More MSM Malfeasance -- The Conyers Hearing And Tom Brokaw's So-Called "Interview" Of Obama.

July 28, 2008

Re: More MSM Malfeasance -- The Conyers Hearing And Tom Brokaw’s
So-Called “Interview” Of Obama.


Here are two recent impressions. They will be stated in conclusory fashion, without the usual supporting elaboration and details.

Last Friday John Conyers held a hearing where several witnesses (e.g., Vincent Bugliosi, Bruce Fein, Rocky Anderson, Elliott Adams) made truly powerful statements about the immorality, criminality, and incompetence of the current administration. The hearing was carried live on CSpan.

Did the mainstream print media write about the hearing the next day, Saturday? The New York Times didn’t – there was not one word about it in Saturday’s Times. No doubt the geniuses who brought us WMDs and didn’t tell us about NSA spying before the 2004 election -- thus respectively bringing us Iraq and a second term for Bush -- thought that what was said at the hearing on Friday shouldn’t be written about because much of it is old news in their minds. Thus, better to fill the paper with numerous lengthy stories whose details, or even existence is often of little interest or consequence to most of us. The Boston Globe did write about the hearing, but almost entirely failed to write about the crucial parts while extensively covering the excuse mongering Republican Congressmen who were engaged in pretenses from the get-go.

I don’t know what other print media did on Saturday, but to me the responses of the Times and the Globe on Saturday say it all about the long term bad impact of the corporate MSM.

Then there is Tom Brokaw, who originally hailed from reactionary North Dakota (didn’t he?), with the smooth good looks and mindless hero worshipping characteristics that lead to success in America, especially on mindless corporate television. I happened upon Brokaw interviewing Obama on Meet The Press on Saturday morning. Now, I don’t watch TV much, but anyone sensate has seen Brokaw a fair amount over the last 20 or 25 years. But never have I seen him so obviously angry, so obviously antagonistic, as when interviewing Obama. It was palpable, and it tells you yet again where the corporate MSM’s collective heads are at.

Let me say for Obama that he made an intellectual monkey out of the transparently stone dumb fool who was interviewing him. Obama remained calm, articulate, thoughtful, parried Brokaw’s most strident efforts, and at times even joked when Brokaw did something especially stupid like reading a tremendously long excerpt from a column by David Brooks disparaging Obama -- a reading far longer than any I have ever seen directed at any presidential candidate before.

Brokaw’s conduct was yet another example of where the corporate MSM’s collective heads are at, while Obama’s measured speech and conduct will only make the MSM fear and dislike him the more because even vicious efforts by a major MSM figure seemed unable to rattle him.*


*This posting represents the personal views of Lawrence R. Velvel. If you wish to comment on the post, on the general topic of the post, or on the comments of others, you can, if you wish, post your comment on my website, VelvelOnNationalAffairs.com. All comments, of course, represent the views of their writers, not the views of Lawrence R. Velvel or of the Massachusetts School of Law. If you wish your comment to remain private, you can email me at Velvel@VelvelOnNationalAffairs.com.

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