Congressional representatives are usually careful when they talk about the national media. If elected officials complain too loudly about the state of our corrupt, corporate media….then they face the prospects of being constantly pilloried by that same corrupt, corporate media….whether they deserve it or not. That's why it was refreshing to see this coming from Patrick Kennedy (D-RI) yesterday….
Kennedy is yelling about the nonsensical blanket coverage by corporate media of a little-known, FIRST term, House Democrat from New York, Eric Massa…..when vital, important stories, like Afghanistan, are given very little, if any, attention.
Massa is resigning his office after 14 months….yeah, 14 months….because of ethics problems involving the groping and tickling of male subordinates.
For some reason, most of our corporate-whore media has been enamored with Eric Massa's story. I was particularly incensed last night to watch MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell bash gays with reckless abandon for most of his hour long program. Think I'm joking?….Take the 6 minutes and try to stifle your embarassment, or anger, over highly paid Village assh*les, like O'Donnell, gleefully rolling around in the Massa story like a dog does in sh*t.
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I often refer to the modern American corporate media as The Village….an insulated, incestuous, place where narcissistic, opportunists all agree amongst themselves what's a Serious story and what's not a Serious story. O'Donnell's vulgar, embarassing, yuk-it-up orgy……over a nobody-congressperson, who has already resigned, is yet another reminder that what the Village considers to be Serious and worthy of ample, valuable teevee time….rarely parallels what average Americans regard as important.
And that brings me to the second half of today's blog post. Today's Akron Beacon Journal headline reads…"Voters Want Less Politics, More Jobs." One of my favorites, (not), Liz Sidoti of the Associated Press co-authors the piece under that bold headline.
Words like "gridlock", "partisan games", "contempt for lawmakers", "angry voters", "furious with Washington" and the mandatory, "Democrats in danger"…. are strewn about the article….I guess, in an attempt to inform readers how American voters are just fed-up with their elected officials, wanting them to stop all the nonsense and pass legislation that does something to help their lives.
What's not mentioned in Sidoti's article, at all, is the record number of GOP filibusters carried out in the Senate, ever since the GOP lost the majority. Seems odd, doesn't it?…..that a piece moaning about D.C. paralysis, you know, "gridlock"…..didn't mention, not even once, the fact that obstructionistic, 'minority should rule'-minded Republican Senators have recently doubled the previous total-number-of filibuster record….a filibuster prevents any bill from even being debated in the Senate, and only takes 41 GOP votes out of 100 total Senate votes to maintain.
Sidoti's column, a column all about how Americans are worn out, disgusted, over Washington's inability to do anything…..is entirely silent about why there is gridlock and who is responsible for it.
Even though Obama's administration has passed a stimulus bill to prevent a further deepening of the economic catastrophe created under the Bush administration, even though Democrats have fought, consistently, to maintain unemployment checks and COBRA coverage for those unemployed, even though Democrats have been trying for over a year to pass job-creating, health care reform, even though Congress just passed a new jobs bill…..according to the five or six people Liz Sidoti talked to…Washington isn't doing anything, and Washington needs to be more bipartisan.
While Lawrence O'Donnell's segment was despicable, Village assh*lery of the highest order….Liz Sidoti's "all politicians are guilty" and "Washington can't get anything done" and "Democrats are in trouble", bullsh*t spreading….. is standard-issue, Village propaganda of the highest order.
O'Donnell and his producers ignored many more important news stories in order to revel in a story that 6th grade boys would laugh at…..and the AP's Sidoti writes an entire column about Washington gridlock and NEVER ONCE mentions the historic number of GOP filibusters in the Senate.
Such is the Village.
