Liar Andrew Breitbart

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DominionSeraph

Diamond Member
Jul 22, 2009
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Woolfe, that's not correct - liberal pundits are not the 'equivalent' of Fox pundits.

Yes, they don't serve malicious propaganda like Fox News, but what they do does end up being an ad for the Democratic party.
They may be honest judgments, but they're judgments. It seems to be what viewers want -- opinionated TV -- but it would serve to drive away those who emotionally hold to different opinions that cannot stand against the liberal intellect.

Just because they're right doesn't make in not coloring.
 

Craig234

Lifer
May 1, 2006
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Yes, they don't serve malicious propaganda like Fox News, but what they do does end up being an ad for the Democratic party.
They may be honest judgments, but they're judgments. It seems to be what viewers want -- opinionated TV -- but it would serve to drive away those who emotionally hold to different opinions that cannot stand against the liberal intellect.

Just because they're right doesn't make in not coloring.

Define 'coloring'. It's designed for the 'liberal' market, but that doesn't mean it's unfair.

For example, when Obama had 'Common' to the poetry reading, Fox's audience had an appetite for the stories what an outrage that was. The liberal market did not.

The liberal market did have some appetite for stories about how the right hyped the issue, making it an unfair attack. How is the liberal media wrong in that?

If Fox gives airtime to people saying they think Obama quite possibly was not born in the US, and the liberal media gives airtime to people saying they're wrong, how is the liberal media wrong there? Do you score that 'one is right, one is left, they're equivalent'? Or do you score it 1-0 for the liberal media, as you should?

It's a problem when people equate 'for a liberal audience' with 'biased', 'inaccurate', 'coloring', or other such things.

*Bad* liberal reporting could be those things. I've occasionally seen that, and posted about it here, such as when Rush Limbaugh's remarks he hoped Obama was not able to get his programs passed was widely called anti-American. But liberal media doesn't mean those bad things. It can be right or wrong.

And some isn't as much right or wrong, as opinion.

Liberal media does a fine job at exposing the lies behind the Republican plan to gut Medicare, and the motives - to shift wealth from the American people to the rich, and to destroy a program that the Democrats get political credit for, in the name of trying to get more political power and their ideology, willing for many Americans to lose their lives for their benefit. That's fine. But eventually, there is a part that is opinion - you either support that huge public program - or even more, single payer - or you don't.

When the liberal media has experts on who make arguments why Medicare is a good program, part of that is opinion, that the liberal market likes that, while the right doesn't. You will see the insurance executive who turned whistleblower against the industry a lot more, telling the truth, on liberal shows than on right-wing shows, because liberals' opinions are more interested in the issue, while you will see, say, a story about harm by illegal immigrants covered a lot more on right-wing shows.

That's opinion.

All of these things - accuracy, opinion, market preference, and deceit and agendas nd money have a part in the discussion of media.

But you won't discuss them when you wrongly equate 'liberal media' with 'bias'. What if they're right, and the other media is wrong?

The Breitbart behavior is repeatedly lies. How does the right respond? Is he shunned, disgraced, does he lose any audience? Hardly.

I'm glad at least some on the right can criticize him here - but note how few, and how many ignore the topic to try to make attacks about their myth of 'liberal media'.
 

AlienCraft

Lifer
Nov 23, 2002
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Given Breitbart's Shirley Sherrod fiasco, anytime his name is mentioned in connection with some "media", I just assume he's edited it to suit his agenda.
 

DominionSeraph

Diamond Member
Jul 22, 2009
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Define 'coloring'. It's designed for the 'liberal' market, but that doesn't mean it's unfair.

Reaching a model by fair means makes it a superior model to those that seem to require invalid pathways to hold, but it doesn't make it more than a model.

For example, when Obama had 'Common' to the poetry reading, Fox's audience had an appetite for the stories what an outrage that was. The liberal market did not.

The liberal market did have some appetite for stories about how the right hyped the issue, making it an unfair attack. How is the liberal media wrong in that?

If Fox gives airtime to people saying they think Obama quite possibly was not born in the US, and the liberal media gives airtime to people saying they're wrong, how is the liberal media wrong there? Do you score that 'one is right, one is left, they're equivalent'? Or do you score it 1-0 for the liberal media, as you should?

Countering Fox News is not liberal. It's common sense.
 

DominionSeraph

Diamond Member
Jul 22, 2009
8,386
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umbrella39

Lifer
Jun 11, 2004
13,816
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LOL ^^^ There is a segment of the population that is this stupid and they make life worth living :)
 

FuzzyBee

Diamond Member
Jan 22, 2000
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*Bad* liberal reporting could be those things. I've occasionally seen that, and posted about it here, such as when Rush Limbaugh's remarks he hoped Obama was not able to get his programs passed was widely called anti-American. But liberal media doesn't mean those bad things.

You are such a hack, you're laughable. Funny little hack-boy.

You protest too much against what you are.
 

ProfJohn

Lifer
Jul 28, 2006
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The Craig that defended the use of a totally made up quote about Bush and Osama is now upset about a completely factual quote because it lacks 'context' ??

Seriously?
 

ProfJohn

Lifer
Jul 28, 2006
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For the record here is a direct quote of Craig defending the use of a totally false quote in another thread.

Keep in mind that the Bush quote was made up by taking a longer quote and editing out parts of it and was thus completely fake. While the quote in the OP only lacks proper context.

Amazing how Craig's mind works in cases like this. Make stuff up about Bush and it is okay as long as you got the right meaning, but quote a liberal without context and it is the end of the world.

No, as usual you get it wrong.

It's not a "total fabrication".

It is a false quotation. It's *partly* correct, and captures *part* of what Bush said.
 

Jhhnn

IN MEMORIAM
Nov 11, 1999
62,365
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The Craig that defended the use of a totally made up quote about Bush and Osama is now upset about a completely factual quote because it lacks 'context' ??

Seriously?

Heh. That's as distortional as Breitbart, one of the great panderers to the Wingnut-O-Sphere.

By your logic, I could quote a post on Stormfront, and that quote could then be attributed directly to me, which is exactly what Breitbart did in the piece referenced in the OP. Breitbart's "quote" isn't factual at all, and we both know it. He did much the same thing wrt Shirley Sherrod, ACORN, and others, I'm confident.

And, of course, when defending the indefensible, your current mission, it's vital to divert attention from the actual topic. Attacking the messenger is standard procedure in such circumstances, at least when it's coming from propagandists of the Right. False equivalence, your current ploy, only fools part of the people part of the time.
 

ProfJohn

Lifer
Jul 28, 2006
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Sorry, but I don't see any defense of what Breibart did in my post.

My post was about the hypocrisy of Craig and his selected outrage.
 

Jhhnn

IN MEMORIAM
Nov 11, 1999
62,365
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Sorry, but I don't see any defense of what Breibart did in my post.

My post was about the hypocrisy of Craig and his selected outrage.

So you admit to diverting the focus away from Breitbart and onto Craig, attacking the messenger, engaging in false equivalency?
 

KGB

Diamond Member
May 11, 2000
3,042
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If Breitbart is a professional liar (and I believe his is), who's paying him?
 

Craig234

Lifer
May 1, 2006
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For the record here is a direct quote of Craig defending the use of a totally false quote in another thread.

Keep in mind that the Bush quote was made up by taking a longer quote and editing out parts of it and was thus completely fake. While the quote in the OP only lacks proper context.

Amazing how Craig's mind works in cases like this. Make stuff up about Bush and it is okay as long as you got the right meaning, but quote a liberal without context and it is the end of the world.

You're lying again.

What I said was exactly correct.

The attack against the alleged Bush quote was excessive. I did not 'defend' the quote as correct; I did the opposite. I pointed out how it's wrong.

I also pointed out where the attack was incorrect.

That's the correct response. Point out the error in the quote, and the error in the attack.

You are the one misrepresenting that as simply a 'defense of the quote', as if there was any part of the error I wrongly defended.

In fact, you did not include more of what I said, such as that I'm a stickler for accurate quotes.

Here's the basic error you commit:

Something deserves criticism. Some makes an *excessive* criticism. Someone else points out both the correct and incorrect parts of the criticism.

Then someone like you attacks the latter person as 'defending the thing that deserves criticism'.

Say someone says Hitler's holocaust was caused by his following the Satanic religion. Say someone calls OJ Simpson a "mass serial killer". Say someone claims that Bush's policies are driven by his just hating poor people and enjoying their suffering. Say someone claims Qadafi "has blown up many civilian airliners".

All of these examples contain things worth condemning, and false exaggerations that are also wrong. Pointing out that OJ Simpson killed two people, and was not a 'mass serial killer' as far as we know, is not, as someone like you says, defending OJ Simpson's two murders he did commit. It's an accurate and correct response.

I pointed out what the flaws in the quote were - and the false exaggeration that the quote was 'totally fabricated'.

A 'totally fabricated' quote would be totally fabricated, such as "I eat babies for breakfast - but only minority babies. - George Bush"

One that edits what he said and does not indicate the editing is just that. It's a false quote; and not a 'totally fabricated' quote.

Whether it accurately reflects the speaker depends what was edited and the context. It's possible to falsely edit a quote and be completely accurate in representing the speaker's view; it's possible to accurately quote a speaker and, because of things like context, misrepresent their view.

In this case, IMO, the quote from Bush was false in pulling pieces of what he said together and not indicating the editing. It had, as I said, some accuracy to it - it captures a good part of what he was saying. It also omitted some context that some would view as important qualifications to what he was saying.

It is shocking to many Americans that six months after 9/11, Bush had gone from saying he was strongly concentrating on going after bin Laden to saying it's just not much of a priority. Left out of the quote was Bush's explanation that his view was because bin Laden had been marginalized, and was not viewed as that critical to the larger war.

Many Americans are shocked because they viewed going after bin Laden for a purpose of 'justice' as very important, in contrast to Bush's being dismissive about that and weighing his level of current risk more importantly. Some are more sympathetic to Bush and view his position as justified; others disagree, and some think that Bush's shift was a political move to give him cover for the fact he might well not find bin Laden, and not wanting his re-election campaign to be about him not doing so.

Regardless, that's a fair summary of the situation and response to the flawed quote.

You are lying, with things like false name-calling. There's no 'hypocrisy' in what I said.

Just your lies. If you had some more integrity, you would apologize.
 

waggy

No Lifer
Dec 14, 2000
68,143
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For the record here is a direct quote of Craig defending the use of a totally false quote in another thread.

Keep in mind that the Bush quote was made up by taking a longer quote and editing out parts of it and was thus completely fake. While the quote in the OP only lacks proper context.

Amazing how Craig's mind works in cases like this. Make stuff up about Bush and it is okay as long as you got the right meaning, but quote a liberal without context and it is the end of the world.

of course. why are you suprised? Craig's a fucking hack. he don't care about what is really going. its all about his team winning. fuck everything else.

its people like him and petrous (2 sides of the same coin) that are killing this country.

This is not a R or D issue. people need to get over it.
 

Hayabusa Rider

Admin Emeritus & Elite Member
Jan 26, 2000
50,879
4,268
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The best practice is to be skeptical.
Worse than this are the politicians who play people on the left and right for fools. Partisans are much like Harold Camping followers and their leadership can depend on it.
 

Craig234

Lifer
May 1, 2006
38,548
350
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If Breitbart is a professional liar (and I believe his is), who's paying him?

Without looking up who is paying him, there's a huge market for those lies.

You've heard of the 'right-wing noise machine', and it's well known that the way to make money in punditry is the right-wing industry. Being honest is mostly charity work.

Some money has come from a handful of billionare ideological funders - Olin/Scaife/Coors/Koch and a few others - but that's mostly built markets that are now profitable.

People have made a lot on them; Ann Coulter has many bestsellers demonizing Democrats (filled with lies), David Brock wrote his well selling book attacking Anita Hill before he changed his ways, Fox is basically the employer of all kinds of national right-wing figures, etc.

I'm not so suspicious of Breitbart having some specific funder telling him to lie, as just his taking part in the right-wing industry, making a buck on crap.

Some lies sell.

Now, a lot of this has a broader agenda; the Republicans want power, and ACORN was registering millions of new voters, and new voters mostly vote Democratic.

So, ACORN became a major target of the right for reasons about as un-American as can be - the desire to reduce the voting in America for their own agenda of greed.

That helps get Breitbart's lie posting the attack video on ACORN plenty of coverage - making it a national news story and creating the politics for Congress to end funding.

(Like Sherrod Brown, some Democrats shamefully reacted to give in to the pressure and did not attack the liars much in both cases).

If you look up Breitbart's funding, I suspect it'll come largely from the web site advertisers; but his material gets a big boost by the right-wing industry repeating it.

One of the tactics of the industry is to get the most scummy false stories into the national press with stages - they start out with someone without credibility like an O'Keefe putting a lie out, and it might get picked up by a Breitbart, who might get linked by Matt Drudge - who is hugely influential, and Fox can cover that, and then the mainstream media starts, and they report on each other's reporting it.

There are good books on how the process works, from Glenn Greenwald's "Great American Hypocrites" to David Brock's 'The Right-Wing Noise Machine'.

Now that the market exists - 90% of talk radio is right-wing - it's largely self-sustaining, but always fueled as well by 'interested parties'.

If Fox had been a normal business, it failed - but Murdoch was able to make the investments no liberal media have available, to 'build a market', becoming the first cable show to pay the cable companies to carry it instead of the other way around, subsidizing its failed ratings until the market was built. Now it's quite profitable - for Murdoch and the interests he furthers, not the people who are screwed by the agenda.
 

ProfJohn

Lifer
Jul 28, 2006
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Anyone else notice that the longer a Craig post becomes the more meaningless it becomes too?
 

Bowfinger

Lifer
Nov 17, 2002
15,776
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Anyone else notice that the longer a Craig post becomes the more meaningless it becomes too?
Except what he said there was correct in showing how and why your attack on him was dishonest. That you lack either the attention span to grasp it or the integrity to acknowledge it is your problem, not his.
 

Rainsford

Lifer
Apr 25, 2001
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In hard news stories in the 2008 election cycle, MSNBC's news stories had a 92% advantage in tone for Obama, measured in positive versus negative for each candidate. In other words, Obama's positive stories minus his negative stories is 29%, a pretty strong bias. McCain's positive stories minus his negative stories is a whopping -63%, for a 92% advantage to Obama versus a 50% advantage in the media as a whole and a 3% advantage for Fox News. Again, this is in actual news stories; it ignores the pundits with chills up their legs every time Obama speaks, or speaking of his Christlike demeanor, or describing his "terrorist fist bumps". This is hard news stories. Here's the Pew Research Center's report issued just before the election. http://www.journalism.org/node/13436

You can certainly argue that Obama made fewer gaffs and therefore deserved more positive coverage, and the winning candidate usually gets more positive coverage, but you'll have a hard time arguing that Obama having a 92% advantage for an election he won by 6% is "reasonably neutral" whereas a 3% advantage (the actual swing of votes to Obama) indicates a lack of real reportage. You aren't just drinking the Kool-Aid, you've developed a Kool-Aid-based aquatic lifestyle.

You dismiss the "you can certainly argue" counter-argument awfully fast. It seems like the idea that more positive coverage may reflect reality rather than bias pokes a very large hole in the "media bias" argument, at least until you can prove than reality did not favor Obama over McCain in the election.