The New-New Media.
Having been here a couple of days now with a big chunk of time admittedly taken up with other matters, two things I have noticed about this year's Netroots:
- Buncha A-Listers are MIA.
- Virtually no major media.
Granted, my previous experience was at NN Chicago, which drew every major Democratic candidate for president, and an assload of national and international media.
It was Big News.
Then -- wham -- the Age of the Blogosphere was over. Too bad you missed it. Very quickly the idea of several thousand Liberal members of the Reality Based community gathering under one roof to debate America's complex problems and propose some real solutions was once again of no interest to the Elite Media whatsoever. Just another wacky "water skiing squirrel" filler bit to have on-hand to pad out a loose half-hour. Instead, a handful of Bush Regime dead-enders in funny hats ranting about Big Gummint and Death Panels at a Ramada Inn in St. Reagandale, Florida could now command the attention of major news outlets.
Wall-to-wall.
Week after week after week.
It was Big News.
It was the new-new thing...despite the fact that it was overwhelmingly obvious to anyone with two functioning synapses to rub together that the Tea Baggers were nothing new at all: that they were just the same old wingnut gleeps with a new paint job and an unlimited line of credit from Koch Industries and Fox News.
But it was in no one's professional interest to look at the shiny new-new thing too closely. Or at all. Except of course those fucking Liberals, and by 2009, Liberals had once again ceased to exist anyway: not because we hadn't been proven right -- over and over and over again -- but because the moral consequences of what we were saying were too culturally and financially terrifying for our media to bear.
So where were the major networks? The powerhouse journals? Where was the Liberal New York Times? MSNBC?
Busy. Don't ask.
Instead bear-baiting freaks like Andrew Brietbart were once again handed a big wad of free air time to try to hustle his resume.
Here's how Politico headlined Netroots Nation:
And what were the Dirty Hippies up to at Netroots? Once again, Politico was on the fucking job, America!
It was the new-new thing...despite the fact that it was overwhelmingly obvious to anyone with two functioning synapses to rub together that the Tea Baggers were nothing new at all: that they were just the same old wingnut gleeps with a new paint job and an unlimited line of credit from Koch Industries and Fox News.
But it was in no one's professional interest to look at the shiny new-new thing too closely. Or at all. Except of course those fucking Liberals, and by 2009, Liberals had once again ceased to exist anyway: not because we hadn't been proven right -- over and over and over again -- but because the moral consequences of what we were saying were too culturally and financially terrifying for our media to bear.
So where were the major networks? The powerhouse journals? Where was the Liberal New York Times? MSNBC?
Busy. Don't ask.
Instead bear-baiting freaks like Andrew Brietbart were once again handed a big wad of free air time to try to hustle his resume.
Here's how Politico headlined Netroots Nation:
Breitbart crashes Netroots Nation
Mic’d up and with a camera crew in tow, the Big Government blogger — and recent toppler of Rep. Anthony Weiner — came looking for a confrontation at this gathering of 2,500 progressive activists.
And he got one: Dozens of progressive activists and bloggers quickly surrounded him, yelling and shooting him with cameras of their own in a frenzy that quickly drew photographers to surround them.
And what were the Dirty Hippies up to at Netroots? Once again, Politico was on the fucking job, America!
Liberal activists booed an unpaid intern for Barack Obama’s campaign arm Thursday night after he defended the president’s record on gay rights during a Netroots Nation breakout session.
Even here in flyover country with no Senate filibuster showdown or election looming, there is content enough here for dozens of compelling stories waiting on silver platters to fill the content-starved maw of the Media Beast, so why the desertion-in-force?
Well these are not things we little people need to trouble our silly little heads about.
Because they're, y'know,
man-talk.
man-talk.
On another topic altogether, “This Week with Christiane Amanpour...” will once again hand over a massive slice of America's public airwaves to dyspeptic old ruin John McCain and blood-soaked hellspawn Liz Cheney.
Oh wait, I guess that's not another topic altogether, is it?
4 comments:
Liberals everywhere need to decry the dire threat to progrssive values posed by unnecessary laryngectomies.
I think Breitbart would make an awesome mime, don't you?
My 2 cents? Obama has sucked the fruit of hope dry. No one gives a fig anymore, feeling they put in a ton of effort in to just end up played by Barry Bush III and it's become a pointless exercise to participate. Comments are down and way off at most of the blogs I visit with the exceptions being ones like Greenwald and Krugman. Both of them slam Obama pretty hard. I must agree. If I sniff one molecule of Obamanaut Cologne on a website now I roll straight onto NEXT.
After all, no one stopped watching the Sunday Morning nonshows, did they?
Just a bunch of loud DFH were complaining anyway.
And who needs them?
Certainly not the Dems or anybody who counts.
Until election time, of course.
Love your commentary.
S
Instead, a handful of Bush Regime dead-enders in funny hats ranting about Big Gummint and Death Panels at a Ramada Inn in St. Reagandale, Florida could now command the attention of major news outlets.
Wall-to-wall.
Week after week after week.
It was Big News.
[Obligatory Weekly Doomer Trolling]I think it is very helpful and useful to understand that as far as any component of the official establishment is concerned, the liberal base of the Democratic Party exists only to marginalized, ignored, and perhaps occasionally ridiculed and "hippie-punched" (e.g., Robert Gibbs, "Professional Left") when they're in an indulgent mood.
My own personal favorite example is that Private Bradley Manning was very obviously not released from the grueling, personality-erasing fucking hell of deep-isolation treatment because it outraged the liberal base. In fact, that was likely considered a highly desirable side-benefit. Rather, Manning was finally transferred to more humane incarceration when the UK government protested on account of Manning also being a British citizen. (I wouldn't be surprised if the queen herself called the White House about it, the change in Manning's status was so abrupt and immediate!)
And the reason things are this way is because the USA is in its "imperial terminal decline" phase. I tend to think that decadent dying empires are in the habit of marginalizing their voices of truth, reason, and justice and instead promoting and helping their voices of falsehood, ignorance, and insanity. (How else do you explain the royal fuck-ton of free publicity the mainstream media gave the teabaggers last year?)
No, the only place left for the likes of us now is as chroniclers of decline. You may now catapult your eggs and tomatoes in the direction of Yours Truly. Or make them into tomato-basil omlets, whichever. ;-)[/OWDT]
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