Yes, I'm always nervous about the outcome of any election that I'm invested in and I get a bit more stressed when it's a national one. I was very anxious the entire day four years ago when I knew Obama had it in the bag in 2008. This time it's a lot closer. Fox has created its own political reality as I've been writing about and Romney is following right along. it's never been more evident since the third and finale debate took place on Monday.

Jonathan Chait:

In recent days, the vibe emanating from Mitt Romney’s campaign has grown downright giddy. Despite a lack of any evident positive momentum over the last week — indeed, in the face of a slight decline from its post-Denver high — the Romney camp is suddenly bursting with talk that it will not only win butwin handily. (“We’re going to win,” said one of the former Massachusetts governor’s closest advisers. “Seriously, 305 electoral votes.”)This is a bluff. Romney is carefully attempting to project an atmosphere of momentum, in the hopes of winning positive media coverage and, thus, creating a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Fox News is beating this drum loudly also. See, we've seen this many times before. Karl Rove is the master at playing this garbageand he's continuing the trend.

Karl Rove employed exactly this strategy in 2000. As we now know, the race was excruciatingly close, and Al Gore won the national vote by half a percentage point. But at the time, Bush projected a jaunty air of confidence. Rove publicly predicted Bush would win 320 electoral votes. Bush even spent the final days stumping in California, supposedly because he was so sure of victory he wanted an icing-on-the-cake win in a deep blue state. Campaign reporters generally fell for Bush’s spin, portraying him as riding the winds of momentum and likewise presenting Al Gore as desperate.

Unfortunately it worked so now it's a staple of their play book.

Obama’s lead is narrow — narrow enough that the polling might well be wrong and Romney could win. But he is leading, his lead is not declining, and the widespread perception that Romney is pulling ahead is Romney’s campaign suckering the press corps with a confidence game.

Digby writes:

So, I'm hearing this morning that despite the fact that President Obama cleearly won last night's foreign policy debate, he actually lost...

That's all you hear on FOX, but it's much subtler on other cable news channels. They say that since Mitt memorized some talking points he passed the commander in chief test.

Michael Tomasky writes about this in his piece this morning:

Today may be the most important single day of the campaign. Obama won the debate. Everyone this side of Charles Krauthammer agrees that Romney was general and platitudinous and not that engaged. That makes two out of three. You might think that would mean momentum. And yet the conventional wisdom is congealing right now—it is hardening this morning, minute by minute—that Romney is going to win the election.

From Playbook, which distills the c.w.: President Obama won last night’s foreign-policy debate on substance, in snap polls and with the pundits, but Mitt Romney did well enough that for the first time in six years, Romney folks emailed, “We’re going to win.”
--
In reality, Obama is the favorite. The state maps still make him so.

Digby then continues:

Conservatives know all this. But they’re constructing an opposite reality. This is at the heart of everything going on right now, I think. It’s what they can do that liberals can’t really do. They've always done it. “Romney is going to win” in 2012 isn’t so different from “We’ll be hailed as liberators” in 2003. They say something and try to make it so, and the media go for it time and time again.
And... they are.

This is the right's great advantage. They have their own media, (which the Democrats stupidly validate every chance they get) and they have a boatload of professional spinmeisters ready to instantly hit the talking points. They have been at this for a very long time and they are probably better at doing it than anything else --- especially governing.

To me, it was clear that Obama won the debate. He was much more fluent on the issues, and obviously truly engaged. This is what he cares about. Indeed, everyone should remember that until the fall of 2008, domestic issues weren't at the top of the list and Obama made his bones on his foreign policy promise. The country was looking for someone who would get us out of the stinking mess Bush's bellicose neocons had created.

Conservatives are trying to condition the media to report that Romney is killing it now and help pump undecideds to vote for Mittens. The con never sleeps in tea party land.

I've been frustrated by the fact that I can't get Al Jazeera on cable broadcast, only Roku and via my iPhone. While I know there's a movement afoot to petition cable networks to add it, I have my doubts it will happen. Why? Well, simply put, because the Department of Defense under the Bush administration was offended by their more objective reporting during the invasion of Iraq.

Someone pointed me to this 2003 New York Times article with details. Shortly after their official launch, they were attacked non-stop by hackers on the web. They inked a deal with Akamai to serve their content, only to see it abruptly terminated.

The English version of Al Jazeera's Web site was shut by hackers roughly 12 hours after it went online on March 25. For a time, Web users trying to gain access were directed to a Web page bearing an American flag. Akamai, whose clients include MSNBC and CNN, maintains a broad network of servers that provide protection from hacking attempts. It was for that reason, Ms. Tucker said, that Al Jazeera hired the company.

"Basically this was our answer to the hacking that has been nonstop and pretty aggressive," she said. "We had a done-and-dusted deal on March 28. Then yesterday, we get a letter from them terminating the contract."

While the Akamai deal was for web services, cable companies have found a myriad of reasons to keep them out of cable listings. Beginning in 2009, Al Jazeera undertook a grass-roots effort to petition carriers to add them, but to little avail.

Continue reading »

Seeing the Forest: Conservatives claim unions caused NY snow jam

Mugsy`s Rap Sheet: Who coulda seen that coming? Mugsy's Predictions for 2011

FAIR: The 2010 P.U.- litzer Prizes, a rundown of some of corporate media's stinkiest moments

Nieman Journalism Lab: I have found the cognitive surplus and it hates pigs (h/t Batocchio)

Too Much: America's Greediest: The 2010 Top Ten (h/t Blue Gal)

The Satirical Political Report: GOP to Filibuster New Year, In Order to Avoid Responsibility of Governing

Still fresh with the rush of blood in the water, right-wing extremists gathered recently at a secret Washington DC meeting to plan the demise of the country as we know it. Led by ideologues and think tank luminaries, they're all planning the next move. This doesn't surprise me. Nor should it surprise you.

Via Talking Points Memo:

The hush-hush meeting was sponsored by the Conservative Action Project (CAP), an offshoot of the Council for National Policy.

Reagan-era Attorney General Ed Meese, the head of the CAP (not to be confused with the liberal Center for American Progress), was scheduled to address the summit, which drew attendees with speeches from Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) and Rep. Tom Price (R-GA). Press secretaries for both members did not respond to requests for comment about their remarks.

Republican strategist Kellyanne Conway was also on the summit agenda, along with Edwin Feulner, president of the Heritage Foundation, and former Rep. David McIntosh (R-Ind.). Press representatives for Conway and Feulner did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment, but a secretary for McIntosh confirmed that he was speaking at the summit.

A group discussion was to focus on the outcome of the election and the future of the conservative movement. Attendees were also invited to discuss economic, social and national security issues, judicial nominations and state elections and issues.

[...]

Republican House and Senate staffers from the Senate Judiciary Committee and the House Republican Conference made the guest list alongside conservative luminaries like Virginia Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, Republican super-lawyer Cleta Mitchell, ATR's Grover Norquist, the Family Research Council's Tony Perkins, RNC chair candidate Ken Blackwell, American Values President Gary Bauer and David Keene, the chairman of the American Conservative Union.

Well, isn't that cozy? Ginni Thomas as an invited guest to talk about things like judicial nominations. How utterly wonderful.

And look who some of the presenters are:

Organizations scheduled to be represented at the meeting included the National Organization for Marriage, the Media Research Center, Susan B. Anthony List, the Heritage Foundation, 60 Plus Association, the Federalist Society, the Family Research Council, Americans for Tax Reform, Concerned Women for America and the Tea Party Patriots.

Press and media attendees included:

Continue reading »

This is exactly what C&L has been uncovering for years now, so it's great to see that The Nation has put together a comprehensive story on the numerous undisclosed conflicts in the corporate media:

President Obama spent most of December 4 touring Allentown, Pennsylvania, meeting with local workers and discussing the economic crisis. A few hours later, the state's former governor, Tom Ridge, was on MSNBC's Hardball With Chris Matthews, offering up his own recovery plan. There were "modest things" the White House might try, like cutting taxes or opening up credit for small businesses, but the real answer was for the president to "take his green agenda and blow it out of the box." The first step, Ridge explained, was to "create nuclear power plants." Combined with some waste coal and natural gas extraction, you would have an "innovation setter" that would "create jobs, create exports."

As Ridge counseled the administration to "put that package together," he sure seemed like an objective commentator. But what viewers weren't told was that since 2005, Ridge has pocketed $530,659 in executive compensation for serving on the board of Exelon, the nation's largest nuclear power company. As of March 2009, he also held an estimated $248,299 in Exelon stock, according to SEC filings.

Moments earlier, retired general and "NBC Military Analyst" Barry McCaffrey told viewers that the war in Afghanistan would require an additional "three- to ten-year effort" and "a lot of money." Unmentioned was the fact that DynCorp paid McCaffrey $182,309 in 2009 alone. The government had just granted DynCorp a five-year deal worth an estimated $5.9 billion to aid American forces in Afghanistan. The first year is locked in at $644 million, but the additional four options are subject to renewal, contingent on military needs and political realities.

In a single hour, two men with blatant, undisclosed conflicts of interest had appeared on MSNBC. The question is, was this an isolated oversight or business as usual? Evidence points to the latter. In 2003 The Nation exposed McCaffrey's financial ties to military contractors he had promoted on-air on several cable networks; in 2008 David Barstow wrote a Pulitzer Prize-winning series for the New York Times about the Pentagon's use of former military officers--many lobbying or consulting for military contractors--to get their talking points on television in exchange for access to decision-makers; and in 2009 bloggers uncovered how ex-Newsweek writer Richard Wolffe had guest-hosted Countdown With Keith Olbermann while working at a large PR firm specializing in "strategies for managing corporate reputation."

These incidents represent only a fraction of the covert corporate influence peddling on cable news, a four-month investigation by The Nation has found. Since 2007 at least seventy-five registered lobbyists, public relations representatives and corporate officials--people paid by companies and trade groups to manage their public image and promote their financial and political interests--have appeared on MSNBC, Fox News, CNN, CNBC and Fox Business Network with no disclosure of the corporate interests that had paid them. Many have been regulars on more than one of the cable networks, turning in dozens--and in some cases hundreds--of appearances.

Connecting.the.Dots: V.P. for saving the planet

Facing South: Gulf Stream Coach - the politically connected company handed a $500 million federal contract to manufacture trailers for Hurricane Katrina victims knew its product was contaminated with dangerous levels of cancer-causing formaldehyde in early 2006. But they failed to notify residents or take any action to protect them.

Petrelis Files: AIDS exec gets a pay raise, then cuts food and supplements to patients.

Shakesville: Onward HMO soldiers, marching as to war

Newshoggers: If the only tool one uses is a hammer, everything starts to look like a nail.

ANNALS OF JOURNALISM: The "gas tax holiday" and objective journalism...Crude Reporting..Obama moves right, pundits cheer...Har Har Har...Maybe someday, Maureen Dowd won't write something juvenile enough to make Annals...Zzzzzzzz: get ready for CNN's exciting convention coverage...Can we stop with the "liberal media" trope now?...Bypassing the Corporate Media...Jane Mayer shines some light on The Dark Side...Tom "six months" Friedman is angry because the world hates us...Shut up!...Judy Miller in a tent...

The Rural Blog: A congressional investigation has found that the coal-mine disaster that killed nine people in Utah last summer could have been prevented if the general manager or other officials had been honest with the US Mine Safety and Health Administration.

Daily Howler: The divine right of pundits

Matthew Yglesias: We can't leave until we've achieved "victory," defined as killing everyone who wants us to leave.

Radamisto: Col. Morris Davis is an American hero.

Cliff Schecter: Looks like we got us another "Pastor Problem." Will the corporate media will notice?....naah

The Impolitic: Bullsh*t

Who is Kevin Martin , you ask?

FreePress (from action email):

Valentine's Day is Wednesday, and FCC Chairman Kevin Martin has spurned the public's love in favor of the largest media companies. It's time we won back his heart.

So we created this 40-second Valentine's Day video for Chairman Martin. Watch the video, sign the card to Martin, and tell your friends to do the same:

Send a Valentine to Chairman Martin

Last year, Martin was caught in bed with corporate lobbyists.[..] We need to woo him back to the people he's really supposed to serve.

2007 is a pivotal year for the chairman. He will be making several decisions that will have a direct impact on the future of television, radio and the Internet.
Before he gets back in bed with corporate lobbyists, Martin needs to hear from you.
Sign the card and ask Chairman Martin to:

1. Stop Big Media from swallowing up even more local outlets.

2. Prevent big phone companies from destroying Net Neutrality.

3. Help foster more diverse voices and points of view.

Take action today to demand a media system that puts our interests before those of the corporate media lobby. On this Valentine's Day, let's make sure the public can't be ignored.

Billmon goes back into his archives:

But to piece together the truth in those days you had to scrounge for it, ignore the ignorance and lies pouring out of Donald Rumfeld's mouth and defy the prevailing political tide of arrogant triumphalism. Very few journalists, and even fewer politicians, were willing to do that. Some in Left Blogistan were (Kos, Needlenose and Steve Gilliard, among others, also come readily to mind). As a result we presented a far more accurate picture of the war to our readers than the corporate media — with a few honorable exceptions — did to its own. I'm proud enough of that to want to remind the world, and the moronic media blog bashers in particular, of it...read on

9/11 Press for Truth

Following the attacks of September 11th, a small group of grieving families waged a tenacious battle against those who sought to bury the truth about the event—including, to their amazement, President Bush. In ‘9/11 PRESS FOR TRUTH’, six of them, including three of the famous “Jersey Girls”, tell for the first time the powerful story of how they took on the greatest powers in Washington—and won!—compelling an investigation, only to subsequently watch the 9/11 Commission fail in answering most of their questions...read on

Jennifer Nix:

Yes, we must organize boycotts of Disney and ABC, and keep up the pressure. We must demand that ABC give equal time to critics of "Path to 9/11." We can propose programming with historians and investigators, and those who were there as a counter-balance in the coming weeks. We must push ABC News to bring a balanced account of the controversy over their network’s Path to Shame (h/t LATimes). We must do all of these things, but more importantly, we must step back and look at the big picture concerning the need for reform of our whorish corporate media.