![theatlantic:
Study: No News is Better Than Fox News
A survey by Farleigh Dickinson University asked 1,185 random people about their news consumption and also random questions about domestic and current events like whether Bashar al-Assad was still in power, the American unemployment rate, and which party holds the most seats in the House of Representatives right now. And this is what they found:
The largest effect is that of Fox News: all else being equal, someone who watched only Fox News would be expected to answer just 1.04 domestic questions correctly — a figure which is significantly worse than if they had reported watching no media at all.
[Image: Reuters]](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m4hiaviIXe1qcokc4o1_1280.jpg)
Study: No News is Better Than Fox News
A survey by Farleigh Dickinson University asked 1,185 random people about their news consumption and also random questions about domestic and current events like whether Bashar al-Assad was still in power, the American unemployment rate, and which party holds the most seats in the House of Representatives right now. And this is what they found:
The largest effect is that of Fox News: all else being equal, someone who watched only Fox News would be expected to answer just 1.04 domestic questions correctly — a figure which is significantly worse than if they had reported watching no media at all.
[Image: Reuters]
Obama’s ‘spending spree’: the lie the media lets Republicans get away with.
Of all the falsehoods told about President Barack Obama, the biggest whopper is the one about his reckless spending spree.
As would-be president Mitt Romney tells it: “I will lead us out of this debt and spending inferno.”
Almost everyone believes that Obama has presided over a massive increase in federal spending, an “inferno” of spending that threatens our jobs, our businesses and our children’s future. Even Democrats seem to think it’s true.But it didn’t happen. Although there was a big stimulus bill under Obama, federal spending is rising at the slowest pace since Dwight Eisenhower brought the Korean War to an end in the 1950s.
Doubt it? Here ya go:
Adding insult to injury is that the second-most thrifty president during that period was Bill Clinton.
Republicans lie — completely without shame — and the media just lets them get away with it. You wingnuts can stop whining about the “lamestream media” now. You’re not victims, you’re co-conspirators.
![Assailed by bad Florida headlines, Romney shuts the media out.
Steve Benen:
The first hint of trouble came early this morning, when Mitt Romney’s campaign team told journalists there would be no questions for the candidate today. (One reporter responded, “Isn’t that our decision?”)
But the problem intensified when the Republican appeared in Miami, and relied on staff and volunteers to physically prevent reporters from approaching a rope line and asking the candidate questions.
As a rule, media professionals don’t respond well to heavy-handed tactics that prevent journalists from doing their jobs.
What was the big deal? Well, here’s an example, from the Miami Herald:
Welcome to FL, Mitt. Now why did Bain Capital lay off so many people in Miami?
…In advance of Mitt Romney’s fundraising swing through Florida [Wednesday], Democrats are highlighting one of the business ventures of Bain Capital while Romney was in charge: Dade Behring, which, saddled with debt, wound up shuttering two medical technologies facilities in Miami. Some 850 jobs were lost, while Bain walked away with $242-million — an 800 percent return on its investment
The Dade Behring case has been well-documented, but here’s a new wrinkle: The company under Bain’s leadership sought and received millions of dollars in tax breaks for creating jobs in Puerto Rico - shortly before closing it’s facilities, costing nearly 300 jobs.
The company in 1997 received a $3-million federal tax break aimed to promoting job creation in Puerto Rico. It also received a $4.1-million tax exemption from Puerto Rick in 1997 in the name of job creation. Dade ceased its operations in Puerto Rico in the first quarter of 1998.
Obviously, Team Obama’s drawn blood with this, but as Benen points out, “Romney can try to restrain journalists, but the questions aren’t going away.” In fact, this seems to be the worst media strategy possible, since it leaves the Obama campaign doing all the talking and Team Romney running away from reporters — who’s in control of the narrative here?](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m44q37xeW01qfengno1_1280.jpg)
Assailed by bad Florida headlines, Romney shuts the media out.
The first hint of trouble came early this morning, when Mitt Romney’s campaign team told journalists there would be no questions for the candidate today. (One reporter responded, “Isn’t that our decision?”)
But the problem intensified when the Republican appeared in Miami, and relied on staff and volunteers to physically prevent reporters from approaching a rope line and asking the candidate questions.
As a rule, media professionals don’t respond well to heavy-handed tactics that prevent journalists from doing their jobs.
What was the big deal? Well, here’s an example, from the Miami Herald:
Welcome to FL, Mitt. Now why did Bain Capital lay off so many people in Miami?…In advance of Mitt Romney’s fundraising swing through Florida [Wednesday], Democrats are highlighting one of the business ventures of Bain Capital while Romney was in charge: Dade Behring, which, saddled with debt, wound up shuttering two medical technologies facilities in Miami. Some 850 jobs were lost, while Bain walked away with $242-million — an 800 percent return on its investment
The Dade Behring case has been well-documented, but here’s a new wrinkle: The company under Bain’s leadership sought and received millions of dollars in tax breaks for creating jobs in Puerto Rico - shortly before closing it’s facilities, costing nearly 300 jobs.
The company in 1997 received a $3-million federal tax break aimed to promoting job creation in Puerto Rico. It also received a $4.1-million tax exemption from Puerto Rick in 1997 in the name of job creation. Dade ceased its operations in Puerto Rico in the first quarter of 1998.
Obviously, Team Obama’s drawn blood with this, but as Benen points out, “Romney can try to restrain journalists, but the questions aren’t going away.” In fact, this seems to be the worst media strategy possible, since it leaves the Obama campaign doing all the talking and Team Romney running away from reporters — who’s in control of the narrative here?
MSNBC Mistakenly Labels Nicolas Sarkozy A ‘Prostitute’
(via thenationmagazine)
Added to the list of things that are only OK when a Republican does it: Stimulus/infrastructure spending.
Please update your propaganda handbooks, Red State comrades.
Think about it: you approach what is, in the end, a somewhat technical subject in a format in which no data can be presented, in which there’s no opportunity to check facts (everything Paul said about growth after World War II was wrong, but who will ever call him on it?). So people react based on their prejudices. If Ron Paul got on TV and said “Gah gah goo goo debasement! theft!” — which is a rough summary of what he actually did say — his supporters would say that he won the debate hands down; I don’t think my supporters are quite the same, but opinions may differ.
If you think about it, presidential debates are just as bad. They aren’t really debates, they’re more of group interviews with vaguely debate-ish rules. The moderator asks questions, the candidates answer with crazy lies, and we’re supposed to get something out of it. If we rules similar to high school debate team debates, things would be a lot different. Candidates would have to cite sources and prove what they say.
In many ways Tucker Carlson’s a better symbol of the pathetic state of what passes for conservative journalism than even Glenn Beck or the late Andrew Breitbart, to name two of his contemporaries with a much larger following. Glenn Beck started as a no-account shock jock and is now a no-account Internet show host. Breitbart at least went from Drudge lackey to successful right-wing media mogul. Carlson, though, began his career in the most respectable fashion possible and has spent the ensuing decades gradually lowering himself into the gutter. His story illustrates why we can’t have a responsible or at least slightly less hysterical conservative media.
The Media’s Daily Search for a ‘Game Changer’
It’s generally the case that presidential campaign coverage is dominated by brainless non-issues. This is of course largely the fault of the candidates, but the media share some of the blame. Because of networks’ ratings-bias, there is no such thing as a minor controversy — everything is of earth-shattering importance and any little slip could destroy a candidate’s chances at the presidency.
As a result, the media portrayal the campaign news of the day and reality are two entirely different things. Minor issues and trivial embarrassments get blown entirely out of proportion — not because the media misunderstands what constitutes “big news,” but because they hope to inflate fumbles into flaming wrecks.
In a piece for FiveThirtyEight on spring polling and their ability to predict nothing, Micah Cohen brings up exactly this problem:
Already, partisans and pundits are criticizing individual polling samples and pollster methodologies. Entire “-gates” – Rosen-gate and dog-gate, for example – have erupted, been fought over and then forgotten in mere days, and each poll is scrutinized to see how the latest controversy has affected the race.
Oops, guess we’re not supposed to notice that the big, all-consuming stories-of-the-day tend to go absolutely nowhere. Hilary Rosen disses Ann Romney and everyone’s supposed to be outraged. It totally shifted the “War on Women” dynamic — except it didn’t. The needle on the public outcry meter didn’t so much as quiver. Mitt’s big counter-offensive in the War on Women was a bust and Republicans in general find themselves just as unpopular with women as they were before — if not worse off.
The trick is finding some “game changer” that has a shelflife longer than a couple of days. Maybe this will be the one:
President Barack Obama isn’t just playing politics - he may be committing fraud on the taxpayer’s dime, the Republican National Committee charged on Wednesday.
In a letter to the Government Accountability Office from RNC Chairman Reince Priebus, the committee requested an investigation into Obama’s recent travel - including trips this week to Iowa and North Carolina - alleging those trips were more political than official.
…Obama’s recent speeches, the RNC said in the letter, were “events widely reported to be equivalent to campaign rallies.” The committee’s case sees supporting evidence in a list of the states Obama has visited this month, including the general election battlegrounds of Florida, Iowa, Michigan, North Carolina and Ohio.
As Hart Williams points out, “Gee. Less than two weeks ago, Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan committed a felony on camera in Wisconsin. How come nobody seems concerned about that, if ‘abusing the system’ is such a big deal?” It’s a rhetorical question, but I’ll answer it: because both stories are trivial.
So, after that fails to take off, we can start freaking out over this Breitbart revelation:
Last night, President Obama appeared on Jimmy Fallon’s unwatchable show to “slow-jam the news.” By this, Fallon meant that Obama would read a campaign speech about student loans, Fallon would utter a few lines to back him up every so often, and his lead band singer would warble in support of Obama’s propaganda.
Only one problem, aside from the fact that this was possibly the worst “comedy” segment in the history of mankind: it violated campaign finance law.
Except of course, it didn’t.
The desire for campaigns to see these non-stories become huge scandals is obvious. And the media wants them to drive ratings. But the big scandal in this campaign season so far is that in 21st century America, women’s rights are an issue. The media may find the War on Women old and stale and Team Romney hopes you forget all about it.
But so far, it’s the biggest issue of the year. Barring disaster, I don’t see that changing. The game stubbornly refuses to be changed.
-Wisco
