Category: General

Media Matters – The Progressive Majority: Why a Conservative America is a Myth:

Conventional wisdom says that the American public is fundamentally conservative – hostile to government, in favor of unregulated markets, at peace with inequality, wanting a foreign policy based on the projection of military power, and traditional in its social values.

But as this report demonstrates, that picture is fundamentally false. Media perceptions and past Republican electoral successes notwithstanding, Americans are progressive across a wide range of controversial issues, and they’re growing more progressive all the time.

This report gathers together years of public opinion data from unimpeachably nonpartisan sources to show that on issue after issue, the majority of Americans hold progressive positions. And this is true not only of specific policy proposals, but of the fundamental perspectives and approaches that Americans bring to bear on issues.

Nor is the progressive majority merely a product of the current political moment. On a broad array of issues, particularly social issues, American opinion has grown more and more progressive over the past few decades. In contrast, it is difficult to find an issue on which the public has grown steadily more conservative over the last 10, 20, or 30 years.

That’s why the Republicans have to fight so damn dirty to stay in office. It’s an uphill battle; they’re desperately holding a progressive electorate at bay.

So why don’t we have Democratic majorities all over the place? Well, largely because the Democrats are also funded by rich corporate elites, just like the Republicans… So they can’t take advantage of popular support without losing their own funding, and thereby (through the magic of a media concentrated in the hands of a few huge corporations) losing any ability to capitalize on the support of the progressive majority.

If you start actually talking like a progressive, mainstream American, big media will make sure your voice is effectively silenced. Ask Kucinich.

Will the internet change this? Remains to be seen.

Condense Your Day With the Life-Hacking FAQK:

So why is it called life hacking?

Because a new name makes it sound like a new idea. Geeks can’t admit that anything worthwhile was invented before 1981. Soon, “making cocoa” will be called “milk hacking.”

From a mailing from Dennis Kucinich’s campaign:

The Kucinich campaign is still awaiting an official response from ABC News about the unexplained – some have charged “inexplicable” – way in which the network has handled its post-debate online coverage of Ohio Congressman and Democratic Presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich over the past few days.

Among the “outrages” that have energized tens of thousands of Kucinich supporters – and even non-supporters – thousands of whom have flooded the ABC News website and other online news sites with comments of protest:

* Congressman Kucinich was apparently deliberately cropped out of a “Politics Page” photo of the candidates.

* Sometime Monday afternoon, after Congressman Kucinich took a commanding lead in ABC’s own on-line “Who won the Democratic debate” survey, the survey was dropped from prominence on the website.

* ABC News has not officially reported the results of its online survey.

* After the results of that survey showed Congressman Kucinich winning handily, ABC News, sometime Monday afternoon, replaced the original survey with a second survey asking “Who is winning the Democratic debate?”

* During the early voting Monday afternoon and evening, U.S. Senator Barack Obama was in the lead. By sometime late Monday or early Tuesday morning, Congressman Kucinich regained the lead by a wide margin in this second survey.

* Sometime Tuesday morning, ABC News apparently dropped the second survey from prominence or killed it entirely.

* AND, as every viewer of the nationally televised Sunday Presidential forum is aware, Congressman Kucinich was not given an opportunity to answer a question from moderator George Stephanopoulos until 28 minutes into the program.

The campaign submitted objections and inquiries to ABC News representatives on Monday and Tuesday. ABC News representatives have failed to respond – or even acknowledge – those objections and inquiries.

Stayed tuned for further details.

Somebody at ABC has a problem with Kucinich’s campaign, apparently. A big problem. And is taking action.

Think Progress » Levin: Escalation’s Goals Have ‘Totally And Utterly Failed,’ Begin Withdrawal In Less Than 4 Months:

Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI), the Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, recently visited Iraq with Sen. John Warner (R-VA) and reported that the escalation is “totally and utterly” failing to produce the political reconciliation needed.

The media is reporting Levin’s comments as validation of Bush’s strategy. Fox News spins Levin’s comments as “praise” for the “surge results.” ABC claims the comments are proof of “success of the surge.”

That’s just egregious. I thought that the unquestioning acquiescence to administration spin was supposed to have drained out of the media by now, but no… Is Fox News just the most obvious example of what’s endemic in the whole institution?

ABC News Reposts Poll Because Kucinich Won | intosanity:

Earlier today ABC News posted a poll asking who won the democratic debate and Kucinich won by over 3,000 votes. Just recently they reposted the poll to bury the previous one and cut his picture out on top of that!

I guess “unscientific” polls put on the internet by large media organizations are acceptable only if they produce results that do not challenge What Everyone Knows, such as that Kucinich is a fringe candidate that nobody should pay attention to.