Sunday Smack Down: The Mainstream Media Finally Challenges Republican Lies

[babylonsister]

http://www.politicususa.com/sunday-smack-down-mainstream-media-finally-challenges-republican-lies.html


Sunday Smack Down: The Mainstream Media Finally Challenges Republican Lies

By: Jason Easley
Feb. 17th, 2013


The mainstream finally stepped up today,and on separate Sunday shows, challenged the lies and talking points of Republicans Paul Ryan and John McCain.

Paul Ryan tried to rewrite history on the sequester, but he ran into a brick wall named Jonathan Karl on ABC.

Video @ link~

Transcript:

snip//

KARL: But Congressman, I’ve heard you say this and a talking point for Republicans for a long time. This was the president’s idea on and on and on, but let’s look at your own words. What you said right after the law putting this in place was passed in August of 2011. These are your words. You said “what conservatives like me have been fighting for, for years are statutory caps on spending, literally legal caps in law that says government agencies cannot spend over a set amount of money and if they breach that amount across the board sequester comes in to cut that spending. You can’t turn it out without a supermajority. We got that into law.

Now it sounds to me there like if you weren’t taking credit for the idea of the sequester, you were certainly suggesting it was a good idea.

A bigger surprise occurred when David Gregory confronted John McCain about his Benghazi cover up conspiracy theory.

snip//

John McCain seemed quite surprised and then immediately enraged when he realized that David Gregory, whose standard reply to Republican talking points is a serious look and then the expression mmhmm, would actually challenge him on something that he said.

snip//

A more likely explanation is that Republicans have gone too far. Imaginary conspiracies to justify filibustering a defense secretary nominee, and completely revising history in order to eliminate your role in it may be a bridge to far for the mainstream media. (The mainstream press has been allowing Republicans to invent their own facts for years, so why start trying to enforce a standard of truth on Republicans now?)

snip//

Republican are used to being softballed by the corporate media Sunday shows, that Ryan and McCain fell apart as soon as they pushed at all. If the mainstream media would do this everyday, Republicans would be held accountable for their lies, and maybe if the political price was high enough, they would choose to join the rest of us in reality.

If this what the mainstream media could be, it is time for viewers to vote with their remotes and demand a media that challenges and informs.

[Angry Dragon]

1. Are you suggesting that facts (gasp) matter

What will republicans do on Sunday??

[Squinch]

8. Pancakes!!!!!

[BlancheSplanchnik]

22. ah, but which ones, Squinch? WHICH ONES???!!1! 1

Bunny?

or Monkey?

[Squinch]

23. I find that one can manage the Republican pancake choice

if one approaches it the same way as one approaches the 2-year-old pancake choice. Say one, they will choose the other, and the decision is done.

[BlancheSplanchnik]

24. Green!!!!

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.
.

[Flashmann]

2. that Ryan and McCain fell apart as soon as they pushed at all

Cockroaches and light.........

[riverbendviewgal]

3. Has anyone noticed as well that MSNBC is playing long into the weekends

not much lock up now..

THe network must be starting to be reconized as a viable source of news information.

So nice.

[groundloop]

4. Yes, I tuned in MSNBC in hopes of seeing more 'Lockup' and found news instead....

of course


Yes, it's great that they're getting more news shows on the air. Hopefully the trend will continue.

[Judi Lynn]

7. Sure hope they don't slip back. They can't imagine how much that programming is needed. n/t

[babylonsister]

14. Maybe if we give them over-the-top props for

actually doing their jobs, they'd do them better. A girl can hope.

[mountain grammy]

5. When you have the Daily Show and Colbert Report showing the corporate media guys

just how ridiculous they look and sound, it's a beautiful thing. Even the lamestream mainstream has to take a look at what passes for news and information and see that they are part of the problem. It's about damn time! Wonder if David Gregory wet his pants when McGrumpy yelled at him.

[Ford_Prefect]

6. It only took them 30 years to do it. Imagine if they actually conducted the news as journalism,

instead of Infotainment.

[Milliesmom]

9. Rachel on Monday Night

Be sure and watch Rachel on Monday night and her calling out Rice, Cheney, Bush and Rumsfield on the lies, I wonder if this will lead to anything? I sure hope it leads to someone being brought up on war crime charges

[DallasNE]

21. This Is Really Interesting

Because Maddow has established herself for having her ducks in a row. When her reporting is wrong, which is seldom, she is quick to point out what part was wrong and what should have been said before apologizing. She is a class act. Somehow I fully expect there to be serious fallout from this expose'. And it can't come too soon.

[Hamlette]

10. we have come to be pleased by the smallest things!

not that I don't appreciate it, but politicians have been lying my whole life and reporters used to call them out. It all changed when the GOP decided to tip the playing field by saying the media are out to get them and unfair to republicans. It was a planned strategy to get favorable press. Crying fowl when a reported pointed out the Emperor had no clothes.

The interview with Ryan starts out okay but then Ryan comes back with word salad the the reporter doesn't call him on that. "What in the world are you talking about?"

I miss Walter.

[Meaniepants]

11. smallest things.

Those who refused to play were denied access .

[patrice]

19. Which IS a basic point, but if access is denied, why aren't there ways to make VIPs PAY for

denying it?

Upgrade the bitch-slap factor in the same questions and then ask them of a proxy subject-matter-expert who then does kind of like we do here on DU, offer a couple of expressly hypothetical but plausible answers, one with the nice VIP characterization and the other a characterization of the VIP from hell?

After a bit of that, wouldn't access be offered eagerly, in order to get whatever control the VIP can get over the situation?

[Cracklin Charlie]

12. I saw the most interesting thing today.

I am so sorry, I don't have a link, and I can't even remember where I saw it, but apparently the fbi has cleared Senator Menendez of all those recent charges. I think it was a link to a website about New Jersey news.

Amazing how that works, isn't it? They will do non-stop reportage of supposed crimes based on anonymous tips, but never announce the article that dismisses charges.

I think David Gregory could be a good interviewer, if he would just try.

[mountain grammy]

13. After Sunday Morning, I only watch TV on Sunday during football season.

My blood pressure can't take it. Just watching the clip of Ryan on my laptop got me going.

[Jack Rabbit]

15. Gee, it only took about ten years after they lied out of their teeth about Iraq

[calimary]

16. The saddest part of this is how this is viewed as a "smackdown."

John McCain seemed quite surprised and then immediately enraged when he realized that David Gregory, whose standard reply to Republican talking points is a serious look and then the expression mmhmm, would actually challenge him on something that he said.


Well... I read the transcripts. Unless a forceful tone of voice and some assertive body language (like suddenly leaning forward in your seat, and/or and taking up more visual space by spreading your arms wide across the table, or farther in front of you on the table, to appear more dominant) was used, these are merely gentle little nudges toward reality and the truth of the matter. Too bad that nudges are regarded as "smackdowns" these days. No. I want people to start spouting "You LIE!" I want some of these interviewers to start saying - "that's flatly not true, Senator," or "Congressman, you know you're misrepresenting what happened/rewriting history/not telling the truth." Or even hell, "YOU built it." THIS is considered a smackdown? I want one of these assholes to throw a hissy fit and rip off the mic and stand up and stalk off the set! I want to see them make themselves look so bad that even the thickest media mule-head can't avoid or soft-pedal or deny it.

I'm sorry, maybe I'm going overboard here, but I want pompous double-talking windbags like mccain firmly put in their places. Being nice to them or just making a serious face and saying mm-hmm and nothing more certainly hasn't worked. It's only reinforced and rewarded bad behavior and encouraged it to continue and grow even worse! Because it goes unchecked. It's like giving the tantrum-throwing five-year-old what he/she is demanding by throwing a public fit, instead of taking the child outside and imposing a time-out for a few minutes. You do NOT reward the dog you're training by giving treats when it does something shitty, after all!

It's like this scene in "Fawlty Towers" where this family of three is seated in the hotel dining room. Parents and a maybe 13-year-old boy. And the boy behaves WRETCHEDLY!!! Rude, insulting, disrespectful, and not exactly mumbling about it, either. And the mom's idea of checking that young lout's behavior is merely looking at him sideways with a little smirk and mewling "oh, nnnowwww!" from time to time.

Basically the republi-CONS have been allowed to run amok, unchecked and unrestrained, ever since they got smart about monopolizing the media. It's a multi-pronged campaign involving:
1) buying up critical masses of media
2) programming relentlessly partisan shows wall-to-wall
3) swarming the talk shows and panel discussions with an overabundance of CONservatives all dressed up and photogenic, and loaded with carefully vetted and focus-group-tested talking points.
and more.

I swear - the very same people who sneer at research and science sure have made a science of this! Check out this link that was posted here awhile back. I love this essay so much that I've kept it open on a separate tab on my laptop for weeks!

http://churchandstate.org.uk/2011/07/14-propaganda-techniques-fox-news-uses-to-brainwash-americans/

Gotta be aware of these things at all times! And they're at it constantly, so we always have to be alert and observant. Shit - it's like being on patrol or something. But we have to stay on top of these guys.

[patrice]

18. K&R !!!!

[LuckyLib]

27. Right on target! The Republican media manipulators, as you say

"the very same people who sneer at research and science sure have made a science of this!"

And the media needs to grow some and strike back!

[The Blue Flower]

17. A relevant question is not a smackdown

It isn't a journalist's role to do smackdowns. It's a journalist's role to ask the questions that reveal the truth. Gregory finally asked one and demanded an answer. The truth was that McCant couldn't answer it. What we need is more such questions.

[Enrique]

20. I agree

and I would add that the kind of exchange in the OP is common on these shows. The Sunday shows' main failing isn't that they don't ask their guests questions, it's that they constantly give time to guests that don't deserve it, such as McCain and Graham.

I think it's clear by now that the Benghazi story has played itself out, long ago. The GOP wants to keep it going, is there a rule that Meet the Press has to indulge them?

[DhhD]

25. Mr. Gregory, like many other Americans, is beginning to realize that America is paying attention

now.

[WCGreen]

26. The numbers are tanking...

Ratings for most news shows have been tanking for decades. The only upticks have been when Fox adopted their bellicose stance against everything liberal.

But after this election, a funny thing happened on the way to the Sunday shows and that was the realization that maybe there was something about this recent election that might be worth looking at.

And sure enough, the ratings for Fox News started to drop while noted progressive talks show like Rachel Madow have found a base and have built a growing audience of people who want to hear more about what is really going on.

The truly epic election night meltdown of Karl Rove was proof that Fox News was nothing more than a partisan hack and the "moderates" had had enough.

The best part is the GOP has no idea how to fix the problem with the changing demographics. It seems they have adopted a double down posture and so we get overblown bullshit that turns the tragic deaths of Benghazi into a political talking point and the mindlessly grandstanding over Republican Hegel nomination for Defense Secretary.

In the end, have they no shame...