A new poll from our media masters reveals:
Seventy-five percent of those surveyed in a CNN/Opinion Research Corp. poll released Tuesday said things are going badly in the United States.
An equal portion of those polled said they are angry about the way things are going. Two-thirds of those questioned said they’re scared about the way things are going and three in four said the current conditions in the country are stressing them out.
“It’s scary how many Americans admit they are scared,” said Keating Holland, CNN’s polling director. “Americans tend to downplay the amount of fear they have when facing tough times. The fact that more than six in 10 say that they are scared shows how bad things are getting.”
How did it get that way? Yes, we are in an economic downturn (how serious it is is difficult to divine) but the ugly temper has been brewing for some time. I submit that it is a creation of our mainstream media. In order to accrue power, they want us to be in a bad mood, so they create it. It’s as simple as that, as simple as Pirandello: “It is so, if you think so.”
So many Americans do not like the way things are going. And the way they want things to go, the direction they want to go in?
Not said.
Thanks for a big pile of nothing, CNN.
The media has been pooh-poohing the economy AT LEAST since July 07. I own a floral company in San Diego and I can tell you business has been off since then, we’re down 22% for FY08 and Oct has been brutal – 54% off this same time last year. I posted this link to the Belmont Club a couple of weeks ago, I still think it’s apropos:
http://chebellafiori.blogspot.com/2008/10/remember-this-nov-4th.html
Not much seems to change does it?
I agree with Chavo.
Things are not great but the MSM have been talking down the economy AND the war AND anything having to do with Bush for at least 4 years. Given the near monopoly on information that the MSM has it is not surprising that the constant negative drumbeat has had some effect.
How many months did Glen Reynolds ask “Dude, where’s my recession?” when there was none according to all the valid measures? This financial crisis is only partly real and the rest is manufactured.
See http://www.americanthinker.com/2008/10/hedge_funds_politics_and_the_m.html
for a more technical take on the market manipulation and who’s been pulling the strings.
My prediction: if Obama wins, the media will find that the economy has magically become vastly improved on or about January 20th. Any good piece of data will be trumpeted; bad news will be minimized, and “silver linings” in the bad data will be emphasized. This is akin to the magic comeback of stories about homelessness in 2001.
Considering the fact that half Americans are convinced we are poised to vote in either a terrorist to office, or a man that will perpetuate warfare for a hundred years and be succeeded by a woman that will strike science from our public schools and speed this democracy faster toward an idiocracy… I’d say we are in a bit of a conundrum…
No policeman has ever banged on my door to take me away for expressing a “wrong” thought.
I’ve never gone to bed hungry.
I’ve always had a roof over my head and clothes on my back.
I’ve always been free to go where I want when I want without needing permission from the State.
No mob has ever come after me for my thoughts my race or my religion.
America is close to being a miracle and the complainers are spoiled stiff.
ricpic, my HOPE is that this doesn’t CHANGE if ‘bama is elected.
Not so sure on several of those such as expressing a wrong thought (see Canada for the model)
I think the public has forgotten all these officials work for us, not corparations. We elect them, they are public servents. We have allowed our elected officials to do these things because we do not pay attention.We do not get involved. We the people do have a voice, but you have to use it.
As I read these comments and see the thought put into them, I wonder if you people write your congressmen, senators, and representatives? Do you call and ask how they voted on issues? Do you tell them what you want? Tell them it s time for them to lower their wages. It’s time to get rid of all the pork.
I suggest you join a couple of sites: http://www.cagw.org and http://www.govit.com Place your comments here so the right people might see your anger and frustration. I did.
Unfortunately, ripic, the system that has provided for those individual rights and concomitant prosperity is on the cusp of being permanently and fatally breached. The long march through the institutions of the socialist-collectivist left is about to reach critical mass. The unintended consequences of engineering social justice will lead to the same tyranny and poverty it has in every other instance, no matter the intentions of the engineers. The laws of economics and human nature preclude any other possible outcome.
CNN:
“It’s scary how many Americans admit they are scared,” said Keating Holland, CNN’s polling director.
I want to take this poll seriously, but, does this mean Americans, as a nation, are “terrorized” right now?*
And, to the extent that the terror, uncertainty and fear that many admit to feeling is the product of media-generated hype, doesn’t that make the hype-carriers “terrorists?”
If this sounds familiar, it should. I’m personally reminded of the media hype surrounding every IED that went off in Iraq. Each was amplified and broadcast ad infinitum to score its maximum damage against America’s war efforts there.
Ayers machine has been caught with his pants down: maybe this is why so many in the ranks of TV and print media were “asked” by their hirers to erase the word, “terrorist,” from their minds after 9/11.
Its regular usage might have lead inquisitive minds to wonder…
I see a lot of anger being directed at the media as much as being created by it. It’s not just that they distorted the war against terror and talked down the economy because of animosity to Bush. It’s that to many of us the hyping of the Obama narrative bears as much resemblance to the sum and substance of the man’s actual accomplishmnets as the media hype around the J-Lo/Ben Affleck romance bore to the quality of the movie, Gigli.
Destroying one’s credibility and driving away much of the audience in the process is not the usual way an institution increases its power.
I get in a bad mood every time I’m forced to endure CNN on a TV (in the airport or elsewhere).
I suspect that some CNN loyal viewers’ bad mood stems from supporting a public trust that has been openly violated and they must live with their conscience.
The remaining loyal viewers have no conscience and they are in a bad mood because they have to live in a world with people who do.
Haven’t encountered one scared person, but I have listened to a lot of angry individuals. The Lefties I know seem perpetually angry, so nothing new there. The Righties I know are angrier than I have ever seen them. Angry people want a face or faces they can direct their anger towards. I wouldn’t want to be that face come Nov 5th (and afterwards). I don’t think we have bottomed out yet on the anger issue; Nov 4th is a mere stop on the path to the bottom.
I’m neither scared or angry, but I can easily get in a bad mood like cfbleachers. And yes, CNN is on my list of bad mood inducers; plus my cholesterol, triglycerides, prostate, etc., etc.
My finances and personal economic situation are fine, because I take care of them myself, live withing my means, and take care of my family without whining to the government to spread someone else’s earnings to me so I can buy all the things I see MTV Cribs.
The only bad mood I may have comes from the fact that most of the mainstream media is full of shit about the presidential election, and this country is dancing dangerously close to becoming communistic.
Other than that, I’m pretty happy, and my family is getting ready for a really nice holiday season coming up.
Hmm, a Network News outlet marketing anger and bringing the crazy like it’s going out of style? Sounds vaguely familiar. Although Bathtub Boy at MSLSD, or CNN’s own gasbag populist Lou Dobbs might be better vehicles for the outrage than the seemingly sane, monotone Wolf Blitzer. Besides, Olby already has a raincoat – and the requisite mental illness.
“I don’t have to tell you things are bad. Everybody knows things are bad. It’s a depression. Everybody’s out of work or scared of losing their job. The dollar buys a nickel’s work, banks are going bust, shopkeepers keep a gun under the counter. Punks are running wild in the street and there’s nobody anywhere who seems to know what to do, and there’s no end to it. We know the air is unfit to breathe and our food is unfit to eat, and we sit watching our TV’s while some local newscaster tells us that today we had fifteen homicides and sixty-three violent crimes, as if that’s the way it’s supposed to be. We know things are bad – worse than bad. They’re crazy. It’s like everything everywhere is going crazy, so we don’t go out anymore. We sit in the house, and slowly the world we are living in is getting smaller, and all we say is, ‘Please, at least leave us alone in our living rooms. Let me have my toaster and my TV and my steel-belted radials and I won’t say anything. Just leave us alone.’ Well, I’m not gonna leave you alone. I want you to get mad! I don’t want you to protest. I don’t want you to riot – I don’t want you to write to your congressman because I wouldn’t know what to tell you to write. I don’t know what to do about the depression and the inflation and the Russians and the crime in the street. All I know is that first you’ve got to get mad.”
[shouting] “You’ve got to say, ‘I’m a HUMAN BEING, Goddamnit! My life has VALUE!’ So I want you to get up now. I want all of you to get up out of your chairs. I want you to get up right now and go to the window. Open it, and stick your head out, and yell,”
[shouting] “‘I’M AS MAD AS HELL, AND I’M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE!’ I want you to get up right now, sit up, go to your windows, open them and stick your head out and yell – ‘I’m as mad as hell and I’m not going to take this anymore!’ Things have got to change. But first, you’ve gotta get mad!… You’ve got to say, ‘I’m as mad as hell, and I’m not going to take this anymore!’ Then we’ll figure out what to do about the depression and the inflation and the oil crisis. But first get up out of your chairs, open the window, stick your head out, and yell, and say it:”
[screaming at the top of his lungs] “I’M AS MAD AS HELL, AND I’M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE!”
[h/t: Paddy Chayefsky]
I’d have to answer this honestly, and say that I’m more than a little worried. Why? Because Obama may be elected and that along with an overwhelming Democrat majority will really harm the nation. Here and abroad.
Here is a good analysis of what an Obama/Biden world will look like to our enemies.
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=MWQ0NTEyMjVjZDY2MjY1NGE1MGNmNjIzOWNhOWIzM2Y=
It’s great to see the same dittoheaded cretins playing the MSM is wrong tape over and over again. Maybe you haven’t noticed but the tape has worn out years ago, It’s sad to see someone who is an alledged independent intellectual feeding the jerks their raw red meat this time. Of course, things are great: Palin is a genius and someone I want running this country. Bush is also great and competent leader of unparalleled moral stature and foresight and any problems the MSM laid on him were really Clinton’s or Congress’s fault.
Of course, the only reason why the Moses Wine series is not as popular as Sherlock Holmes, Hercule Poirot or the 87th Precinct series is due to revenge by the media and Hollyweird elite on an apostate like Mr, Simon.
Yes we all now CNN is communist front, with Lou Dobbs and Glenn Beck as the commissars. Don’t you all get tired of your silly, dishonest juvenile media bashing. It is just attacking the messenger cause you don’t like the message.
Hi Javelin, “dittoheaded cretin” here, my tape has worn out – could you dub me a copy? That would be great. Maybe send some of that “raw” red meat you speak of – that’s the best kind. And of course “we all now CNN is communist front,” comrade. Are you implying that Wolf Blitzer is NOT out to sap and impurify all of our precious bodily fluids? Because that’s just kooky talk, mister.
Javelin, if you don’t like this site, why do you come to it? You are apparently a frustrated angry man who feels it necessary to berate someone’s talent &
achievements. I have never heard Roger L. Simon say that CNN is a communist front and would appreciate your telling me and orther’s who happen to
like bloging on this site where it is stated by him. If you feel the media and papers are so well balanced then maybe you can explain why their circulation
is in such a financial fiasco and why the computer media and bloging is growing leaps and bonds, with advertising coming on board and pulling much
of their money over to site’s such as this. Roger L. Simon and all of us that come to blog on PJM are glad to have a voice, but we don’t need to get as ugly
as you regarding anyone’s writing talent.
Javelin knows cretins.
“It’s scary how many Americans admit they are scared,”
I never felt even a tinge of that fear until Scary Reid and Nancy Drew took over the Congress. Now, alas, I am in the 75%. One does have to keep one’s sense of humor about it all though. Fortunately, we have Barney Rubble from the Commonwealth of Mass. and John Murky of Pennsylvania for comic relief. Where is Maxine Waters when you really, really need a belly laugh?
Just once I’d like a poll of Americans’ opinions of how Big Media is doing? What other corporation so thwarts and frustrates feedback from its customers? Just try going to CNN,(as I did) and find the email address of any of its reporters, celebrities, stars, personages, messianics or Mouths of Sauron. Sure, there is a “contact us” page. Just what I wanted to do, send to some unnamed drudge-intern my opinion of Drew Griffin’s admission to Sarah Palin that, had she said what Biden did that, of course they (CNN) would be all over her for the “will be tested” remarks. The Top Masts of the Biog Media ship are afalme; I hope they burn to the waterline.
Sorry, cold fingers. Big Media…aflame. And yeah, you bet CNN. We are in a bad mood. Look in the mirror sometime to undrstand why.
The blame lies less with CNN, MSNBC, etc., than it does with George W. Bush. Like his father, the man is utterly clueless when it comes to leadership.
Look at his public statements over the past few weeks—–he all but encouraged the American people to panic in his efforts to push the bailout plan through. He looked like a man overwhelmed by events instead of a man in control of them.
People derided Reagan as “the great communicator,” but Ronnie would have been on television each night with words of reassurance and hope. He would’ve projected calm and confidence, and the American people would’ve responded. In contrast, our current president looks befuddled and unable to coop with the situation, much like Jimmy Carter looked in 1980. People are just picking up on the cues they’re getting from GWB.
Daniel,
I will be wasting my time if you are a DemTroll, but I find your repetition of blatant falsehoods about McCain and Palin(i.e. DNC talking points) to be intellectually dishonest and repugnant.
If your post represents the depth of your thinking and the degree of your intellectual honesty, it’s time to go back and finish high school. Please leave this to the adults.
So about 70% of Americans say the country is going in the wrong direction, eh?
Not again.
I have heard the same statistic repeated all my life. I wager 70% of Americans have saying so since the ink dried on the Constitution.
We are a bunch of perpetual whiners.
The MSM WANTS us to be frightened, and for two reasons:
1) The old adage “If it bleeds, it leads”. CNN, MSNBC/CNBC/NBC etc, NYT, like to cover disasters, scandals, crime, etc, because they believe that it brings more attention than ‘good news’. By continuing to promote only doom and gloom, they think that it will improve their reader/viewership.
2) They WANT to affect the outcome of this election. That’s why our successes in Iraq are either minimized or omitted. That’s why Bush’s aid to Africa is never spoken about by the Olbermans and Courics. The tone of the stories over the last eight years was to do anything to make people believe that the worst would happen with a Republican POTUS. They nearly did it in 2004, with the fake TANG letter. Now they have just abandoned any pretense of neutrality, and it could work.
The MSM want to be in control of information. They once had that control, but once they went bonkers and made their political opinions the driving force, people stopped reading and viewing them. People went to talk radio where people like Rush would present their opinions, being honest that these were their opinions and not gospel, but doing it in an entertaining manner. Bloggers who went and actually researched news events, like the Oil for Food bribery scandal, became more respected and more accountable. Yes, more accountable because they had to massively back up everything they did.
The MSM, instead of looking inward at its own behavior and attitudes, lashed out at the bloggers and talk radio, declaring them ‘racist’, ‘homophobic’, and ‘facist’. Fox News, which leaned towards the Right was denounced by Democrat politicians who always ‘played nice’ with the MSM. These same Dems are now going to help the MSM regain their stranglehold over what goes over, not just the tv and radio, but the Internet as well.
The ‘Fairness Doctrine’ will make a comeback in an Obama Administration. It may have some other name, but it will be the Dems chance to muzzle talk radio and any other outlet which they do not think is ‘fair’. Shutting down the MSM’s ‘enemies’ is one part.
The next part will be defining who is to be called a ‘journalist’. If you say a ‘journalist’ must be a graduate of a university journalism program, or a member ‘in good standing’ with a ‘recognized’ news organization, then you can cut out bloggers, talk radio hosts, even your local newspaper. Of course, the MSM will be able to name anyone they want as a ‘journalist’. Begala, Carville, etc, will all be given accreditation since the MSM will deem them worthy, while people like Michael Yon and Roger Simon will be treated as lepers.
Blogging is also very vunerable. Remember, the head of Google is a prominent Obama supporter, and Bill Gates is not exactly shy about his leanings either. Google, Yahoo, MSN, etc, had no problems with turning in Chinese dissadents over to Beijing, simply for a small piece of the Internet pie. They already have been shown to be hostile to conservative websites. It would not be difficult for them to put a Michelle Malkin blog in permanent ‘Site not Found’ status.
the Communist News Network ain’t seen nothing yet if they and their fellow travelers in the rest of the MSM (with a little vote fraud help for ACORN and their ilk thrown in) succeed in stealing this election for the Obamassiah…they have no clue what a “bad mood” really looks like, but then they have no clue about much of anything else in the real world either.
Yes, Javelin, I have secret bouts of self-loathing and desire correction and chastisement and long for an Obama Administration and a compliant Democratic Congress to enact the Fairness Doctrine and silence all these sour adolescent voices.
Yo, I wanna bunk with Michele Malkin at the reeducation camp.
I have gotten the calls from polling groups that ask “Are you satisfied with the direction of the United States?” I always ask them to clarify what they mean. I tell them that I am not satisfied with the fact that we have politicians in Congress who use rules of order to supress discussion on laws. I tell them that I am dissatisfied that the answer to solving all problems appears to be to throw money at it. I am dissatisfied that students come out of school knowing all about sex but not how to balance a checkbook, maintain a car, sew on a button, scramble an egg, do more than basic arithmetic or write a letter. I am dissatisfied that people can come to this country, attend our schools, receive health care at our hospitals, bring their gangs to our cities and then complain that they don’t want to learn our language, follow our laws or take the time to do what it takes to become a citizen – and then demand that they get to vote!
But all the pollsters take away from my answer is that I am dissatisfied – and that must mean I’m upset at the President. What a crock.
Joe, the Butcher says in an aside:
“First thing we’ll do is kill all the Journo’s.”
Frankly, since 9/11 I have noticed not tendency whatsoever for Americans to downplay their fears and doubts. We have been totally freaked out since that event and have made no secret about it. I have seen little evidence (other than the occasional “let’s roll” reference) of a collective belief that we can handle our current situation, overcome it, and survive. No confidence – only worry, doubt and pessimism. We relieve our anxiety by blaming and attacking each other. I have no idea if the people in the media intended to create this atmosphere, if they emphasize conflict and doubt about the future unconsciously or habitually, or if they simply reflect the prevailing mood. Whatever – they definitely make the situation worse, not better. But I suppose helping isn’t in their job description…
I am responding to the article (Poll: Americans angry, worried over state of nation.) I realize that in a recent survey given by the CNN/Opinion Research Corp that seventy-five percent of the people who took a survey about our nation said things are going badly in the United States. Two-thirds of those questioned said they’re scared about the way things are going and three in four said the current conditions in the country are stressing them out. I say that most Americans would agree to this survey given by CNN.
It really surprised me to know how many Americans admit to be scared and it seems to me that people are only getting more and more scared. Only 25 percent of the people asked said that things are going well in the country. The survey given to these people also showed that most Americans are not happy with President Bush and the way he is handling his job. I think that as years go by more and more Americans get upset.