January 18, 2005
Bush subverting the press or Dan Rather making a mistake - which should be the bigger story?
OK - it's not about our Vietnam ride, but it's our blog and we can write what we want!
Dan Gillmor points out this terrific David Shaw column in the LA Times where he talks about the fact that the news has given much more space to "60 Minutes" getting the facts on Bush's Guard service wrong than they have to the news that the administration paid tv commentator Armstrong Williams lots of money to lobby for its legislative agenda without attribution, and how that's only one example of Bush's shameless propaganda efforts.
But few administrations have actually tried to subvert the news media and use taxpayer dollars to mislead the American public as blatantly as has the Bush administration. When you combine those efforts with Bush's record of media avoidance — he had fewer news conferences in his first term than any first-term president since William Howard Taft — it becomes clear that for all his speechifying about American freedoms, he has no interest in the unfettered operation of a free press properly serving a free society.
Well worth a read.
Posted by oren at 04:44 PM | Comments (0)
November 04, 2004
More post-election thoughts
I think Arianna's post-election analysis is right on.
With Iraq burning, WMD missing, jobs at Herbert Hoover-levels, flu shots nowhere to be found, gas prices through the roof, and Osama bin Laden back on the scene looking tanned, rested, and ready to rumble, this should have been a can't-lose election for the Democrats. Especially since they were more unified than ever before, had raised as much money as the Republicans, and were appealing to a country where 55 percent of voters believed we were headed in the wrong direction.
But lose it they did.
So the question inevitably becomes: What now?
Already there are those in the party convinced that, in the interest of expediency, Democrats need to put forth more "centrist" candidates — i.e. Republican-lite candidates — who can make inroads in the all-red middle of the country.
I'm sorry to pour salt on raw wounds, but isn't that what Tom Daschle did? He even ran ads showing himself hugging the president! But South Dakotans refused to embrace this lily-livered tactic. Because, ultimately, copycat candidates fail in the way "me-too" brands do.
Posted by oren at 04:05 AM | Comments (0)
November 03, 2004
And what about getting the candidates we really want?
As long as I'm ranting about the elections, I gotta say that John Kerry was not the most inspired choice of candidates... I don't know anyone who felt really inspired by him, though lots of people thought he'd be good enough, whatever that means.
If this is what we get with the candidate who is supposedly "electable", next time how about we work to get the candidates we really want to see? In the middle of the night last night I was imagining a ticket of Hillary and Obama. My friend Dave Wall suggests Dean and Kucinich.
Update - Dave Weinberger (among others) suggest Oprah.
Posted by oren at 03:51 PM | Comments (0)