Obama The Puppetmaster

[mini me]

Interesting article in Politico regarding the shifting balance of power between the media and the White House. Has the check and balance power that the press has on government been compromised in the digital age?

For your consideration:

http://www.politico.com/story/2013/0...ter-87764.html

[BlueStreak]

Ah, yes "the media" is an essential component of the evil and vast leftwing conspiracy and must be brought to heel.

Republicans must be on the losing end of things.

Regards,
Dave

[finnbow]

Good for him. What's wrong with understanding and using new media/social media for one's political advantage? Furthermore, the mainstream press, particularly TV "journalists," have become so lazy that they spend their time focusing on the single blockbuster story of the week at the expense of real news. Until and unless the news divisions of the networks and cable start doing real news, I'd ignore them too.

[BlueStreak]

Besides, in todays atmosphere if he wants to connect directly with the people the only way to do it is to skirt the media. What? Does anyone really think Obama is going to get a word through in an interview steered by Sean Hannity?

Spare me.

Regards,
Dave

[mini me]

Guys - did you read the article? The article doesn't take the position that the media is "left wing". The authors suggest that the strategy is apparently to circumvent both "right and left wing" (and moderate, I guess) news outlets. The well-crafted messages from the White House by-passes the press and goes to social media. The press is complaining about their lack of access to the White House and the President.

So, back to the question: The history of freedom of the press in this country is based on the idea that the press should not be controlled or regulated by the government (so we don't have a "Pravda-like media). Also, a free press serves as an additional check and balance on government so that government officials activities could be more transparent.

As I see it, we have two issues today:

- One is that the media outlets are owned by a few large entities. The media messages are heavily filtered, competition between media outlets is minimized, and the messages produced by those outlets are more homogenized.

- If the media is being "by-passed", does the media lose its ability and mission to insure more transparency in government?

[ebacon]

The mainstream media doesn't even report anymore, which begs the question why they are whining. Fox news is a joke. CNN is noisy. Every one of them has moving shit and flashing icons in evey border and corner of the screen. The newspapers are too broke to pay real reporters.

So what remains? A free for all, most of it amateur with major biases and bones to pick. If I was in the White House I would avoid that zoo, too. It's a noisy distraction.

[mpholland]

Originally Posted by mini me

Guys - did you read the article? The article doesn't take the position that the media is "left wing". The authors suggest that the strategy is apparently to circumvent both "right and left wing" (and moderate, I guess) news outlets. The well-crafted messages from the White House by-passes the press and goes to social media. The press is complaining about their lack of access to the White House and the President.

So, back to the question: The history of freedom of the press in this country is based on the idea that the press should not be controlled or regulated by the government (so we don't have a "Pravda-like media). Also, a free press serves as an additional check and balance on government so that government officials activities could be more transparent.

As I see it, we have two issues today:

- One is that the media outlets are owned by a few large entities. The media messages are heavily filtered, competition between media outlets is minimized, and the messages produced by those outlets are more homogenized.

- If the media is being "by-passed", does the media lose its ability and mission to insure more transparency in government?

The media has always been biased, pick your poison so to speak.

If the media is whining about being bypassed, perhaps they should quit relying on being spoon fed information and actually do some investigating.

[mini me]

So, if the media isn't doing its job as suggested by the posts above, then where does one go to get reliable, unbiased (to the extent possible) coverage of government activity?

[BlueStreak]

Originally Posted by ebacon

The mainstream media doesn't even report anymore, which begs the question why they are whining. Fox news is a joke. CNN is noisy. Every one of them has moving shit and flashing icons in evey border and corner of the screen. The newspapers are too broke to pay real reporters.

So what remains? A free for all, most of it amateur with major biases and bones to pick. If I was in the White House I would avoid that zoo, too. It's a noisy distraction.

Originally Posted by mpholland

The media has always been biased, pick your poison so to speak.

If the media is whining about being bypassed, perhaps they should quit relying on being spoon fed information and actually do some investigating.

Exactly.

If one is trying to communicate with the people directly, without the message being filtered through the media lens or the commentary of agenda driven pundits.....................................

Hello!

By all means, Mr. President, bypass away!

Regards,
Dave

[ebacon]

Whenever I think of Jim Bunning (R-KY) flipping off the media I just have to laugh. I loved that guy.