What if Obama...?

[DeistPaladin]

This didn't actually happen but I want everyone to imagine this scenario.

Obama is speaking at an event. As often happens, there's a heckler in the crowd. Instead of handling it calmly, Obama snaps. He berates the heckler.

"Yeah, yeah, that's great. I'm so glad you got your fifteen minutes of fame. After your done, why don't you roll up your sleeves and do something productive, pal? You get to show off for the cameras now but I was here before the cameras were on doing all the hard work. I'll be happy to debate you after this is over because clearly you don't know a damn thing about what you're talking about. So why don't you just sit down and shut up so we can get back to work."

What do you think would happen?

Headlines everywhere would run along the lines of "Scandal", "Bullygate", "President Loses It on National TV" and "President Bullies Citizen". Fox obviously would have a field day. O'Riley would run talking points about the dangers of giving angry black men power and how they think society owes them something. Hannity would have the heckler on his show to talk about his experience being bullied and Hannity would conclude what an arrogant racist Barak is.

Meanwhile, "liberal" MSNBC would discuss what a disaster it was for the president and concern troll over what it will cost him. Chris Matthews will have a panel discussion over whether the president is losing his sanity and question if he is still fit to hold office. Scarborough will be Fox-lite, ranting about the president's arrogance and belligerence toward the people he's supposed to work for.

Eardrums all over the country will split with conservative shrieks of indignation. No longer confined to making up faux sandals like Benghazi, they now have real red meat to chew on. Petitions will be circulated calling for immediate impeachment.

Democrat politicians at every level will nearly universally run away from the president, condemning him for his behavior and calling for his resignation. Republican politicians will draw up impeachment proceedings. Barak Obama's presidency is over.

The bullying event that I described happened, except that it wasn't Obama.





Now, for those who don't know, what do you think happened?

Here's how "liberal" MSNBC handled it:
http://crooksandliars.com:8080/cltv/2014...lizza-call

"Great television"
"Maybe too much of a good thing"
"Maybe too much but that's because he's taking it too personally"
"He certainly grabbed headlines but is it presidential?"
"He's a straight shooter"
"He's willing to face people down"
"Classic Chris Christie"

Four words: White, male, Republican privilege.

There's no accountability for Republicans in our media, even on "liberal" MSNBC. They can do what they want. The can lie all they like. They can lose it on camera. They can crash the economy. They can shut down the government.

They can even lie us into a war, make a ton of money for their pet industries and laugh all the way to the bank.

What do you think would have happened if Barak Obama had been the one to lead us to war in Iraq with claims that Saddam had WMD and links to Al Qaida, claims that proved wildly untrue?

I'd say impeached so fast his butt would leave skid marks through the rose garden and then prosecuted.

"Liberal media" my ass.

[Thumpalumpacus]

What if worms had machine guns? Birds wouldn't fuck with them.

I agree that Obama has had a harder time of things due to his race, and his name, as well. Both factors feed the xenophobia that the extremely conservative Americans seem to feel.

Also, the quotes you grabbed are pretty ambiguous, featuring both praise and criticism.

I think your hypothetical scenario is not how it would play out, though. Presidents don't get impeached for getting upset. They get impeached for catching blowjobs. And that includes white Presidents, too.

Individual media outlets have their own biases. Fox is irredeemably conservative, the New York Times irredeemably liberal, and I don't think that's going to change any time soon. The media as a whole seems to me to have had a liberal bent in the past, but I haven't consumed mass media in a few years so I can't speak to the state of affairs today.

[Heywood]

What if worms had machine guns? Birds wouldn't fuck with them.

I agree that Obama has had a harder time of things due to his race, and his name, as well. Both factors feed the xenophobia that the extremely conservative Americans seem to feel.

Also, the quotes you grabbed are pretty ambiguous, featuring both praise and criticism.

I think your hypothetical scenario is not how it would play out, though. Presidents don't get impeached for getting upset. They get impeached for catching blowjobs. And that includes white Presidents, too.

Individual media outlets have their own biases. Fox is irredeemably conservative, the New York Times irredeemably liberal, and I don't think that's going to change any time soon. The media as a whole seems to me to have had a liberal bent in the past, but I haven't consumed mass media in a few years so I can't speak to the state of affairs today.

Fox News is blatantly conservative, MSNBC is blatantly progressive. CNN is closet liberal. You're not going to get away from an agenda. Best thing is to take your news in from a wide variety of sources and filter out the BS.

I look at Fox News, MSNBC, CNN, Al Jazeera, Russian Times, and the BBC. Does anyone have any recommendations of sites I should be adding?

[Minimalist]

So you don't know shit from shinola about the media, either.

You've got nearly a perfect track record, Woodie. Fucked-up on EVERYTHING.

[DeistPaladin]

I agree that Obama has had a harder time of things due to his race, and his name, as well. Both factors feed the xenophobia that the extremely conservative Americans seem to feel.

Most of all, he's a Democrat and perceived by the right to be a liberal (in reality, he's an Eisenhower Republican). Bill Clinton encountered the same vitriol and double standards and he's a white male.

Also, the quotes you grabbed are pretty ambiguous, featuring both praise and criticism.

But they were from "liberal" MSNBC and the point is that the criticism was along the lines of "oh, that's Christie for you". It's a far cry from what it would be if it had been a Democrat or a "liberal".

I think your hypothetical scenario is not how it would play out, though. Presidents don't get impeached for getting upset. They get impeached for catching blowjobs. And that includes white Presidents, too.

If the Republicans take the Senate, you will see Obama be impeached. As other Republicans have openly said, the reasons can be found later but the important thing is getting the votes in the Senate and House to do it.

Individual media outlets have their own biases. Fox is irredeemably conservative, the New York Times irredeemably liberal,

So "liberal" that they played along with the run up to the Iraq War, offering Cheney the justification he needed. Any delusions that we have a liberal media should have been dispelled by the W administration. The media acted like cheerleaders in the run up and then swept it under the rug after the dust settled.

---

Fox News is blatantly conservative,

Propaganda akin to "Pravda" of the former Soviet Union.

MSNBC is blatantly progressive.

On what planet? Sure they have Maddow in the evening but they have Scarborough in the morning for three hours. And Scarborough swings a heavier bat at MSNBC than Maddow. And did you see the clip I posted? Lukewarm liberal at best.

CNN is closet liberal.

CNN is Fox lite. Sometimes they want to be Fox so badly they can taste it.

Best thing is to take your news in from a wide variety of sources and filter out the BS.

Quite agreed. Six corporations control the media in America so even at MSNBC you will get the corporate friendly spin, particularly on matters of war since it's owner, GE, is a military contractor.

[Faith No More]

I think the real problem is that the masses can't understand the media has gone from reporting to the news to simply being mouthpieces for op-eds. There's so much opinion and bias injected into the way not only the news is presented, but what news is selected to report. The people need information, not half-truths and sensationalized broadcasts.

As long as general population can't make that distinction, they'll continue accept the reality they are spoon-fed by the media.

[downbeatplumb]

In 2001 you basically had a right wing coup with some right judges giving your country to the losing republican candidate and hardly a murmur was uttered by the "liberal media".

America seems a bit like a banana republic with nukes sometimes.

[DeistPaladin]

In 2001 you basically had a right wing coup with some right judges giving your country to the losing republican candidate and hardly a murmur was uttered by the "liberal media".

Actually, there was much discussion in the "liberal media" about how we needed to urgently declare a winner because we're on a tight schedule and asserted the American people just wanted this resolved quickly (we did?). And why is Gore making so much trouble? Why is he being such a sore loser?

America seems a bit like a banana republic with nukes sometimes.

Feels that way here too, sometimes.

Officially, we're no longer a democracy. We're an oligarchy. The courts pretty much handed the wealthy control of the elections with their "Citizens United" decision.

[Minimalist]

FOX would have lost its mind, D-P.

There's nothing they hate more than an uppity nigger!

[Cato]

As long as general population can't make that distinction, they'll continue accept the reality they are spoon-fed by the media.

I'll pile on by saying the majority of the general population don't care to make the distinction. There is no better measure of this than the fact that confirming bias is far more profitable via the ratings system than factual dissemination of news and meaningful balanced debate.