Right Wing Echo Chambers, and their results

When you speak only to yourselves, people, you get a resounding echo. Consider these two tidbits from a busy week, in which none other than a sitting member of the United States Senate called the stimulus "the socialist way..."

In their own minds:

Congressional Republicans are "so far ahead of where we thought we'd be at this time," according to Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), who is thrilled his party is "standing on our core principles" against President Obama's recovery plan. Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA) agreed, saying that what "will give us a shot in the arm going forward is that we are standing up on principle and just saying no."

...and, everyone else in the reality-based community?

Sixty-seven percent of Americans approve of how President Obama "has handled the government's efforts to pass an economic stimulus bill," according to a new Gallup poll. Forty-eight percent approve of how congressional Democrats have acted while only 31 percent approve the performance by congressional Republicans. Fifty-eight percent disapprove of the GOP's actions.

Hmmmm...perhaps publicly cheerleading for the destruction of the US economy maketh bad politics?

cd

Views of the News, Feb. 4, 2009

Media coverage of Obama's "screwing up" ... a tabloid breaks a story about Michael Phelps ... and, the Tampa Tribune offers Bibles as free inserts. Panelists: Mike McKean, Lee Wilkins, Charles Davis.

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Links to topics on this week's show

New York Times Editorial: "The Travails of Tom Daschle"

WaPo: "Obama Says He Erred in Nominations"

CNN: "After Daschle, What Happens to Health Plan?"

Mike Martin's "The Columbia Heart Beat" blog

Columbia Missourian: "Roper, Watkins dismiss blog reports of scheming"

City Beat blog by Columbia Tribune reporter Sara Semelka: "Sinister leadership cabal?"

Hank Waters' Tribune Editorial: "The has-been cabal"

News of the World: "What a Dope"

NBC Sports: "Phelps could face criminal charges over pot flap"

St. Pete Times: "Tampa Tribune dispenses Bibles to subscribers"

Views of the News, Jan. 28, 2009

Obama meets with Arab media ... Blagojevich takes to the airwaves on a PR blitz ... and, Wikipedia works to bolster its credibility. Panelists: Lee Wilkins, Charles Davis, Betty Winfield, Bob Priddy.

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How famous is Obama?

The current Vanity Fair magazine includes an article that says President Barak Obama is the most famous person who has ever lived. The reason? Well, outside of a little historical amnesia, it's the internet. Author Dee Dee Meyers (formerly of the Bill Clinton White House) says that because of the internet, knowledge about President Obama has penetrated even the most out of the way places. Even very rural people in Africa and Asia know who the President is.

I actually agree with many of the bloggers who commented on the story--probably not. My own personal vote would be for Mohandas Gandhi who, because of where he lived, was better known to people in Asia and African before he became news in the west. I think if you took that knowledge as a percentage of the people alive in the world at that time, Gandhi would be at least as famous as President Obama.

But, having said that, I do wonder why a magazine is printing a story like this. There is no data cited--public opinion polls, etc.--it's just personal observation and anecdote. It's not that well written, and I can't find any independent research. Readers get a provocative headline, and that about it. Surely the editors could have found something else to fill their pages.

Links to this weeks discussion topics

Blagojevich is skipping his impeachment trial on Monday, perhaps assuming he'll have better luck in the court of public opinion.

http://www.politico.com/blogs/michaelcalderone/0109/Blagos_media_blitz_NBC_ABC_CNN.html

TechCrunch says YouTube will soon allow content providers to put ads on their content — regardless of who uploaded it.

http://www.lostremote.com/2009/01/21/report-youtube-will-let-media-put-ads-on-their-material/

Do you think the "in the tank" criticism that was leveled at MSNBC was fair? And do you think the image of the network has been resuscitated post-election?

We have opinionated people on MSNBC in that role in primetime. I don't think that is a systemic point of view. NBC News as an organization is not influenced by those passionate, opinionated people that we have on the air.

http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/162675-Q_A_David_Gregory_s_Sunday_Grill.php

An interesting collection of how various news outlets are covering the Obama administration's stimulus

 plan.

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/theoval/post/2009/01/61910438/1 

Citigroup will not take possession of new aircraft

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hhiE9y_NtCV3wMLmx8IG8e8cUv7AD95VMVIG0

Wikipedia may make itself harder to edit

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,483109,00.html

Even More Good News: Fact-Challenged Kristol Out at NYT

Wow, it's like Christmas for a progressive journalist who worries a bit about little things like factual veracity: the most fact-challened of the New York Times' op-ed columnists, William Kristol, is taking his propaganda show to the Post.

Don't know what this says about the Post, but I am imagining the Times got tired of running corrections for a column that only had one theme (conservatism good; all else is terror) the whole time anyway.

I think the Washingtonian has it about right:

It's hard to overstate what an embarrassment this was from the start. Not only was Kristol's writing pedestrian and predictable, but he had an unfortunate habit of making obvious factual mistakes, which necessitated frequent corrections. Indeed, at last count, Kristol prompted four corrections in one year -- though, if you want to get picky about it, one of the four included two separate factual errors in the same column, which would bring the total to five.

And that's just counting the demonstrable errors of fact. Errors of judgment were found in practically every piece.