New Silicon Graffiti Video: ‘Steer the Coverage’
We kick off another year of our Silicon Graffiti videoblog with a look at Old Media’s response to the horrific shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ). For anyone who was on Twitter at the time the news first broke, it was quite a sight watching old media’s narrative emerge in real time even before any of the basic facts of the story were known.
But this was far from the first time that a narrative was preformed—or very quickly assembled in the wake of a shock event. We try to place the MSM’s response to the Giffords shooting with some earlier attempts by the MSM to force the facts like a pretzel to fit an existing storyline:
- Krugman versus the clip-art.
- Camelot and the Prefab Narrative.
- Katrina: Iraq without Iraq.
- Airbrushing Rev. Wright out of the media.
- “N-Word 15 times.”
- Katie and Mayor Mike go looking for the Times Square Bomber in all the wrong places.
- “To be fair, there were some good reasons to steer the coverage initially in this direction.”
Tune in here to watch:
A handy portable, easily embeddable YouTube format of the video is also available. And click here for three years worth of earlier editions of Silicon Graffiti.
Pretty amazing delusions from the political Left leaning media. Last Nov. Democracy Now had on Cornell West who’s still saying Kanye West was right for his views on how the “Guvment” wanted to kill black people in New Orleans, ignore black people in New Orleans, ethnically cleanse people in New Orleans. This has great currency among the black community in America and even some white politicians and media took it for granted that this was true before anything had truly played out.
This is what I wrote in an essay dealing with Katrina:
“With it now taken for granted that Hurricane Katrina was a stage for black genocide, The International Herald Tribune online for Jan.18, 2006 published statistics that gave the lie to Kanye West’s and Splke Lee’s absurd assertions about what happened in New Orleans during Katrina. Even though approximately 61% of the city was black and 36% white at the time of Katrina, only 53% of the dead were black as opposed to 39% of the dead being white. In other words, the scenario bandied about by black voices all over this country about white folks helping Katrina do away with blacks was in fact quite the opposite. Meanwhile, AP reported on Sept.8, 2005 that Howard Dean unwittingly said, “We must … come to terms with the ugly truth that skin color, age and economics played a deadly role in who survived and who did not.” Too bad the reality was the opposite of what he meant to portray. This shows for an absolute fact that white racism is taken for granted in a way that bears no relation to reality. These are the statistics from the Louisiana Dept. of Health and Hospitals own website: African-American -451 (53%) Caucasian -334 (39%) Hispanic – 18 (2%) Asian/Pacific – 6 (<1%) Native American – 4 (<1%) Other – 5 (<1) Unknown – 35 (5%)"
At the time of Katrina, I watched on live television as black family after black family was lifted off of their roofs by helicopters. Not only was a mythical anti-black template set in place at the time of Katrina, it is still in place.
Natives of New Orleans are fiercely defensive and proud of their culture but when it comes to knowing their own ground best suddenly that ground is shed of their own responsibility and needs to be micro-managed from Washington and failure to do so equals the Ku Klux Klan. It is posited that a disaster like Katrina could have been managed into a non-disaster; certainly it could have been better managed but this is largely the fault of the local government in New Orleans.
In the American black community and the liberal Left in America, the urban myths that often amount to outright lies surrounding Katrina will never go away.
Don’t forget the main stream media tried to drag the Tea Parties into this shooting as well before any information on the shooter was known. Let’s also not forget how Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid kept slamming the Tea Parties throughout last year calling them “Brown Shirts,” “Astroturf,” and worse, “Un-American.” And the main stream media didn’t call them out on any of this. The main stream media really, really, doesn’t understand how much damage it is doing to this country and how divisive their actions are. If the debate in this country is turning “un-civil,” it’s because the main stream media, as well as Obama and the Democrats, are constantly insulting about half the American people. How much “civility” do you expect to get after doing that?
“The main stream media really, really, doesn’t understand how much damage it is doing to this country and how divisive their actions are.”
I rarely disagree w/you, but I believe the MSM knows EXACTLY what they’re doing AND they’re lovin’ every minute of it. They’ll finally “get it” when they discover their ENTIRE paycheck is owed to the Federal, State & local government.
“The main stream media really, really, doesn’t understand how much damage it is doing to this country..”
Absolutely True. Still, they also are clueless as to the damage they are ultimately doing to themselves.
I once was a devoted NY Times reader and haven’t picked up in I think 4 years or so. I once upon a time a long time ago watched Bill Maher and in his first couple of years would tune in Olberman. Haven’t watched them in years.
The one thing I know for sure is that I am the same person I was 15 years ago, at least politically. I sure as hell haven’t changed, but the aforementioned old media certainly have changed, if for no other reason than they find a pressing need to destroy the new media who is stealing their thunder (good for them)
I would like the think that Karma will get all of them in its subtle but efficient way.
This is, of course, the Big Story of our age. Turning journalism from a universally adversarial investigative force to a Leftist lapdog (making a difference!) insures that the truth will have an even harder time getting its pants on, so to speak. The all too familiar pattern is well established: Barrage the public with the Big Lie, turning it into a conventional myth. Next, ignore any facts that contravene the myth. Finally, when the myth is well known to be a lie, use a combination of carefully manicured half-truths and invented lies to muddy the waters so the general public – the ones who don’t actively do their own research and become fully informed – won’t know the difference between the truth and the mythological Leftist lie.
They were talking about Oklahoma City before Tucson happened.
That’s why the trolls were out immediately in force.
And this media will ensure that Barack Obama is re-elected as President in 2012. Bet on it! We are beginning to look and feel like a third world country folks.
I have done a little PSYOP in my career and one of the major dangers in the discipline is fooling yourself into believing your own propaganda. The left has fallen into this trap to the point where you get articles written that blame “rightwing Christians” for the actions of a leftwing Jew. (Jared Lochner’s mother is Jewish) While I recognize that his actions were insane rather than political the psychotic and sociopathic personalities are attracted to totalitarian movements.
The perfect title, Ed…. “Steer the coverage”
Seems like this is probably one of the key subjects in the J School curriculum considering the daily evidence of it in the NYT and WaPo, etc. Shape the narrative, steer the coverage, decide what’s news and even decide what’s not news by ignoring it completely.
Back in the midst of Katrina era Bush hatred, it already seemed laughable that journalists from major news outlets claimed to be impartial deliverers of the news — just the facts, ma’am — now, after Journo-List, the pre and post-election coverage of Obama (“coverage” indeed) and the blood libel against Sarah Palin, it’s not just laughable but easily the biggest lie of them all.
A commenter on another blog some time ago referred to them as “the jogging canines of mainstream journalism”, and that sounds about right. Sheepdogs, to be exact.
That is well put “mythological Leftist lie”. One would hope that they way the media portrayed the Tucson tragedy right out of the box diminished their credulity in peoples minds especially the independent voters. That was really grotesque.
To quote from one of your readers commenting to an earlier post:
Or as another of your readers added:
Please add Mayor Bloombutt’s accusation that a tea party member or some right winger tried to set off the bomb at South Park headquarters- to your list of LIARS, and taht immediately upon KNOWING it was MUSLIM all went quiet
also for the list: the Hitler moustaches widely credited to the tea party were on posters that ahd LAROUCHE PARTY printed at the bottom
tangled web they weave – while practicing to deceive
Everyone is crying foul on the media,BUT it only prints what the people will believe.
As far as 2012,the only way to save your democracy is to elliminate voter fraud.If you had done that,then Reid would not be back in power.This is why the Dems are not worried about 2012.They have the SEIU covering their backs whilst the voting machines do their job.
How can the people allow a Democratic party affiliate look after and service voting machines.They should be neutral.THAT is how to win back America.
I take second place to no one in my contempt and detestation for the MSM, but it is only a part of the problem. Journalists were shaped by left-wing schools, from elementary to graduate, as were those in entertainment and other elements of the popular culture. My son was subjected to political correctness in the early grades and is just now noticing it as a first year graduate student. The critical thought he is only now developing is not shared by his friends. They buy the liberal/progressive agenda hook, line and sinker. The genie left the bottle long ago and I don’t see anyone to put it back in. Politics alone won’t take us where we want to be.
@Banjo,
Your “instrument handle” is perfectly tuned and is playing the truth. It is not the MSM, it is the propagandized agenda of the ones who are in control of the MSM. Why do you think they hate Fox News so much. Although Fox has its share of liberals on air, it still broadcasts a voice for the other side and the left cannot abide another news source co-opting their domain.
The interloper, Fox News, has been a target of the Obama administration, yet, this same leftist ideologue will be appearing on Bill O’Reilly’s show during Super Bowl weekend.
One thing we forget. Although the demographics show only about 18% of the country identifying themselves as liberals, that translates to 54 million which will continue to provide a base to draw from. And, as with any established organization whose reputation still brings a certain amount of credibility to the table, especially for those whose involvement in politics is minimal, there is a percentage of that market to draw from.
The WSJ has replaced USA Today and NYT as the top newspaper but considering a circulation of a little over 2 million daily compared to the NYT with around 1 million, the number of quotes from the NYT on the internet does not reflect the number of lost subscribers for the Times.
So, the “Steer the Coverage” tactics do still work and the NYT does still exert a powerful influence on those who reach the highest number of Americans, the major networks. How many have heard a major news anchor repeat a story from the WSJ or any other conservative leaning news source?
I still read articles from major news outlets each day just to get a perspective of how the reporting is handled on different subjects. The Gifford shooting was another perfect storm handed to the media to be used as a club against the right, conservatives, Republicans, and in particular, the Tea Party and Sarah Palin. This was their “Katrina” moment and the left seized upon it.
Until our voices are heard by writing letters to the editors of our local newspapers and other opportunities to disseminate the truth, even with shrinking circulation, rags like the NYT will continue to dominate the direction of the headlines, written by former students who were indoctrinated by radicals who are now teaching instead of burning buildings, spitting on the military, and espousing socialism.
If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.
- Sun Tzu, Art of War
Main Stream Media? I can’t believe they get paid for what they do. If enough people Complain, Criticize and Cancel, they will be paid their true worth – an unemployment check. Enough said!
“it only prints what the people will believe.”
Really? I suppose that explains the dying circulation patterns of most major newspapers – they are printing what we will believe – and that grows less and less each day.
Or maybe they are printing what we cannot or will not believe – and we are telling them to STFU.
I posit, you decide.
Why does everyone insist on calling the left-leaning (now marxist), left-mouthpiece media — print and network (and cable?) — the MAINSTREAM media. Trying to enforce a myth? Do as many people attend to its propaganda as used to listen-watch to its sometimes excellent investigative journalism from the past?
From my understanding the numbers have been rapidly declining. Let’s talk truth to change. There are many centers of media. If you want to show the immediate narrative of the leftists, then say so. Don’t give them the cover of calling them “mainstream” when they are not. The 2010 election showed who the American mainstream is. Let’s get the real numbers out there.
I was a bit disappointed that you did not use Sympathy for the Devil as your soundtrack.
Tempting though it was, I didn’t want to risk royalty issues.
Just because the song mentioned Anastasia?