TUESDAY, APRIL 8, 2014
A very striking example: The talk-show right got there first.
For years, Rush and Sean churned disinformation in a way their tribe found pleasing.
For years, we liberals condemned their dishonesty. Often, we rolled our eyes at the ditto-heads who would swallow such ludicrous work.
More and more, day by day, our tribe is adopting Fox culture. Yesterday’s post by the two professors was a remarkable case in point.
The post appeared at Salon—where else? Today’s confusion regarding the gender wage gap is an additional case in point.
More and more, our emerging liberal world is behaving like a clone of Fox. On cable, multimillionaire hirelings feed us crap. All riled up, in a tribal frenzy, we happily swallow it down.
We’ll offer more on this topic tomorrow. To ponder what the professors did, just review our post.
Those two professors are straight outta Fox. That culture is spreading fast.
Gee, Bob, I only read your blog.
ReplyDeleteTell me who is this "Fox" of which you speak, and how do they behave?
I'll leave it to the MVP to clear up this misconception and false equivalency:
ReplyDeletehttp://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/04/07/asymmetric-stupidity/?_php=true&_type=blogs&module=BlogPost-Title&version=Blog%20Main&contentCollection=Opinion&action=Click&pgtype=Blogs®ion=Body&_r=0
Also, "both sides do it" is lazy.
DeleteI hope Somerby is not saying that it is crap that women are treated less well in the workplace.
ReplyDeleteMy problem with his overanalysis of the stats is that it gives aid and comfort to those who want to claim that the entire difference between men's and women's pay is determined by all those other factors to the point that the entire gap is explained away. That isn't true. Beyond that, arguing about the actual size of the gap seems like an empty exercise for statisticians, not something to be debated in public, where it is hard enough to get people to recognize the difficulties faced by women in the workplace, especially in STEM disciplines.
I don't worry as much about pay gaps as about things like hazing, denial of opportunity for entry to a field, denial of promotion, and failure to include women in the mainstream of business life (e.g., assign them to important work, include them in key discussions, respond to their suggestions and ideas, etc.). I have experienced a lot of outright discrimination that would leave no gray area, and I'm sure my experiences are similar to those of many women in the workplace. Discussions of gaps in pay are trivial beside that.
One thing I appreciate about Mr. Somerby is that he doesn't overanalyze statistics or numbers - but examines all of them and puts them into perspective for the rest of us who don't have the time nor the inclination (or the talent) to do it for ourselves. He is rational and ubiased in his examinations, which is what makes this blog so readable and informative. Of course not everyone will agree with everything here, and he realizes that I'm sure. It's not about winning a popularity contest but more about setting the record straight.
ReplyDeleteOMB (Crazy Like a FOX in Liberal World
ReplyDelete"More and more, day by day, our tribe is adopting Fox culture. Yesterday’s post by the two professors was a remarkable case in point." BOB
From the two professor's post:
"The month just past was a heckuva month for know-nothingness and woman-bashing. In mid-March, responding to news of a projected National Women’s History museum, the always instructive Rush Limbaugh auto-blurted: “We already have, ladies and gentlemen, I don’t know how many museums for women all over the country. They are called malls.” Pregnant pause. “Hey, I could have said brothel.”
and this:
"The marginally less rude but equally humorless Sen. Rand Paul grabbed momentary headlines when he tried to smear Hillary Clinton by associating her with the decades-old taint of her husband’s infidelity."
and more....
"Then, on March 28, radio talk show host Bryan Fischer, the director of “Issues Analysis” for the American Family Association, said he only hires women as secretaries because of “God’s basic design,” which necessitates gender discrimination; a woman’s “primary outlet” was at home."
We must rid Liberal World of these FOX like professors. And ban trolls.
KZ
OMB (Measuring the Impact of Bob World on Liberal World)
ReplyDeleteBOB in REAL Time
"The liberal world was asleep in the woods when we started this web site during the Clinton/Gore years.
The liberal world was sleeping soundly in the woods at this time
Every step of the way, the career liberal world agreed to swallow this garbage.
...the career liberal world always sat there and took it.
The liberal world just keeps getting conned!
...the liberal world doesn't seem willing or able to see it.
...the liberal world ran off and hid:
We've often mentioned the liberal world's indifference to the interests of low-income children.
The laziness of the career liberal world does produce horrible outcomes...
...we have been chronicling the liberal world's apparent disinterest in public school issues.
....it has long been clear that the career liberal world has quit on low-income kids.
BOB in SURREAL Time
...we think last week's dunkings help us see the moral and intellectual poverty of the modern pseudo-liberal world.
Increasingly, the liberal world is built around the enterprise of hating the others....
The liberal world which is currently forming is built around such stirring claims. As vampires need to drink human blood...
....it's sad to see the liberal world stoop to this pitiful level.
The hopeless decline of the liberal world!
The liberal world fails!
More and more, our emerging liberal world is behaving like a clone of Fox."
KZ
PS...He'll offer more on this topic today!
DeleteZarkon
Yes, indeed. If only the "liberal world" awoke to Somerby's call to arms during the War on Gore.
DeleteThen they could have fought back. But then again, they would have had to fight according to ever-shifting Marquis de Somerby rules, lest they be accused of being just like the other side.
Damned if they don't, damned if they do.
Of course, they would have had to fight back at some point before December 1999 when, we are told, Chris Matthews single-handedly decided the Presidential Election of November 2000 once and for all.
DeleteWhatever the flaws of msnbc, how one can purport to muse on the mainstream "press corps" and the American discourse, and to do so for countless hours, and come to the conclusion that the liberal world and Fox world are basically the same, is beyond me.
ReplyDeleteCaution: anti-tribalism can become its own form of tribalism.