Reflections From a Murky Pond

Barack Obama has, throughout what there is of his political career, always understood the power of the media in politics and shaping public opinion.

I am who the media says I am. I say what they say I say. I become who they say I’ve become.

— Barack Obama
The Audacity of Hope (2006)

That’s all well and good. It shows a certain pragmatic wisdom that is often lacking in American politicians. The problem is that, as the POTUS, Obama and his regime have decided to become the media, replacing the free press with their own staff.

Reality Show President: White House TV

As Reason TV so aptly describes, Obama has not only become a media mogul of sorts, he became one of America’s best known Reality Television celebrities, with the carefully scripted but oh-so-real looking image that is less even than a caricature of the person or office in question.

“The White House has effectively become a broadcast company,” says Michael Shaw, publisher of Bagnewsnotes.com, a site dedicated to the analysis of news images. Shaw explains how strategically composed photos, taken by official White House photographers, travel from social media sites that are controlled by the administration to the front pages of newspapers around the world.

The press publishes the official White House photographs because independent photographers and videographers  are increasingly barred from covering the president. This practice has diminished the power of the independent media as an exclusive distribution channel while empowering official photographers such as Pete Souza, who are on the presidential payroll.  

And so, says Shaw, the public has been fed a steady diet of whatever kind of president the news cycle demands. When conspiracy theorists questioned Obama’s patriotism, we saw images of Obama the American everyman. To celebrate the anniversary of Rosa Parks’ 1955 refusal to move to the back of a public bus in Montgomery, Alabama, we saw Obama reenact her famous image. Time and again, we see Obama striking poses out of John F. Kennedy’s repertoire. The official White House photographers have created a presidential identity for every conceivable occasion—as long as the image is flattering, and almost always, larger than life.

This would be both sad and laughable if it wasn’t both scarily effective and yet another nail in the coffin of America’s constitution, which demands a free press. Nor is it in any way wrong for the Obama Regime to try to get their crafted image of the President out there. The issue is that they’re stifling and supplanting the free press in order to do so. Down that road, and not very far at all, lies tyranny.

Tags: 1st Amendment | America | Free Press | Journalism | Media | MSM | Obama | Politics | Social Media | Tyranny | White House

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 15th, 2014 at 1:45 pm and is filed under Politics, Society. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

When it comes to children’s Halloween costumes, as opposed to those of adults, the basic choices are: scary, cute, funny, or heroic emulation.

The scary scary costume is, however, the choice with the most interesting varieties and the most room for creativity.

I’m Dressed As A Journalist

Well, dressing up as one of those who sold their souls to the Black God of the Tana is one way to stand out on Halloween. It’d probably get the kid a lot of candy too, as for disparate and antithetical reasons both Americans and Liberals would love it. 😛

Tags: Children | Halloween | Humor | Journalism | Media | Media Bias | Obama | Politics

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 24th, 2012 at 1:13 am and is filed under Humor, Politics. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

Really, Newsweek? Newsweek!?! What happened? Did the Campaigner-in-Chief’s spending issues force him to miss a “payment?” I really can’t believe your rag, of all the Leftist lie purveyors, has turned against your precious Black Messiah.

Obama – Once The God Of All Things

Back in November, 2010 Newsweek depicted Obama as a God, specifically Shiva, in their Obama apologetics piece in which they strove to excuse his failures by stating that the job of POTUS had grown so large that not even a God, such as Obama, could perform it anymore.

It’s apropos that they depicted Obama as Shiva, the Hindu’s God of Destruction, with his left raised to smash something – America? – out of existence. I wonder if they realized the significance.

Things have obviously changed though. Either Obama and DNC haven’t kept up with their payments to Newsweek, the Obama Regime’s ongoing attack on a free press has finally pissed off even Newsweek, or the rag’s leadership has had a crisis of faith.

In any event, their god, Obama has fallen and when gods fall it’s a messy business filled with much bitterness and disillusionment. This is clearly – blatantly, even – evident in their latest cover and cover story. It’s a straight-up call for Obama’s removal from office.

Now It’s Hit The Road, Barack!

It’s not surprising that Niall Ferguson, a former adviser to Sen. John McCain, wrote an article that boldly pointed out Obama’s lies and failures. It is, however, shocking in the extreme that Newsweek not only published it but ran it as their August, 2012 cover story.

Obviously, Obama The Destroyer has stumbled, stepped on his own feet of clay, and brought himself to ruin.

Tags: 2012 Elections | America | Journalism | Media Bias | Newsweek | Niall Ferguson | Obama | Politics | Shiva

This entry was posted on Monday, August 20th, 2012 at 9:39 am and is filed under 2012 Election, Politics. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

George Zimmerman, the “White Hispanic” who fatally shot the Black Trayvon Martin seems to be more a construct of the Lamestream Media than a person. At least, the Liberal propaganda outlets have gone to great and unethical lengths to paint a picture of Mr. Zimmerman that doesn’t bear any more resemblance to the objective truth than Mr. Zimmerman does to the stereotypical White.

Worse, they media painted Zimmerman with broad strokes and a limited pallet of colors.

We all know that, in the minds of the Lamestream Media, the color of racism is White. This explains their “mistake” about Zimmerman’s ethnicity and the lengths they went to in order to justify it. It also completely proven now that the colors of truth and ethics aren’t in NBC’s crayon box.

Take for example the “Today” show piece that carefully abridged the conversation between George Zimmerman and a 911 dispatcher in the moments before the shooting of Trayvon Martin:

Zimmerman: This guy looks like he’s up to no good. He looks Black.

That’s they told America and that’s what most people heard and believed. That George Zimmerman was a bigot and engaged in racial profiling was set in their minds as fact.

Of course it was a pernicious, race-baiting lie. The unexpurgated transcript of Zimmerman’s exchange with the dispatcher shows something quite different, the truth:

Zimmerman: This guy looks like he’s up to no good. Or he’s on drugs or something. It’s raining and he’s just walking around, looking about.

Dispatcher: OK, and this guy — is he Black, White or Hispanic?

Zimmerman: He looks Black.

The truth was that Zimmerman was responding to direct question by the dispatcher about the suspect’s race. As such, there is no evidence that he was engaged in racial profiling, especially since all he actually mentioned was Martin’s apparent behavior.

That wouldn’t fit into the picture NBC was trying to paint though, so they “retouched” it as it were, sort of like photoshopping a model or celebrity to erase those unsightly truths.

Profiling v. Portraiture – society and history will have to decide which is worse when it comes to how the Lamestream Media has painted George Zimmerman and, given the silence of the law, what reprisals we, the People must take upon their organizations and personnel.

Tags: America | Blacks | Crime | Hispanics | Journalism | Law | Media Bias | MSM | NBC | Politics | Prejudice | Race Baiting | Racial Profiling | Racism | Society | Trayvon Martin | Zimmerman

This entry was posted on Sunday, April 1st, 2012 at 4:24 pm and is filed under Politics, Society. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

It’s been obvious to Americans for some time that the putrid dregs of what is left of journalism in our country no longer deserving of either the name or the constitutional protections what it devolved from were guaranteed.

Sadly for America but happily for the lamestream media, actual rights aren’t dependent upon merit so we can’t just eradicate the bulk of the MSM. Instead they need to be taught how to do their jobs. A mandatory course in remedial journalism is most definitely in order.

I suppose it would end up having to be the SCOTUS’ decision as to what Americans could do with and to those who in the media who failed remedial journalism – and believe me, I would fully expect a massive failure rate among the first class. 😉

Tags: Education | Humor | Journalism | Media | MSM | Stupidity

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 12th, 2012 at 1:05 pm and is filed under Humor, Society. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.