Posts Tagged Karl Rove
Republicans Lie and News Media Spread It
Posted by Roldo Bartimole in Media, Politicians on February 4th, 2010
February 4, 2010… The Audacity of No.
The Republican Party has put the country into serious financial jeopardy. Now they blame others.
Two Republican wars, two Republican tax cuts mostly to the wealth and a Republican prescription drug benefiting drug companies – and NONE paid for by the party that now sees disaster in deficits.
What gall.
Of course, one of the leaders of the dire need to deal with the deficit is our own Sen. George Voinovich. His image burnished by The Plain Dealer and Steve Koff recently as so, so concerned about our profligate spending.
In a paean of praise, Koff recently credited Voinovich, who ends his career this year, with going out by working to “force Washington to deal with the national debt that could doom the nation’s shaky finances…”
Where have Voinovich and Koff been for eight years?
The problem we all are in now has to do with the news media, the mainstream media’s biases. It’s utter failure to be honest about the predicament we are in and who caused it.
They are treating the dire problems the nation faces dishonestly.
The treatment of President Barack Obama and the Democrats in reporting the situation the nation now finds itself lacks the proper context that could make truthful. So it is a lie.
The news media’s failure is very similar to the way the news media treated Sen. Joe McCarthy by “reporting” his lies. Reporting and waiting for others to define his ravings. The major newspapers failed miserably by reporting lies as “news” in their supposed objective manner. He said it, didn’t he? That’s what we are reporting. That’s news judgment?
It wasn’t until after vast human damage was done that a few people spoke out or were allowed to counter his ravings. It took a major media figure as Edward R. Murrow to strike the blow to reveal the truth of Sen. McCarthy. We couldn’t expect that of a Tom Brokaw. Courage may be his subject but it isn’t his talent.
Now I read the newspapers, including the New York Times, for some honesty. But I don’t find it.
This is the reason 49 Republicans are a “majority” in the U. S. Senate. They have 49 Senators and a sad-sack news media. Unwilling to present the truth in full frontal view. Too timid for unvarnished truth.
Republicans are making a mockery of governing by simply saying “No” to everything of any importance. It’s a strategy right out of Rove. It should be headline stuff.
The message is clear. The aim is even clearer. They want to destroy the Obama administration. Stop it before it starts. No matter the cost to the nation. No matter the cost to ordinary people. Those suffering the most.
There’s an old ditty I like to tell in these instances:
Why will people never say the things all people know?
Why must truth be smiled upon as if it were not so?
Ask your daily newspaper and national TV news.
Does Jimmy Dimora Deserve His Rights?
Posted by Roldo Bartimole in Media, People, Politicians on June 30th, 2009
June 30, 2009… Does Jimmy Dimora deserve the privilege of being considered innocent until proven guilty? I don’t think The Plain Dealer believes so.
I can’t argue with there being news coverage of the county corruption issues. However, I think the Plain Dealer has been using the mess for a circulation boost.
Big black headlines almost daily. Lots of space that give the impression of a crusade. Large photographs of public officials.
It all has the quality of a campaign. However, editors don’t run for office.
They are running these days, however, for their lives. The temptation to play a juicy story big to attract and keep readers and subscribers has to be enticing.
Newspapers are troubled by declining interest and declining revenues. Anything that can change that formula presents opportunities.
Fat Jimmy Dimora makes quite a target. And the PD has been using him as a piñata on the front page almost daily.
Yesterday Dimora struck back. What he had to say doesn’t absolve him of anything yet. However, it did strike a feeling in me of, hey, maybe this guy isn’t as guilty as he’s been painted.
As he said himself, “I’m not an angel, but I’m not a crook.”
Well, it may take a court to prove the latter.
Until that time, the guy is innocent under our laws.
Someone said that Dimora was being Sam “Shepparded” by the PD. That refers to the way Sam Sheppard’s guilt in the murder of his wife was railroaded by the Cleveland news media, especially the defunct Cleveland Press. The truth in the Sheppard case, whatever it was, got mangled.
I don’t think what the PD has done is the same. However, the headlines have the same smell.
It’s not a good direction for a newspaper. It’s not good for a newspaper in the long run. It can damage credibility.
I watched the video the PD put on its site of the press conference. It ran 2:59 minutes. The press conference, according to someone who timed it, ran about 33 minutes. I went to Channel 8, WJW, to view its video. It was 12:11 seconds. It gave a better feel for what Dimora had to say.
I got a more comprehensive view of Dimora’s press conference from the television station than I did from the newspaper.
I asked the PD about its abbreviated video.
Managing editor Debra Simmons responded to the email I sent Editor Susan Goldberg, who is out of town, saying “We quickly posted a short excerpt of the press conference last night. There’s more to come. We will put the full press conference on line this afternoon.”
As of 1:25, Tuesday, as this is being written, the 2:59 minute version is still up. There are more than 100 responses, most seem clearly against Dimora and with the typical mocking tone: “Boss Feed,” “Needs a psychiatrist,” “It’s a blimp.”
(In checking back at 1:45 the original video was gone and there was no replacement in its place of a longer version at that time.)
(Checking in the evening, Cleveland.com has what I believe is the entire Dimora press conference in two segements.)
Since Dimora has been dominating the front page of the PD with stories pointing to his dishonesty, I thought it would have been fair for the PD to give him his full shot. The paper did play the press conference on the front page. And it did have – likely for the first time – a respectful photo of the man. It’s easy to ridicule with huge photos, especially of an admittedly overweight man.
You can convict people more easily on the front page than you can in a courtroom.
I did get a response from Goldberg on another question I asked. I asked her in an email about Dimora’s criticism of her and Brent Larkin’s lunch with Republican boss Bob Bennett and whether she had had similar sit-downs with Democratic leaders.
Here’s her response: “The criticism of me having lunch with a Republican official is beyond ridiculous. I have had lunches, breakfasts and coffees (and multiple foodless meetings) with dozens and dozens of people from across the political spectrum. I consider it part of my job. Without looking at my calendar or getting into specifics, I would guess I’ve had more meetings with Democrats than Republicans, if only because there are more elected Democratic officials than Republicans around here.”
Dimora wants us to believe that there was a conspiracy hatched out of the President George Bush administration via Karl Rove to get Democratic Party leaders before the 2008 election.
That’s something I don’t have too much trouble considering.