Your Liberal Media
BTW, two hundred thousand people showed up in DC today to march for immigration reform. Using Michelle Malkin and teabagger math, that is like eleventy billion people.
As I write this, there is no mention of this march on CNN, USA Today, Fox, MSNBC, the NY Times. The Washington Post mentions it in passing. Maybe they should carry guns next time to get some attention.
March 21, 2010 6:43 pm
Posted in: Our Failed Media Experiment
73 Comments
73 Responses
Ned R. - March 21, 2010 | 6:45 pm · Link
LA Times has been prominently featuring it on their site, so give ‘em that much.
Cat Lady - March 21, 2010 | 6:45 pm · Link
Time for a blogger ethics pan….. oh I give up.
Redshirt - March 21, 2010 | 6:45 pm · Link
First I heard of it. Seriously.
Our media is one of the main sources of our current problems. Fix the media, and we can begin fixing the more pernicious symptoms of its corruption and misuse.
Napoleon - March 21, 2010 | 6:46 pm · Link
ABC evening news is going to (they just mentioned it coming up), though it was after HCR and the teabaggers, although the coverage of the teabaggers was not exactly favorable.
Max - March 21, 2010 | 6:46 pm · Link
MSNBC did mention it quite a few times today.
General Egali Tarian Stuck - March 21, 2010 | 6:47 pm · Link
When HCR is passed into law, then it will be time to start the fight over universal health coverage for cute doggie, kittehs, and all other gawds creatures.
signed Charlie
John Cole - March 21, 2010 | 6:47 pm · Link
@Redshirt: We’ve only had an ad to your left up for a week about it.
kommrade reproductive vigor - March 21, 2010 | 6:48 pm · Link
Christ, I forgot about it until this afternoon and then I was like, ‘Oh shit, what if they run into the teabaggers,’ but then I realized the tb’s would be busy looking for another civil rights icon to spit on so I relaxed.
mgordon1 - March 21, 2010 | 6:49 pm · Link
I thought it was Michelle Merkin?
El Cid - March 21, 2010 | 6:51 pm · Link
Don’t worry, our major billion dollar news media have an endless supply of excuses for why they simply have to suck on a regular basis. Just ask them.
Tonybrown74 - March 21, 2010 | 6:51 pm · Link
MSNBC did actually cover the march today, complete with at least one interview.
Zifnab25 - March 21, 2010 | 6:52 pm · Link
@John Cole: I try to phase those out if at all possible. You can only handle so much Sarah Palin and Resveratrol.
GeeYourHairSmellsTerrific - March 21, 2010 | 6:53 pm · Link
I think that says less about the media, and more about the idiots who put on the march. Its been pretty obvious for a while, that this weekend was going to be the HCR vote. HCR kinda of sucks the oxygen out of the room
AkaDad - March 21, 2010 | 6:53 pm · Link
There’s such an abundance of Republican tears today that I can fill a jacuzzi and soak in them.
Corner Stone - March 21, 2010 | 6:54 pm · Link
@John Cole:
If it ain’t sexy-high-heels.com then it ain’t shit.
General Egali Tarian Stuck - March 21, 2010 | 6:54 pm · Link
Don’t worry bout Michelle, Obamacare will ensure she lands on her feet and has a surge in hive population. Same goes for all the big brains/mouths in the Wingnut High Council of Outrage.
GeeYourHairSmellsTerrific - March 21, 2010 | 6:54 pm · Link
@mgordon1:
you, sir…are a genius
Ross - March 21, 2010 | 6:55 pm · Link
I really, really want the White House to take immigration reform next, just to see the carnage of the tea bagger flip out.
Corner Stone - March 21, 2010 | 6:55 pm · Link
@AkaDad: Too acidic.
Be like the young teenage lovers in that Pierce Brosnan volcano flick.
Genine - March 21, 2010 | 6:55 pm · Link
I figured the march wouldn’t get a lot of attention. It’s sad really. The media doesn’t help national discourse… at all.
scav - March 21, 2010 | 6:56 pm · Link
The Chicago Freaking Tribune at least mentioned it, be still my beating, if stunned, heart. Because they also think O’Reilly has a shot at being an independent moderate.
JenJen - March 21, 2010 | 6:57 pm · Link
If a Fox News crew wasn’t there prompting and cheerleading the Big Giant Enormous Luis Guzman Puppets, it didn’t happen.
Annie - March 21, 2010 | 6:58 pm · Link
Watching MSNBC…I can’t stand David Gregory
Ash Can - March 21, 2010 | 6:58 pm · Link
@Ned R.:
They’d fucking well better.
Violet - March 21, 2010 | 6:59 pm · Link
@Max:
I heard it mentioned on MSNBC too.
Some Guy - March 21, 2010 | 6:59 pm · Link
Speaking of undercovered stories, TPM reports NOW is not pleased with the Executive Order on abortion.
I think this is worthy of a post (hint-hint) since abortion has become a fulcrum for the passage of the bill. While I share NOW’s reaction, it is deeply unpleasant to have to appease prolife Dems especially when the bill doesn’t in any way make abortions easier to come by, I would disagree with point that the Executive Order means anything legistlatively. It does not make Hyde stronger. It is literally a fig leaf. I am curious about the symbolics vs. the law of this. My read is that Obama is doing something completely symbolic. I could be totally wrong and am happy to admit it, but am I missing something? Are we to take this as a promise to oppose making abortion more accessible? I honestly think it is prolife Dems settling for a meaningless hug in order to feel good about voting for the bill.
Camchuck - March 21, 2010 | 6:59 pm · Link
CNN covered it this morning for a bit (good chunk of the 9:00 – 11:00am block IIRC)
Corner Stone - March 21, 2010 | 7:00 pm · Link
I just gotta say it. It’s a gorgeous fucking day in the Greater Houston Metro Area.
W00t!!
Ned R. - March 21, 2010 | 7:01 pm · Link
@Ash Can: Yeah, I pretty much figured they’d be idiots not to!
GeeYourHairSmellsTerrific - March 21, 2010 | 7:02 pm · Link
So I’m trying this twitter thing. Reading the #hcr hashtag it’s easy to see who’s pro HCR and who’s against.
Pro: Steney Hoyer is speaking, great speech. #hrc
Con: ZOMFG THE CONGESS IS SOCIALISTS. #hrc
Do wing nuts ever turn off their caps lock key?
me - March 21, 2010 | 7:02 pm · Link
@scav: I suppose compared to Beck he’s moderately rational.
schrodinger's cat - March 21, 2010 | 7:02 pm · Link
If Congress takes up immigration reform next, I think the ugliness over health care reform will look mild in comparison.
Kevin Phillips Bong - March 21, 2010 | 7:02 pm · Link
OT, but this just in from my reliable source on the Hill, Stupak just announced and it appears they have the votes to pass HCR. Outstanding. Can’t wait for the wingnut freakout.
Camchuck - March 21, 2010 | 7:03 pm · Link
@Some Guy:
NOW’s response is completely appropriate. How could they not react? But they aren’t holding HCR hostage over it, so its just theater.
Annie - March 21, 2010 | 7:04 pm · Link
OT: Netanyahoo, the US Co-President, will shortly arrive in Washington. After HCR and the vote, this should make for an interesting week in neoconville.
Delia - March 21, 2010 | 7:05 pm · Link
NPR mentioned the immigration reform march this morning.
scav - March 21, 2010 | 7:06 pm · Link
@me: What was that low bigotry meme again?
JMY - March 21, 2010 | 7:06 pm · Link
NOW may not be thrilled about the EO, but it doesn’t really say anything except that the law is the law.
DonBelacquaDelPurgatorio - March 21, 2010 | 7:08 pm · Link
Watching the “debate” on C-SPAN, maybe it’s just my Visio HDTV set, but it strikes me that as the moment of truth gets closer, the Republicans appear to get smaller, and smaller.
By contrast, the remarks of Steny Hoyer loom large over the House chamber. Compared to his eloquent words, the small and petty and bitter elocutions from the right seem to shrink and shrivel into the small, stingy and hateful little ideas that they are.
I am very proud to be a member of the party of the big ideas and the inclusive view of government. The right can have the cramped and selfish mindset, they are little people and they look good with their little thoughts.
Martin - March 21, 2010 | 7:08 pm · Link
Credit to the teabaggers – they know calling people niggers will at least will bring the media out.
Eric U. - March 21, 2010 | 7:08 pm · Link
Immigration reform makes me feel like a bad democrat. Can’t get too enthusiastic about it.
Delia - March 21, 2010 | 7:10 pm · Link
@JMY:
I sort of figure Stupak’s posturing got him out on the window ledge of a 20 story building and he had too much pride to just turn around and crawl back in, so Obama had to throw him this token just to massage his ego a little, even if it just preserves the status quo.
GregB - March 21, 2010 | 7:11 pm · Link
GOPerloo!
Zifnab25 - March 21, 2010 | 7:12 pm · Link
Maybe I’m totally off-base here, but I didn’t see NOW anywhere out in front of the health care reform bill back in 2009. Where were they on the public option? Where were they on rescission? Where were they on mandates and subsidies?
If their whole song-and-dance boils down to “the bill isn’t pro-choice enough for me, 24 hours before the vote on a bill 60 years in the making”, they can sit down and shut up already, because that boat sailed a long time ago.
Woodrow "asim" Jarvis Hill - March 21, 2010 | 7:12 pm · Link
@Camchuck:
Exactly.
FWIW, I agree with their assessment. But the issue is that, as we’ve all seen now, there’s nothing like the votes to kill Hyde. The best plan would be to find some way to moderate it, but the oppo is crazy-keen on this, to the point where the slightest hint of touching Hyde would make a freak-out that could actually rupture other projects.
I hate Hyde. It demonizes poor women, and contributes to the same kind of class-based abortion structures that were so prevalent pre-Roe. Yet I’m not seeing a strategy for peeling it back, much less repeal, and NOW et. al. don’t have anywhere near the pull to make a Stupak-style charge, esp. since this bill does help overall health care for women in critical ways.
Trainrunner - March 21, 2010 | 7:13 pm · Link
Well, this is just bad luck for the marchers. Worst. March. Day. Ever.
SIA - March 21, 2010 | 7:13 pm · Link
@General Egali Tarian Stuck: Charlie, honey, you can have anything you want.
@Delia: I think that’s right, but I still wanted HCR to pass without him, leaving him out there on the ledge as darkness falls. But then I’m spiteful.
Joseph Nobles - March 21, 2010 | 7:13 pm · Link
@Delia:
This.
Zifnab25 - March 21, 2010 | 7:14 pm · Link
@Delia: He wasn’t posturing, he was holding the bill ransom for a handful of archaic religious beliefs. And it’s cost him a great deal for his trouble. That douche-nozzle can’t get primary’d out fast enough.
Snarky Pickles - March 21, 2010 | 7:15 pm · Link
@Some Guy:
I don’t think you’re missing anything. I don’t like it, either, but I don’t believe it does anything in the law. NOW’s assertion that the Hyde Amendment “is not settled law” seems somewhat disingenuous. Granted, any law can be overturned by the courts, but it’s been around for what, 33 years? It’s not like it just popped up last week, or is some sort of novel legal theory.
Camchuck wrote:
Good point. NOW has its own constituency, after all. We need to give space for that.
scav - March 21, 2010 | 7:16 pm · Link
Getting one step forward without two steps back. OK, I’m cheap, I’ll take it.
Joel - March 21, 2010 | 7:17 pm · Link
@Some Guy: It is, of course, a fig leaf.
But symbolism is important to activist groups, as it should be.
NOW can use this to rally the troops, so to speak, for future legislative battles.
Right now, the equation remains unchanged.
jwb - March 21, 2010 | 7:17 pm · Link
@Some Guy: The irony here is that it was because Brown won in Mass. that sending a bill back to the Senate became an impossibility, which meant that Stupak and co. were essentially stuck with the Senate language. Before Brown won the race in Mass., I was actually quite concerned that the abortion language was going to be much, much worse, that we were going to end up with a deal where the HCR reform would perhaps be much stronger (public option) but the compromise to get it would be very severe restrictions on abortion. And all things considered, I vastly prefer the current shit sandwich to that one.
Woodrow "asim" Jarvis Hill - March 21, 2010 | 7:18 pm · Link
@Zifnab25: You’re a bit off-base. Their objection is to the EO and surrounding debate pretty explicitly, from the released statement; indeed, they don’t even mention the actual bill in that.
SIA - March 21, 2010 | 7:18 pm · Link
@DonBelacquaDelPurgatorio:
Well said, indeed. However, I think the GOP guys are more sleek, tanned, and well groomed. Though littler.
Bob K - March 21, 2010 | 7:18 pm · Link
WHO WILL MOW OUR LAWNS???
FairEconomist - March 21, 2010 | 7:19 pm · Link
I was pretty impressed with Hoyer’s speech. I usually hate listening to politicians even when I agree with them but I liked his speech. It’s particularly surprising since I find him too conservative most of the time. Complementing the “punk staffers” was a nice touch.
Bob K - March 21, 2010 | 7:20 pm · Link
WHO WILL PROCESS OUR CHICKENS?
WILL NOBODY THINK ABOUT OUR CHILDREN???
JMY - March 21, 2010 | 7:21 pm · Link
@Delia:
I understand that. But again it just says what the law is and doesn’t ban abortion. If anything Stupidpak lost. He did all that and he got nothing. He needs a refrigerator magnet that says “I came to D.C. to stop HCR and all I got was this stupid piece of paper!”
SIA - March 21, 2010 | 7:22 pm · Link
Cole is cracking me up with his tweets.
Snarky Pickles - March 21, 2010 | 7:23 pm · Link
@Joel:
Yes. And that’s to the good.
slag - March 21, 2010 | 7:32 pm · Link
But you see, John, the connection between HCR and immigration is glaringly obvious. As Tom DeLay reminded us:
So they don’t even need to talk about the immigration reform protests. They’re already talking about immigration indirectly by focusing on Stupak.
Corner Stone - March 21, 2010 | 7:36 pm · Link
@Bob K: You raise a good point:
Who will process our children?
Will nobody think about our chicken?
fourmorewars - March 21, 2010 | 7:41 pm · Link
With-media-friends-like-these dept.: David Shuster shows a pic of the teabaggers, and points out their lame attempt to form themselves into the word ‘NO.’ After mentioning the effort was so weak as to be virtually un-see-able, the network helpfully highlights the area, and a prominent ‘no’ shows up.
And then he LEAVES the highlight up. Instead of letting their lame attempt go back to looking stupid and virtually invisible, he keeps it highlighted, looking strong and prominent. When he comes back to it after interviewing somebody, the highlight is still there.
Starfish - March 21, 2010 | 7:49 pm · Link
@Corner Stone: My husband saw that ad when I was on Balloon Juice one morning and asked me why I was looking at scantily clad women on my computer as I got up to get something. Then he went over to my computer and I asked him why he was looking at scantily clad women on my computer.
I actually clicked on that ad once and could not really figure out a way to actually purchase sexy high heels on their website.
sven - March 21, 2010 | 7:50 pm · Link
Dear lord, McMegan has finally gone off her rocker.
yikes
moneyquotes:
and
Megan, Republicans are welcome to use the Democratic model to eliminate Medicare!
Step 1: Win the presidency and historic majorities in the House and Senate by campaigning specifically on elimination of Medicare.
Step 2: Adopt a plan for “Medicare Reform” composed largely of Democratic proposals from the last two decades.
Step 3: Publicly debate the specifics of the plan for 14 months prior to passage. (note: 10 months of this must be spent in good faith negotiations with Democrats who are swearing to block the same bill)
Step 3a: During the entire process dozens of interest groups must claim that “Medicare Reform” will be composed entirely of ground-up puppies.
Step 4: Pass the major elements through the Senate with a super-majority.
Step 5: Pass modifications to the bill using a simple majority of both houses.
If Republicans succeed in eliminating Medicare after completing each of steps 1-5 I hereby swear that I will accept the process as legitimate and in no way undermining the Great American Political Process.
P.S. I am fairly certain your column violated David Brooks’ intellectual property rights and do not be surprised if you hear from his lawyers.
Karen - March 21, 2010 | 7:54 pm · Link
WTOP was talking about the immigration protest rally, one of the “perks” of living in the DC area where politics are local whether you want it or not.
FlipYrWhig - March 21, 2010 | 7:59 pm · Link
@sven: Megan McArdle apparently terrifies easily. The tyrants are coming to give you coupons for buying health insurance! Kneel before Zod!
Corner Stone - March 21, 2010 | 8:00 pm · Link
@Starfish:
I’ve never..um..actually considered how to buy..shoes from there.
Tiparillo - March 21, 2010 | 8:09 pm · Link
Umm, not eleventy billion it’s actually counts zero since its not angry white people
D-Chance. - March 21, 2010 | 8:13 pm · Link
BTW, two hundred thousand people showed up in DC today to march for immigration reform.
So that’s where Jim Hoft is getting his “hundred thousand” number from… although he’s implying they’re HCR protesters.
Some Guy - March 21, 2010 | 8:24 pm · Link
@Snarky Pickles: Good points, thank you. Late back to the party.
Ditto, Joel.
debbie - March 22, 2010 | 8:18 am · Link
Michelle Malkin hates immigrants, so wouldn’t she have said there were only a handful of attendees?