Everything I ever wanted to say about the media during the Bush years

...was said by Charles Pierce the other day, after watching the press fawn over Bush and his new library:

The coverage of the opening of this vast temple to prevarication and ruin is not about bricks and mortar. It's about an attempt by the courtier press to absolve itself of a dereliction of duty that rivaled even that of the president in question while New Orleans drowned, and while the economy was bubbling toward disaster. (That dereliction of duty, it should be noted, now and forever, began with the coverage of the 2000 presidential campaign, and the disgraceful performance of the elite political press corps towards Al Gore.) It's about their efforts to help the country absolve itself from the immense damage it brought upon itself by electing, and then re-electing, a half-bright dry drunk who wrecked nearly everything he touched, and who now is trying to rehabilitate himself by explaining that he hasn't ruined anything else since he left office, and doesn't that make him a swell fella. The elite press is dedicating an entire day of coverage to the perpetuation of a monstrous public lie. Electing George W. Bush twice was a monumental act of democratic self-destruction from which the country has yet to recover. Celebrating him celebrating himself is simply to pour battery acid into the still-open wounds. I will take theories about dinosaurs in ancient China over the notion that George W. Bush was a good man confronted by insurmountable problems dropped on him by an implacable universe of chance. He was a career fk-up, from start to finish, and he finally found himself in a job where Daddy's money and Daddy's lawyers couldn't bail him out.

Goodbye, Old Yeller

I'm late to the updating party. But inspired by the ease of navigating and posting to my new blog, I realized it was past due time to update this one. So farewell, old Erratic:

I will miss your yellow simplicity but not the html code in your bowels.

Media disservice

ProgressiveLiberal was making a different point but I choose to focus on this paragraph:

The ten poorest states in our country are Red States. Moreover, Red States are mostly welfare states as they receive more from the federal government than they pay in. That the media does not cover this fact is a disservice to the entire American population. If America knew what policies worked throughout the nation it would be impossible for the GOP to continue to hold middle class policies hostage to a failed ideology.

Emphasis added. And do read Eric Boehlert today in which he revisits the greatest media failure in half a century.

Update: Chris Hedges names our sellout intellectuals.

Well, at least we're #1 in one thing

Where the U.S. stands among the World Economic Forum's ranking of 144 countries:

• GDP: 1
• life expectancy: 34
• infant mortality: 41
• quality of primary education: 38
• primary education enrollment rate: 58
• quality of math and science education: 47
• ethical behavior of firms: 29
• soundness of banks: 80
• internet access in schools: 24
• quality of overall infrastructure: 25

Offered without comment. 

Except for this one from the American Medical Association: "Americans are sicker and die younger than people in other wealthy nations."

Why we can't have nice things

Answer: monopolies.

(Which shall not be questioned.)

Our wussy media (again)

A recap of Mann & Ornstein is making the rounds:

"Our advice to the press: Don't seek professional safety through the even-handed, unfiltered presentation of opposing views," they wrote in the Post. "Which politician is telling the truth? Who is taking hostages, at what risks and to what ends?" 

Initially, at least, Mann and Ornstein weren't completely ignored. "We had really good reporters call us and say: 'You're absolutely right'," Mann said. "They told us they used this as the basis for conversations in the newsroom." 

But those conversations went nowhere, Mann said. 

"Their editors and producers, who felt they were looking out for the economic wellbeing of their news organizations, were also concerned about their professional standing and vulnerability to charges of partisan bias," Mann said. 

So most reporters just kept on with business as usual. 

"They're so timid," Mann said. 

Oh oh oh I can't breathe

Matt Taibbi unpacks the Mustache of Understanding:

Rewrite Thomas Friedman's Syria Column, Win a Free Hand Grenade

UPDATE: And we have winners!

Hey Romney!

The content of his character

Hunter connects the dots:

Willard Mitt Romney is quite convinced that the contents of a person's tax returns are defining evidence of their character. He is equally insistent that he does not want anyone to see his own. It would be remiss to assume there is no connection between the two beliefs.

Selfish people vs. citizens

The best thing Obama ever said:

[A] freedom which only asks what’s in it for me, a freedom without a commitment to others, a freedom without love or charity or duty or patriotism, is unworthy of our founding ideals, and those who died in their defense.... 

America is not about what can be done for us. It’s about what can be done by us, together, through the hard and frustrating but necessary work of self-government.

Must-read for liberals

Says a reviewer:

Too much higher education, too much wonk sophistication, destroys the common language simplicity of good rhetoric and makes you less persuasive.

The author is Joseph J. Romm. I will be buying.

Countering Frank Luntz

We need some extremely plain talk to counter Frank Luntz's latest salvo, in which he instructs Republicans to say the Ryan budget "strengthens," "preserves," and "protects" Medicare and Social Security. 

Karoli at Crooks & Liars obliges:

Here it is, plain and simple. Paul Ryan is a fervent believer in killing social insurance by privatizing it for profit. To that end, his budget proposal ends Medicare. It ends it. Period. There is no "choice" involved. It ends Medicare and shifts the burden for medical costs onto senior citizens. Similarly, his scheme for Social Security ends it. Period. It takes our retirement funds and gives them to Wall Street, where all the risk then shifts over to the retiree and all the profit heads into Wall Street's pocket. 

Wall Street and health insurers benefit from Paul Ryan's plan, but people don't. They can paint that pig with all kinds of different shades of lipstick but everyone needs to know that Paul Ryan aims to destroy the social safety nets by shifting all costs and risks from the government to individuals, terminating the agreement that has worked so well for so many years, and handing our retirement to profit-driven enterprise.

Emphasis added. And another thing: we have to stop saying "entitlements," with its horrible something-for-nothing framing. We paid into those programs for years. We earn those benefits. They are insurance programs, shared-risk programs. What Ryan proposes is to strip out the profits and saddle us with the risk.

UPDATE: Even shorter and more to the point, via the Overpass Light Brigade:

Progressive values

Progressive values, around which we frame every argument:

Responsibility. Fairness. Character. Shared sacrifice. Love of Country. Honoring the sacredness of American shared identity and purpose.

'Nuff said.

R.I.P. Facts

I'm a week late getting to this tear-inducing obit written by Rex Huppke at the Chicago Tribune:

To the shock of most sentient beings, Facts died Wednesday, April 18, after a long battle for relevancy with the 24-hour news cycle, blogs and the Internet. Though few expected Facts to pull out of its years-long downward spiral, the official cause of death was from injuries suffered last week when Florida Republican Rep. Allen West steadfastly declared that as many as 81 of his fellow members of the U.S. House of Representatives are communists. 

Facts held on for several days after that assault — brought on without a scrap of evidence or reason — before expiring peacefully at its home in a high school physics book. Facts was 2,372.

Read it and weep.

The "View from Nowhere"

Sarah Jaffe has a great piece up on NPR's new code favoring "truth" over "balance." It includes this quote from media critic Jay Rosen:

Something happened in our press over the last 40 years or so that never got acknowledged and to this day would be denied by a majority of newsroom professionals. Somewhere along the way, truthtelling was surpassed by other priorities the mainstream press felt a stronger duty to. These include such things as “maintaining objectivity,” “not imposing a judgment,” “refusing to take sides” and sticking to what I have called the View from Nowhere.

Please, please, please let this mark the turning back from the insanity of our national discourse... a/k/a the Age of Ignorance.