The Media Zone

How the media make sense and nonsense of the world

Stuart Fischoff, Ph.D. is Senior Editor of the Journal of Media Psychology and Emeritus Professor of Media Psychology at Cal State, Los Angeles. See full bio

February 16, 2009, Politics

Comments on "Obama and the Attack of the Elephantine Pork Police"

Obama and the Attack of the Elephantine Pork Police

By Stuart Fischoff, Ph.D. on February 16, 2009 in The Media Zone

networks like FoxNews, a media bag man for the Republicans, pleads that it covers both sides (nuances aside) to the spending bill fairly and accurately. Really? Not really. Read More

Pardon My Myopia...

Submitted by SteveM on February 16, 2009 - 1:02pm.

Oh Puh-leeze. The Democrats executed an objective political mugging with their steam-roller Stimulus tactics. In a way that was totally counter to President Obama's elevated promises of transparency. You don't need Fox to point out that odorous piece of political hypocrisy.

And why restrict your hysteria to Fox News? What, you don't think that Keith Olbermann and Jon Stewart get their frenzied fanatics frothing? Fox News is positively sublime compared to other media outlets on the Left.

I'm not making a value judgment on Fox or the other venues. Hey, it's a free country. You don't like Fox, start your own network.

left behind

Submitted by Stuart Fischoff, Ph.D. on February 16, 2009 - 2:11pm.

Well, truth be told, I didn't leave out MSNBC or CNN. Re-read my blog. Like you, I find Olbermann and Maddow more than a tad off-putting. Partly for their smugness and mostly for their partisanship. But I don't think they lie and ignore inconvenient facts and pretend to be objective like Fox and its coven of commentators like O'Reilly and Hannity, just to note the most egregiously absurdists. BTW, I was interviewed by Fox a number of times and even their reporters laughed at the network's slogan of fair and balanced or "we report, you decide," both of which are classic Orwellian Newspeak. Really, FoxNews is indefensible and without shame and, indeed, the bagman for the Republican party (or should I say, the "Republic" party? Finally,contrary to your protestations, I also gave Fox Business News a positive note in the blog. So, perhaps there is enough myopia to go round, yes?

Absolutely: 'Republican Taliban declare jihad on Obama'

Submitted by B on February 16, 2009 - 1:47pm.

The president wants bipartisanship; the right has promised him all-out war

...

From the outset, the Republicans in Washington pored over the bill to find trivial issues to make hay with. They found some small funding for HIV and sexually transmitted diseases prevention; they jumped up and down about renovating the national mall; they went nuts over a proposal - wait for it - to make some government buildings more energy-efficient; they acted as if green research and federal funds for new school building were the equivalent of funding terrorism. And this after eight years in which they managed to turn a surplus into a trillion-dollar deficit and added a cool $32 trillion to the debt the next generation will have to pay for. Every now and again their chutzpah and narcissism take one’s breath away. But it’s all they seem to know.

John McCain gives you the flavour. Fresh from a dinner in his honour hosted by Obama, he abruptly dismissed the stimulus package as the “same old” spending of the distant Democratic past. His closest Republican ally, Senator Lindsey Graham, declared: “This bill stinks.”

Pete Sessions, chairman of the Republican congressional committee, explained that the Republican strategy was going to be modelled on jihadist insurgency. “I’m not joking,” he added. “Insurgency we understand perhaps a little bit more because of the Taliban.”

...

That's The Best You Can Do!?

Submitted by SteveM on February 16, 2009 - 1:56pm.

Ya cut and paste from an online article?!

That's it? That's the extent of your creative thinking? Ya gotta use someone else's text as your mouthpiece?

A trillion bucks of back room pork cobbled together in a few days and you think it should have been passed sight unseen? (And it WAS unseen! Many of the marks were handwritten into the margins!)

Sheesh...

jihad

Submitted by Stuart Fischoff, Ph.D. on February 16, 2009 - 2:22pm.

I could not agree with you more, B. I might have said more about the issues you raise but then I'd be moving too far out of my specified domain of blogging, the media.

quotes

Submitted by Stuart Fischoff, Ph.D. on February 16, 2009 - 2:19pm.

Mon dieu, I hardly think my blog was a mashup of others' words. Just the opening and fourth paragraphs were direct quotes. I link relevant sources but nothing verbatim was offered in the blog. Most of it was my own thinking and opinion. You may not like my opinions but at least get your exaggerations straight, Steve M.

Of course, you can, like the Republicans, just say no.

The Inanity Defense?

Submitted by SteveM on February 16, 2009 - 3:40pm.

Hey Stu, if you notice the above, I was referring the very inelegant Mr. B as the mindless cutter and paster.

And about the Stimulus. That Bill is the most CRAPTASTIC piece of legislation ever produced. The entire legislative process was circumvented. Congress essentially turned over the keys of government to the executive branch because there is no way that Congress can provide effective oversight on how that money is spent.

And if I were a mental health professional, I'd be a lot more spun up about Harry Reid's multi-billion dollar "Fantasy Railroad" from Disney Land to Las Vegas that is buried inside an oily nook of that bill, when I know there are countless homeless mentally ill who are uncared for. Those same dollars could have allocated to that much more critical need. But no, Harry needs his choo-choo. Too bad everybody in California will be too broke to gamble in Las Vegas. They’ll ride the train and then turn around and ride back.

Nope Stu, you're just using Fox as shield to rationalize a mother of all boondoogles. It’s I red herring. That bill stinks to high heaven. And it’s going to stink even more when we have to pay for it by running curency printing presses till they burn up.

I just hope that when you appeared on Fox, it was to discuss something benign like gardening or automotive repair.

me and Fox

Submitted by Stuart Fischoff, Ph.D. on February 16, 2009 - 4:00pm.

Garden, no. I think it was brain surger, nuclear physics, and my holding the world's Rubik's Cube record.

And yet, Steve, you haven't fairly addressed the issues about whether or not what I said about FoxNews was accurate.

About the stimulus package, I think your rhetoric is overblown but there's no question that there are some self-serving items in the package; as for compromise, Demos took out many items, as B noted, that Republicans objected to. And as for the rail line to Vegas, frankly I know so little of the details on how, when, where, why and to what extent that I cannot make any informed comments, yea or nay; but, I think, the package contains far fewer pieces of pork and other earmarks than anything that came out of a Republican Congress, 8 years worth, over Dubya's reign.

I also disagree with your assessment about whether Obama reaching out to Republicans for a bipartisan governance what more show than blow. It would be much easier for all of us if congress worked together instead of at cross purposes. For heaven's sake, Steve, Republicans didn't even bother engaging the Democrats until 2006. Can you get past your fealty to the GOP and recognize that there really are some good guys in power who are Democrats in contradistinction with Nyet Republicans coached by Rove and Gingrich. If not, we really have little else to talk about. At this juncture I have great but not naive hopes for Obama and zero hope for the GOP who, oddly enough, still think of themselves as patriots. Nyet and patriotism don't mix, Steve.

Pox On Both Their Houses

Submitted by SteveM on February 16, 2009 - 4:26pm.

Stu, Republicans as they were constituted under the feckless Bush administration have absolutely no credibility. I'm anything but a shill for those clowns. But at least some of them have grown up now that the Bush disaster is in the rear view mirror.

If you want to dump on Fox, you picked the wrong topic because they are right on the Stimulus. Even the dems in DC acknowledge under their breath that the bill is CRAPTASTIC.

I don't blame Obama for his approach because he's a classic liberal and he was handed Sh*t by Bush and the country expects him to make it Shineola. I may not agree with reckless spending but I understand his worldview.

But the whole process was subverted by a Democratic Congress and in the end, the President of the United States just stood by and let it happen. Why not? He now totally controls the economy with brainless political hacks like Chris Dodd and Maxine Waters riding shotgun. Scary.

When this economy falls off a cliff and inflation explodes through the roof (and it will), we're really screwed.

It's Not About Politics

Submitted by Gerald on February 17, 2009 - 1:13pm.

Being a republican is not about politics: it's about anger (always mad, upset, distraught about something), enemies (more important than friends because it gives them clear objects to hate and attack), and privilege (although I appear to hate to admit it, I'm better than you therefore I resent you). It's not surprising so many people are republicans: their lives are filled with anger, bitterness and resentment. Winning makes them feel good. Right or wrong doesn't matter. Anyone see an emotional pattern?

Cranial Möbius Strip

Submitted by SteveM on February 17, 2009 - 2:51pm.

The self-reflecting manifolds of this contribution are either breath-taking or mind-numbing.

rage spelled GOP

Submitted by Stuart Fischoff, Ph.D. on February 17, 2009 - 3:17pm.

Not bad analysis, albeit overdrawn. It's sometimes hard to know, though, whether a given Republican carries the rage of his constituency but doesn't own it, or shares the rage and disappointment of that constituency. Carrying faux rage or outrage just so you can get elected or re-elected is not uncommon in politics, alas. And yes, Gerald, the "country has gone to the dogs because of Liberals" rant(ala Glenn Beck and the ones who kill because Rush or Hannity or some other talk show host told them too, even if not in so many words)adds fuel to the ideological fires. These radio and TV political shock jocks commerce in hatred, self-righteousness and finger-pointing. When they do, and on a regular basis with regular listeners, they further radicalize, polarize and demonize, a witch's brew which their audiences drink to intoxifying levels. They also provide a simple solution to the complex problem(s), namely--"The Liberals Did It. The Mexicans did it. The Jews did it. The Blacks did it. If we get rid of them, (the "other") we get rid of the problems. What? Republicans were at the helm when the economy collapsed? What, I can't hear you." Feeling bad about yourself does indeed help to make you feel bad about others and look to others to blame and find your support group who help to keep the fires burning. But perhaps some politicians are not so much angry as ideological and cannot give up that perspective for fear of anomie. Perhaps others are not angry, just selfish or afraid. Motives and emotions are complex and can sow confusion on the left and the right. Even in the middle. Overall, though, yeah, I think we have a problem with radical Republicans who feel betrayed by their leadership and who are looking for new panderers to salvation needs. Plenty seem to be auditioning for the job. Dangerous time. Demogogic times. Worse in economic downturns. Be afraid. Be very afraid.