How can anybody be shocked by the "official" coverage of events in WI?

[Blecht]

The latest outrage is that all of the networks and the AP are lying about what is happening in Wisconsin.

Of course they are. That is what they do. It's not just FOX. The Associated Press lies. All cable and network "news" departments offer nothing but pro-corporate propaganda in their "news" programming, including GE's offerings. (A couple of talk shows with somebody you might agree with does not make up for the damage caused by NBC's "news" programming.)

If you find yourself looking at this coverage and thinking, "Liberal Media, my ass," you probably need to take a good, hard look at the "facts" on which you have based your opinions about a lot of things. This assault on the truth has been going on for a generation.

[lob1]

1. I just watched the local ABC news here in L.A.

They didn't mention the number of protesters. It gave a lot of coverage to teapartiers, never mentioning that they were outnumbered over 20 to 1. They made it sound like the groups were equal. They even gave Joe the Plummer a spotlight.

[luvspeas]

3. CBS was exactly the same...n/t

[Blecht]

4. I think this is an opportunity

The media tried to ignore what was happening in Wisconsin, and a lot of news-watching people learned about it through other sources. Now these people are seeing that the "official" story is not meshing with what they have already learned to be true.

This is what could be called a "teachable moment."

[ElbertHubbard]

2. Instead of cheese?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d3t-Rldgzc4

[annabanana]

5. Welcome to DU ElbertH!

I felt the same way you did when I discovered DU. The Country had completely stopped making sense until I started to realize how badly we are lied to on a daily basis by those who are SUPPOSED to keep us informed.

[Carolina]

6. Welcome to DU!

[Blecht]

8. Yes, welcome!

[femmocrat]

22. Welcome to DU, ElbertHubbard!

:hi: You are among friends here.

[PufPuf23]

7. Liberal media is a myth. nt

[Hannah Bell]

9. what is the media saying, please update me, i've been in the boonies out of touch.

[Blecht]

11. The best example is to just find the latest AP story

Here's an excerpt from the one on Yahoo!'s front page now:

Sometimes they cursed each other, sometimes they shook hands, sometimes they walked away from each other in disgust.

None of it — not the ear-splitting chants, the pounding drums or the back-and-forth debate between 70,000 protesters — changed the minds of Wisconsin lawmakers dug into a stalemate over Republican efforts to scrap union rights for almost all public workers.

There's no mention of the difference in size between the groups. If you rely solely on this story, you would come away with the impression that there are two groups of similar size that add up to 70000 people.

Later they imply that the union supporters are dirty, and that the pro-Walker people just showed up, when we all know they were bused in:

After nearly a week of political chaos in Madison, during which tens of thousands of pro-labor protesters turned the Capitol into a campsite that had started to smell like a locker room, supporters of Gov. Scott Walker came out in force Saturday.

It goes on and on like this. Just like it always does.

[Hannah Bell]

12. so what's been going on since last wednesday? it sounds like the wisconsin protests kept

getting bigger & the wis. legislature tried to vote in their right-wing agenda by stealth, judging from a video someone posted of a democratic legislator calling them out on it?

did the vote get taken? did they ban public unions?

i'd try to get up to speed, but it's quicker if someone tells me... :>)

[Pharaoh]

13. the democratic senators fled the state

to prevent a vote, and the situation is at a stalemate,....

[Hannah Bell]

17. wow. good deal. is the tv media reporting it?

[Blecht]

14. Ah, you meant really out of it!

Yes, more and more people showed up, Walker started making threats about using the National Guard, a group of Democratic State Senators left the state so there couldn't be a vote (no vote without a quorum), Walker had the police looking for one of them, etc.

Lot's of wild stuff went down. You're going to enjoy catching up!

[Hannah Bell]

18. i miss everything. but glad to hear it, that's hopeful.

[Pharaoh]

16. here is the huff page on it

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/news/wisconsin-protests

[Hannah Bell]

19. thanks!

[tinkerbell41]

20. Goddamn what a lie.

Nothing smelled there was no trash laying around. And to me the Tea partiers were a non-event. 500 maybe? Unless there were a ton more inside. I listened to Cnn breaking into Wcpt on the way home and shouted LIARS!!

[JDPriestly]

21. Then people wonder why we so readily put our faith in conspiracy theories.

We need honest, full reporting, not these trumped up stories and half-truths.

[Release The Hounds]

23. Some jackass on CNN this afternoon

had a short story on the WI protests. This was followed by a story on a teachers union in NY state that agreed to a 1 year wage freeze. He started the segment by saying "one school district chose cooperation over confrontation". I wanted to throw a brick through the TV.

[Blecht]

24. I've stopped watching news regularly

And the less I watch, the more obvious the propaganda is when I do turn on the "news." I, too, feel the urge to hurl things at the TV.

I am trying to give up TV completely, but I have a nasty sports addiction that is tough as hell to kick. I'm still working on it getting over it.

[Release The Hounds]

28. Seriously

I don't watch much TV and almost never CNN. I was simply channel surfing and saw the Madison coverage so I stopped and watched. Big mistake for my blood pressure.

[butterfly77]

29. They are waiting for..

some violence then they will be on it 24/7.

[AsahinaKimi]

10. I don't get it...

They gave great coverage to Ed Shultz on Friday yet, because its Saturday, MSNBC doesn't feel its worthy to cover. In the old days, there would have been News crews all over the place, including the major Networks. The fact that Aljazeera gave it more coverage on the weekend then even CNN, tells you a hell of a lot.

[Pharaoh]

15. Aljezerra! I know!

I got more out of them than MSN "in" Madison!

[upi402]

25. So true + 1,000 n/t

[catabryna]

26. I don't know what you are seeing...

but on DU's front page, I'm finding that FOX is "supposedly" the only one who estimated the crowd at 60,000?

What's up with that?

Has DU decided to side with FOX because it's a Saturday and MSNBC is running prison shows?

I have no idea. I don't have pay-tv.

ETA: 70,000 with a LINK to fox.

[spanone]

27. i was out most of the day, did c-span cover any of it?

[Imagevision]

30. It's like the selling of the Iraq war - where were the MSM heads at back then? same BS.!