Remember way back in 2008 when a seat held by one party looked like it could be lost in an upset to the other party and the MSM declared it a “bellwether” — a sign that the losing party might be in real trouble nationally come the 2010 midterms?

And of course you remember way back in 2010 when a seat held by one party for decades looked like it could be lost to the other party and the MSM declared it a “bellwether” — a sign that the losing party might be in real trouble come the 2012 presidential election.

Good times. Good times.

Oh the narratives the mainstream media crafted, oh the stories they spun about how these electoral upsets spelled doom — DOOM, I tell you — for those “extreme” Republicans who weren’t caving to President Obama enough, who went to too far with their granny-snuffing entitlement reforms

And yet…

In this upcoming special election for Anthony Weiner’s Congressional seat the prospect of a Republican upset in one of the most reliably liberal districts on The Planet Earth is becoming more and more of a reality every day. But unless I missed it (and I’ve been listening), there’s been no national “bellwether” narrative being crafted by our Usual MSM Suspects.

Why?

 (That was a rhetorical question because we all know the MSM is a festering left-wing pit of corruption, lies and bias).

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In an argument (usually a political debate), a concern troll is someone who is on one side of the discussion, but pretends to be a supporter of the other side with “concerns”. The idea behind this is that your opponents will take your arguments more seriously if they think you’re an ally. – Urban Dictionary

Before she’s even announced her decision as to whether or not to run for president, according to a new Gallup poll, Governor Sarah Palin currently sits in second place among 11 announced and/or potential GOP candidates. Gee, how did that happen? After all, the MSM told me Palin was irrelevant (usually in 1200 word articles obsessing over one of her tweets or the tweets of one of her staffers).

Ezra Klein’s sinister Journolist might be dismantled (though I suspect it lives on elsewhere), but “journ-o-lism” has always been alive and well and lately, when it comes to their unrelenting  and somewhat perverse need to demolish a mother of five, the corrupt path of Obama’s MSM Palace Guards has gone a little something like this: After pulling a minding-her-own-business Sarah Palin out of her Wasilla home in order to beat her about the neck and shoulders for causing that terrible crime in Tucson,  led by this rocket scientist, it was decided the time had come to ignore Palin and write her political obituary.

Indulge my backing up just a bit here …

You have to keep in mind that journ-o-lism is just another term to describe how dishonest journ-o-lists conspire to create corrupt narratives. Have you ever noticed how the MSM almost never competes for stories? What I mean is that nine times out of ten they all cover the exact same things with the exact same emphasis. Why is that?  You would think that in order to stand out from the herd, ABC News would sell a Whopper to compete with NBC’s Big Mac. Or that the Washington Post would come up with Pepsi to the New York Times’ Coke.  Don’t even get me started on Mountain Dew.

The reason for this is that the MSM isn’t about The News, it’s about The Agenda, and what they do is no different than what they accuse Big Business of doing. Only instead of conspiring through a secret monopoly with other companies to fix prices, they conspire through a secret monopoly of other media outlets to create a version of the truth –which we call The Narrative.  The word goes out and suddenly….

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If you want to see the media’s ability to “frame” a story according to its handy all-purpose and supremely intellectually lazy template, you need look no further than the opening remarks by CNN’s Wolf Blitzer in this clip, an interview with not-all-that-strange bedfellows Barney Frank and Ron Paul.

You’d have a hard time finding two lawmakers here in Washington farther apart on the political spectrum than Democratic congressman Barney Frank and Republican congressman Ron Paul. But now they are teaming up big time to call for substantial cuts in U.S. military spending.

At first blush, the artificial construct Blitzer is positing seems to make sense in a crude, reductionist sort of way — Frank, happy holder of what is apparently a lifetime sinecure in Brookline and Newton, Mass., and Ron Paul of Texas, aka the crazy old uncle in the attic: left vs. right, happily coming together in the pages of the Huffington Post for a brilliant display of bipartisanship over the issue of funding for the military. And indeed, they helpfully provide the “conflict” — which every good narrative must have — in the first paragraph of their piece: (more…)

Yesterday’s story on the “Cry Wolf” project has exposed a dangerous pretense that has been prevalent, yet well disguised, for some time in our institutions of higher learning. It’s an important post.  A small committee of professors and academic professionals, normally held in high regard, have blatantly betrayed the trust of the public and quite possibly smeared the reputations of all colleges and universities nationwide.  By soliciting “paid activists” to create research papers that are intentionally designed to silence opposing viewpoints, they have undermined the political system and manipulated the governmental policy making process.  And in the meantime, they’ve also implicated all of academia in the manufacturing of their propaganda.

It is an abuse of their power, and an abuse of the institutions they represent.  It is appalling and repellent.  Perhaps even against their employers’ rules or the industry’s ethical code. Consider it an ominous warning — this will have a dire impact on our political and economic system in the future, if we remain apathetic in the face of such a rhetorical and intellectual assault.

In fact, both the rhetoric and the intentions demonstrated in Peter Dreier’s email are a classic example of much of what is wrong with today’s educational institutions: hypocrisy, bias, recklessness, and a blatant disregard for differing beliefs and viewpoints.

As Americans, we place an enormous amount of pride in the quality of our nation’s system of higher education.  In our country, colleges and universities have long been the bastions of research, the sources to which we turn for information that is expertly developed; for data that is honestly mined, analyzed, reviewed and responsibly published by noted researchers so that individuals, business people and policy makers can make well-informed decisions.

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The mainstream media and much of Hollywood have more in common besides fierce loyalty to liberalism. They both rarely deviate from their scripts. The media, like actors and actresses, loyally follow their script to promote a liberal agenda. They filter content based on their political ideology, ignore news that conflicts with their key message and use code language to create heroes, villains and spark action among their loyal fans.

During the Obama campaign, the American media let the world know how they operate. They have not deviated from their script, and now try to marginalize the Tea Party Movement.

The template used by mainstream media describes the Tea Party Movement as a group of racist, intolerant, and violent white people is just more lies and propaganda. The left follows the old totalitarian prescription: “If you repeat a lie often enough, people will believe it.” So allow me to tell you a story the liberal media doesn’t want you to hear. I will compare and contrast Tea Party activists versus liberal activists.

I had the honor of speaking at the greater New Orleans Tea Party Tax Day rally last week with well over 1,000 other patriotic Americans. Each speaker spoke about love for country, our Constitution and liberty. There was no violence, rather passionate people who are critical of the decisions being made and want to exercise their constitutionally protected right to peacefully organize and voice their opinions. While walking through the crowd I met flight attendants, accountants, retirees, insurance salespeople and stay-at-home moms. These aren’t violent people seeking confrontation. Until recently, they hadn’t been politically engaged because they were busy going to church, working, paying taxes, obeying the law, raising families, volunteering and living their lives. However, the liberal massive power grab has given them the no choice but to get involved. The Tea Party Movement has provided a vehicle for them to voluntarily take time away from their lives to peacefully and passionately voice their concerns.

What about liberal activists? (more…)