The mighty windbags: David Brock's new book

Excerpts from "The Republican Noise Machine: Right-Wing Media and How it Corrupts Democracy" by David Brock at Salon.com...

http://www.salon.com/books/feature/2004/05/11/noise/index.html

This is a book about the explicitly right-wing media and about how mainstream media, sometimes under the direction of executives who are conservative Republicans, has succumbed to an undue conservative influence and tilt. It is about the right-wing media's history, its reach, its appeal, its practices, its methods, and its financing. It is also about the beliefs of those who populate right-wing media and the beliefs that people derive from it. My conclusion is that right-wing media is a massive fraud, victimizing its own audience and corrupting the broader political dialogue with the tacit permission of established media authorities who should, and probably do, know better.

<snip>

The implications of this right-wing media incursion extend well beyond particular political outcomes to the heart of our democracy. Democracy depends on an informed citizenry. The conscious effort by the right wing to misinform the American citizenry -- to collapse the distinction between journalism and propaganda -- is thus an assault on democracy itself.

<snip>

While the right wing cleverly has achieved its greatest gains in mainstream media sectors that ostensibly present opinion -- columns, TV punditry, talk radio, and books -- this opinion is predicated on a raft of distortions, misrepresentations, and outright lies presented to readers and viewers as fact. To further confuse the picture, the right wing has funded an array of its own media institutions, including newspapers, magazines, Internet sites, and a cable news channel, that produce a large volume of "news" that is not only offensive and unfair but misleading and often false.

<more>

http://www.salon.com/books/feature/2004/05/11/noise/index.html

Do the one day pass if you don't have a subscription to Salon

One of the great lines from the article:
"(RW'ers) Criticize other people for not being objective. (But they can) Be as subjective as you want. It's a great little racket."

its necessary.....

:kick: