that long ago, and still discussing how they can spy on us, war, and let the country disintegrate.

[madeline_con]

3. Dem leadership needs to grow a pair. n/t

[Huron]

4. "The truth is in the middle" - NOT!

Bonito wrote:

Without the enabling of the traditional media—with their obsession with “balance” and their pathological devotion to the idea that truth is always found in the middle—the radical Right would never have been able to have its ideas taken seriously. . . . By reporting everything through this prism the media missed the big story: the hijacking of America by the lunatic Right."

What the media present is only the beginning of a seamless process, imo. Grist for the mill. The spin-meisters take the "balanced view" created by the "real journalists" (who feel oh, so good about it) and weight it with biased talk radio and even entertainment to normalize the evil. Consider the loathsome "24". That piece of drek did more to destroy the sense of shame Americans should be feeling over their government's use of torture than anything else going.

The fact of how damaging the canard "the truth is somewhere in the middle" is the subject of a great article by Robert Canup. His discussing centres around the legal system, but could be applied equally well to the media. Even moreso since Joe Sixpack's ability to think critically is long-gone.

Huron

http://www.hal-pc.org/%7Ercanup/problem.html

a snip to whet your appetite:

Let us examine a few particulars of the legal system to see how they bring benefit to evil and work to the detriment of good. If you read what legal theoreticians have to say about the structure of the legal system you will encounter statements like this: "It is a robust system which is designed to survive liars". "We assume that one side is lying one way, and the other is lying the other, and we let the jury find the truth - which will lie somewhere between these two extremes." What a wonderfully plausible lie that is.

To see the evil behind that last plausible lie it is necessary to turn the assumption upside down. Instead of assuming that both sides are lying, let us assume that one side is innocent, honest, and tells the truth. It is obvious that lying does an innocent defendant no good; what lie is he to use - "I did it"?

The truth - due to the nature of reality - is never completely favorable to anybody; there is always some element of the truth that makes an innocent person look bad.

Since the legal system assumes that the truth lies between the testimony of the two sides - there is always a shift toward the side telling the lies, and away from the side telling the truth. Under the right set of external circumstances This tilt, along with the fact that the truth may always be presented in such a way as to bring detriment to an innocent person, is often enough to shift the outcome toward the wrong side. Advantage: evil.

Consider the swearing in of witnesses before they testify. If a person is a cynical liar, taking this oath has no affect on that person. However, this oath places considerable pressure on a serious truthful witness. Advantage: evil.

The whole thing deserves a read.